... 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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