Euripides : Alcestis PDF
Preview Euripides : Alcestis
Euripides: Alcestis COMPANIONS TO GREEK AND ROMAN TRAGEDY Series Editor: Thomas Harrison Aeschylus: Agamemnon Barbara Goward Aeschylus: Eumenides Robin Mitchell-Boyask Aeschylus: Persians David Rosenbloom Aeschylus: Prometheus Bound I. A. Ruffell Aeschylus: Seven Against Thebes Isabelle Torrance Aeschylus: Suppliants Thalia Papadopoulou Euripides: Alcestis Niall W. Slater Euripides: Bacchae Sophie Mills Euripides: Heracles Emma Griffiths Euripides: Hippolytus Sophie Mills Euripides: Ion Lorna Swift Euripides: Iphigenia at Aulis Pantelis Michelakis Euripides: Medea William Allan Euripides: Orestes Matthew Wright Euripides: Phoenician Women Thalia Papadopoulou Euripides: Suppliant Women Ian Storey Euripides: Trojan Women Barbara Goff Seneca: Phaedra Roland Mayer Seneca: Thyestes Peter Davis Sophocles: Ajax Jon Hesk Sophocles: Electra Michael Lloyd Sophocles: Oedipus at Colonus Adrian Kelly Sophocles: Philoctetes Hanna Roisman Sophocles: Women of Trachis Brad Levett Euripides: Alcestis Niall W. Slater 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 Bloomsbury is a registered trade mark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc First published 2013 © Niall W. Slater, 2013 Niall W. Slater has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified 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: 978-1-78093-475-4 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by Fakenham Prepress Solutions, Fakenham, Norfolk NR21 8NN Contents Preface ix 1 438 and All That 1 The Myth(s) 8 Production Conditions 10 2 The Action of the Play 15 Prologue 15 Parôdos 17 Episode 18 First Stasimon 19 Episode 20 Second Stasimon 23 Episode 23 Third Stasimon 25 Episode 26 Kommos 28 Fourth Stasimon 29 Episode and Exodos 29 3 Themes of the Play 31 The House and the Door 32 Husband and Wife 34 Parents and Children 38 Xenia, Philia, and Charis 41 Life and Death 46 Lament 47 Fame and Infamy 50 vi Contents Doubles and Opposites 56 Alcestis’ Statue 57 Marriage, Remarriage—and Silence 61 4 Afterlives of an Afterlife 67 In Antiquity 67 From Late Antiquity to the Renaissance 74 From Shakespeare to the Nineteenth Century 77 The Twentieth Century 86 The Alcestiad 88 Ted Hughes’ Alcestis 91 Chronology 95 Abbreviations 98 Glossary 99 Guide to Further Reading 101 Texts, Commentaries, and Concordance 101 Translations 102 Adaptations 102 General Studies of Greek Tragedy and Reception 102 Books and Articles on Alcestis 103 Notes 105 Bibliography 127 Index 137 matri carissimae Preface I have loved the Alcestis ever since I first encountered it, for its many surprises as well as its beauties. This volume attempts to situate the play in its Athenian context as well as trace some of the widely varied fortunes Alcestis has enjoyed since then. The tone of the play and its emotional connection to its audience are the subject of wide and continuing controversy, and while I have a point of view on those questions, I hope the discussions here will have something to say to readers, performers, and audience members on a wide range of approaches. The gestation of this volume has now exceeded that of Pliny’s elephants (Nat. Hist. 8.10), and I am deeply indebted to Tom Harrison, the Series Editor, for his patience as well as his generous invitation and support. Deborah Blake and her successor, Charlotte Loveridge, have been of great help in bringing this to a conclusion. Audiences ranging from those at the 1993 Classical Association of the Middle West and South panel on performance (at the invitation of its president, Karelisa Hartigan) to the 2003 conference on Satyr Drama: Tragedy at Play (organized by G. W. M. Harrison) to the 2005 Wake Forest Institute of Literature have listened to and challenged some of these ideas. A blissful year at Emory’s Fox Center for Humanistic Inquiry enabled the drafting of several sections of this book. Kimberly Jannarone read the manuscript at a key stage and offered generous and invaluable criticism. To these I offer my profound thanks. Emory University August 2012 N. W. S.
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