In Syracuse in 412 BC, two unemployed potters, Lampo and Gelon, decide to stage Euripides with the starving Athenian prisoners left to die in the city's quarries, trading scraps of food for recited lines. What starts as an eccentric scheme grows into an ambitious production that draws in the prisoners, the guards, and the whole divided city.
Books mentioned in Glorious Exploits (8)
The Bacchae by Euripides: “That which is beyond us, which is greater than the human … is for the mad, or for those who listen to the mad, and then believe them. —Euripides, The Bacchae (epigraph)”
The Trojan Women by Euripides: “Death cannot be what Life is, Child … —Euripides, The Trojan Women (epigraph); later the cast stages it: “Do Medea and Trojan Women.””
Medea by Euripides: “We’re going to do Medea in the quarry. But not just bits and pieces. We’re going to do the whole play.”
Hippolytus by Euripides: “He says Euripides’s Hippolytus was put on during the plague at Athens.”
Oedipus Rex by Sophocles: ““What about Sophocles?” … “Oedipus Rex?” “Fuck Sophocles!” ; later “It was Oedipus Rex. That was it for me.””
Iliad by Homer: “You think Homer knew when he’d written The Iliad that he’d written The Iliad?”
The Odyssey by Homer: “he started into the first book of The Odyssey, and for a while, I didn’t care that I was poor”
The Birds by Aristophanes: ““New commission,” says Alekto. “Aristophanes’s The Birds. … There’s going to be a comedy festival all winter.””