Michael Davis - The Philosophy of Tragedy: Euminedes [Complete]

ATHENA:

Nothing that strikes a note of brutal conquest. Only peace-

blessings, rising up from the earth and the heaving sea,

and down the vaulting sky let the wind-gods breathe

a wash of sunlight streaming through the land,

and the yield of soil and grazing cattle flood

our city's life with power and never flag

with time. Make the seed of men live on,

the more they worship you the more they thrive.

I love them as a gardener loves his plants,

these upright men, this breed fought free of grief.

All that is yours to give.

And I,

in the trials of war where fighters burn for fame,

will never endure the overthrow of Athens -

all will praise her, victor city, pride of man.

The Eumenides, 913-926, trans. Robert Fagles

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The wonderful Michael Davis did no fewer than five lectures on the final play in the Oresteia, the Eumenides (one of my all-time favorites) so I went ahead and slammed them into one giga-episode rather than just lazily uploading each one.

Please remember to check out and subscribe to his page, which seems to have been recorded and A/V'd by some very skilled student volunteers.

https://www.youtube.com/@thephilosophyoftragedy6720

Please enjoy yourself.