... I'm ... so ... glad ...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Roger Day" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, July 30, 2006 5:41 PM
Subject: Re: Euripides' Hippolytos: first chorus
> ... can ... not ... resist ...
>
> Knock, knock
> Who's there?
> Euripedes
> Euripedes who?
> Euripedes trousers
> you mend-a these trousers
>
> Thank-you, thank-you. Try the chicken. I'll be here all week.
>
> On 30/07/06, Mark Weiss <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>> I haven't been following this thread (or any other--a crush of work),
>> just opened this one. Question, perhaps dealt with in my absence: did
>> Euripedes write in rhyme? And if so, was the effect sometimes comic?
>>
>>
>> At 01:42 PM 7/30/2006, you wrote:
>> >Interesting to read these, Joe. For about x years I have been in a
>> >'classics' reading group in the Bay Area. Euripides is one of our most
>> >favorites, most contemporary. Electra, The Bacchae and The Trojan Women
>> >are
>> >each incredible - now we are just starting Medea and Hippolytos.
>> >
>> >E's angles into the tragic are phenomenally powerful. I look forward to
>> >seeing how your approach progresses.
>> >
>> >Stephen V
>> >http://stephenvincent.net/blog/
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > > EURIPIDES' HIPPOLYTOS: A PERFORMANCE VERSION [work in progress]
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > =====================================
>> > >
>> > >
>> > > FIRST CHORUS:
>> > >
>> > > Enter CHORUS: five respectable married women of Trozen.
>> > >
>> > > [Sung to melody of Reinmar von Brennenberg's "Wol Mich des Tages."
>> > > The lyrics are assigned in turn to each of the five chorus members,
>> > > though optionally other chorus members may join in each stanza as
>> > > supporting vocals. The stanzas sung by the first and second chorus
>> > > members are addressed to the other chorus members; those of the
>> > > third,
>> > > fourth, and fifth members concentrate attention on the closed palace
>> > > gates.]
>> > >
>> > > FIRST CHORUS MEMBER:
>> > >
>> > > There is a towering rock which gushes forth a spring,
>> > > where women take their urns to fill them from its virgin waters,
>> > > and there a friend of mine had come like me to bring
>> > > her brightly woven gowns for cleansing, where our city's daughters
>> > > were gathered round the garments laid
>> > > fresh washed spread out in rows along the sun-warmed rocks for
>> > > drying:
>> > > it was by her I first was made
>> > > aware our queen was suffering from some dread disease and dying.
>> > >
>> > > SECOND CHORUS MEMBER:
>> > >
>> > > With veils of fine-spun fabric shading her blonde head,
>> > > she keeps within the house too weak to rise from bed;
>> > > for three days now they say she refuses to eat
>> > > or tell what makes her so afraid
>> > > of life that death is rendered sweet.
>> > >
>> > > THIRD CHORUS MEMBER:
>> > >
>> > > Do demons of the wilderness or gloomy night
>> > > possess you, or proud Cybele the orgiastic power?
>> > > Or does the Mountain Mother freeze your mind with fright?
>> > > Or have you sinned not offering the cakes of holy flour
>> > > to Artemis the huntress queen,
>> > > whose anger, lady, withers you away, who also ranges
>> > > across our sandy half-marine
>> > > salt marshes where her shrine stands by the sea that never changes?
>> > >
>> > > FOURTH CHORUS MEMBER:
>> > >
>> > > Or has your husband Theseus, the illustrious king
>> > > of Athens found some newer hidden love to bring
>> > > within his house a shameful joy dishonoring you?
>> > > Or has some Cretan ship been seen
>> > > with news too dreadful to be true?
>> > >
>> > > FIFTH CHORUS MEMBER:
>> > >
>> > > Yet there are illnesses inherent in our kind:
>> > > it is a woman's nature to bring forth new life in sorrow,
>> > > and through a helpless disarray of flesh and mind
>> > > let form within us flesh and mind which will create tomorrow.
>> > > That pang once shot through my womb too,
>> > > and I cried out on Artemis, whose care is parturition.
>> > > If, princess, this is so with you,
>> > > entreat her silver pure bright strength to guide you to fruition.
>> > >
>> > > FULL CHORUS [openly addressing the audience:]
>> > >
>> > > But here her aged servant, once her childhood nurse,
>> > > has brought our queen, whose desperation now seems worse,
>> > > outside the palace gates to breathe fresh healing air.
>> > > Oh what unspoken source of rue
>> > > has spoiled her radiance into care?
>>
>
>
> --
> http://www.badstep.net/
> http://www.cb1poetry.org.uk/
> "War is cruelty and you cannot refine it"
> - Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, 1864
>
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