Euripides literature does not reflect outer side of the war, the glitter of swords and loud sounds of victory, but the truth about it; the pain of those who suffers from war clashes more than others through all the history - women and children. This theme in one form or another is described in many works of Euripides, including those which are known to us only in fragments. In "Hecuba" author depicts a heavy destiny of Trojan female prisoners, who were captured and sent to the Greece. Euripides sees in war mostly tragic sides and senses. He gives a clear perspective – war is not a glory, it is a tragedy, which provokes more cruelty by itself.
Tragedy "Hecuba" is riddled with anti-war ideas and thoughts. Euripides depicted in it the horrors of war, the death and suffering of innocent people. He described mothers losing their children in very vivid manner. Tragedian and humane attitude to people, including people of other nationalities are shown in the tragedy. The author portrays Trojan women with great sympathy, although for Greeks they were people of the barbarous country. In the tragedy "Trojan Women" he depicted immense suffering of Trojan prisoners, especially women from the Priam family. Euripides not only sympathizes to the suffering of Trojan women, but also shows the greatness of their spirit, for example, in “Hekuba” Polyxena prefers to die rather than to live in slavery. The author wants to tell viewers and readers that human life is very hard and injustice, violence, power, gold reign everywhere. In his criticism Euripides is much stronger than in positive conclusions. In the tragedies of Euripides mercilessly expose the defects of the existing order of things, but he does not give answers how to change them. Unlike most of the writers of that time Euripides is inclined to pessimism. Usually in Greek poetry Trojan War is worshiped, but Euripides had the civic courage to say that this war was not fair and that it has brought untold misery and suffering. He boldly declared that in this war, as in other wars, the winners are often inhumane in their attitude to the vanquished.
Aristophanes inherited all comic techniques embodied in the culture of folk humor, carnivals, festivals in Great Dionysius day. He used all this in his Acharnians and Lysistrata to show the main trait of all wars – its ridiculous character. Aristophanes sees tragedy of wars but uses sarcasm and jokes to emphasize how stupid people are to have wars in their lands. Aristophanes addresses simple people because he sees them as a clue to world peace. He believes in human nature and common sense but at the same time he understands that people will pay attention to his ideas only if he entertains them enough. People according to Aristophanes are tired from being lectured in classic tragic way, used by Euripides. The role of women in Aristophanes works of literature differs from Euripides’s. Aristophanes shows women not only like victims, but like rightful members of the society who can influence current political and war issues. Aristophanes in his works shows much more hope for future and asks people to laugh at themselves in order to reveal sins and hatred in hearts and destroy them.
Both treatments of the war issues are needed, they cannot exist without one another. Satiric and tragic ways accompany each other through all the history and create perfect match. Only through combination of these methods one can really understand what our life is, and the war as its integral part. These poems have been written ages ago and we still have wars from which mostly ordinary people suffer, it proves that none of the author was successful enough to prevent war crimes in the future. At the same time both of them had shown the inner tragedy and painful sarcasm of any armed conflicts.
References
Euripides, Svarlien, D. A. (2010). Andromache, Hecuba, Trojan Women. USA: Hackett Publishing
Euripides. (1969). Four Comedies. USA: University of Michigan Press.
