Herakles and the theme of friendship
After reading Herakles, I was surprised by the overwhelming sense of genuine friendship found at the end of the play between Herakles and Theseus. I feel like friendship isn't discussed a ton in the Greek literature that we've read, especially between humans, but this play focuses in on friendship in difficult times. Even in thew beginning of the play and when Herakles returns from the Underworld, his father talks about how all of their friends abandoned them when they lost power and fell into a bad situation. Despite all of this, even though Theseus walks in to the scene after Herakles murders his wife and children, Theseus stills is loyal to Herakles and is a genuine friend while he is grieving over what he has done. It was really cool to see that dynamic play out and see what the Greeks considered friendship to be between humans.