Aeschylus' Oresteia: A Literary Commentary

240 Pages·1989·9.579 MB·English

by  D.J. Conacher

Aeschylus' Oresteia
A LITERARY COMMENT ARY
Traditionally, books on Greek tragedy tend to fall into two classes: scholarly
editions with commentaries on textual, linguistic, and detailed interpretative
points, and literary-critical studies which sometimes include summary treat
ments of questions involving a detailed study of the text. Classics specialists
tend, for obvious reasons, to concentrate on the former. Readers of trans
lations have, of necessity, been limited to the latter kind of aid in their reading
of the works of the Greek tragedians, works that are often unfamiliar partic
ularly in their cultural context. D.J. Conacher has brought these two ap
proaches together in this comprehensive study of the three plays of Aeschylus'
Oresteia.
The major part of Conacher's work is a detailed running commentary on,
and dramatic analysis of, the three plays. It is supplemented in notes and
appendixes by discussions of the philological problems relevant to the inter
pretation, and by a sampling of other scholarly views on a number of con
troversial points.
Designed to meet the needs of readers with varying degrees of special
ization, the book contains generous selections from, and discussions of, scholarly
opinions in various commentaries and journal articles which students may
not be able to consult for themselves. Here, as in the text of his commentary,
Conacher has attempted to keep the detailed discussions understandable by
students at various levels, and has provided translations or paraphrases for
words and passages quoted in the original Greek.
This supporting material adds considerable value to Conacher's detailed
analysis and appreciation of the form and meaning of Aeschylus' trilogy, and
makes the plays much more accessible to a wider audience.
o.J. CONACHER is Professor Emeritus of Classics at University of Toronto. He
is the author of EuripideanD rama: Myth, Theme, and Structure and Aeschylus'
Prometheus Bound: A Literary Commentary.
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
D.J. CONACHER
Aeschylus' Oresteia
A LITERARY COMMENTARY
www.utppublishing.com
© University of Toronto Press 1987
Toronto Buffalo London
First paperback edition 1989
Printed in Canada
ISBNo -8o20-5716-o (case)
ISBN'0-8020-6747-6( paper)
(00\
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Printed on acid-free paper
Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data
Conacher, D.J., 1918-
Aeschylus' Oresteia
Bibliography: p.
ISBN 0-8020-5716-0
1. Aeschylus. Oresteia. l. Title.
PA3825.c66 1987 882'.01 c87-093085-o
Contents
PREFACE Vll
ONE / AGAMEMNON
1 Introductory comment: the play and the trilogy 3
2 Prologue and parodos (vv 1-257) 7
3 First episode and first stasimon (vv 258-487) 16
4 Second episode (the 'Herald scene') and second stasimon
(vv 489-781) 24
5 Third episode (Agamemnon and Clytemnestra) and third stasimon
(vv 782-1034) 29
6 Fourth episode, including first kommos (the 'Cassandra scene')
(vv 1035-1330) 40
7 Fifth episode and second kommos (the off-stage murder and its
aftermath) (vv 1343-1576) 48
8 Exodos (the 'Aegisthus scene') (vv 1577-1673) 55
Appendix 1 to chapter 1: Problems in the parodos of Agamemnon
i The anger of Artemis 76
ii 'Knowledge through suffering' in the 'Hymn to Zeus' 83
iii The guilt of Agamemnon 85
Appendix 2 to chapter 1: The entry of Clytemnestra, with
particular reference to vv 489-502 97
TWO / CHOEPHORI (THE LIBATION BEARERS)
1 Preliminary comment 102
2 Prologue, parodos , and first episode (vv 1-305) 103
vi Contents
3 The 'great kommos' (vv 306--478) 108
4 Second episode and first stasimon (vv 479-651) 113
5 Third episode (vv 652-782) 118
6 Second stasimon (vv 783-837) 121
7 Fourth episode (vv 838--934) and third stasimon (vv 935-72) 122
8 Exodos (vv 973-1076) 124
THREE / EUMENIDES
1 Prologue, parodos, and first episode (vv 1-234) 139
2 Second episode, part 1 (vv 235-53); second parodos (vv 254-75);
second episode, part 2 (vv 276--306) 147
3 First stasimon (vv 307-96) 150
4 Third episode (vv 397-488) 152
5 Second stasimon (vv 490--565) 156
6 Fourth episode (vv 566--777): the 'trial scene' 159
7 The 'conversion' of the Erinyes (vv 778--1020);t he escorting of the
Erinyes to their new home (vv 1021-47) 169
Appendix to chapter 3: Some views on the political and social
aspects of the Eumenides
i Preliminary comment 195
ii Political aspects of the Eumenides 197
iii The 'male-female conflict' in the Eumenidesa nd in the trilogy 206
BIBLIOGRAPHY 223
Preface
In the present circumstances of classical studies, there seems to be a
need, in the field of Greek tragedy as in other fields, to cater for a
wider variety of students and other readers than ever before. This
variety includes classics specialists, particularly graduate students with
considerable familiarity with the original texts; students with some
Greek, who may be reading works such as the Oresteia,o r parts of
it, for the first time; and a large number of readers, many of them
highly sophisticated in literary matters, who now read Greek litera
ture, and particularly Greek drama, in translation. Traditionally, the
books available on Greek tragedy tend to fall into two classes: editions
with commentaries (ranging from voluminous works of scholarship
to what used to be called 'school editions', also learned but less de
tailed) and literary-critical studies which sometimes include more
summary (and often more subjective) treatments of questions involv
ing a detailed study of the text. Readers 'in translation' have, of
necessity, been limited to the latter kind of aid in their reading of the
strange and often unfamiliar (particularly in their cultural context)
works of the Greek tragedians; classics students tend, for obvious
reasons, to concentrate on the former, with perhaps a brief scamper
through the chapters of the 'lit-crit' books which are relevant to special
