From Aeschylus to the EU

Ingrid D. Rowland reviews a June performance of The Suppliants, by Aeschylus, performed in the 3rd Century B.C. theater in Syracuse in Sicily, at NYR Blog.

"In practice, suppliants had to be officially accepted as such for the divine safety net to work; that moment of doubt for the daughters of Danaus, newly landed on the beach near the Greek city of Argos, provides Aeschylus with the initial suspense for his play.

"A similar process of triage is now taking place every day in refugee centers on the shores of Italy, tiny Malta, and Greece—even as they face a crushing burden of debt to the European Central Bank, the Greeks are also receiving a huge proportion of the refugees fleeing the bloodbaths of the Middle East, the refugees that much of the rest of Europe is reluctant to admit."