Books of Titans
Books of Titans Podcast
Women of Trachis by Sophocles
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Women of Trachis by Sophocles

Podcast Episode 218: Who determines the law?
Red-figure pottery depicting Hercules who receives the poisoned robe with Nessus' blood. c. 430 BCE

This tragedy concludes with a question - what law do you obey? Do you obey a father asking you to do terrible things from his deathbed? Or is there a higher law? Further, where does law come from? Is it divine? Is it dictated by those closest to you?

The Women of Trachis follows a set of characters as “Fate is on the march.” It’s a fascinating case of one of the women, Deianeira, the wife of Heracles, going “wrong trying to do right.”

There are so many connection points in Women of Trachis to other tragedy plays. In this episode, I cover some of those connections, talk about fate, Zeus, and characters moving things along, and close with that question about law.

Discussion about this podcast

Books of Titans
Books of Titans Podcast
Welcome to the Books of Titans Podcast where I (Erik Rostad) seek truth in the world’s great books. My goal is to read 200 of The Great Books over the next 10 years and share what I’m learning. I’ll talk a bit about each book, tie ideas together from a variety of genres, and share the one thing I always hope to remember from each of the Great Books.
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Erik Rostad