The Greek Plays Quotes

“And they say to us that we're never at risk,
sheltered at home, while they fight with spears.
How wrong they are: I'd rather three times over
stand behind a shield than give birth once.”
― James Romm, The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes

“Old age that's quick to learn is always young.”
― Aeschylus, The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripedes

“a filthy liar, an enemy to justice, a lawless monster, who turns everything upside-down and back again, with his double tongue, transforming friends to enemies and back.”
― Mary Lefkowitz, The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

“But I pray that civil strife with its endless greed for evil never takes a loud stand in this city. 980 May the dust never guzzle the citizens’ black blood. May lust for revenge never seize in its arms disaster for the city of murdering back and forth. May the people trade joy for joy in concord, in communion, and hate with one spirit— which is good against all sorts of human ailments.”
― Mary R. Lefkowitz, The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides

“CHORUS: Many are the wonders, the terrors,*28 and none is more wonderful, more terrible than man. He makes his way, this prodigy, over the dim gray sea, riding the blast of the south wind, the swells of the deep cleaving before him; he wears away the Earth, mightiest of gods, imperishable, unwearied— his plows turn her over and over, year 340 after year his mules plod on and on. antistrophe 1 And he has cast his nets about the race of lighthearted birds and the tribes of wild beasts and the swarms bred in the depths of the sea— gathers them all in his woven coils, over-clever man! And his inventions master the beast of field 350 and crag—the shaggy-maned horse and weariless mountain bull bow beneath his yoke. strophe 2 And now he’s taught himself language and thought swift as the wind, and how to live in cities, shunning exposure on the open hills, the rain spearing down from heaven; he’s ready 360 for anything—nothing finds him unready. Death alone he will not escape. And yet he has contrived ways to defeat intractable disease. antistrophe 2 With his ingenious art, clever beyond hope, he presses on now to evil, now to good. Allowing the laws of the land and the sworn justice of the gods their place in the scheme 370 of things, he is high in his city. But he whose daring moves him to evil has no city at all. May he never share my hearth, never share my thoughts, a man who acts this way!”
― Mary Lefkowitz, The Greek Plays: Sixteen Plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides