Herakles Gone Mad: Rethinking Heroism in an Age of Endless War

A decorated hero returns home after multiple tours of duty only to find the lives of his loved ones threatened. To make his home safe, he does battle one last time-one time too many. He slays his enemies but then, unable in his rage to tell friend from foe, murders his wife and children. He blacks out, and, when his wits return, his only thoughts are of death. Then a friend whose life he once saved in battle arrives, offering his hand and his heart. The long road home begins.

Story of post-traumatic stress syndrome of soldiers returning from Iraq? Euripides, in fact. No playwright, ancient or contemporary, has written with greater power and poignancy about war and its enduring wounds than has this veteran of 24 centuries ago. Euripides' misunderstood masterpiece Herakles Gone Mad reveals both the wreckage of war and the luminous power of love.

Distinguished author, translator, educator, and playwright Robert Emmet Meagher presents a new translation of Euripides' Herakles along with a concise commentary on the play and an essay on the trauma of war, the true face of heroism, and the healing power of friendship and community.

"Stories of the 'longed-for homecoming gone wrong'-fatally wrong-are as timely and timeless as the horror of murder-suicides at Ft. Bragg... Professor Meagher has given us an eloquent and memorable study of Herakles Gone Mad and a wonderfully performable, vivid new translation of the play." - Jonathan Shay, M.D., Ph.D., author of Odysseus in America: Combat Trauma and the Trials of Homecoming "Robert Emmet Meagher's brilliant rendering of Euripides' Herakles once again proves that he is the finest translator of ancient Greek drama in English... as relevant today as it was the day it was first written in ancient Greek." -Michael Elliot Rutenberg, Professor of Theater, Hunter College, City University of New York