Abstract

The speculation that ancient and modern authors and scholars have made over the millennia about Euripides’ preference for female themes seems inexhaustible. Through this motif, the poet accompanied the evolution of Greek society and culture, symbolically transforming heroines of the past, configured by myth, into women subject to other historical contingencies and social criteria in use in Athenian 5th century BC. Of the many approaches to the subject, our reflection will focus on one particular perspective: female vulnerability in the face of harassment, the domestic, social or even political repercussions of an unwanted rape, family and social rejection, and the punishment meted out directly to the protagonist of the episode, condemned to exile or death; as well as, indirectly, the cruelty that targets an innocent child, whose future seems annihilated by the tensions reflected on him. There is no doubt that these issues reflected the concerns that were prevalent in Euripides’ universe, in the name of defending the dignity of families and preserving heritage.