ΔΗΘΕΜΑ - ΗΡΑΚΛΕΙΔΑΙ

4 9 Ο B . C . - 2 Ο1 Ο A. D.

25OOth ANNIVERSARY OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON

T he H era cleidae The cleid ae

By E ur uriippii des de s

M U N I C I P A L

T H E A T R E

O F

M A R A T H O N

Marathon warrior Funerary stele of Aristion in Athens.

Epigram by Simonides of Keos for the victory of the Athenians at Marathon

ATHENIANS BY FIRST BATTLING FOR THE GREEKS AT MARATHON HUMILIATED THE POWER O THE GOLD-BE ARING MEDS

2,5OO YEARS FROMTHE BATLE OF M A R ATHON

T H E T O M B OF THE ATHENIANS It is a hill 50 m. in diameter and 9 m. high, covering the 192 Athenians that died fighting against the Persians in September 490 B.C.

HIS TORY OF T HE MUN ICI PAL THEATRE OF MARATHON Vasilis Tsaglos created the core of the MTM in 1989.

He taught, directed, and laid the foundation for the group’s incorporation. He has supported its every theatrical endeavor. In fact, the open theatre of the MTM bears his name. From 1989 until now, the MTM has publicly performed the following works:

MUNICIPAL THEATRE OF MARATHON ADULT

PRESIDENT Athanasios Zervas

TROUPE (1990-2009)

Courtyard of miracles by Iakovos Kampanellis; directed by Vasilis Tsaglos.

House of aging by Manolis Korres; directed by Vasilis Tsaglos.

The holy apostles by Max Mills; directed by Vasilis Tsaglos.

The Festival by Dimitris Kechaidis; directed by Vasilis Tsaglos.

VICE PRESIDENT

Women through the centuries, a performance directed by Penelope Avouri.

Prometheus bound by Aeschylus, directed by Rori Anastasiou.

Evangelia Dimeli

In the monastery of Osios Loukas, a performance based on the poem of Angelos Sikelianos; directed by Eleni Erimou.

MEMBERS

A night of poetry set to music, based on the poetry of Nikos Kavvadias; directed by Pericles Karakonstantoglou.

Katerina Kalemi Panayota Dendrolivana Stamatia Mylona Krina Perivolopoulou Shophia Volanaki Angellos Lenas Dimitra Chalkiopoulou

Andromache by Euripides; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

Fruitopia by Eugenios Trivizas; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

The paper birds, in poetry by Tassos Leivaditis, music by Giorgos Tsagaris; directed by Nikos Gesoulis..

A fairytale born of fairytales in a text by Maria Rousi; directed by Nikos Gesoulis..

The good soul of Szechwan, by Bertolt Brecht; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

The Resurgents, written by the theatre troupe in the theatrical writing seminar with advisor Stratis Panourios.

The spirit of contradiction by Carlo Goldoni; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

SECRETARY Vana Kampeli

The human voice by Jean Cocteau and The Jewish wife by Bertolt Brecht; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

The word progress on my mother’s lips doesn’t ring true by Matei Visniec; directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

La nona (Grandma) by Roberto Cossa: directed by Nikos Gesoulis.

CHILDREN’S AND ADOLESCENT TROUPE Iphigenia in Aulis by Euripides; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

The buffoon by Rori Anastasiou; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

Irene the sleeping beauty by Rori Anastasiou; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

Tzitziri’s dreams by Giorgos Armenis; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

The Caucasian chalk circle based on the text by Bertolt Brecht; directed

by Mirka Kalatzopoulou.

Stone soup by Rori Anastasiou; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

The clouds by Aristophanes; directed by Rori Anastasiou.

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THE HERACLEIDAE

By Euripid es

The play will be performed in the municipalities participating in the intermunicipal festival of Towns in Attica, as well as during the festivities organised by the municipality of Marathon in celebration of the 2500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon.

PROGRAMME S P O N S O R

The mountains are looking at Marathon, and Marathon looks at the sea.

