Ancient Greek Plays Resonate with Marines
At a conference dedicated to finding new ways to help Marines recover from post-traumatic stress and other disorders after serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, the Marines are looking to an ancient source: the plays of Sophocles.
An audience of 250-plus Marines, sailors and healthcare professionals Wednesday night watched a dramatic reading by four New York actors from two plays that center on the physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the warrior.
When it was over, Sgt. Maj. Tom Hall, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan and will redeploy soon, said he could identify with Ajax.
"Ajax was infantry, just like me," Hall said. "The kinds of moral and ethical decisions he was facing are just the same as what Marines are going through now."
Retired Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, who fought in Fallouja, Iraq, was taken by the scene in which Philoctetes and a younger soldier, Neoptolemus, talked of comrades killed in combat. Kopelman said he's seen Marines have similar discussions.
"That is something all warriors can relate to," Kopelman said. "It bonds us and makes us even tighter."
The readings from "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" were presented by the New York-based Philoctetes Project, whose artistic director and translator is Bryan Doerries, who has a master's degree from UC Irvine. The group has done numerous readings for literary gatherings and recently at the Cornell University medical school.
When the chance arose to bring his troupe to the Marine Corps Combat Operational Stress Control Conference, Doerries did not hesitate. "I think there is no better audience in the 21st century to be hearing these plays," he said.
Sophocles (circa 496 BC to 406 BC) was an elected general of the Greek forces during decades of constant war. Military service was compulsory. As a result, almost all the men in his audiences were combat veterans.
The character of Ajax, Doerries said, "is an ancient textbook description" of post-traumatic stress disorder. Ajax feels cheated of honors due him, betrayed by the generals and alienated from his wife and the society he fought to protect. "Incurable Ajax," the chorus says, "his mind infected by divine madness."...
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An audience of 250-plus Marines, sailors and healthcare professionals Wednesday night watched a dramatic reading by four New York actors from two plays that center on the physical and psychological wounds inflicted on the warrior.
When it was over, Sgt. Maj. Tom Hall, who has served in Iraq and Afghanistan and will redeploy soon, said he could identify with Ajax.
"Ajax was infantry, just like me," Hall said. "The kinds of moral and ethical decisions he was facing are just the same as what Marines are going through now."
Retired Lt. Col. Jay Kopelman, who fought in Fallouja, Iraq, was taken by the scene in which Philoctetes and a younger soldier, Neoptolemus, talked of comrades killed in combat. Kopelman said he's seen Marines have similar discussions.
"That is something all warriors can relate to," Kopelman said. "It bonds us and makes us even tighter."
The readings from "Ajax" and "Philoctetes" were presented by the New York-based Philoctetes Project, whose artistic director and translator is Bryan Doerries, who has a master's degree from UC Irvine. The group has done numerous readings for literary gatherings and recently at the Cornell University medical school.
When the chance arose to bring his troupe to the Marine Corps Combat Operational Stress Control Conference, Doerries did not hesitate. "I think there is no better audience in the 21st century to be hearing these plays," he said.
Sophocles (circa 496 BC to 406 BC) was an elected general of the Greek forces during decades of constant war. Military service was compulsory. As a result, almost all the men in his audiences were combat veterans.
The character of Ajax, Doerries said, "is an ancient textbook description" of post-traumatic stress disorder. Ajax feels cheated of honors due him, betrayed by the generals and alienated from his wife and the society he fought to protect. "Incurable Ajax," the chorus says, "his mind infected by divine madness."...