A line on grief

 On second thought, it’s criminal to talk about The Suppliant Women without mentioning what Euripides said about grief.

Evadne, the widow of one of the Argive champions killed at the gates of Thebes, is about to jump on the funeral pyre. Her old father, Iphis, sees her and can’t comprehend it. He asks:

 

My child, what wind has blown you here? What errand?

 

One of the recurring themes of this collection of notes is the inexplicable nature of grief. That one line from Euripides suggests that a grief-stricken person has lost something — a husband, in this case, but also something inside. Perhaps her reason. Perhaps hope.

• Source: Euripides, The Suppliant Woman, translated by Frank William Jones, is in Euripides IV in The Complete Greek Tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore; Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1953, p. 96.