Euripides is perhaps best known as an avant-garde playwright whose plays (Medea, Bacchae, Trojan Women) offer powerful female protagonists, bold new handlings of myth and an interest in psychology. Dr Chong-Gossard (Lecturer at the University of Melbourne) introduces us to a lesser known Euripidean tragedy, his Hypsipyle, a play preserved only in fragments. Chong-Gossard is currently working on the first major study of the Hypsipyle as a work of drama. His lecture explores the theme of consolation, demonstrating that the play dramatizes consolatory gestures in an innovative way, and makes a bold statement about forgiveness in the face of human tragedy.
