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Euripides

Hecuba

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Ah me, what unhappiness is mine! What shall I utter, what sound, what cry of lamentation, since I am wretched with wretched old age and slavery unbearable, unendurable? Ah me! Who is my protector?⁠ What family, what city? Gone is my aged husband, gone are my children. What road shall I walk, this one or that? Where shall I reach safety? Where is there god or power to help me? My child, come forth; come forth, thou daughter of the queen of sorrows; listen to thy mother's voice, my child, that thou mayst know the hideous rumor I now hear about thy life.

Texts in conversation

Compare Euripides, Hecuba 154 and Romans 7:24

Classical · New Testament

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Summary

The Greek author Euripides laments a wretched state with cries of despair, asking who can rescue them from unbearable suffering. In Romans, Paul uses similar language when he cries out in misery over his bondage, seeking deliverance.

Passages

Euripides, Hecuba 154

Classical
Ah me, what unhappiness is mine! What shall I utter, what sound, what cry of lamentation, since I am wretched with wretched old age and slavery unbearable, unendurable? Ah me! Who is my protector? What family, what city? Gone is my aged husband, gone are my children. What road shall I walk, this one or that? Where shall I reach safety? Where is there god or power to help me? My child, come forth; come forth, thou daughter of the queen of sorrows; listen to thy mother's voice, my child, that thou mayst know the hideous rumor I now hear about thy life.
424 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Euripides, Hecuba

Romans 7:24

New Testament
21 So, I find the law that when I want to do good, evil is present with me. 22 For I delight in the law of God in my inner being. 23 But I see a different law in my members waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
55–58 CE (scholarly estimate) Read in Romans

References

"... Gerd Theissen and Stanley Stowers have both argued that Romans 7 is a part of the Greek moral psychologizing tradition that has its roots in the figure Medea. They do so with specific reference to the proverbial expressions in Romans 7:15 and Romans 7:19. Theissen demonstrates that there is a long-standing trope in Greek moral psychology regarding desire’s power over reason that originates in Medea. Stowers further contends that this battle between desire and reason is a battle for self-mastery. Following the precedent set by Medea, women came to represent the epitome of ἀκρασία (“lack of self-control”) in Greek moral psychology. Lines 1077–80 of Euripide’s tragic play Medea represent this tradition, and are echoed in Romans 7:7–25 ..."
Nicholas Elder, “Wretch I Am! Eve’s Tragic Speech-in-Character in Romans 7:7–25,” JBL 137.3 (2018): 743–763.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Euripides, Hecuba 154 and Romans 7:24

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