Alone for a while with my thoughts there, I dreamed of a free Greece.

For I was standing at the Persians tomb and I considered myself slave no more.

Lord Byron

There are places of exquisite natural beauty and rich history and other places that signal the return to the essence of things. The city of Marathon belongs to these magical grounds of memory and cogitation.

Here, in the land of Marathon, 2500 years ago, the majesty of the Athenian Republic was founded along with ethical teachings of a great era.

The name of our city, for millions of people, is synonymous to an Olympic sport.

For all those, however, who really comprehend and appreciate Greek classical education and European civilization, the Battle of Marathon is not solely historical reference to a s ignificant event of the past. It is rather the continuous call to fight for the preservation of Freedom and democracy.

I am grateful that our Municipal theatre, in participating to the celebration of the 2500 year anniversary since the Battle of Marathon, chose o present to us a production of Heraclides

by Euripides.

The play describes the origins of worshiping Hercules and its set is the field of Marathon, where a young Makaria, with an insurmountable courage, sacrifices herself in order to save all those things she adores: family and freedom.

Her dedication to moral order is a message so universal that it applies even today, especially in this time of crisis we all live in.

I wish to congratulate all those contributing to the production of this play, and to invite you all to a pilgrimage at the holy land of Marathon.

Spyros Zagaris Mayor of Marathon

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Marathon!

Here the myth was lost in history, and the history lost in legend.

Here were defended ideals such as Morality, Honour, Democracy.

Not for the Greek land alone, but for all of Europe, and beyond.

Here each year human beings begin a test of their physical limits.

Here Euripides chose to unfold the tragedy of the Heracleidae.

In a moment, friends, the Municipal Theatre of Marathon will bring this work to life again before our eyes, 2500 years later.

As spectators, we are unabashed lovers of the theatre’s magic.

We are taught, we are filled with enthusiasm or melancholy, we take part or we are troubled.

Our sincere thanks are due to the members of the theatrical team who continue the dreamlike journey faithfully and through sacrifice.

We are in their debt.

Athanasios Zervas President of the Municipal Theatre of Marathon

The seventh labor of Heracles: The bull of Knossos.

Heracles brought it on his shoulders; however Eurystheus let him free in Mycenae.

Wherever it went it brought destruction.

Heracles pursued the bull and caught it again in Marathon.

Here Heracles is trying to tame the bull. The goddess Athena is watching.

(Black-figured Attic amphora, 510-500 B.C., Louvre).

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THE HERACLEIDAE B y E ur i pi d e s Translation Kostas Topouzis Direction Nikos Gesoulis Set and Costume design Ioulia Stavridi Choreography Natalia Stylianou Video Vasilis Douros Lighting Theodoros Kalpakidis Thomas Kalpakidis Assistant director Ersi Chronopoulou Musicians: Simone Mongeli: dauli, bendir, stamna, seistrum Marina Lagoudaki: Cretan lyre, vocals Nikos Paraoulakis: nei Ourania Lambropoulou: Greek sandouri Maria Ploumi: laouto Yannis Pseimadas: Musical composition -orchestration, dilruba, udu, synth, soundscapes, vocals Recording: studio ‘Livelloula’ May - June 2O1O.

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Cast in order of appearance I ola o s: H e ra ld: D emoph o n: M a ka r ia: Se r va n t: A l cmen e: Eu r yst h eu s:

Labros Panopoulos Georgios Lepouris Dimitrios Pappas Angeliki Rerra Orestis Zakynthinos Sotiria Tseliou-Pappa Georgios Lepouris

Chorus (In alphabetical order) Katerina Beka, Efpraxia Beltova, Vasilis Geramanis, Pigi Kephala, Nona Kontothodora, Margarita Patelou, Stelios Sakalakis, Iro Silamianou, Chaido Spanopoulou, Ioanna Spyropoulou.

