Reading Two Greek Refugee Plays in the Season of the Syrian Refugee Crisis

Abstract

I argue that Aeschylus’ The Suppliants and Euripides’ The Trojan Women imagine cosmopolitan and democratic responses to strangers seeking aid, and utilize affect to teach us how to respond ethically and empathetically to the current refugee crisis. Starting from Greece’s current position as a processing/holding site for Middle Eastern and North African refugees into Europe, this article examines how the democratic and cosmopolitan aspirations of Attic tragedy model a potential contemporary response. Specifically, I posit an ethical responsibility for those of us in Europe and the United States to find solidarity between the struggles of refugees and our own struggles under neoliberal capitalism.