Euripides: Heracles PDF
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EURIPIDES HERACLES EURIPIDES HERACLES WITH INTRODUCTION AND COMMENTARY BY GODFREY W. BOND CLARENDON PRESS· OXFORD Thisb ook has been printed digitallya nd producedi n a standard specification in order to ensurei ts continuinga vailability OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS Great Clarendon Street, Oxford OX2 6DP Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University@ objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Bangkok Buenos Aires Cape Town Chennai Dar es Salaam Delhi Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi Kolkata Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Mumbai Nairobi Sao Paulo Shanghai Taipei Tokyo Toronto Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Oxford University Press 1981 Editorial matter Godfrey W. Bond 1981 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) Reprinted 2003 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover And you must impose this same condition on any acquirer ISBN 978-0-19-814060-3 PREFACE EURIPIDES' H1racl1sisag reat play with a serious theme, the sudden downfall of the good and glorious. It is easy to understand why it received such loving attention from men of the stature of Gottfried Hermann, Ulrich von Wilamowitz Moellendorff, and Eduard Fraenkel; and in particular why the second stasimon, in which the ancient chorus dedicate themselves to song, was the Li,blingsstucko f Porson. The youthful Wilamowitz was deeply impressed by Jakob Bernays's reaction to this ode: 'Werden Sic nur erst alter, dann werden Sic merken, was das bedeutet '. I would, how ever, hesitate simply to commend the play to my contempor aries as 'the perfect piece', as did Robert Browning's enthusiast. The splendid poetry has to be approached via Euripides' style, which may at times appear to modern readers to be prosaic, over-rhetorical, and excessively dependent on formal elements. To appreciate it a good deal of comparative study is necessary. Many views, some most uncomplimentary, have been expressed about the unity and meaning of H,racl,s,w hich form the subject of the first section of my Introduction. · A new critical commentary on H1racl1si s very much needed. The last major edition of the play is that of Wilamowitz (second edition, 1895). This book opened a new era in the study of Greek tragedy, and pointed the way to many later commentaries on the other plays of Euripides. So authoritative was Wilamowitz's H,racl,s that com paratively little work has been done on the play for a century. The most substantial contribution since Wilamowitz is the monograph of E. Kroeker, published in Leipzig in the troubled times of 1938. I have derived great benefit from the editions ofWilamowitz and Pftugk-Wecklein, to both of which I refer frequently; also from the many excellent modern editions of Euripides, especially W. S. Barrett's Hippolytosa nd E. R. Dodds's Baccha,, and from Eduard V vi PREFACE Fraenkel's Agamemnon. I regard myself as fortunate indeed to have had these three men as colleagues in Oxford for many years. I have been given much advice and encouragement by two scholars, who have read my commentary in typescript and have made many improvements and valuable sugges tions. The first is Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Regius Professor of Greek in the University of Oxford, to whom I owe a Jong standing debt cotf,t,,,,E KT/T,tc ,}11"lotfv,p ovriµ.«Tocth: e words he has applied to his own predecessor are apt. The second is Dr James Diggle, Fellow of Queens' College, Cambridge, who has devoted a great deal of detailed attention to my work. I could not hope for a more rigorous and courteous critic. It was not until 1976 that it was decided to publish my commentary, already far advanced, with Dr Diggle's new Oxford text of the play, which he forthwith put at my disposal. I hope that I have done justice to this text, around which my commentary has been fitted. Naturally there are some places where I have expressed disagreement with Dr Diggle and a few where I have explained his text non-committally. I have also received valuable assistance from Dr Martin Cropp of the University of Calgary, who allowed me to use his Toronto thesis, as yet unpublished, which contains a full study of the first half of the play. Dr Cropp's power oflucid analysis has enabled me to see my way through complicated problems in a good many places; I am aware that my debt to him is not always acknowledged. I am most grateful to several classical colleagues who contributed generously to two seminar classes on H,raclu which I held in Oxford in conjunction with Professor Lloyd-Jones in 1971 and 1972. Much of the material for this book was collected in 1969-70, when I was a Visiting Member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. I must thank the Institute for a splendid and fruitful year in a place which seemed to me to be as close to Paradise as an academic is likely to get in this life. I must also thank Pembroke College for allowing PREFACE vii me sufficient leave to concentrate on this work. I have received generous grants towards the cost of my research from the Nuffield Research Fund of Pembroke and from the Board of the Faculty of Literae Humaniores in Oxford University. My thanks are due to the Delegates of the Press for undertaking the publication of this book at a time -of great financial uncertainty, when r/,iAo,caJ.ovJµJE,EvT E' vrE>iEla.c must be an apt account of the aims of an academic pub lisher. The staff of the Press have treated my work with the patience and politeness which I associate with them. I am especially indebted to the learned reader of the Press, who indeed deserves to be so styled, for many corrections and criticisms. I must also acknowledge the kind assistance of Professor M. L. West, Mr T. C. W. Stinton and Sir Charles Willink. The indexes were compiled with the help of my son Kingsmill. The completion of this long list of acknowledgements brings home to me the truth of what I wrote years ago in the preface of a previous book: it is well that the kindness and goodwill of one's fellows enlivens the drudgery and softens the asperity of the philological life. Finally, I must record my debt to two remarkable Dublin women, to whom this commentary is dedicated: my mother, Janet Godfrey, and my wife, Alison Kingsmill Moore. Several decades ago I began work on Greek matre mea monstrantev iam. During the past decade this edition has been pressed forward and its publication has been achieved ductua uspiciisquAe lisonis. GODFREY BOND PembrokeC ollege,O xford 1979 PREFACE TO THE PAPERBACK EDITION. I have taken the opportunityo f this paperbackr eprint to makes ome correctionsI. am mostg ratefult o the scholarsw ho reviewedt he first edition for their criticisms.I hope in a few years' time to publish a seconde ditionw hich will take thesei nto account. G.W.B. CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS xi INTRODUCTION 1. The Meaning and Unity of Heracles xvii u. Euripides' Treatment of the Legend xxvi m. The Date of Heracles XXX 1v. The Text of Heracles xxxii TEXT COMMENTARY 61 APPENDIX on Heracles1 410-17 INDEXES ix
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