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Iliad and Aethiopis on the Stage: Aeschylus and Son

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

M. L. West
M. L. West
Affiliation:
All Souls College, Oxford
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Extract

Aeschylus, according to a famous report, described his tragedies as ‘cuts from Homer's great banquets’. The anecdote has the ring of truth, particularly as ‘Homer’ here must include the Epic Cycle, which would hardly have been possible after the fifth century; and there is an obvious source from which Athenaeus might have taken the story, the ’Eπιδημαι of Ion of Chios, which he cites in three other places. This work had the character of a personal memoir describing notable Athenian statesmen, poets, and philosophers whom Ion had known. The emphasis was on their personalities as revealed in their public speeches and private conversation. One of Athenaeus’ quotations from it is about Sophocles, and we know from other evidence that as a young man Ion had met Aeschylus too. The anecdote would have been perfectly in place in such a book.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , December 2000 , pp. 338 - 352
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 2000

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References

1 Ath. 347e… τ τοῠ καλοῠ κα λαμπρο AἰσΧλου, ôς τᾰς αὑτοῠ τραγωιδας τ∊μ;Χρ ∊ῖυαι λ∊γ∊υ ‘Oμρου μ∊γλωυ δ∊πυωυ. There follows the story that after a defeat in the competition he said he dedicated his tragedies to Time; for this Athenaeus names his source as Theophrastus or Chamaeleon, π∊ρ δους.

2 Plut. De prof. in virtute 79e = Ion, FGr Hist 392 F 22, probably also from the ’Eπιδημαι On Ion's life and writings, cf. my paper in BICS 32 (1985), 71–8.

3 This play, if it existed at all, might be identical with the Mυσο cf.Schadewaldt, W., Hermes 71 (1936), 39–40Google Scholar = Hellas und Hesperien (Zürich-Stuttgart, 1970), 1.323.

4 See the conspectus of trilogy reconstructions in Radt, S., TrGF 3 (Göttingen, 1985), 111–19.Google Scholar

5 West, M. L., Studies in Aeschylus (Stuttgart, 1990), 67–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 On these see in general Welcker, F. G., Die Aeschylische Trilogie Prometheus (Darmstadt, 1824), 415–30Google Scholar; G. Hermann, Opuscula 5.136–63;Ribbeck, O., Die römische Tragödie im Zeitalter der Republik (Leipzig, 1875), 349ff.Google Scholar; Robert, C., Bild und Lied (Berlin, 1881), 129–42Google Scholar; Wecklein, N., SBAW (1891), 327ff.Google Scholar; Croiset, L., RÉG1 (1894), 151ff.Google Scholar; Séchan, L., Étudessur la Tragedie grecque dans ses rapports avec la céramique (Paris, 1926), 52ff., 114ff.Google Scholar; Schadewaldt, W., Hermes 71 (1936), 25–69Google Scholar = Hellas und Hesperien (Stuttgart-Zürich, 1970), 1.308–54; B.Döhle, , ‘Die “Achilleis” des Aischylos in ihrer Auswirkung auf die attische Vasenmalerei des 5. Jahrhunderts’, Klio 49 (1967), 63–149CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taplin, O., The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1977), 196, n. 2Google Scholar; Sommerstein, A. H., Aeschylean Tragedy (Bari, 1996), 338–48.Google Scholar

7 ∊ἴσω κλισας, F 131. 3.

8 F132;cf. Ar. Ran. 914.

9 Cf. Ar. Ran. 1040–1. Aeschylus might have quoted Il. 18.20 κ∊ἰται πᾰτροκλος as the first half of a trimeter.

10 Besides the fragments collected in Radt's edition in TrGF, those of Accius’ Myrmidones and perhaps of his Epinausimache deserve notice (Ribbeck, O., Scaenicae Romanorum Poesis Fragmenta, 3rd edn [Leipzig, 1897], 1.158–60,204–7Google Scholar; Robert [n. 6], 133–40). See also Wilamowitz, , Aischylos. Interpretationen (Berlin, 1914), 245Google Scholar; Schadewaldt, W., Hermes 71 (1936), 25–60 (= Hellas u. Hesperien, 1.308ff.);Google ScholarSnell, B., Szenen aus griechischen Dramen (Berlin, 1971), 1ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar; Taplin, O., HSCP 76 (1972), 62–75Google Scholar; id., Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 196, n. 2, 423;Gredley, B. in Redmond, J. (ed.), Drama and the Actor (Cambridge, 1984), 8–10.Google Scholar

11 Döhle (n. 6), esp. 95ff. My anonymous referee objects that if the vases are really so early, and reflect Aeschylus, this famous trilogy must have failed to win the prize, since Aeschylus’ first victory is dated to 484. But many famous plays—Oedipus Tyrannus for example—failed to win. In any case, does anyone trust vase datings to within five years, even so close to the 480 destruction layer?

12 Garvie, A. F., Aeschylus’ Supplices: Play and Trilogy (Cambridge, 1969), 197–8,203Google Scholar; Johansen, H. Friis and Whittle, E. W., Aeschylus. The Suppliants (Copenhagen, 1980), 1.50Google Scholar; Winnington-Ingram, R. P., Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1983), 57Google Scholar, 61–2; West (n. 5), 169.

