Aeschylean Tragedy

397 Pages·2010·2.073 MB·English

by  Alan H. Sommerstein

Aeschylean Tragedy
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AESCHYLEAN
TRAGEDY
Alan H. Sommerstein
LONDON • NEW DELHI • NEW YORK • SYDNEY
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
50 Bedford Square 1385 Broadway
London New York
WC1B 3DP NY 10018
UK USA
www.bloomsbury.com
First published in 2010 by Bristol Classical Press
an imprint of Gerald Duckworth & Co. Ltd.
Reprinted by Bristol Classical Press 2012
Reprinted by Bloomsbury Academic 2013
© Alan H Sommerstein, 2010
Alan H Sommerstein has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act, 1988, to be identi(cid:1) ed as Author of this work.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,
including photocopying, recording, or any information storage
or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing
from the publishers.
No responsibility for loss caused to any individual or organization acting on
or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can
be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: PB: 978-0-7156-3824-8
E-pub: 978-1-8496-6796-8
E-pdf: 978-1-8496-6795-1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
Preface to the Second Edition viii
Preface to the First Edition ix
Note to the Reader x
1. The Life and Times of Aeschylus 1
2. Aeschylus’ Theatre 17
2.1. The performing space 17
2.2. Performers and properties 23
2.3. The spectators 28
3. The Tetralogy 32
Appendix: Scenes, time intervals and choruses in
Aeschylean trilogies
42
4. The Persians 45
4.1. The play 45
4.2. The tetralogy 62
5. The Theban Plays 68
5.1. Seven against Thebes 68
5.2. Steps to catastrophe 72
5.3. Character and curse 76
5.4. Oikos and polis 80
5.5. The tetralogy 84
5.6. The ending of Seven 90
6. The Danaid Plays 96
6.1. The Suppliant Maidens 96
6.2. The tetralogy 100
6.3. Lyrical tragedy? 108
6.4. Movement and spectacle 112
6.5. Io 114
v
Contents
7. The Oresteia 121
7.1. Agamemnon 121
7.2. Choephoroi 125
7.3. Eumenides 131
7.4. Aeschylus and his predecessors 136
7.5. Metre and music 146
7.6. Visual dimensions 154
7.6.1. The house 154
7.6.2. Tableaux and scene changes 157
7.6.3. Clothing 159
7.6.4. Weapons and implements 162
7.6.5. Silent performers 165
7.6.6. The murder scene in Choephoroi 167
7.7. Imagery 171
7.8. Male and female 181
7.9. Justice and the gods 193
7.10. A tale of three cities 204
8. The Prometheus Plays 213
8.1. Prometheus Bound 213
8.2. Structure, logic and action 215
8.3. Problems of staging 221
8.4. The Prometheus trilogy? 224
8.5. The question of authenticity 228
9. Aeschylean Satyr-drama 235
10. Slices from Homeric Feasts 241
10.1. The Iliadic tetralogy 242
10.2. The Odyssean tetralogy 249
11. Aeschylus, the Gods and the World 254
11.1. Puppets of the gods? 254
11.2. Agamemnon’s dilemma 258
11.3. Maradona and Farmer Jones 262
11.4. Niobe and divine malevolence 267
11.5. The ultimate realities behind the universe 270
11.6. Evolutionary theology 274
12. Aeschylean Drama and the Political Moment 281
12.1. Eumenides and 459/8 281
12.2. The Suppliant Maidens 289
12.3. The Persians and 473/2 292
12.4. Aeschylus, prophet of democracy 294
vi
Contents
13. Of An Age, or For All Time? 302
13.1. War and Peace 302
13.2. Gender and hybris 307
13.3. Justice, deterrence and retribution 309
13.4. The good society 315
Genealogies 317
Bibliographical Guide 319
References 329
Index of Passages Cited 349
General Index 365
vii
Preface to the Second Edition
This new edition has been thoroughly revised to take account of develop-
ments in scholarship, and in my own thinking on Aeschylus, since the first
edition was published in 1996. In contrast to the policy adopted in the first
edition, important references to modern scholarship are now given in the
text or endnotes in the conventional way (though the Bibliographical
Guide at the end of the book should be treated as an essential complement
to these). A sentence of my original preface (below) has thus been rendered
obsolete and misleading, and has been deleted.
I am most grateful to Duckworth for agreeing to publish the volume, to
Deborah Blake for the most helpful role she has played throughout as
editorial director, and to the original publishers, Levante Editori of Bari,
for giving permission for the republication.
Alan Sommerstein
Nottingham, September 2009
viii
Preface to the First Edition
As I complete this book I think of all the teachers, colleagues and students
who have helped me to love and, so far as I have been able, to understand
Aeschylus, from Martin Lowry who gave me my first acquaintance with
him thirty years ago to Elizabeth Randle who, by reaching the same
conclusions independently, made me feel that there might be something
in the reconstruction of the Danaid trilogy which will be found in Chapter
6. I think also of all the great scholars whose ideas likewise underlie what
is here presented and whom I have never had the privilege of meeting.
The book is intended for all who are interested, from whatever angle, in
the tragedies of Aeschylus, a majority of whom will not be in a position to
read his plays in Greek. Accordingly, all quotations, both from Aeschylus
and from other authors, are given in translation. For the same reason no
attempt has been made here to offer a systematic discussion of Aeschylus’
language and style.
I am grateful to Cambridge University Press for granting me permis-
sion to include in Chapters 7 and 12 adapted versions of parts of the
introduction to my edition of Eumenides, published by the Press in 1989.
I thank especially Alex Garvie and Bernhard Zimmermann, who read
the whole book in its penultimate draft and many of whose suggestions I
have incorporated. Neither of them is to be held responsible for any
shortcomings in the book, which are due entirely to my own oversight,
obstinacy, or obtuseness.
I dedicate this book to my students, past, present and future, and to all
those like them throughout the world, who, often in face of the ignorant
obloquy of their peers (and sometimes of the ignorant obstruction of
schools, education authorities and governments) have chosen to study the
world of antiquity. I wrote it for their sake, and I hope it does for them a
little of what the scholars of whom I spoke before have done for me.
Alan Sommerstein
Nottingham, September 1994
ix