The Women Of Trachis, 1

Deianira, wife of Heracles, frets.  She had been saved from a miserable future when Heracles had taken her from home and married her.  But since then he has always been away, on one gods' adventure after another.  Currently, he has been gone over a year, with no word of his whereabouts.

Deianira's nurse suggests she ask her son, Hyllus, if there is any news of his father.  Hyllus: "Oh, Heracles?  Yeah, he was a slave to a Lydian woman.  Now he's in Euboea fighting Eurytus.".  Deianira: "Huh.  That's exactly what the prophecy said he'd be doing."  Hyllus: "What prophecy?"

[The lack of communication before today is absurd.]

Hyllus goes to find more information.  The Chorus enters and commiserates with Deinira, but ultimately reproves her for her pessimism: this is Heracles, after all, and he's made it through worse scrapes before.  But Deinira explains that when he left this last time, he had told her that in a little more than a year, he would either be finished with the tasks forever or he'd be dead.  That day of reckoning has now arrived.  [Which kind of explains why everything came to a head all of a sudden.]

A messenger arrives with news from Heracles's herald, Lichas.  Heracles is on his way back home.  The messenger expects a tip.

And there was much rejoicing.

Lichas himself arrives with a gaggle of captured women in tow.  Heracles is taking care of some divine promises, but will be home shortly.  It seems Heracles had visited Eurytus in peace, but was dissed badly while he was there.  Shortly after, he killed Eurytus's son Iphitus in a fit of rage, by throwing him off a cliff.  As punishment, Zeus handed him over to the Lydian woman for a time.  When that was through, Heracles went back to get his revenge on Eurytus who got him into the trouble in the first place.  Simple.  And utterly ridiculous.

The women, meanwhile, are the pillage from the victory, and are screwed.  Deinira pities them, and focuses especially on one young, possibly noble girl [named Iole].  She asks Lichas for the details about this one, but he knows nothing-- she's been silent since her capture-- and can't figure why she'd care anyway.  The women are sent inside.

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I've read this about five different times, and simply can't get interested in the story.  Partly, it's because the Heracles mythology is kind of coming out of nowhere.  He's been referenced, of course, in many of the previous works, but this particular episode is totally new, and doesn't seem to have any importance at all.  So far.

Or maybe it's the translation, by a guy (Michael Jameson) I haven't read before.  The introduction, at least, was impenetrable-- like he was writing an analysis just to fill out the assignment, and couldn't care less if what he said was interesting or not.  I've written papers like that myself.

So far, this play is a dud all around.