This play takes place after the end of the Trojan War and after the death of Agamemnon. While there's a recap in the episode, you can listen to the full story in this Spotify playlist. Help keep LTAMB going by subscribing to Liv's Patreon for bonus content!
CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.
Sources: Euripides' Orestes, translations by Anne Carson (main reference and short quotes throughout); EP Coleridge (long quotes and intro quote); Euripides by Isabelle Torrance. Re: that misspoken line by Hegelochus, Wikipedia's description and the scholia itself.
Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.
There is nothing so terrible to describe or suffering or heaven sent affliction, that human nature may not have to bear the burden of it. The blessed Tantalus, and I am not now taunting him with his misfortunes. Tantalus, the reputed son of Zeus, flies in the air, quailing at the rock which looms above his head, paying this penalty, they say, for the shameful weakness he displayed in failing to keep a bridle on his lips when admitted by gods. Though he was a man to share the honors of their feasts like one of them. He begot Pelops, the father of Atreus, for whom the goddess, when she had carded her wool, spun a web of strife to make war with his own brother disdes. But why need I retrace that hideous tale? Oh? Hi, hello, and welcome. Do let's talk about Mitts Baby, or as I like to sometimes call it, the Official Euripides Fan Club. I am your host, live she who well loves Eurippides because he's amazing and weird and interesting in anyway. Today we're talking about one of his plays because I have both been meaning to talk about this play forever, but also because I needed something that I knew I would love. It has been an absolutely wild few weeks and I am scrambling to keep my head above water when it comes to the podcast by Euripides. Oh he makes everything so lovely. So here we are. Today's play is well, it's one of euripides is more famous, but for less famous reasons, if that makes any sense. We typically know him for plays like Medea and back Eye, those iconic, violent, complex and generally just powerful characters and stories. But the story in today's play isn't one that Euripides is necessarily known for. That honor belongs to one of the other surviving tragedians, Eschylus. Still, Euripides takes on the story unsurprisingly in iconically Euripidean ways, because guess what, it's seriously weird, and that is why we love him. Today we are talking about Orestes, but Euripides is Orestes. So very long ago I told you all the story of the Orestia. It was in the very early days of the podcast, so I know I didn't dive too deep into the sourcing of it, but if I remember correctly, I went with telling you all the kind of a generalized version of the story, rather than going into any of the plays directly. Because unlike any other myth from ancient Greece, the story of that messy, murderous family and our ghosts survives in plays by all three tragedians. There's no other myth that survives that way, and because of this we get really fascinating and varied versions of these stories. But today, though, we are looking very specifically at Euripides's version of Arrestes and Electra's story. I know I've mentioned it before too, but this play holds a special place in my heart. It's the first time I ever spoke about Greek mythology or tragedy into a microphone. During my undergrad all the way back into an eleven, I took a weird little pop up seminar class where it was not even a fully seminar class, it was just extra credit, but where me and like five other women recorded a performance of the Arrestes like radio play style. It was so much fun. I played Electra, and actually I wondered what might exist in my email from those days, trying to remember who all recorded it with me, aside from the couple of friends that were there. But it turns out that just last week was the like twelve year anniversary of the project. I don't think it's unreasonable to say that that experience might have influenced this podcast like existing, because as all of you know, I really enjoy reading things aloud into a microphone, particularly reading Eurippides aloud, because God's He's Euripides, and so on that note, let's get right into the murderous, violent, and very very cursed family of Arghos. This is episode two O five Beware the wrath of the furies, screaming for blood Euripides Orestes. Before we get too deep into my beloved Euripides's own words, we first need to situate ourselves in the ancient Greek world. This play begins in medias res to unfortunately use a Latin term, right in the middle of things, the middle of the action, and oh, has there been a lot of action in the city of Argos. To make things easier on you all, in case you want to remind yourselves of the wide world of the Trojan War and its aftermath, I have linked to a Spotify playlist that features all of those episodes, But in the meantime, a quick recap