Written by Euripides Mute Companions of Odysseus Genre Satyr play Place premiered Classical Athens | Chorus Satyrs Playwright Euripides Original language Ancient Greek | |
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Characters Silenus
Odysseus
The Cyclops Similar Euripides plays, Plays with Odysseus | ||
Cyclops new york euripides summer festival 2016
Cyclops (Ancient Greek: Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps) is an ancient Greek satyr play by Euripides. This satyr play would be the fourth part of the Euripides’ tetralogy, performed for the dramatic festival of 5th Century B.C. Athens. A satyr play was a story usually taken from epic poetry or mythology, and then adorned with a chorus of satyrs.
Contents
- Cyclops new york euripides summer festival 2016
- The cyclops new production of satyr play
- Story
- Translations
- References
The satyrs, are weak and useless when it comes to confronting the Cyclops; the satyrs are indeed willing to let other more heroic characters rush into danger. However the satyrs seem to offer magical powers in their music: After they sing of a burning branch moving on its own and blinding the giant, the giant is immediately blinded by a burning branch. Though it happens off-stage and seems to have been brought about by Odysseus.
The Cyclops is considered cannibalistic in that he includes humans in his diet, but there is a distinction: He will not eat satyrs or his fellow cyclops.
This play offers an eccentric view of a mix of worlds: It is contemporary, Homeric, and fantastical. It joins the ribald aspects of a satyr play, with a setting that is contemporary to it’s fifth-century audience. It mixes the myth of Dionysus’s capture by satyrs, with the well known episode of Polyphemus, the cannibal cyclops found in the Odyssey.
The island of Sicily is the setting and is mentioned often. At the time this play was performed, Sicily was considered home to a sophisticated Hellenistic culture, but it also was seen as a place that contained Greek and non-Greek. In this play it is portrayed as a barbaric place that is hostile to both man’s laws and religion.
Cyclops is a comical burlesque-like play on a story that occurs in book nine of Homer's Odyssey. In several elements it is faithful to Homer’s tale: The shipwreck, the goatskin of Maron’s wine, the blinding of the monocular giant, and the pun on the word “Nobody”, all occur in Euripides’ play and also in Homer’s Odyssey.
Cyclops is the only complete satyr play that has survived, due to continuous copying through the ages. Sizable fragments of other satyr plays have been discovered, like Sophocles’ Trackers and Aeschylus’ Net-fishers.Cyclops is found in two manuscripts: The Codex Laurentianus, or Florentinus, xxxii. 2. It appears to have been written out the fourteenth century in a number of different handwriting styles. It is kept in the Laurentian Library at Florence, Italy. The second manuscript is the Codex Palantinus 287, thought to be from the fourteenth or fifteenth century. It is kept in the Vatican Library.
The meter is principally iambic trimeter, which is that of tragedy rather than comedy. Regarding the date of composition, it is thought that this play was written earlier than Euripides’ Alcestis, and after Aristophanes’ play Acharnians, which parodies the Cyclops.
The cyclops new production of satyr play
Story
The play is set in Sicily at Mount Aetna. It begins with an opening monologue by Silenus, who tells the tale of how he and his satyrs, who are his off-spring and followers, have been victimized by the giant cyclops (named Polyphemus in the Odyssey). The satyrs are now enslaved to work for the cyclops and shepherd his flock. The satyrs are prevented from their usual life as playful and lusty faun-like spirits of the woods, who sport and play while protected by Bacchus or Dionysus. Odysseus, who has lost his way on the voyage home from the Trojan War, arrives with his hungry sailors. They meet Silenus and offer to trade wine for food. Being a servant of Dionysus, Silenus cannot resist obtaining the wine despite the fact that the food is not his to trade. The Cyclops soon arrives and Silenus is quick to accuse Odysseus of stealing the food, swearing to many gods and the Satyrs' lives (who are standing right beside him) that he is telling the truth. His son, a younger and more modern Satyr, tries to tell the truth to the Cyclops in an attempt to help Odysseus. His son, a younger and more modern Satyr, tries to tell the truth to the Cyclops in an attempt to help Odysseus.
Odysseus has a lively debate with the cyclops; he argues against his brutality, and in favor of morality, laws, justice, and hospitality. The cyclops debates in support of personal advantage and pleasure. The cyclops considers the idea of social justice a fraud created by the weak as protection against the mighty. The cyclops claims that the only thing worthy of worship is wealth. After this argument, the Cyclops brings Odysseus and his crew inside his cave and eats some of them. Odysseus manages to sneak out and is stunned by what he has witnessed. He hatches a scheme to get the Cyclops drunk and burn out his eye with a giant poker after the giant has passed out from inebriation.
The Cyclops and Silenus drink together, with Silenus attempting to hog the wineskin for himself. When the Cyclops is drunk, he says he is seeing gods and begins to call Silenus Ganymede (the beautiful prince Zeus made his immortal cup bearer). The Cyclops then steals Silenus away into his cave, with the implication that he is about do something sexual to him. Odysseus decides to execute the next phase of his plan. The Satyrs initially offer to help, but later become afraid and offer a variety of absurd excuses when the time for action actually comes. The annoyed Odysseus gets his crew to help instead, and they burn out the Cyclops' eye.
He had told the Cyclops earlier that his name was 'Noman' or 'Nobody' (Greek outis or mētis), so when the Cyclops yells out who was responsible for blinding him, it sounds like he is saying "No man blinded me". In addition to this pun, there is a less easily translated joke based on the fact that the form of "no man" (mētis) is identical to the word for cleverness or art. The Satyrs have some fun with him over it. Odysseus makes the mistake, however, of blurting out his true name as a result of his big ego. Although he successfully makes his escape, the rest of the troubles Odysseus faces on his voyage home are related to this act, as he then faces the wrath of Poseidon, the father of the Cyclops.