And the children: Dimitris Alexakis, Alexandros Spanopoulos, Angeliki Andritsaki, Georgia Voulgarina Set built by : Tailoring : Production and digital imaging of the programme /poster: Portrait Sketches: Translation into English:

Georgios Pheretos, Thomas Marias, Antonis Larios Katerina Tsakota Vera Tzoumelea Dimitra Chalkiopoulou Sotiria Tseliou – Pappa

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EURIPIDES: -THE ÇERACLEIDAE One of the three great tragedians of Greece, Euripides, was born in 485 B.C. on Salamis.

His family’s high social status and comfortable economic situation contributed to his intellectual cultivation. Contact with important intellectuals of his time influenced the development of his personality and his occupation with tragic poetry. Euripides followed political events closely but did not take up political office.

Euripides’ work first appeared in the theatre in 455 B.C., and he was first awarded for his drama in 441. He spent many years in the court of Archelaos, king of Macedonia. The poet died in Pella of Macedonia in 406 B.C., and was buried there. A memorial cenotaph was erected in Athens.

Euripides composed ninety-two dramas, of which eighteen tragedies have been preserved.

Among these is the Heracleidae, which was composed and staged in Athens in 417 B.C. during a period of crisis for the entire Greek world as the two great powers of Greece, Athens and Sparta, had been engaged in the civil conflict since 431B.C , known to history as the Peloponnesian war. This civil war divided the Greeks and lasted twenty-seven years (431– 404 B.C.), with several truces.

In the tragedy of the Heracleidae, Euripides unfolds all of his genius to combine Greek mythology and significant events in Greek history in a unique fashion.

Heracles’ daughter Makaria takes pride of place in the Heracleidae. Through her voluntary sacrifice, she is held up as a universal symbol. Pausanias writes: In Marathon there is a spring which is called Makaria, of which the following is said: When Heracles fled from Tiryns, far from Eurystheus, he took up residence with his friend Ceyx, king of Trachina. Once Heracles had left from among the people, Eurystheus was searching for his children (to murder them), but the king of Trachina sent the children to Athens, invoking not only his own weakness but also the power of Theseus to help them. The children’s arrival as suppliants provoked the first Peloponnesian war with the Athenians, because the king of Athens did not hand the children over to Eurystheus, who demanded them. Then the Athenians received an oracle stating that one of Heracles’ children must be willingly sacrificed; otherwise the Athenians would not be victorious. It was then that Makaria, the daughter of Heracles and Deianeira, chose her own death, thus granting victory to the Athenians and giving her name to the spring.

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The sacrifice of Makaria

It is worth mentioning that, according to historical sources, the residents of Marathon were the first to worship Heracles as a god. Again, Pausanias writes: The Marathonians are said to be the first among the Greeks to think of Heracles as a god.

Herodotus, too, one of the great ancient Greek historiographers, in his work Erato: Book VI, mentions that at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians who were waiting for the Plataeans’ help to arrive, could be found in the sanctuary of Heracles: So the Plataeans came to the aid of the Athenians, who were lined up in Heracles’ sanctuary.

Finally, when the battle of Marathon ended in glorious victory for the Athenians over the Persians, the Athenians needed to reach their city ahead of the enemy. Here again the sanctuary built in honor of Heracles is mentioned: The Athenians, as swiftly as they could, ran to their city and succeeded in arriving there ahead of the barbarians. They began from the sanctuary of Heracles in Marathon and arrived in Athens at another Heracleion in Cynosarges.

Ersi Chronopoulou

Member of the municipal theatre of Marathon.

Philologist.

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ΕURIPIDES - POET OF TRANCENDENCE For three reasons, Iolaos [says Demophon], I am obligated not to cast your friends out into calamity: First, Zeus, upon whose altar you plead for them; Next comes the kinship and the debt to their father which I must repay.

And the third is dishonour. And this is the first ….

..............................................................................

There are two types of tragedy: The tragedy of destiny and the tragedy of passion.

