When Greek Theater Saved Lives: How Euripides Freed Athenian Prisoners in Syracuse

Syracuse successful Sicily was a large Greek halfway successful Magna Craecia. Credit: Ludvig14, Wikimedia Commons, CC-BY-SA-4.0should

How could Euripides and a radical of Athenian prisoners beryllium tied to 1 of the top subject disasters of Athens’ aureate age? To recognize it, we request to revisit 1 of Athens’ worst subject catastrophes.

In 413 BC, successful Syracuse, Sicily, that catastrophe unfolded successful a azygous devastating stroke. A expansive expedition to Magna Graecia, launched with the anticipation of expanding the Athenian empire and yet crushing Spartan resistance, was shattered against the rugged limestone cliffs of Syracuse. What was meant to beryllium a masterful strategical determination by the superpower of its clip devolved into a graveyard for thousands of young men, leaving the remnants of a supposedly unstoppable armada to rot nether the blazing Mediterranean sun.

The march to the quarries

The sheer standard of the catastrophe is hard to overstate. The historiographer Thucydides famously described it arsenic the astir important enactment of the war—glorious for the victors but implicit hellhole for the defeated. Following a disastrous last naval clash successful the Great Harbor, the surviving Athenians were forced into a hopeless retreat crossed the Sicilian interior. Hunted by Syracusan cavalry and baked by relentless heat, they were yet captured. The victors past drove astir 7 1000 of these captives into the Latomiae, the deep, sheer-walled limestone quarries of Syracuse.

Inside, conditions were wholly hellish. Searing vigor baked the prisoners by day, freezing chills acceptable successful astatine night, and the stench of unburied bodies permeated the air. With a regular ration of hardly 250 milliliters of h2o and a fistful of grain, the captives faced a grim reality. For most, the quarries became a slow, agonizing execution chamber.

Euripides was among the favorites successful Sicily. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain

The fascinating relation of Euripides and the Athenian prisoners

What followed, however, took a singular and unexpected turn. While the Syracusans were brutal enemies, they were besides profoundly devoted to Greek culture, marked by a near-obsessive admiration for Athenian theater. In an epoch agelong earlier printed books, experiencing the latest calamity from mainland Greece depended connected oral transmission, often done fragments carried by merchants oregon sailors arriving from the East.

Among each the playwrights, Euripides was the undisputed favourite of the Syracusans. His dark, psychologically aggravated stories struck a profound chord with Sicilians, who lived connected the borderline of the Greek satellite but craved its blase core. This taste obsession created an bonzer dynamic erstwhile guards lasting implicit a pit of dying men realized a startling fact, namely that immoderate of these starving prisoners knew the plays of Euripides by heart. Overnight, a soldier’s representation became vastly much invaluable than his carnal strength. The historiographer Plutarch recorded the singular improvement of men securing their state simply by reciting a fewer lines, perchance from Medea or a tragic monologue from Electra.

If an Athenian could execute these verses, Syracusan guards would propulsion them straight from the pit. Local families brought the captives into their homes, washing them and providing caller clothes. Men who had precocious been engaged successful brutal warfare were abruptly sharing surviving rooms, agreed by a communal appreciation for Greek poetry. In practice, immoderate of these fortunate soldiers remained successful Sicily for the remainder of their lives. The astir communal concern for them was arsenic backstage tutors for affluent families crossed Magna Graecia. Others were granted escaped transition backmost to Greece arsenic a nonstop reward for their cognition of Euripides’ works.

When the survivors yet returned to Athens, contented holds that they went straight to the location of Euripides. Falling astatine the aged playwright’s feet successful tears, they explained that his words, composed successful the information of his study, had served arsenic their ransom successful the darkest pits of the Mediterranean.

What is worthy noting present is however shared civilization tin transcend geopolitical boundaries and force lines. The Sicilian catastrophe showed the past satellite however imperial overreach often ends successful ruin. At the aforesaid time, it revealed however an appreciation of civilization tin occasionally overpower adjacent the astir ignoble instincts for revenge.