and fortunately our goal. Electra is actually here to give us this recap. Elektra is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, the sister of if Aganaia Chrysophemus and Orestes himself. If Agania, you might remember, was murdered by her father in order to bring good winds to his ships bound for Troy. And this, well, this didn't please his wife all that much. They're all from a very, very cursed family and it shows. With all of that said, let's let Elektra remind us all what else has happened. The play opens with a monologue of hers. I read the first lines at the top of the episode, that sort of introduction to Tantalus. For all this play is called the Orestes. Electra is really at its heart. So the rest of her speech, which yes, I do want to read in its entirety because it is both good and nostalgic, but also because it explains everything up into this point and I call the shots, goes like this quote. Well, Atrius slew Thyestes's children and feasted him on them. Atrius, now I pass over intermediate events from Atrius, and aopy of crete were born The famous Agamemnon, if he really was famous, and Menelaus now Menelaus, married Helen, the God's abhorrence, while Lord Agamemnon married Clytemnestra, notorious in Hellas. And we three daughters were born, Chrysothemus if Agania, and myself Electra, also a son Orestes, all from that accursed mother who slew her husband after snaring him in an inextricable robe. Her reason a maiden's lips may not declare, and so I leave it unclear for the world to guess at what need for me to charge Phoebus with wrongdoing. Though he persuaded Orestes to slay his own mother, a deed that few approved, still it was his obedience to the God that made him kill her. I had a share in the murder in so far as a woman could, and Pylades, who helped us to bring it about. After this, my poor Orestes, wasting away in a cruel disease, lies fallen on his couch, and it is his mother's blood that drives him round and round in frenzied fits. I am ashamed to name the goddesses whose terrors are chasing him, the humanities. It is now the sixth day since the body of his murdered mother was committed to the cleansing fire. Since then no food has gone down his throat, nor has he washed his skin. But wrapped in his cloak, he weeps in his lucid moments whenever the fever leaves him. At other times he bounds headlong from his couch, as a cult when it is loosed from the yoke. This city of Argos has decreed that no man may give us shelter in home or hearth, or speak to matricides like us. And this is the fateful day on which the Argives will take a vote whether we are both to die by stoning. There is it is true, one hope of escape from death Menelaus has landed from Troy, his fleet now crowd the haven of Naphblia, where he has come to anchor on the shore, returned at last from Troy after ceaseless wanderings. But Helen, that so called lady of sorrows, he has sent on to our palace, waiting for the night, lest any of those parents whose sons died at Troy might see her. If she went by day and set to stoning her within she sits weeping for her sister and the calamities of her family, and yet she still has some solace in her woe for Hermione, the child she left at home when she sailed for Troy, the maid whom Menelaius brought from Sparta and entrusted to my mother's keeping, is still a cause for joy to her, and a reason to forget her sorrows. I am watching each approach until I see Menelaus arriving, for unless we find some safety from him, we have only a feeble anchor to ride on, otherwise a helpless thing, an unlucky house. Ah, things are not going well for Electra and her brother. Clytemnestra killed Agamemnon, and then Orestes killed Clytemnestra. And Gods know that such an act inevitably brings the furies down on you, the humanities, the kindly ones, they're sometimes called, because who wants to bring on unnecessary wrath from these ladies? So that is where Electra finds herself and her brother, who lies on a bed behind her, crying out periodically, but seemingly not at all lucid, And don't expect too much lucidity from Orestes going forward. There's a reason this play is so interesting and unique compared to the other versions of this myth. And as if it is not interesting enough that this play entitled Orestes about the aftermath of Orestes is very famous murder of his mother. Clydemnestra begins with a monolog from Electra about how mentally unwell her brother is, how he's lost to his trauma, to the furies themselves. The second person to speak on stage is not Arrestes, but Helen. Menelaius is there in Argos, and Helen and their daughter Hermione, they're not on stage just now, just Helen, but they're in Argos. Hermione has been there for some time, entrusted to Clydemnestra in this version, and while Helen is Clydemnestra's sister, the one who's just been recently murdered, it's Menelaus, being brother to Agamemnon, who Clydemnestra killed only a short while ago, that Electra and Orestes are counting on