Euripides’ Heracles is yet another Greek tragedy that further cements the idea that Euripides was the greatest tragic playwright who ever lived, being one of the most tragic and moving works of fiction I have ever read, and nothing short of a masterpiece. The play covers themes of how to deal with tragedy (much like Sophocles’ Ajax), family, the nature of the gods, fate, true friendship, and the prime of life, and deals with all of them masterfully. Heracles ranks just behind Ajax as the third greatest Greek tragedy I have ever read (Euripides’ Bacchae being the greatest work of fiction/art I have ever read), and one I can not wait to discuss.

     The story opens in Thebes with the prologue given by Heracles’ old and enfeebled father Amphitryon. Amphitryon’s story is one I know well both as a myth nerd and after having read the Roman playwright Plautus’ Amphitryon, which is a comedy about Heracles’ birth. However, the current circumstances with Amphitryon, as well as Heracles’ wife Megara and her two children, was a story I was not familiar with. Megara was the daughter of the Theban king Creon, who features in Sophocles’ Theban plays, as well as Statius’ Thebaid. Therefore, Heracles’ family has ties to Thebes. However, now Creon’s line of kingship has been overthrown by a man named Lycus, who now wants to murder Heracles’ whole family out of fear that any one of them might retaliate. Heracles is not there to defend them either, as he has already gone to do his labors, with his last one getting Cerberus from the underworld, which people think he has died from since he has been gone for so long. Therefore, Amphitryon, Megara, and the two children have barred themselves in a house, hoping for rescue from certain death. An interesting point Euripides emphasizes in the play is how friends abandon their friends in times of misery and need, saying how Heracles has helped every citizen of Thebes, but now not one of them dares to help them in return. It is an interesting idea which he brings back at the very end of the play in a beautiful way. 

     Lycus eventually comes onstage and parlays with Amphitryon and Megara, and Megara eventually agrees to stall for time by getting Lycus to allow them to dress in funeral garments before they are killed. Something I love about this play is how amazing Megara is as a character from the little we see her in the play. She is a very realistic character, trying to be strong for her children and hoping for rescue while also not wanting to debase herself at the point of death, wanting all of them to take their own lives before Lycus can kill them. Megara is a very well written character, which is what I would expect from Euripides writing female characters, since he is far superior at it than Aeschylus and in some ways Sophocles too. On the other hand, Lycus serves no purpose in the plot other than being hated by literally everyone and being the worst, and therefore he is a very 2-dimensional character. And yet, that’s not even a bad thing! Lycus being awful to Amphitryon, Megara, Heracles’ name, and even the Chorus (made up of old Theban men) makes his death at Heracles’ hands all the more satisfying, and because the audience does not have to put much mental energy into figuring out Lycus’ character (he is a very common stock character for Greek tragedy) it allows the narrative focus to shift very smoothly. It also helps to contrast him against other theomachic, tyrant characters of Euripides (cf. Pentheus in The Bacchae) who are much more fleshed out because they serve a different purpose in their plays than Lycus.

     Eventually, Heracles does come home from his labors and swears to kill Lycus. There are so many juxtapositions and fatal ironies being set up in this scene that it is amazing to look them over. First, Heracles coming home to save the idea would normally be where a lot of tragedies end (with a lot more focus on the woe of a hopeless situation, where a deus ex machina still ends up saving the day and resolving the conflict). However, the later reversal where Heracles ends up being driven insane and murdering his wife and children is a shocking narrative choice which makes it all the more tragic. Secondly, Heracles spites Eurystheus (the man who tasked him with the 12 labors) because him going off on these quests nearly ended with the death of his family, and Heracles swears that he will not make that mistake again. However, when he is driven insane, he thinks that his wife and children are Euryshteus’ family, which is why he kills them as revenge. Not only is this continuing the cycle of Heracles “going on quests” (killing “Eurystheus’” family) that results in the endangerment of his family, but Heracles even refers to the murders when he regains his sanity as labors in and of themselves, but of a more brutal kind. Thus, the way labors and heroic exploits are viewed in this play are called into question, and Euripides uses irony to show how great such exploits were before, but how brutal they are now, which adds to the tragic flare.

     The play ends with Theseus finding Heracles and convincing him to not give up on his life but find a way to achieve peace and happiness again. While this may seem like a forced deus ex machina, it actually isn’t. Heracles references that while he was completing his final labor, he freed Theseus from a situation that would have killed him out of the kindness of his heart. A common theme in this play is how friends turn on friends when they are in times of struggle (just like how Thebes turned its back on Heracles’ family when they needed help the most). Heracles’ kindness to Theseus is rewarded with Theseus coming to Heracles and helping him choose life for himself. Additionally, Heracles’ note about the nature and cruelty of the gods is very interesting, where he says that he believes the gods to be perfect beings and therefore is struggling to quantify how so horrible a thing could have happened. I find this very interesting because a similar idea is given by the Roman poet Ovid in Book IX of his The Metamorphoses. In Book IX, Heracles dies, and his final words are that Eurystheus will still live while he is cruelly killed and that “some people still think gods can exist in such a cruel world” (paraphrase). Heracles as a character is someone descended from the gods, someone who has interacted with them, and someone who wants to believe in a glorious world where the gods are perfect. However, he is unable to believe that the gods are actually flawed, imperfect deities that let horrible things happen all the time, and for this reason, he goes so far as to renounce his belief in them after so many first-hand encounters. I think that premise is very powerful and philosophically insightful, and I really wish this play (and all of Euripides for that matter) was more widely read and respected in the literary canon. Euripides’ influence on the writers of the Medieval Era, Renaissance, and Modern Era is negligible, and I am so sad about that because I think Euripides is easily one of the greatest and deepest authors who ever lived. Victorian poet Algernon Charles Swinburne called Heracles a “grotesque abortion” for being structured in a way different from the traditional and Aristotlean-attested form, and there has generally been little love for this play academically. I am hoping to become a classics scholar myself in the near future, so I hope that I can bring more love and respect to Euripides’ name in future years. Heracles is a literary masterpiece and one of the most poignantly tragic works of fiction I have ever read, and I highly recommend it to everyone!