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6. Euripides' Hippolytus

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The Argument of the Action
This chapter is in the book The Argument of the Action
Euripides' Hippolytus o N E c A N N o T P RA I s E T o o H I G H L Y Euripides' understanding and his ability to represent his understanding of the casual moods that suddenly open up into deeper problems. The nurse brings Phaedra out into the open air; she complains of Phaedra's inconstancy-whatever is absent Phaedra believes more dear-and then in her temporary exaspera-tion she declares that the whole of human life is painful and toil never stops. Whatever truth there might be in this view is immediately balanced by a more general reflection of the Nurse: "But whatever is dearer than life darkness envelops in clouds: we are passionately and irrationally in love with the here and now whatever it is that gleams on the earth; and thus through our ignorance of another life and the non-showing forth of what is below the earth, we are vainly carried this way and that by stories." We cannot help being attached and attracted to this life, she says; but the meaning of this attraction and this life, precisely because of its bril-liance and our own infatuation, is entirely unknown to us; and as a conse-quence we attend to stories, which, though they speak of what is not evident, have the advantage of offering a meaning to human life. We are torn between the brilliance of the unmeaning and the darkness of the meaningful. The Nurse believes that Phaedra is starving herself to death in order to discover the ultimate meaning of life; against this she can only urge Phaedra to be noble and bear what is a necessity for mortals; but when Phaedra speaks, and her longing turns out to be simply crazy-she wants to be an Amazon, and thus (we add) a worthy companion of 84 Hippolytus-the Nurse realizes that Phaedra's problem is of a different
© 2000 University of Chicago Press

Euripides' Hippolytus o N E c A N N o T P RA I s E T o o H I G H L Y Euripides' understanding and his ability to represent his understanding of the casual moods that suddenly open up into deeper problems. The nurse brings Phaedra out into the open air; she complains of Phaedra's inconstancy-whatever is absent Phaedra believes more dear-and then in her temporary exaspera-tion she declares that the whole of human life is painful and toil never stops. Whatever truth there might be in this view is immediately balanced by a more general reflection of the Nurse: "But whatever is dearer than life darkness envelops in clouds: we are passionately and irrationally in love with the here and now whatever it is that gleams on the earth; and thus through our ignorance of another life and the non-showing forth of what is below the earth, we are vainly carried this way and that by stories." We cannot help being attached and attracted to this life, she says; but the meaning of this attraction and this life, precisely because of its bril-liance and our own infatuation, is entirely unknown to us; and as a conse-quence we attend to stories, which, though they speak of what is not evident, have the advantage of offering a meaning to human life. We are torn between the brilliance of the unmeaning and the darkness of the meaningful. The Nurse believes that Phaedra is starving herself to death in order to discover the ultimate meaning of life; against this she can only urge Phaedra to be noble and bear what is a necessity for mortals; but when Phaedra speaks, and her longing turns out to be simply crazy-she wants to be an Amazon, and thus (we add) a worthy companion of 84 Hippolytus-the Nurse realizes that Phaedra's problem is of a different
© 2000 University of Chicago Press

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. 1. The First Crisis in First Philosophy 1
  6. 2. Achilles and the Iliad 15
  7. 3. The Aristeia of Diomedes and the Plot of the Iliad 34
  8. 4. The Furies of Aeschylus 62
  9. 5. Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus 71
  10. 6. Euripides' Hippolytus 84
  11. 7. On Greek Tragedy 99
  12. 8. Physics and Tragedy: On Plato's Cratylus 146
  13. 9. On Plato's Symposium 167
  14. 10. Protagoras's Myth and Logos 186
  15. 11. On Plato's Lysis 198
  16. 12. On Interpreting Plato's Charmides 231
  17. 13. Plato's Laches: A Question of Definition 257
  18. 14. On Plato's Phaedo 277
  19. 15. Plato's Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos 297
  20. 16. On Plato's Sophist 323
  21. 17. The Plan of Plato's Statesman 354
  22. 18. On the Timaeus 376
  23. 19. On Wisdom and Philosophy: The First Two Chapters of Aristotle's Metaphysics A 396
  24. 20. Strauss on Plato 407
  25. Selected Works 419
  26. Index 423
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https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226831039-008

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Contents v
  3. Preface vii
  4. Introduction ix
  5. 1. The First Crisis in First Philosophy 1
  6. 2. Achilles and the Iliad 15
  7. 3. The Aristeia of Diomedes and the Plot of the Iliad 34
  8. 4. The Furies of Aeschylus 62
  9. 5. Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus 71
  10. 6. Euripides' Hippolytus 84
  11. 7. On Greek Tragedy 99
  12. 8. Physics and Tragedy: On Plato's Cratylus 146
  13. 9. On Plato's Symposium 167
  14. 10. Protagoras's Myth and Logos 186
  15. 11. On Plato's Lysis 198
  16. 12. On Interpreting Plato's Charmides 231
  17. 13. Plato's Laches: A Question of Definition 257
  18. 14. On Plato's Phaedo 277
  19. 15. Plato's Theaetetus: On the Way of the Logos 297
  20. 16. On Plato's Sophist 323
  21. 17. The Plan of Plato's Statesman 354
  22. 18. On the Timaeus 376
  23. 19. On Wisdom and Philosophy: The First Two Chapters of Aristotle's Metaphysics A 396
  24. 20. Strauss on Plato 407
  25. Selected Works 419
  26. Index 423
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