That is perhaps the worst pun in the history of the English language. It is probably not politically correct (ask Chico Marx?), and is geographically in error, as Euripides lived in Athens (at least until he was kicked out of town), not Rome. But there you go…..you heard it here.

Yes, Euripides was kicked out of Athens, apparently because he, like Socrates, not only liked to make fun of his home town and the people who lived there, but he liked to make fun of the gods. Euripides, it appears, believed the gods as irrational as men and women. And for this, Athens could not forgive him.

My next Penguin book turned out to be a book of three of Euripides’ nineteen surviving plays, Hippolytus, Iphigenia in Tauris and Alcestis. Yesterday, I read two of three three short plays (the entire book is only 164 pages, and that includes a generous introduction and notes in the back), and I assume will read the third, Alcestis, today.

I thought Hippolytus a little light – the king’s young second wife falls hopefully in love with the king’s son, and decides the only way out is suicide. But she leaves a note blaming her death on the son, angering the king, who then kills his son. But it turns out that the son didn’t even know about his stepmother’s obsession until after her death, but is able to forgive his royal father before he takes his final breath. Meh.

I thought Iphigenia in Tauris, on the other hand, a terrific story with a happy ending. Iphigenia is Orestes’ sister, daughter of Agamemnon, condemned to death by her father (as the god ordained cost of being able to retrieve Helen from Troy), but she escapes to Tauris. Meanwhile, her brother Orestes is sent on a search for a relic of the goddess Artemis to Tauris. Iphigenia’s job in Tauris is to prepare any Athenians who wind up there to be sacrificed to Artemis. But she learns her brother’s identity, helps him secure the relic he came for, and escapes with him on his ship, heading back to her homeland. Great adventure, Great story.

Enough classics lessons for today? Wonder what’s going on in Israel? From this morning’s Forward:

“After massive protests overnight, a national strike gripped Israel Monday morning: No flights departed Ben Gurion airport, schools and universities canceled classes, non-emergency care at hospitals were suspended, shopping malls closed their doors and hundreds of thousands of people filled the streets. Some mayors called for a hunger strike. McDonald’s closed its 200 stores in Israel in solidarity.”

This is the result of the latest Netanyahu outrage, the axing of Defense Minister Gallant, who dared to oppose the rapid movement towards a judicial overhaul as threatening Israeli security, as reservists and some active duty military troops are refusing to serve until the coalition’s plans to change the way justices are appointed are dropped. It is really quite something – estimates have yesterday’s protesters exceeding 500,000.

President Herzog of Israel has proposed some sensible compromises that the ruling coalition have discounted, but don’t call them dead yet. It is not clear what will happen. I assume that Netanyahu would be happy to compromise, but not at the expense of losing his job as prime minister and forcing another election (which he would now undoubtedly not win). But failure to compromise might also result in some parties dropping out of the coalition, forcing another election anyway. And the hardliners – the religious Zionists and Shas (let’s call them territorialists) – are not ready to compromise; their agendas depend on the current coalition staying in power.

As Euripides might have said (but didn’t), “Oh, what tangled webs we weave.”