• In a tragedy of destiny, the gods decide.

Take, for example, Sophocles’ Oedipus Rex. The hero has done no wrong.

He suffers, but he cannot escape his fate.

Fate transcends everything else.

• In a tragedy of passion there is the reasoning of the gods and the reasoning of humankind.

Often, the reasoning of the gods is provoked by mortals themselves, as in Euripides’ The Bacchae or Medeia.

In Euripides, the struggle unfolds within the person.

The gods set the laws, but human beings carry within themselves the potential to both provoke the tragic and to transcend it.

For Euripides, human choice is just as powerful as the law of the gods.

This personal choice contains the potential to spark transcendence.

The Heracleidae falls into this second category of tragedy. Following the death of Heracles, his militarily powerful enemy Eurystheus (king of Argos - Sparta) tries to coerce Demophon (Theseus’ son, king of Athens) with war, demanding that Demophon hand over Heracles’ children. Demophon refuses. He chooses to grant asylum to a group of political refugees (as we would call them today), defying the powers of the time. Those powers attack.

The first Peloponnesian war has just begun (430 B.C.).

Euripides was fifty years old. Nearly all of his works were written during this war.

One man, aged fifty to sixty, re-examines things and re-examines himself.

Everything that he depicts or endorses is done with the blood of his heart.

The most important reason I will not cast out your friends, says Euripides through Demophon, is dishonor. This comes before kinship and even before the laws of the worship of Zeus.

The same creed is expressed by the chorus. They exhort the king to grant asylum to the fugitives, knowing that this means war, death, catastrophe, plague… yet they conscientiously support the truth.

And this is popular justice.

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Justice is an innate moral law, says Euripides in the Heracleidae.

Eros is an all-powerful natural law, stronger even than the maternal instinct, he asserts in Medeia.

Powerfully seething under and behind all of these are the primordial instincts, humanity’s primeval animal nature, stronger even than human existence, writes Euripides in the Bacchae.

- Here we have the beginning of psychoanalysis.

Euripides is preoccupied with the person and the conflict of laws, conflict of instincts, within him. The gods exist (he cannot dispense with them) but it is not they who determine fate. Moreover, ‘fate’ is the concern of all, each person’s lot. For Euripides the human being, through his individual conflicts and actions, determines what his own lot will be, defining the provocation of tragedy or its resolution…

- The beginning of individual sovereignty.

Euripides was called an atheist, a heretic, and a blasphemer. He was the poet of doubt.

They say that there are gods in the heavens. They do not exist. They do not exist.. says Euripides in the voice of Bellerophon, in the lost tragedy that bears his name.

Nevertheless Euripides lives through horrors of the Peloponnesian war, which lasted thirty years. The city as a whole and the people, each individually, survive a lengthy internal as well as external ordeal.

• The countryside and the crops are destroyed. Thousands of farmers seek refuge within city walls inadequate for their numbers.

• Leaders behave capriciously.

• Protests and complaints are met with persecution and punishment.

• The hemorrhages of war and continuous crisis lead to frustration.

Amid this political and economic decline, Euripides asserts that tragedy is created by individual responsibilities and choices.

Tragedy has a name. It does not originate vaguely with the gods.

Humanity both creates and transcends the tragic.

And when tragedy has already come, humanity has nothing else to appeal to: either than the end of the self, or transcendence beyond the tragedy.

Vera Tzoumelea

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[Caption:] In his attempt to eliminate Heracles, Eurystheus sent him to fetch—alive—the terrible guard of Hades, the three-headed Kerberos.

Once he had been cleansed by Eumolpos and taken part in the Eleusinian mysteries, Heracles descended into Hades.

He presented himself to Pluto and requested permission to take Kerberos prisoner, without dying himself.

Pluto granted his request, but stipulated that Heracles use no weapons.

Heracles indeed captured the beast of the underworld, and at the sight of it Eurystheus panicked and took refuge in a jar.

(Urn, ca. 520–500 B.C., Louvre.)

