Euripides' "Alcestis": Narrative, Myth, and Religion

236 Pages·2013·1.324 MB·English

by  Andreas Markantonatos

Andreas Markantonatos
Euripides’ ›Alcestis‹
Untersuchungen zur antiken
Literatur und Geschichte
Herausgegeben von
Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, Peter Scholz 
und Otto Zwierlein
Band 112
Andreas Markantonatos
Euripides’
›Alcestis‹
Narrative, Myth, and Religion
ISBN 978-3-11-033085-4
e-ISBN 978-3-11-033097-7
ISSN 1862-1112
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A CIP catalog record for this book has been applied for at the Library of Congress.
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche
Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available in the Internet
at http://dnb.dnb.de.
© 2013 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Typesetting: Michael Peschke, Berlin
Printing: Hubert & Co. GmbH & Co. KG, Göttingen
♾ Printed on acid free paper
Printed in Germany
www.degruyter.com
For Alexandros

Preface
In this book I seek to show that a narratology of Greek tragedy requires a broader
view on the narrational creation of ancient plays, for plays are constructed as
constellations of embedded storylines – that is, narrative configurations which
are essentially dynamic rather than static, incessantly intersected as they are by
infinite narrative cross-currents. The main contention of theatre narratology is
that the linear datastream of a tragic narrative comes along with a crucial edi-
torial overlay of various viewpoints and narrations, in which certain events are
repeatedly recounted, thereby building up and challenging narratorial authority.
Since there is surely an extratextual input from the audience’s knowledge of the
mythical stories, as well as from their social, political, and religious experiences,
it is reasonable to argue that narratology is expected to explore the storylines
which are alluded to within a historical frame rather than keeping the spotlight
trained on taxonomic classifications.
Besides, it has now become the communis opinio in the study of Greek
tragedy that not unlike comic dramatists tragic poets were constantly observant
of their surroundings. In other words, a narratology of drama calls for interpreta-
tion; pedantic analyses can be useful maps of narrative situations; but more often
than not tragic action is widescreen, the setting geographically expansive through
choric narration, and the epoch ranges from mythical times to the audience’s own
day and beyond. The immense power and beauty of tragic narration lies in the
fact that a set of popular myths has been overlaid by later topical applications;
fifth-century history bestows upon the whole duration and meaning. Given the
recent developments in possible-worlds theory with their special emphasis on the
blurring of the distinction between actuality and possibility in literary works, it
is not unnatural to conclude with some degree of simplification that the plot of a
tragic play captures the movement of an autonomous possible world in the Greek
narrative universe, while at the same time making inroads into various systems of
reference. In other words, Attic drama thrives on the similarities and differences
between textual worlds and the real worlds the audiences live in.
I strongly believe, therefore, that the timing could not have been more perti-
nent for a narratological study of a Greek tragic play in the light of new advances
in the field of modern narrative studies. The impact of narratology on the study
of Classics cannot be overstated especially in the last two decades. Despite her
often bland and unimaginative readings, Irene de Jong’s painstaking narratolog-
ical analysis of Homer’s Iliad (Narrators and Focalizers: The Presentation of the
Story in the Iliad, Amsterdam, 1987; see also her helpful but rather plodding nar-
rational explication of the Odyssey in a large and unwieldy volume of running
commentary: A Narratological Commentary on the Odyssey, Cambridge, 2001),
viii   Preface
together with the lesser known but clearly more readable and incisive study of the
Homeric narrator by Scott Richardson (The Homeric Narrator, Nashville, 1990),
not only opened up new vistas for the students of epic, but also paved the way
for more groundbreaking research in the fields of Greek historiography, novelistic
writing, and (surprisingly enough) drama. In recent years, however, the dyna-
mism of narratology petered out for lack of new ideas and creative applications
which aim to exploit the latest developments in literary theory in particular and
in the humanities in general.
It should be admitted that Irene de Jong made a determined effort to bring
the study of narrative to a wider audience by initiating the production of a string
of multi-authored volumes on narratology and Greek literature [I. J. F. de Jong,
R. Nünlist & A. M. Bowie (eds) (2004), Narrators, Narratees, and Narratives in
Ancient Greek Literature: Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative, Volume One (Leiden
& Boston), I. J. F. de Jong & R. Nünlist (eds) (2007), Time in Ancient Greek Liter-
ature: Studies in Ancient Greek Narrative, Volume Two (Leiden & Boston), and I.
J. F. de Jong (2012), Space in Ancient Greek Literature: Studies in Ancient Greek
Narrative, Volume Three (Leiden & Boston)]. These volumes were, nonetheless,
received with mixed feelings as to their internal coherence and clarity of purpose;
