The Function of Conflict in Euripides' Heracles - Essay Example

An examination of the themes in Euripides’ Heracles, considering the function of conflict and change in the action. This essay will explore meanings in Euripides’ tragic play Heracles1 and consider the philosophic and symbolic themes in the action. A speculative date for this play is 420 B.C. It was written in the golden age period of Athenian drama and is one of a sequence of great tragedies in Euripides’ canon of works that focus on great mythic characters. The action is set in the city of Thebes and opens before the royal palace near to which is the altar of Zeus the Deliverer. This is an important feature of the play’s setting: the emphasis upon location and the proximity of religious symbolism alongside the seat of power. Seated around the altar of Zeus are Amphitryon, the man known as the father of Heracles, Megara, the wife of Heracles, and the three sons of Megara and Heracles. Heracles himself is believed to be dead, descended into the kingdom of Hades to retrieve the three-headed dog Cerberus, never to return. Amphitryon summarizes the history of the family as the play opens, introducing Megara and her three children and repeating the reason why Heracles had to leave his family. He embarked on his tasks for Eurystheus in order to succeed to the Fortress of Argos. However, because of the circumstances of his birth, Heracles has always to contend with the jealousy of Hera, the queen of heaven: ‘Whether Hera’s jealousy, or Fate’s decree, imposed/Such labours on him, who can say?’ (154) Heracles father is Zeus, the king of heaven, who seduced Alcmene, the wife of Amphitryon. Amphitryon raised Heracles as his own son and loves and protects Heracles’ sons as his grandchildren. Megara’s father, Creon, was king of Thebes but has recently been deposed by Lycus; this makes their situation very bleak and dangerous, Amphitryon states: …With my son away, lost in the earth’s depths, This hero Lycus, now master of Thebes, resolves To smother murder with more murder, and destroy Heralces’ sons, for fear they should grow up to avenge Their murdered family. (154) Grandfather, mother and children are hemmed in and threatened on all sides. Murder leads to more murder in the rhetoric of this kind of tragedy. Lycus, in order to seize and consolidate power, must murder the royal family and all their descendents and relatives he can get access to. So, the family tableau with which the play opens, is one of tragic proportions already as they are prisoners of Lycus surrounding the altar of Zeus to appeal to the gods for their help. Overruling anything Megara might be able to do, however, is the jealousy of Hera that manipulates the situation around Heracles. Megara asks: ‘So now, father, what hope, what means to save our lives/Have you in mind?’ (155). Amphitryon is wise and attempts to console Megara: Daughter, a fair wind may yet bring us safe to shore From all our fears. My son, your husband, may yet come… …Misfortunes in the end Grow tired of plaguing; storms in time blow themselves out… …Despair is cowardly; The brave man holds fast to his confidence and hope. (156) Hope is the talisman that Amphitryon hangs on to and ‘hope’ is centered upon Heracles. Very soon, however, Lycus enters and condemns the family to death. Megara must face the horror of preparing her own children for sacrifice. The Chorus of Theban Elders address Amphitryon: ‘You yourself, Amphitryon, must find/How best to break out from the closing trap of Fate.’ (162) As Amphitryon watches his daughter-in-law lead his grandsons away to be clothed for sacrifice he turns on Zeus, the progenitor of all their problems: Zeus! I once thought you were my powerful friend. You shared/My marriage, shared fatherhood of Heracles. All this meant nothing; for you proved less powerful Than you had seemed; and I, a man, put you, a god, To shame. I’ve not betrayed the sons of Heracles. You knew the way to steal into my bed, where none Invited you, and lie with someone else’s wife; But those bound to you by every tie you cannot save. This is strange ignorance in a god; or else, maybe, Your very nature lacks a sense of right and wrong. (163) This speech gets to the heart of the play. The gods, and Zeus in particular, uphold the position of their divinity. His altar stands next to the seat of power in Thebes that has so recently been seized by Lycus. The rightful inheritors of power, Megara and her sons, are about to die. Amphitryon raves at the god, who stole the privilege of his marriage bed, and having endowed Heracles with the immense strength and bravery that enables him to achieve heroic status has abandoned his family to Fate – or the jealousy of Hera. Heracles would not need such strength if it were not for Hera’s jealousy. He and his family were never allowed to lead an ordinary life thanks to Zeus’s lust for Alcmene. The Chorus then recites the history of Heracles’s exploits with solemnity and reverence. This ‘tearful dirge’ leads up to the re-entry of Megara and the children, ready for their execution: ‘The sacrifice/Stands ready for the road to death…’ (166). She addresses her children, mourning the fact that they will never achieve the destiny mapped out for them by their father: ‘How hope deceived me! – those bright hopes I drew/From words your father used to speak.’ (167) For her and Amphitryon ‘hope’ is another character in the play, it is the concept that they invoke and maintain accompanies them, until they reach a realization that they must abandon it as meaningless. However, on bringing Megara down to her lowest point in the action, Euripides returns Heracles to his family. He arrives back as though nothing is wrong – buoyant and in good spirits having accomplished his task in Hades and retrieved his friend Theseus, the king of Athens, from the realm of death also. Megara and Amphitryon’s appeals have been answered; hope is restored it seems. Heracles is astonished to hear that Lycus has usurped his family and now means to sacrifice them all. He now shows his character to the audience in the way that he immediately springs into action: Come, throw away these funeral wreathes! Lift up your eyes! Look! You have light for darkness, life instead of death. Now I must go; my hand has work to do. (170) He is a man of heroic and mythic capabilities, but that means he is called away from his family and could not be there when danger threatened. He embodies strength and most especially hope for them, but the other force in the play: Fate, works in conflict with this. It draws upon his sense of duty and leads him to the performance of tasks. He wants to act now in order to save and avenge his family: ‘My famous labours! They’re a waste of time, while I/Neglect to help my own.’ (171) Amphitryon has to warn him against acting too quickly, and once again his words reach to the truth of the situation. He advises Heracles that the situation is not that simple; the world is a more complex place, more fraught with conflict that cannot be predicted: There’s a large class of needy men, who make a show Of being prosperous; Lycus has their strong support. They raised the riots; they sold Thebes to slavery In hope of lawless plunder, to redeem their own Bankruptcy, caused by extravagance and idleness. (171) He indicates to Heracles that behind the scenes there are unscrupulous people who support the politics of Lycus because it benefits them. Amphitryon knows that this situation is not just the one-on-one fight between Heracles and Lycus. The world outside them in the city plots their downfall also and the complexity of that can overwhelm even Heracles and his great strength. There are uncertain and complicated issues that are changeable and unpredictable. So, Heracles decides to lie in wait in the palace when Lycus comes to murder his wife and children. As they exit for the palace the Chorus again sings a solemn chant but with a more triumphant tone this time. Hope has returned and Heracles is on the trail of vengeance for his family. The next song the Chorus sing (176-177) is in praise of Heracles’ success at killing Lycus. Their triumph is cut short when Iris and Madness enter. These are the two divine symbolic messengers – sent by Hera – to exact her plan on Heracles. From this point on the action of the play spirals rapidly downwards into more extreme tragedy. It is interesting to note that Madness is more reluctant than Iris to exact the cruel treatment upon Heracles. She makes a plea, which is the last hope for Heracles and his family: My nature’s noble…. …and my privilege Is not to take delight in slaughter, nor do I With pleasure visit cities. So I wish to plead With Hera and you…(179) Hope is eroded by the Fate specified for Heracles by Hera; as Iris retorts to Madness: ‘This plan is Hera’s wish/And mine; so spare us your advice.’ (179) As Madness overwhelms him he hunts his family down through the corridors of the palace. Their own father strikes down the children whilst Madness possesses him. He kills his wife also and just as he was about to kill Amphitryon, as recounted by the grieving Messenger, the goddess Pallas Athene appeared and struck him with a boulder that brought him to the ground and knocked him senseless. This episode is shocking and turbulent in the action of the play. The rhetoric used by the Messenger to account the actions of Heracles is powerful and upsetting. The audience is carried along with the momentum of it and can picture the horrific events in the palace even without the action happening on stage. The Chorus take up the refrain of grief as the palace doors open on the scene showing the bodies of the mother and children and Heracles bound to a pillar in an ‘accursed sleep.’ (184-185) They enter into a discourse with Amphitryon in their lament for what has occurred which ends with their angry interrogation of the god once more: O Zeus, why had you this fierce hate against your son? Why must he pass through such a sea of suffering? (187) Theseus arrives in Thebes after this dreadful event, in order to try and help Heracles his ally who brought him back to life. He meets the scene of devastation and suffering and offers Heracles a home and means to live back in Athens. Heracles believes he must die, that his time has now come because he has enacted such a dreadful thing as kill his wife and children. It is accepted that the figure of Madness was really able to possess him and cause him to do this therefore it is not seen as being his fault. Heracles argues however that he, who is so strong and powerful, cannot fight his Fate and has been powerless against the irresistible