CHRONOLOGY OF THE ATHENIAN DRAMA AND OF THE WORK OF EURIPIDES 536-533

The Great or City Dionysia. an ancient Ionic festival, is reorganised by the tyrant Peisistratus. The festival was held from the 10th to the 15th of the month Elaphebolion (March-April) in honour of Dionysus Eleuthereus. Peisistratus includes performances of tragedy in the official programme.

The first tragedian known to have presented his work at the Great Dionysia is Thespis (surviving ti tles of his works: The Contests o/Pelias, The Priests, The Young Men, Pentheus).

510-500 525/4

Official records of the victors in the drama contests are first kept in the last decade of the sixth century.

Birth of Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, at Eleusis. Throughout his life he wrote approximately ninety works, of which only seven have survived; the earliest is the Prometheus Bound, whose date is not known.

523-520

First appearance of the tragic poet Choerilus whose works have not survived.

515

The satyr play is reformed by the poet Pratinas whose works also have not survived

511-508

Phrynichus wins his first victory at the Great Dionysia (the surviving titles of lost plays by Phyrnichus include Aegyptii, Danaides, Alcestis, Pleuroniae, The Fall of Miletus and Phoenissae).

499-496

Aeschylus competes against Pratinas and Choerilus.

497/6

Birth of Sophocles son of Sophillus. (He wrote some 130 dramas, of which seven tragedies and a large part of the satyr play Ichneutae have survived. The surviving plays, which are not dated, include the late Electra.)

486/5

Comedy becomes part of the events at the Great Dionysia. The first writer of comedy to win the prize is Chionides (whose works have not survived).

485/4

Birth of Euripides son of Mnesarchus. at Salamis. He wrote approximately ninety plays, of which sixteen tragedies, the disputed Rhesus, the satyr play Cyclops, and Alcestis (a tragedy presented in the place of a satyr play), have survived.

484/3

Aeschylus wins his first victory, to be followed by 12 more.

483/2

In the year when Themistocles is eponymous archon, Phrynichus stages his Fall of Miletus, inspired by the destruction of that Ionian city by the Persians. The Athenians fine him heavily lor having re minded them of an evil moment in their history.

476/5

Phrynichus is victorious with the historical tragedy Phoenissae, on the subject of the Greek victory over the Persians at Salamis (Themistocles is the sponsor).

472/1

Victory for Aeschylus, with the historical tragedy The Persians, also inspired by the battle of Salamis.

470/69

Aeschylus stays as a guest at the court of Hieron is Syracuse, Sicily, where he writes and presents the lost work Aetnae.

468/7

Aeschylus returns to Athens. • Sophocles wins his first victory, with plays that have not survived; Aeschylus comes second. Sophocles was victorious on 17 other occasions at the Great Dionysia and six times at the Lenaea. He was never placed third.

467/6

Aeschylus wins the prize with the Theban trilogy (Laius, Oedipus and Seven Against Tbebes, of which only the third has survived).

463/2 the

Victory for Aeschylus with the Danaid trilogy (The Suppliants, Aegyptii. Danaids. of which only first has survived).

460-450

The Ajax of Sophocles seems to have been written during this decade.

458/7

Aeschylus wins first prize with The Oresteia (Agamemnon, The Choephorae, The Eumenides).

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456/5

Death of Aeschylus at Gela in Sicily.

455/4

First appearance of Euripides at the Great Dionysia (with the lost work Peliadae).

449/8

Introduction of a prize for actors at the Great Dionysia.

455

Birth of the comic poet Aristophanes in Athens.

443/2

Sophocles is elected treasurer of the Confederacy of Delos.

442/1

Introduction of a comedy contest at the Lenaea, an ancient Ionian festival in honour of Dionysus.

441/0

First victory of Euripides, to be followed by three more and a posthumous prize for the works he left at the time of his death. Sophocles is elected general and takes part in the Samian War.