for help. Helen arrives now and asks Electra how they're doing, how they're holding up. She comments on her sister's death, ascribing it both to Arrestes and to Apollo himself, but she doesn't blame Electra, and she explains she hadn't even seen her sister since before the war, since before she went to Troy quote crazed by a god. Electra is blunt. In her reply to Helen, we're not doing well. If that isn't obvious, She makes note that by comparison, Helen is a happy woman there with her husband and her daughter, and that quote, well, let's say you've got us on a bad day. Have I mentioned lately at what a joy? Anne Carson's translations are her Electra is sarcastic and I am here for it. Helen has a favor to ask of Electra, but before she asks it, she makes a point of saying that she pities both Arrestes and Clytemnestra, which is interesting. She, like in Helen itself, is a good woman. Euripides seems intent on making her pious and good. She won't even blame her nephew for killing her own sister. She understands that there was more to it and pities him for having to go through it too. But then the favor she wants Electra to go to Clydemnestra's grave to bring offerings on her behalf. Isn't that for you to do yourself? Elector applies, but Helen explains that she doesn't want to be seen in public. It doesn't ever do her any good. Electra presses her, asking what shame she feels by going out in public, to which Helen replies, quote the fathers of those who lie dead at troy them I have reason to fear, to which Elector applies, just quote no kidding. In the end, Electra refuses to do as Helen asked, refuses to go to her mother's grave. She had a hand in killing her, after all, and has no desire to see it nor be seen at it. She recommends that Helen send her own daughter, Hermione, to the grave instead, and so Helen gives her daughter some instructions, brief rituals to perform and things to leave behind as offerings, before asking Hermione to ask Clytemnestra to think kindly of her sister and of Menelaius of Hermione. With that, Electra is left alone on the stage once more, That is, with Orestes still behind her. Unconscious. Of course, that alone is an assumption based on the translator. In addition, because as you all have been told so many times, we don't know anything about how these plays were staged. But having Orestes lying on the stage this entire time, not speaking for another little while, but there as the titular character writhing in agony, certainly adds something to the performance. Electra's reaction once Helen is gone is just it's great. Quote, Helen, what a masterpiece? How is it some people managed to come out on top every time? Did you see how she trimmed just the very tips of her hair not to spoil her beauty? Same old Helen. May the gods hate you? Oh? She goes on, exclaiming that Helen has wrecked her wrecked a generation of Greeks with her actions. Electra, it seems, is not one of the people willing to forgive Helen for what was done in her name. The reference to cutting her hair too, is a note about the traditions around this like around morning, Helen has done the absolute bare minimum when it comes to showing her respect for her dead sister, because doing anything more would have affected her appearance. And as Electra says, Helen can't have herself looking anything less than stunning. The chorus is here now, or maybe they've been here the entire time, but now Electra addresses them. She's worried that she or one of the chorus of women of Argos will wake Arrestes now that he's finally sleeping, rather than thrashing and screaming and running around like he's not entirely himself together, though they all speak of Arrestes quietly. The chorus asks how he's doing, and Electra tells them he's breathing, but there's little else that's positive. He's moaning and groaning all day. He's at the mercy of the gods. The chorus says, quote poor victim of acts sent by God, to which Elector applies quote wrong or the acts wrong was the God? But if you murder your mother, what are the odds? And then Arrestes is moving, the chorus tells us, except no, now that they look closer, maybe he isn't. He's still sleeping soundly, and Electra intends to keep it that way. Electra's lines in this Carson translation, they're too good. So quote, oh lady knight, you who give sleep to mortals when they are broken by toil. Come from the dark, Come on your wings, for we are a substance beginning to spoil. A substance beginning to spoil. Oh, but it's the talk about the gods that's so insightful. Here the chorus blamed the gods for what Orestes did. Electra said the same, and later she's more explicit, quote, Apollo made us sacrificial victims in his murder exchange of father for mother. The gods are rarely the good guys in Greek myth or plays, but they're very explicitly the bad guys. Here the chorus calls it justice on the one hand, and Electra counters with quote evil on the other. Mother, as you killed, so you die, but you've ruined