Rooting for reason

 Greek tragedy is filled with wonderful lines that might or might not have a bearing on the theme of the play. Some are just surprising asides. In Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis, Achilles tried to reassure Clytemnestra that everything would be all right. 

Achilles

Reason can wrestle

and overthrow terror.

 

Clytemnestra

My hopes are cold on that.

 

I’m rooting for reason today. I think Donald Trump will go down in history as the person who urged an attack on the American Capitol, trying to stay in power after losing an election. He never did — and will never do — anything more significant than that.

If you haven’t voted, now’s the time.

• Source: Euripides, Iphigeneia at Aulis, translated by Charles R. Walker, is in Euripides IV in The Complete Greek Tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore; Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1953, pp. 209-307. The quotation is on p. 240.