438/7

The Alcestis of Euripides. The Trachiniae of Sophocles is assigned a date after 438..

432/1

Tragedy becomes part of the events of the Lenaea. The competitors present two tragedies each, without a satyr play.

431/0

Euripides wins third prize with the Medea and the lost plays Philoctetes and Diktys. First prize goes to Euphorion, son of Aeschylus, and second to Sophocles.

430-420

The Heraclidae, Hecuba and Andromache of Euripides.

430-425

The Oedipus Rex of Sophocles.

428/7

Euripides wins first prize with the Hippolytus Crowned (a lost work which was the poet's first tragedy on the subject had received a poor reception from the audience).

424-421

The Suppliants of Euripides.

422/1

Sophocles wins the prize with the Antigone.

422-415

The Heracles of Euripides.

420/19

Sophocles is involved in the introduction of the cult of Asclepius into Athens.

416/5

Euripides writes a hymn to commemorate the victory of Alcibiades in the chariot race at the Olympic Games.

415/4

The Trojan Women of Euripides (with the lost plays Alexander and Palamedes).

413/2

The Electra (?) of Euripides. • Sophocles is elected to the Committee of Ten.

412/1

The Helen, Iphigenia in Tauris (?) and Ion (?) of Euripides.

411-409

The Phoenissae (?) of Euripides, with the lost works Oenomaus and Chrysippus.

409/8 408/7

The Philoctetes of Sophocles.

The Orestes of Euripides. Euripides leaves for Macedonia and settles at Pella as the guest of king Archelaus. There he writes his last works: the lost Archelaus and Alcmeon in Corinth, and the surviving Iphigenia at Aulis and The Bacchae.

406/5

Death of Euripides, at Pella. • Sophocles, to honour him, appears in funerary garments and without a wreath at the preliminary events during the Great Dionysia of that year.

405/4

Death of Sophocles. After his death, he is honoured with a cult as a hero ‘of the right spirit'.

The Iphigenia at Aulis, the Bacchae and the lost Alcmeon in Corinth are presented at the Great Dionysia by Euripides' nephew (also named Euripides) and win first prize.

401/0

Posthumous presentation of the Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles by his grandson (also Sophocles).

THE TROPHY OF THE BATTLE OF MARATHON 15

our theatre team This is neither our troupe’s nor our director’s first attempt at ancient Greek tragedy (Andromache 2004), that highest expression of ancient, free Athenian society which thousands of viewers—not just Athenians—watched from their seats on the rocky slopes of the Acropolis before the marble theatres were built.

For the performance of the ancient tragedies was not simply entertainment; it was teaching. It was a school for the edification of the spirit of the Athenian citizen, and, in his wake, for all of humanity.

The attraction is at once tantalizing and challenging; it is a sweet trial.

For how can one be measured against perfection in a competition of words where each one supports their position with unshakable arguments, justifying their actions so convincingly?

This is Euripides, the youngest of the three great tragic poets of the ancient era, who in the verse of our ancient language reveals to us the timeless problems of eternal humankind, and by means of his words immerses our gaze in the depths of the human soul.

Nevertheless, with every good intention and a great deal of care and hesitation, we march into difficult chapters, studiously following the seeking teacher who bewilders us with his instructions, in small doses and without overwhelming side-effects, until we emerge into the dim light which begs to benurtured that it might fully enlighten us.

We have been captivated and awed by this tragedy, one of the few of Euripides’ works to survive (only eighteen of his ninety-two are preserved), by that ancient achievement of the human spirit which Athens fostered during a period of genuine Democracy and particular historic circumstances.

It is our hope that we can share these emotions with you.

‘SIMPLE IS THE WORD OF TRUTH.’ Euripides On behalf of the troupe, Sotiria Tseliou-Pappa

The Ephebe of Marathon 340-320 B.C A bronze statue of a youth.

Height 1.30 m School of Praxiteles National archαeological Museum of Athens Replica of the statue: Archαeological Museum of Marathon 16