Man’s free will served on a bed of godly caprice by that crazy History Channel
It took three readings and a scouring of the introduction to begin to understand why “The Women of Trachis” is a great reading of Western Civilization. At first read, the play seems like a cruel cosmic joke. On second glance it appeared to be another fluff-filled tragedy with a monochromatic female lead. On third glance it became the much larger question of correct human action based on god-induced finality. The text of the play itself feels straightforward but the intro to this Greek tragedy showed nuance that is only vaguely suggested in its lines.
Quick recap of Sophocles’ “Women of Trachis” because it has been so long:
Prophecy swirls around Deianara, the wife of Heracles (think Hercules), as she waits to find out if the gods will let her husband happily retire or kill him. Hark! A messenger arrives with spoils of war and glad tidings of Heracles’ success. The new slaves are welcomed and the obvious nobility of one, a young lady of superb beauty who refuses to speak, is noted. A trusted servant tells Deianara the silent maidservant was a princess and that Heracles razed her father’s city in order to have her. Deianara takes the news in stride, noting that men will be men. She sends words of welcome and a robe to her husband who is gratefully sacrificing to the gods. On the robe is a love potion Deianara prays will win her husband’s affections back. When the servants leave, Deianara expresses a fear to the chorus that the secret love charm will harm Heracles. Suddenly, Hyllus (Deianara and Heracles’ son) rages home accusing her of attempting to kill Heracles with the robe. In her distress, she commits suicide. Hyllus realizes that she did not intend murder and remorsefully tries to explain all to the dying Heracles. When Heracles hears the tale he realizes that his imminent death was prophesied when he was a child. Heracles requests to be burned alive and forces Hyllus to build the fire and marry the princess slave.
At first this seems like a twisted cosmic joke and leaves a bit of a stomach ache. A loving wife waits for return of husband only to be thwarted by a dead perverted centaur? A valiant man thanks the gods for a happy retirement only to be murdered mid-sacrifice by the gods’ will? A happy and dutiful son witnesses the disturbing deaths of his parents and is forced to marry his dad’s mistress? Even by South Park’s standards, Sophocles has a sick sense of humor.
For the second glance on the treatment of women, please see my last post.
During a frustrated third reading, something much deeper emerged. I would not have seen it without this section of the intro.
“the events leading up to Heracles’ defeat are part of the external, inevitable pattern against which the suffering and the actions of the characters must be seen. What happens when Heracles understands this pattern, being in accord with it and yet beyond it, may be the most important part of the play. As far as the characters, or we, can see, the Gods do not care. The meaning and worth of men’s actions are what we make of them.”
A light bulb turned on; this play is about the exercise of free will on the static backdrop of decisions made by gods! Greece was wrestling with the question of the existence of their pantheon of gods and the validity of the oracles and prophecies that constantly issued from supposed prophets. In this play the gods are real and their prophecies really destroy the mythic hero Heracles and his family.
The question of how to behave in the face of a god’s will has been rising in importance in the last 2-3 years thanks in no small part to the awful programming about Nostradamus constantly played on the History Channel. Like it or not, the question of whether we are in the Christian apocalypse, about to meet our Mayan 2012 expiration date, or heading into the Islamic End Time is being asked with increasing frequency.
Sometimes more and sometimes less elegantly expressed, the main questions seem to be: Is there an inevitable pattern working itself out through the cosmos, which pattern is it, and what should a person do based on that information?
The anxiety that surrounds these issues seems to be sapping entrepreneurial gusto. “Things are preordained to fall apart so why try?” once well expressed as “Who is John Galt?” is the disturbingly lethargic question on the rise in our turbulent times.
Sophocles was a firm believer in prophecy and spent “The Women of Trachis” focusing on the actions of people before and after they realize they are caught in a preordained web by their capricious gods. Deianara hopes for her husband’s safe return, tries to allure him with a love charm, and is trapped into fulfilling the prophecy of his demise. In her realization that her choices were the instrument of the gods to destroy what she wanted, she makes the decision to end her life instead of existing in a world pre-destined to not include her beloved husband. Heracles fights the poisoned robe until he realizes this death is the fulfillment of prophecy and then hastily picks the manner and speed of death.
There is something equally relieving and disturbing that humans have been eloquently grappling with the ideas of free will and static background for at least 3000 years. There seems to be no simple answer save one: In America we have something good so lets fight for it whether it is the end of time or not!
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