Odysseus: “No, there is not a particle of truth in the story he tells, now that he has been caught selling thy property behind thy back.”
Silenus: “I? Perdition catch thee!”
~ ‘The Cyclops’ by Euripides (Edward P. Coleridge translation. GB5 - p. 442)
This is the last of Euripides’ plays in the “Great Books” series. I feel like I want to read more plays from Euripides, but it also feels fulfilling to have finished reading all of them. The feeling is similar to having watched a season of a long TV series like Fringe, BSG, etc. As an aside, I wonder why TV series now have just 7 or 8 episodes. Why not 20+ episodes? The experience of watching something over a few months or a year is different from that of watching something over a few weeks or just binge-watching over a weekend.
I’m glad that the last play was a story from The Odyssey. Great timing! Last month, a movie named “The Return” came out with Ralph Fiennes as Odysseus. Then I heard that Christopher Nolan’s next film is going to be based on “The Odyssey”. Looks like there is a renewed interest in the Classics, especially Homer. When I started reading the Great Books series, it was more of a personal knowledge quest on the side, acknowledging that it is something that most people may not be interested in. So, I didn’t even tell most people around me that I was doing this. But now it seems like I’m reading something that a lot of people are interested in, or that I’m part of a broader cultural movement where people are actively seeking out classical literature. Like a person walking alone but finding themselves in a rally. Well, it could be a ‘frequency illusion’ where one notices something more frequently after one discovers it. Say you buy a jacket thinking that it is unique and then find many others wearing similar ones! Either way, it is a great feeling. The journey must continue.