HKB
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Often appears with: fate, destiny, and necessity · the fear of death · justice as a virtue · war losses at home · theseus rage · theatre and performance · the rise and fall of greatness · the problem of evil and theodicy · suicide and self-harm myths · scylla and charybdis imagery · rumor vs certainty · religious persecution and toleration
Usually: lament (4) · argument (3) · indignation (3) · narrative (2) · speech or oration (2) · confronting death (2) · injustice endured (2) · sudden reversal of fortune (2) · the fall of the great (2) · censure (2)
“All methods have been already tried; but a wound that admits of no cure, must be cut away with the knife, that the sound parts may not be corrupted.” Ovid, The Metamorphoses of Ovid, Books I-VII · insight
Odysseus describes to the Phaeacians the shades he saw in Hades, including Alcmene, Megara, Jocasta (Epicaste), Chloris, Oedipus’s mother, and other heroic wives and children, emphasizing divine fates and suffering.
Zethus, who founded first the place of seven-gated Thebes, and they made of it a fenced city, for they might not dwell in spacious Thebes unfenced, for all their valiancy. “Next to her I saw Alcmene, wife of Amphitryon, who lay in the arms of mighty Zeus, and bare Heracles of the lion-heart, steadfast in the fight. And I saw Megara, daughter of Creon, haughty of heart, whom the strong and tireless son of Amphitryon …
The chorus laments the homefront costs of the war—husbands lost and death’s ashes returned—then worries that the gods’ doom will bring vengeance against the house of Atreus despite the beacon’s joy.
sleeping sight Has seen its old delight, When thro’ the grasps of love that bid it stay It vanishes away On silent wings that roam adown the ways of sleep. Such are the sights, the sorrows fell, About our hearth—and worse, whereof I may not tell. But, all the wide town o’er, Each home that sent its master far away From Hellas’ shore, Feels the keen thrill of heart, the pang of loss, to-day. For, truth to say, …
Jupiter convenes the gods, condemns Lycaon’s cruelty and plots against Jupiter, and explains that the human race must be punished and exterminated to stop incurable wrongdoing.
awful locks[40] of his head, with which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to tremble. Then, after such manner as this, did he open his indignant lips:-- “Not {even} at that time was I more concerned for the empire of the universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavoring to lay his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock…
The poem describes the divine punishment of Antiochus for plotting against Jerusalem, then turns to Alexander’s fame and ends this “tragedy” sequence with a warning about Fortune.
And swore and saide full dispiteously, Unto Jerusalem he would eftsoon,* *immediately To wreak his ire on it full cruelly But of his purpose was he let* full soon. *prevented God for his menace him so sore smote, With invisible wound incurable, That in his guttes carf* it so and bote,** *cut **gnawed Till that his paines were importable;* *unendurable And certainly the wreche* wa…
Croesus is enraged at Solon’s refusal to praise him, then suffers divine retribution as a dream foretells Atys’ death, leading Croesus to restrict Atys and create circumstances that culminate in the hunt tragedy.
possible for me to do so. For thou art, as it chances, my only son: the other I do not reckon as one, seeing that he is deficient in hearing." 39. The young man made answer thus: "It may well be forgiven in thee, O my father, that thou shouldest have a care of me after having seen such a vision; but that which thou dost not understand, and in which the meaning of the dream has escaped thee, it is right that I should…
Ariadne continues pleading for justice from Zeus after Theseus abandons her, listing her isolation on a tenantless island, until her prayers lead to divine retaliation for wrongs.
wild sea did bear, what billows foamy regorged thee? 155 Seething sand, or Scylla the snare, or lonely Charybdis? If for a life's dear joy comes back such only requital? Hadst not a will with spousal an honour'd wife to receive me? Awed thee a father stern, cross age's churlish avising? Yet to your household thou, your kindred palaces olden, 160 Might'st have led me, to wait, joy-filled, a r…
Neoptolemos and the Chorus watch Philoktetes’ cave, pity his lonely misery, interpret the suffering as divinely timed suffering, and then Philoktetes calls out to the Greek strangers.
NEOPTOLEMOS Then let it be so. I will do what you order, putting aside my sense of shame. ODYSSEUS Do you remember all the counsel I have given? NEOPTOLEMOS Every word of it. I will follow it all. ODYSSEUS Stay here at the cave and wait for him. I will leave so he doesn't know I have been here. I will take the guard and go back to the ship; if I think you're in trouble I will send him back, disguised as a merc…
Theseus declares Hippolytus convicted by the dead and treats him as a black villain, insisting on punishment, while Hippolytus protests that he is innocent and is dazed by Theseus’s accusations.
Stand I tainted here, Though utterly innocent? [*Murmurs from the crowd*.] Yea, dazed am I; 'Tis thy words daze me, falling all awry, Away from reason, by fell fancies vexed! THESEUS O heart of man, what height wilt venture next? What end comes to thy daring and thy crime? For if with each man's life 'twill higher climb, And every age break out in blood and lies Beyond its fathers, must not God devise So…