The Breaking Wave: Trikymia and the Poetics of Natural Disaster in Euripides’ Drama

The article aims to investigate the meaning and dramatic function of the poetic term τρικυμία in fifth-century Greek tragedy, with particular focus on its usage in Euripides. The first part examines the semantics of τρικυμία, reassessing the value of the prefix τρι- – often viewed by scholarship as a mere intensifier – and exploring the possibility that it retains a literal, numerical force. Through a comparative reading of Aeschylus’ hapax τρίχαλος, applied to a wave “cloven in three” (Sept. 760), the article considers whether τρικυμία might evoke the image of a single wave breaking into triple crests. The second part turns to the two Euripidean occurrences of the term – in Trojan Women (83) and Hippolytus (1213) – where τρικυμία denotes catastrophic sea surges caused by the divine agency of Poseidon. These passages are analysed within a broader reflection on the poetics of natural disaster, in which seismic and maritime forces operate as signs of divine retribution and narrative instruments of tragic devastation. KEYWORDS: τρικυμία; Euripides; Trojan Women; Hippolytus; divine power