Monday, April 3, 2017

Euripides Hippolytus 24–28

|24 When he [= Hippolytus] went, once upon a time, from the palace of Pittheus [in Trozen] |25 [to the territory of Athens] for the vision and rituals [telos plural] of the revered Mysteries [mustērion plural], |26 to the land of Pandion [= to the territory of Athens], then it was that the noble wife of the father [of Hippolytus] |27 saw him, yes, Phaedra saw him, and she was possessed in her heart |28 by a passionate love [erōs] that was terrifying—all because of the plans I planned.
Euripides Hippolytus 24–28


The key word is telos. In H24H, Prof Nagy defines telos as "end, ending, final moment; goal, completion, fulfillment; coming full circle, rounding out; successfully passing through an ordeal; initiation; ritual, rite."
The key word is agōn. In the Core Vocabulary, Prof. Nagy gives three basic definitions: "(1) ‘coming together’, (2) ‘competition’ or antagonism, and (3) ‘ordeal’ or agony."