us all. You at least went off to be among the dead. I live on here as corpse. Beside Orestes is bed nights and tears and groaning. Nothing else is mine, No marriage, no house, no children, just time. If you're wondering who the tragic character is in this play called Arrestes, the argument could be made that it's actually Electra. But then finally Arrestes wakes up. Oh, beautiful motions. Of sleep. How sweetly you came to me, Oh lady oblivion, How kindly you clear away pain? That was a quote if Arrestes is first lines before he asks Electra and the chorus where he is. How he got there? He tells them his mind is gone. Electra dotes on Arrestes, he's been sleeping for who knows how long, tormented by what he did, and the furies that are often hanging around or seemingly no one, though, makes the obvious note that, for all the story is told us, Electra was also involved in the murder of their mother, but she doesn't get to fall apart like Arrestes does. She has to be the adult the career of her brother, and care she does. The next lines are really emphasizing what a mess Orestes is. He's not entirely there. He's unwashed and dirty, sickly and weak, but for a moment, the furies seem to have let him have this moment of sanity, of lucidity, so Electra uses it to tell him that Menelaus, their uncle, has arrived with Helen. Helen, Orestes comments that it would have been better if Menelaius had come back alone, to which Electra says that the entire family of women is trouble. Her brother, though very kindly, tells her that she can make up her mind to be different than her mother and her aunt. Before the furies returned to him, though the audience sees nothing, his eyes glaze over, and suddenly he's speaking as if the furies themselves are upon him. Quote, Oh Mother, I beg you, don't send the snakes, don't send the bloody faced women down on me. Ah, they are here. Electra tries to comfort him, to calm him, tells him that there is nothing there. The Fury aren't before him, even if he thinks he can see them, but he keeps calling to them and Gods, the lines about the furies are too good, so I'm going to give you another quote Apollo. Here they come like killer dogs. Goddess is hot with a glow of hell. Orestes goes in and out of lucidity. He has his first long speech now, and it's half a speech of madness, where he believes he's surrounded by the furies. He's asking for a bow, he's hearing arrows whiz around him. He's threatening to kill the furies. He's blaming Apollo for everything. It was Apollo who gave the order, whose oracle foretold the act. And then he's suddenly himself again, or as much as he can be, and he's asking where he is again, how he got out of bed? He describes the experienced quote, Now again I see calm water. The storm sinks away. His mind is a storm, and it surges and then falls back, forcing him to go with the waves, pulling him wherever the fury driven madness wants to take him. And this is the Orestes that we will get from most of the play, one that is sometimes there and sometimes in a world of his own, tormented by the most terrifying of all Greek mythological beings, those whose entire purpose is to just terrify and torment punish the worst of human crimes. When he's truly with his sister, though Orestes is a good brother, he doesn't want a lecture to feel the guilt of their mother's death, reminding her that while she approved of it, he's the one who killed Clytemnestra. At Apollo's urging, he comforts her, expresses how he doesn't want to be a burden to her in his current state, quote no doubt, we are in a bad situation. But if you give me comfort when I get hopeless, I'll do the same for you. With kind words back to her brother, and at his urging, Electra goes inside the house to get some rest, leaving Arrestes alone on the stage with the chorus. The chorus, who just screams, I a quote, oh, racing, raging goddess, as you dance a dance that is no dance, screaming down the sky in search of justice, blowing down the sky in search of blood. Ah. The chorus goes on. They're calling out the gods, trying to help Orestes to keep back the furies, and they too call out Apollo for his role in all of this quote alas for the deeds you did, boy, alas for the ruin you meet, all because Apollo barked out an oracle from his legendary delphick seat. The chorus continues to sing of Arrestes and of his fate, how tied he is to the gods, how tied his entire family is quote good fortune does not last for men. Some god flips up the sail and blasts the boat against a ruined reef, still we celebrate the house of God born Tantalus. What else could possibly make sense to us? The way this play continues to bemoan the actions of the gods is just so impactful. It says a lot that Euripides was this willing to blame the gods for all of this family's misfortunes, for Orestes's murder of his own mother. The gods here are the enemy more than any other character of the play, and that in itself is just very Euripidean. This willingness to blame the gods outwardly, to vilify them so openly and brazenly, and with these words of the chorus, this explicit blame of Apollo, this pity of Arrestes for all the gods have done to him, and this explicit celebration of Tantalus, a man who is not only the ancestor of this family line, but a son of Zeus, who committed the worst atrocity that Greek mythology can imagine, the killing of his own son, and the attempt to feed him to the gods after they've explicitly said that they are willing to continue to celebrate Tantalus. Then Menelius, another in this cursed line arrestes, his uncle joins the stage. Menelaus, having just walked on stage, doesn't see arrestes yet. First, he speaks of the house that he's arrived in, how happy he is to be there. He might be the king of Sparta, but he got there via his wife. He was first a prince of Argos Mycenee in the Homeric tradition, which shifted to this nearby city of Argos in the works of the Tragedians. This is his home as much as Sparta. He tells us that he's already heard of his brother's death, that he was told the news as he sailed home from Troy. That the sea god and prophet Glaucus is the one who told him of Agamemnon's fate. Menelaus tells us that Glaucus spoke to him directly. Quote Menelaus, he said, your brother lies dead. He's had his last bath at the hands of his wife. Ah. I had to quote that just that bit, because the bath bit alone, that will never not have been the perfect way for a man like Agamemnon to die. A man who ruled over the Greeks during the Trojan War, who oversaw their decimation of Troy their clear victory, only to return home after ten years to his rightfully angry wife and die in the bath. Need I remind you all that my silly book of Greek myth themed cocktails also has one called Agamemnon's bathwater, and that it looks like bloody bathwater and is possibly one of my greatest accomplishments in this life. Still, Metelias doesn't feel like I do. He doesn't like the idea of making a joke of his brother's death, and really neither do arrestes an Electra. They blamed their mother. They didn't see in her what I do. The necessity of Agamemnon's death the way he absolutely deserved it for all his married crimes. Menelais continues telling the audience how he got to land there in Argos, how he landed in Naphlia and sent Helen ahead while he prepared things, How he sent her to Argos to see her sister, only to learn that she too had met her end. Quote. Now tell me where is he Agamemnon's child who had it in him to do this dread thing. Menelais isn't certain that he'll recognize Orestes the boy was only a small child when they all left for Troy, and so much has changed. But he doesn't have long to wait. Orestes is there. He speaks up, immediately announcing himself to his uncle and falling to his knees, clasping his uncle's legs as a suppliant quote, I pray to you save me. You've arrived in the nick of time. Mentelais is surprised this man before him doesn't look like he could possibly be the Prince of Argos, his own nephew. He's dirty and exhausted, he's worn out and tormented. He looks simply an absolute mess. And while they dwell on it for quite a few lines, when Metelais suggests he looks like the dead, Orestes confirms that he might as well be. Metelais tell him he looks a wild animal. Even his eyes look terrible, tormented, And then for all they dwell on how horrible Orestes looks. When he calls himself a quote mother murderer, Menelaus tells him not to dwell on that, to which Orestes says, just quote, some evil spirit is dwelling on me. They go on. Orestes says that his own grief is killing him, and he speaks of his fits of madness, how the furies torment his mind, how they've done so from the moment that he built Clytemnestra's tomb Mentelaius presses him for information on this, trying to tease out what happened. Orestes built his mother's tomb at night, sneaking off with his friend Pylades, who helped in the murder itself. They move on Metelais asks him, quote, what sort of visions plague you, to which Orestes replies, quote, three females who look like night Menelaus know who these females are, just as we do, but like Electra, he won't name them. She went as far as to call them by their good name, the humanities, the name that people dare to speak in place of their true name. Remember, the humanities means the kindly ones. It's the name that people use in place of their true name, the runaways, the furies. That name only brings more curses, more tormenting, and so very few will actually dare to say it. For all there are horrifying monsters of Greek myth, it is the furies that are truly meant to be feared. They are the ones that actually make people pause, make them consider their words and their actions. Menelais asks Orestes, quote, and they are the ones dancing you on to madness. It is this visual of dancing that I can't get over. It's been used multiple times now to describe the furies, and it really conveys like the horror and the beauty that's