in fact, they were considered to be glaring examples of the problem. One cannot
therefore help feeling that narratological interpretation currently faces a period of
stagnation, mainly because major players in the field of narrative studies (again
Irene de Jong is a case in point) choose to remain enwombed within their tiny the-
oretical horizons, perpetually consoled and reassured by their tendentious but
unchanging certainties.
Apart from a small number of specialized studies which aim to explore
ancient plays from a purely narratological perspective, while at the same time
presuming that plays are indeed composites of implicit meanings and historical
allusions given material embodiment in formal patterns and technical devices [B.
Goward (1999), Telling Tragedy: Narrative Technique in Aeschylus, Sophocles and
Euripides (London), A. Markantonatos (2002), Tragic Narrative: A Narratological
Study of Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus (Berlin & New York), and A. Lamari (2010),
Narrative, Intertext, and Space in Euripides’ Phoenissae (Berlin & New York)], it is
sad to see narratology losing momentum, mainly because there is resolute unwill-
ingness on behalf of certain classical scholars to move with the times despite the
fact that outside the domain of Classics more audacious critics have effectively
addressed the theory’s various teething problems by taking a broad view of the
term ‘narrative’, as well as by giving precedence to historically-conscious meth-
odological hermeneutics over pointless taxonomy.
It is on these grounds that I have produced a book that brings into play the
recent attempts by narratologists to unearth hidden meanings in both verbal and
Preface    ix
visual narratives through a rigorous critical evaluation. I have chosen to combine
narratology and interpretation rather than expending all my efforts on futile tax-
onomic assignments and unsophisticated descriptions of the obvious. Given the
irresistible allure of classifications and hierarchies, readers totally unversed in
the intricacies of modern literary theory (unless possessing strikingly susceptive
antennae) rarely notice that they are being misled into believing that the orderly
codification of narrative phenomena qualifies for an exegesis of ancient texts
in its own right. Properly combined, I should suggest, modern narratology and
interpretative criticism can offer novel insights and allow us to pose new ques-
tions to the tragic texts. By contrast, traditional narrative analyses with their
preference for classification and indifference to hermeneutics hold the obvious
risk of excessive schematization, generalization, and inflexibility; in fact, they
prohibit us from viewing Greek tragedy in the context of the interlocking histor-
ical codes which pervade the underlying mental structures of Athenian society.
Tragic narratives combine heroic and historical values, fiction and non-fiction.
This book is, therefore, underpinned by the principle that narratology is a means
to an end and should never be an end in itself.
In order to make the book more widely accessible, I have provided English
translations of all Greek quotations. If not otherwise noted, translations of sub-
stantial Euripidean passages are reprinted from The Loeb Classical Library (Cam-
bridge, MA & London: Harvard University Press) [D. Kovacs (1994), Euripides.
Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea (Cambridge, MA & London)], Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard
University Press, Copyright © 1994, by the President and Fellows of Harvard
College. Loeb Classical Library ® is a registered trademark of the President and
Fellows of Harvard College.
I would like to thank E. J. Brill for permission to use material that appears in
slightly revised form in this volume. More specifically, in Chapter 1 I have chosen
to reproduce with minor changes and improvements the introductory section
of my chapter on the narrative craft of Sophocles which was first published in
the Brill’s Companion to Sophocles (2012): ‘Narratology of Drama: Sophocles the
Storyteller’ (pp. 349–354). Furthermore, I am profoundly grateful to Georgia
Xanthaki-Karamanou, Daniel Iakov, Antonios Rengakos, Ioannis Perysinakis,
Theodoros Pappas, Chris Carey, Bernhard Zimmermann, Angus Bowie, Alan
Sommerstein, Patrick Finglass, Hanna Roisman, Anton Bierl, Marianne McDon-
ald, Sophie Mills, Chris Pelling, and Scott Scullion for their intellectual friendship
and personal support. Penelope Frangakis served as an invaluable copy-editor.
One old friend and teacher is no longer alive to thank: Christiane Sourvinou-In-
wood, whose work on Athenian religion and mythology has opened unimagined
vistas into Greece’s ancient past. I owe a great deal to the kindly encouragement
which she unceasingly gave me at the beginning of preparing this book. Last but
x   Preface
not least, I owe a special debt of thanks to Heinz-Günther Nesselrath, a uniquely
gifted classical scholar, who has not only enormously helped me to improve my
ideas but also encouraged me through the most trying stages of revision. Without
his vision, faith, and patience this book would not be in print. Whatever faults
and errors remain are very much my own. The book is dedicated to my son Alex-
andros, whose birth has brought indescribable joy to my family.