Ἱκέτιδες
Suppliant Women
Euripides · first staged c. 423 BC
The Seven who marched on Thebes lie unburied. Their mothers come to Eleusis to beg Theseus to recover the bodies, and Athens goes to war to win them back.
Persons, in order of appearance
- Αι.Aethra
- Χο.Chorus
- Θη.Theseus
- Αδ.Adrastus
- ΚηHerald
- Αγ.Messenger
- Ευ.Evadne
- Ιφ.Iphis
- Πα.Children
- Αθ.Athena
Translations
- E. P. Coleridgeprose · 1891 · aligned by line · with Murray's Greek
- A. S. Wayverse · 1912 · aligned by speech · with Murray's Greek
Greek texts
Cite as Eur. Supp. 1–1234
Full synopsis (tells the ending)
The Seven who marched against Thebes lie dead outside its walls, and Thebes will not give up the bodies. Their mothers come to Eleusis as suppliants, with Adrastus, the king of Argos who led the failed expedition, and ask Theseus to make Thebes yield the dead. Theseus refuses, then listens to his mother Aethra and changes his mind. A Theban herald warns Athens off; Theseus marches, wins, and brings the bodies back for burial. Evadne, wife of one of the Seven, throws herself onto her husband's pyre. Athena binds Argos to Athens by oath.
Drawing: Line drawing after the 1847 plate of a red-figure calyx-krater (Gerhard, Auserlesene griechische Vasenbilder III, Taf. CLVIII); cut out and retraced.