inherent in them. I love it. The uncle and nephew continue speaking of Orestes and his fate, what he could possibly do to escape this torment of the furies the humanities. He has one idea, he tells Menelaus, who assures him that if his idea is death, that it would be stupid to take that way out. But Orestes says, quote, no, I mean Apollo, who assigned me to kill my mother, to which Menelaus replies simply quote a somewhat inept divinity. And then I say again. The things that Eurippdes is saying about the gods in this play is absolutely mind boggling, and I cannot get over it. I'm obsessed. It's specifically Apollo, too, which is interesting, Like I know it's tied to the oracle of it all, but Apollo is a seriously important god and Eurippdes is just insulting him at every turn. The two continue to discuss what's happened in Argos over these past days. Orestes tells his uncle that it's been six days since he killed his mother that her funeral pirate is still warm. He also explains that inept or not, he's confident that Apollo will come through for him. He might be leaving him behind now, but he will take responsibility in the end. For now, though, Orestes is prevented from finding purification anywhere in the city. He's barred from home. He can't take up the crown that should belong to him as the prince of Argos. He even explains to Menelais that it's more than just the people of Argos who are furious with him, more even than just a Geese. This and his family, his mother's lover, and Menelaus's loathed cousin who's seeking revenge against Orestes. Ajax two, who fought alongside Agamemnon in the war, wants his revenge for the death of a friend during the war. Finally, Orestes reveals to Menelaus that he is awaiting his eventual fate, that the people of Argos will gather today to vote on it. Vote on your exile, Alais asks, but no. Arrestes clarifies they vote on whether they will stone him to death right there and so Arrestes explains to his uncle, quote to you my hopes run, you are my escape. He explains that Menelais holds both his and Electra's fate in his hands, ending with quote, you owe our father. You know that. Don't be one of those friends in name only. But Mentelaius doesn't have a chance to respond to this plea. The chorus interrupts the two to tell them that someone is approaching them. It's Tyndarius, the man who gave his kingdom of Sparta to Mentelais upon his marriage to Helen, the father of both her and the recently murdered Clytemnestra, This grandfather of Arrestes, this mother killer. The chorus points him out as he comes towards them, quote, he's dressed in black in more for his daughter. Oh, nerds, nerds, nerds, can europees do wrong? I simply do not think it's possible. He was amazing, he was brilliant. I want to be his best friend. I want to ask him a million questions. I want to know everything that was going through his mind when he wrote his plays. I simply cannot tell you all how much I think about Eurippines and how and why he wrote what he wrote, Like, this play is just so interesting, It's so weird. Arrestes is so bizarre and fascinating and broken, and God's love it. I also have some fascinating and silly insights to share with you. So we're not done yet, let alone the fact that we're only a third way through this play. But for now, the shorter quotes I've referenced from this play, those that are just like a few lines and sound more modern and accessible, those are all the wondrous work of Anne Carson, whose translations of Euripides are just They're just so fucking good. But the longer bits, though, basically just Electra's opening monologue that I read, those are an older, out of copyright translation by Coleridge. Everything is listed in linked in the episode description though. But fortunately for us, Carson also gives us some really great insights into in her introduction to this play, and I just want to talk about some of it. First. She has this brilliant thing to say about how we see Arrestes, both as readers and viewers audience of this play. Quote. To see Arrestes flounder about in decisions and actions as the story proceeds is like watching someone twitch in his sleep and let out the occasional scream. He is present, but opaque to us, driven by a dream of his own life that is nightmarishly clear to him on the inside, but which he never communicates to us. We see flashes of his reasoning, lit up by this or that crisis, but we get no sense of the plan of his mind. Oh yes, so interesting Carson's insight into Arrestes as a character, and like what exactly Eurippdes wanted to do with his play, It's absolutely fascinating. She points out that in order for the play to be a quote unquote legitimate tragedy, Euipes had to ensure that he stuck to the myth itself that Orestes kills his mother and in the same breath. He also had to keep to the three actor rule of Greek tragedy, that is, there are only ever three speaking actors on stage at any given time, and in fact, only three speaking