Euripides, Troades 95-7

Abstract

With this reflection on mortal folly Poseidon concludes the divine prologue of Euripides' Troades. This text was printed by Murray with the addition of a comma at the end of line 95, but Diggle accepts Page's emendation I shall argue that the manuscript reading gives perfect sense and that, since it is good Greek, there is no need for emendation. D. Kovacs has pointed out that these lines make no mention of desecration, for to bring temples into desolation () is quite different from desecrating them. Further, since it is regularly assumed in Greek thought that cities can be sacked without sacrilege, the folly on which Poseidon comments does not consist in a victor's incurring divine punishment simply by the act of sacking a city. I agree with Kovacs on these points and believe that his argument refutes the widely held view that in these lines Euripides is condemning on moral or religious grounds the sacking of cities in general.