course of events. …I’ll explain to you that my whole life, Both past and present, ought not to have been at all. First, then: I am my father’s son. When Amphitryon Married my mother Alcmene, he was guilty of Her father’s blood, and so accursed. When a family Stands on unsound foundations, no prosperity Follows its sons. Then, Zeus – whoever Zeus may be – Begot me as his mark for Hera’s enmity… …To a man who has known happiness Among his fellows, change is a most bitter thing. A man settled in ill luck feels no pain; to him Enduring it is second nature. (193-194) Heracles’ argument hinges upon this speech. He acknowledges his great power and strength but they are poor compensation for the man who knows so much ‘ill luck’ at the hands of Fate and his own mutability or ‘change’. He was cursed from before his birth – before even Zeus and Hera intervened. From the seat of wisdom, Amphitryon, there comes the reason for the cursed line. Amphitryon killed Alcmene’s father before they were married. Hope is eventually of no use to Heracles, Fate is too overwhelming. What seems like the salvation of the characters is, he tells them, only the luck of his strength, given to him by Zeus because he was cursed. Even in his cradle Hera tried to kill him and he had to strangle the serpents that she sent. What the other characters had clung to as the chance for retrieving what they had lost was only, Heracles knows, the quirk of his physical nature: that he can act with such power and strength. But this strength is transient. One of the main themes, then, is conflict, which forms the root of the tragedy embodied in the battle between Hope and Fate. Heracles is the symbol of huge physical strength and his prowess makes for dramatic and powerful action plus he embodies Hope for his family and the nation, but against Fate (the momentum of the tragedy powered by Hera) he is powerless. His great strength cannot compete with Hera’s ‘spite/Towards Zeus, for jealousy of a woman’s bed…’(195) What then can his conclusion be? It is a bleak one with a bitter lesson. In the end Euripides has him instruct his father to bury the dead, his wife and children, and he departs for Athens to ‘live and suffer’ as Theseus advises. (195). In addition to the conflict between Hope and Fate, and how the characters respond to and deal with those concepts, the other major theme is Euripides’s use of transience and mutability. Transience has been touched upon repeatedly by Megara and Amphitryon in the opening scenes when they desired the passage of time to effect change, and again by the Chorus when reflecting upon Heracles’ passage through the ‘sea of suffering’ and Heracles himself as he contemplates his Fate. Transience is tied very closely to the hope that Heracles’ family feels. They wish for speedy change but when the change happens it is the deadly mutability of Heracles. Controlled by the gods Heracles changes (mutates) from heroic to murderous. The mortal characters could not foresee this event and so it is a horrific and sudden explosion of change. Mutability is the force which influences the ways in which courage and heroism are enacted by Heracles and the ways in which power is controlled and exercised by Heracles and Lycus. The hero’s mutability, his drastic and awful alteration, which is as suddenly reversed, is a dynamic device in the drama that forces the conclusion of the action. Controversially it is a cleansing act: the murder of the children and the spouse. What it does is call a complete halt to the conflict and escalation of events. The finality of the act, with the taint and ‘pollution’ of it falling upon Heracles, who can bear the burden with the comradeship of Theseus, means that the killing can now stop. Heracles and Megara’s whole clan are wiped out, by Lycus and by Heracles’ own hand, but now ‘Fate and Hera’s cruelty’ have run their course for this family and there is a conclusion. According to the rules of tragedy Heracles’ children would have had to exact revenge upon Lycus and his other enemies (as bourn out by Amphitron’s statement near the beginning of the play) but his temporary, passing possession by Madness indicates an end. His suffering is not over but there will be no more episodes of insanity and killing. In this way the themes of Hope and Fate in conflict and the conflation of transience and mutability make for distinctly compatible thematic readings of the play. In fact, these features rely on one another to be in place in order for there to be intellectual cohesion, organization and reason to the action. It is action that deals with supernatural and mythic events but nonetheless has to make sense on the human level. There is an inherent harmony in Greek tragedy demonstrated in the notion of conflict leading to completion and resolution via change and the passage of time. The Greek audiences expected such a philosophic and poetic examination of events, of which they knew the conclusion. The entertainment was in the enactment of the events with the harmony of the tragic rhetoric reiterated for them as a challenge and an argument. In Euripides’s Heracles we are subjected to an exhausting, traumatic examination of the conflict between Hope and Fate, and an exposure of the human capacity for mutability in the unfolding of a life and the passage of time. Read More