The only reason I got this volume was because it contained the one Euripidean play that I did not have: the Heraklidae (or, the Children of Heracles). Herakles, otherwise known in Latin as Hercules (which is the term we generally use) was an ancient Greek hero and demigod. He is most famous for the twelve labours, but he appears elsewhere, notably as one of the Argonauts who sailed with Jason to search for the golden fleece (though he is left behind halfway there and goes his own way). Heracles is also well known for his strength, and in Greek Mythology he does seem to come out as a 'strong man' in the same sense that Samson of the Bible does. To me he is simply a hero in the same sense as Achilles.

 

Heracles is also known for having over 700 children, and as such creating a race who eventually invaded and conquered the Peloponesian peninsula. The play is set before their rise to power (though it needs be remembered that there was an awful lot of them). Heracles' offspring come to blows with the King of Mycenae and flee to Athens for protection. While there the king raises an army, but the Athenians warn him that the Heraclidae are under his protection. However an oracle says that unless a woman is sacrificed then they will lose the war. One Athenian (no doubt in love with one of the Heraclidae) offers herself up, and thus they go to war and win, and capture the King of Mycenae alive. They are reluctant to execute him, but he prophesies that if they kill him then his spirit will become a defender of Athens.

 

Euripides wrote this play during the Peloponesian war, and while we have a lot of his plays, he was always second best to his contemporary Sophocles. Initially only seven of his plays were to survive (in the same sense that we have seven each of the other two great tragedians), however an entire volume of plays also managed to survive and as such he have a much larger collection than normal. The Heraclidae would be one of those plays.

 

This play, obviously written during the war, is designed as a patriotic piece to inspire the Athenians during a dark period of their history. As mentioned, the Heraclidae became the Peloponesians, of which Sparta is one of the many cities. Thus the audience is reminded of a time when they were the protectors of those who are now enemies, and is a way to justify their current actions. Further, the sacrifice of the former enemy of the Heraclidae is a reminder of a promise that Athens will be protected.

 

Greek myth is very fluid and tends to change depending on the location and the events. Perseus is considered to be the father of the Persians and Media is the mother of the Medes. Both characters where betrayed by Greek kings, which is why their respective countries became enemies. Of course it is highly unlikely that either of these characters were to ancestors of these races, but in a Greco-centric world, one does not accept that there is any explanation beyond your own borders (which is very true of what is happening today).

I've decided to read this again despite having already written a commentary on it, but that was partly because the commentary was on the whole book of Euripidean plays as opposed to this particular play (though the only play that I read when I commented on the book was this one). Anyway, a large portion of the end of this play is missing so we don't actually know how it ends (which is probably why it does not appear in many of the other books of Euripidean plays and why I had to hunt around for a copy of it). As such, we cannot actually say that this is one of Euripide's extant plays.

That does not mean that this play does not confront issues that were faced not only in the days of Classical Athens, but are also confront with our own society today: the issue of what to do with refugees. In the play the refugees are the children of Herakles (aka Hercules) who had fled to Marathon from Argos and sought sanctuary in one of the temples so that the king of Argos could not hunt them down and kill them.

The play was written in the opening years of the Peloponesian War and at that time Athens had its own refugee problem. The city of Platea had been attacked by the Thebans and in response the Plateans had sent all of the woman and children to Athens for protection. However Athens had decided to remain neutral in the conflict, which resulted in Platea being burnt to the ground and all of the remaining occupants killed. Meanwhile, in Athens, there was debate as to what to do with the refugees because they couldn't become citizens and had done nothing to warrant slavery, but the city did not seem to think that they could support this influx of people.

The issue of refugees is something that we simply cannot ignore today. This is something that confronts many of us here in Australia, but also in other parts of the world. The question that is raised though is the reason behind why the refugees want to get into our country – is it because they are fleeing persecution and war, or is it simply because they see better opportunities in our country. Either way, a lot of the refugees that end up here actually go on to become very productive members of our society.

One of the arguments that are put forth is that refugees are simply a drain on our society and they take money that could be used elsewhere. Personally I believe that that is rubbish. You will probably find that the refugees end up being much harder workers than the native citizens. In fact you will probably find that most people whom we would label dole bludgers are actually forth or fifth generation Australians. However, there is also the argument that they are taking our jobs, but the truth is that these are jobs that we are too proud to take up. Okay, there are questions about wages, and the fact that if you are on a minimum wage job then you are probably poorer than people on the dole because you do not have access to concession benefits. However, that also raises the question of whether, if we were to put more money into the hands of the working class, would they spend it wisely (in the same way would they also use time wisely if the working day were cut down by say two hours – probably not – they would probably spend more money on beer and spend more time in the pubs).

Mind you this debate over what to do with displaced people tends to only be argued in the more advanced and wealthy countries. Turkey and Jordan simply do not have the ability to turn these people back, especially since their borders are all land borders. The problem is that these people simply stream over the borders and thus need to be moved into camps. However, we here in Australia live in fear of a trickle of refugees that somehow manage to get over here by boat, and the few that get through are then marched off to third party countries and locked up in detention facilities in conditions that are significantly worse that the conditions our own prisoners have to put up with. In a way, as the socialists correctly say, when the economy turns sour, the best medicine is to blame the people who can't defend themselves against the attacks. In a way these refugees are not only fleeing persecution in their own lands, but are also facing persecution here.

The Shield of Heracles - Hesiod Actually rather engaging, especially the phrase "neat ankled".

Retelling of the myth of Atlas, with some Heracles and Prometeus and Hera and Zeus thrown in as well as Laika - the russian space dog. It is a book that had passages that I had to read out aloud cause of the poetry in them, and some rather embarrassing passages I skim-read fast.
It's a short book, a quick read, filled with guts, blood, semen, milk and stars.

I never really liked Hercules. Okay, I liked the Kevin Sorbo series, but Hercules wasn't my favorite character, and Sorbo's Hercules wasn't the Greek Hercules, not really. There was something about Hercules I never liked. Maybe because he was so self-centered. Maybe because he killed horses. Maybe because I always liked Hera and wanted to take her side in everything. I don't know. I prefered Troy, Jason, Altanta, anything but Hercules.Winterson makes me feel something about Hercules, not like, though her character of Hercules is in fact Hercules. I haven't read Winterson before and picked this one because of its Canongate myth connection, so I'm not sure how much is autobiographic and how much is simply the narrative voice. In this book, Winterson takes the myth of Atlas and Hercules and weaves them together, past the temporially trading places. She turns the story into a study of life and of stories themselves. The weight of the stories that we carry with us or leave behind.It's one of those short books that is of great weight, of great importance because not only is there not a wasted word, but each word makes you think. Each word echoes the Greek tradition which it descends from. Poetic. Shocking. Human even in its gods.