actors total. Aside from the chorus, They swap around, roles, they trade, they play multiple parts, but only three can be on the stage at any given time. And she says quote, Yet we sense in all of euripdess playwriting a mind out of patience with this straight jacket of fixed truths and predictable procedures. He has revolutionary instincts. He wants to shatter and shock. He goes about it subversively. You just know, I'm here for anyone who wants to talk about how unique Euripides was in this way. But this is generally just interesting within itself, and I think it says a lot about this particular play, like it is both very traditional myth covered by all three tragedians and who knows how many other lost tragedians too, but Euripides makes it seriously unique still and seriously Euripides. It is also the last play that he performed at in Athens during his lifetime, and I think that says something too, And we'll talk about that more next week. But for a bit of fun, history also gives us just this hilarious anecdote when it comes to this play. So, according to Scolia, of this play, that is like ancient writers talking about the play in its historical context. Like back then, there was one very memorable performance of the Orestes, not for anything that Euripides wrote, though it was brilliant, of course, but instead for a line that was misspoken by the actor that was playing Arrestes. It's a line that I quoted to you already, which is why I'm telling you this now. Carson's translation is quote, now again I see calm water, the storm sinks away. It's when Orestes is coming back to himself, the scolia which I've linked to in the episode. The description translates it more simply as quote, after the storm, I see again a calm sea. But see the ancient Greek word that's used here to describe the calmness of the sea has the same spelling, but different accents and therefore different pronunciation of a different ancient Greek word. So this actor, at this one performance, his name was Hegelicus, he used the wrong word in his performance as Arrestes, and in using the wrong pronunciation rather or like it's you know, they look the same on the page, but they're two different words pronounced two different ways. And so in using the wrong one instead of saying I see again a calm sea. He accidentally said, I see again a weasel. A weasel. It's funnier anyway. This is why we love the ancient world, because someone thought that this was such a travesty, like this actor had so ruined this Euripitian line that they wrote it down for us to know today, the actor that accidentally saw a weasel instead of a calm sea. I love the ancient world so much. And with that, let's leave it with the five star review from one of you lovely listeners, as always, because they make my fucking day. This one's a little long, but I tried to cut it, but it was too fun, so we're reading it all. It comes from a user called Daniel Luke Murphy from the States. My favorite podcast. I've been exploring the ancient world for several years now, reading and listening to just about everything I can find. This podcast is really stuck with me, I think because live shares my same enthusiasm and endless fascination with all things ancient Greek. I appreciate her humor and her willingness to bring in guests to explore topics more in depth. The podcast features some series on special topics that allow her to get into some serious detail. I especially appreciate these because they're always entertaining and I learn new facts and new perspectives. A recent series didn't go as she expected dude particularly problematic peace by of ancient literature, but lived in back down and instead turned it into one of her best episodes yet, steering right into the controversy and an amazing conversation episode with Julie Leavy. Oh and since I'm apparently writing a long review, I'll just add that her opinions are spot on. Great. Mythology just is more interesting than Roman, and Kadmas and Harmonia are the most fascinating mythological characters you've never heard of. Thank you. I appreciate all of that. I particularly appreciate the kind words about my thesmaphore Zusai episodes like I really appreciate it. And also Kadmas and Harmonia are the best. Odds. Let's talk about Miss Baby has written and produced by me live Albert MICHAELA. Smith is the hermes to my Olympians, and she handles so many podcasts related things. God's just everything, YouTube and promotional stuff and research and videos and I don't know everything. She's the best. Stephanie Folly works to transcribe the podcast for YouTube captions and accessibility. The podcast is hosted and monetized by iHeartMedia. Help me continue bringing you the world of Greek mythology and the Engipe Mediterranean. By becoming a patron, will get access to bonus episodes and more. Visit patreon dot com slash MIT's Baby, or click the link in this episode's description. I am live and I love your rippities so much. Also just generally love this shit.