The Concept of Terms Related to Democracy in Euripides' Suppliant Women1

Abstract

This study focuses on the words that refer to democracy in the play, Suppliant Women, written by the tragic poet Euripides, who lived in Athens at the fifth century B.C - the period of transition from dictatorship to democracy. And so it was natural that this period had an influence on his way of handling his plays to introduce the concept of democracy and its positive and negative aspects.3 Euripides uses terms remarkably to highlight the cooperative moral values, associated with democracy, such as selfcontrol and prudence, wisdom and justice, which help the democratic system to achieve its objectives. The Suppliant Women aims at praising the city of Athens for its method of applying the principles of democracy and estimating the value of youth as a political force of the democratic system.4 Although the Suppliant Women introduces a simple subject which is "burial as a right for the dead", Euripides makes a good use of this event to show his perspective on the democratic system through debate between the Messenger of Thebes' king, who represents the dictatorial regime and Theseus, the governor of Athens, who represents the democratic system. On one hand, Theseus shows us, in this debate, that the city of Athens has the best system of government which is the democratic system. On the other hand, the messenger of Thebes criticizes the democratic system for giving opportunity to demagogues to prefer their personal benefit at expense of the public good of the state. Therefore, this research focuses on the positive and negative impacts of a democratic system, through analysis of some Greek terms which refer to the principles of democracy, and also introduces the characteristics that must be met in the found in the leader or demagogues in the democratic system. And surely, this research illustrates the dramatic function of these terms during the events of the play