assignments or to essay questions on final examinations.
I have found, however, in my own teaching of Greek drama to the
several kinds of students described above that the good 'translation'
students often ask questions concerning precise meanings and inter
pretative details not 'covered' in the more general literary studies,
while the more literary among the classics students look in vain in
the learned commentaries (and often in the literary studies) for de-
viii Preface
tailed discussion of the structure and technique of the works which
they are linguistically digesting .
The present study attempts, however inadequately , to meet at least
some of these complex requirements within a single book. The classics
student will, of course, always require the commentaries of the learned
editions (in the case of the Oresteiao ne hopes that more of these will
be forthcoming for the last two plays of the trilogy) and both classicists
and those reading in translation will rightly wish to extend their
critical awareness by original interpretations more in tune with con
temporary 'lit-crit' fashions than the present work can claim to be.
My own intention is to supply a detailed running commentary on,
and dramatic analysis of, the three plays of the trilogy, supplemented
(in the notes and appendixes) by discussion of philological problems
relevant to the interpretation , and by at least a sampling of other
scholarly views on particularl y crucial points of that interpretation.
The format of the book, the fairly rigid relegation of controversial
points of interpretation and of other scholars' views to the notes and
appendixes, is dictated partly by the different levels of 'readership'
envisaged, partly by the concern that readers should not lose the
thread of the dramatic analysis by such intrusions into the text of the
commentary .
It is, of course, impossible to gauge accurately which parts (if any)
of this 'three-tiered ' study may be useful to one or another of the
kinds of readers of the Oresteia mentioned above. Generally speaking ,
the notes and appendixes are aimed at the more specialized students,
or at least at those reading the plays in Greek; however, many of our
'Greekless' students do ask questions of the kind which I have in
dicated and it is hoped that for these at least some of the notes and
appendixes will be of interest as well. Thus, with both types of reader
in mind, I have, in the notes, made generous selections from the best
known editions-with-commentaries, which the student may not be
able, in all cases, to consult in detail for himself. On other, more
discursive matters , of interpretation, dramatic technique, use of im
agery and so on, I have attempted (again in the notes and appendixes)
to provide a fair sampling of scholarly opinion to be found in other
books and, particularly , in journal articles, to which students inter
ested in a particular point or topic are referred for further study . Here,
as in the text of my commentary, I have attempted as much as possible
to keep the detailed discussions understandable to students at various
levels of scholarly attainment and have provided translations or, oc
casionally, paraphrases for words and passages quoted in the original
Greek.
Preface ix
My discussion of the Oresteia is based, in the first instance, on
Gilbert Murray's Oxford Classical Text of Aeschylus (first edition 1938,
second edition 1955) augmented by constant consultation of (and
reference to) various other texts, most notably Denys Page's Oxford
Classical Text of Aeschylus (1972).
Several important Aeschylean studies have appeared since the
completion of this book in manuscript in 1983 or too late in its prep
aration for more than limited use or (in some cases) mere bibliograph
ical reference. These include two major editions, L'Agamemnond 'Eschyle
(Lille 1981-2) by Jean Bollack and Pierre Judet de la Combe and A.F.
Garvie' sedition of Aeschylus' Choephor(i Oxford 1986) ; A.J . N. W. Prag,
The Oresteia. Iconographica nd Narrative Tradition (Warminster 1985);
and Philip Velacott, The Logic of Tragedy, Morals and Integrity in
Aeschylus' Oresteia (Durham, Ne 1984). John Herington's recent
introductory work, Aeschylus (New Haven and London 1985), in the
Hermes Books series, contains, as well as its interesting discussions
of Aeschylus' plays, an excellent account, for the general reader, of
the background, mythological and historical, to Aeschylean thought.
Also useful for the Greekless reader (though more for scholarly in
formation than for literary criticism) is James Hogan's line-by-line
commentary , A Commentary on the CompleteG reek Tragedies-Aeschylus
(Chicago and London 1984), the first of a series of companion volumes
to the University of Chicago Press' distinguished series of translations
of Greek tragedy, edited by Grene and Lattimore. Among recent more
specialized articles appearing too late for discussion here are A. L.
Brown, 'The Erinyes in the Oresteia, Real Life, the Supernatural and
the Stage' JHS 103 (1983) 13-34, and David Sansone, 'Notes on the
Oresteia' Hermes 112 (1984) 1-9.
I should like to express my thanks to the anonymous readers for
the Canadian Federation of the Humanities and the University of
Toronto Press (as well as to the copy editor, Ms Judy Williams, for
the latter) for various helpful suggestions and criticisms, and to Ms
Carol Ashton and Ms Ruth Anne Maclennan for their patience and
efficiency in typing this book.
This book has been published with the help of grants from the
Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by
the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and
from the University of Toronto Women's Association . I should also
like to express my grateful acknowledgment of a Research Grant from
the Social Science and Research Council of Canada in 1980 which I
made use of for research at Oxford University and which consequently
assisted me greatly in the preparation of this book.