13 Garvie (n. 12), 196–7; Johansen and Whittle (n. 12), 50–1; Winnington-Ingram (n. 12), 57–8; West(n. 5), 170.

14 Cf. Ar. fr. 696: (Aeschylus speaking) τοῖσι Χοροῖς αὑτος τᾰ σΧματ‘ ποουυ… (Interlocutor) τοὺς ψργας οἱδα θ∊ωρυ, 1 ὃτ∊ τι πριμωι συλλυσμ∊υοι τυ παῖ λθουτ∊θυ∊τα, 1 πολλ τοιαυτ κα τοιαυτ κα δ∊ρο σχηματσαυτας; W Kranz, Stasimon (Berlin, 1933), 147.

15 Cf.West(n. 5), 14–15.

16 Besides the Greek fragments and testimonia, cf. those of the Hectoris Lutra of Ennius (Ribbeck [n. 10], 1.37–40; Trag. 156ff. Vahlen, 149ff. Jocelyn); also Wilamowitz (n. 10), 245–6; Schadewaldt (n. 10), 61–8; Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 430.

17 Welcker (n. 6), 436–7, already guessed that the Nereides dealt with the death of Achilles, and he attributed F 350 to this play, which, however, he put in the Memnon trilogy.

18 Proclus; cf. Od. 24.47, 58–9; Quint. Smyrn. 3.582fF. See further C. Robert, Die griechische Heldensage 3 (Berlin, 1923), 1193.

19 For the typology, cf. West (n. 5), 13–14.

20 Cf. Proclus’ summary of the Aethiopis, κα Ǝτις τι παιδ τ κατ τυ Mμυουα παολγ∊ι

21 Cf. Proclus, τρ∊ψμ∊υος δ ’χιλλ∊ὺς Tρας κα ∊ἰς τυ πλιυ συυ∊ισπ∊σὼυ ὑπ πριδος υαιρ∊ῖται κα ’Aπλλωυος Apollod. epit. 5.3 διώγας δ κα τοὺς Tρας ταῖς Σκαιαῖς πλαις τοξ∊∊ται ὑπ ’Aλ∊ξυδρου κα ’Aπλλωυος ∊ἰς τ σøυρυ.

22 Cf. Robert (n. 18), 1194–5;Hommel, H., Der Gott Achilleus (Sitzb. d. Heidelb. Akad., Phil.-hist. Kl., 1980. 1), 13, 18.Google Scholar

23 F 153 λ∊πτς δ σιυδὼυ μøιβαλλσθω χρο an instruction to wrap a body up in a fine cloth, probably stood in this context.

24 The pleaders in the Myrmidones may have appeared successively rather than together.

25 Fr. 696, quoted in n. 14.

26 Ar. Pax 1177; Av. 800, 807, 1256?; Ran. 911–15, 932, 992, 1041, 1264–77; Eccl. 932–3.

27 Hermann, Opuscula 7.345.

28 Ar. Ran. 963; Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 43, 422.

29 Hermann, Opuscula 7.347; Wilamowitz (n. 10), 59, n. 1, ‘Notwendig gehört zu der Psychostasie der Memnon, und dem Tode des Helden muBte sein erfolgreiches Eingreifen in den Kampf vorhergehen, vielleicht der Tod des Antilochos.’ For the Antilochus episode, cf. Od. 4.187–8; Pind. Pyth. 6.28ff.; Robert (n. 18), 1181. A number of vase paintings show Achilles and Memnon fighting over Antilochus’ body.

30 Ctesias, FGrHist 688 F 1 pp. 441–2 J. (Diod. 2.22.2), echoed by PI. Leg. 685c, Cephalion, FGrHist 93 F 1 p. 441 J. In Quint. Smyrn. 2.27ff. Priam announces to the Trojans that he sent for Memnon some time ago, so that he cannot now be far away; a page or so later he arrives. Although this copies a tragic technique of preparing for a new entry (see Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 137–8), we cannot argue from it to Aeschylus’ Memnon.

31 F405; cf. Paus. 10.31.7; Robert (n. 18), 1183, n. 3.

32 Robert (n. 18), 1183.

33 Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 76.

34 Ar. Ran. 1291 = Aesch. F 282; metre ia ʃ4da, like Ag. 108/9 (= Ar. Ran. 1284/5), 116. For the corruption of Mμυωυ (as play title) to ’Aγαμμυωυ, cf. Poll. 4.110 (υ Mμυουι, v.l. υ ’Aγαμμυουι), and the sources for each of Radt's fragments 127–130.

35 Robert (n. 6), 143–6;Caskey, L. D. and Beazley, J. D., Attic Vase Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 3 (Boston, 1963), 44–6Google Scholar; LIMC s.vv. Ker and Memnon.

36 Pollux 4.130.

37 Sch. II. 8.70, 22.210; the texts are collected and set out by Radt in TrGF. 3.375.

38 Wilamowitz (n. 10), 58–9.

39 Welcker (n. 6), 435. In Quint. Smyrn. 2.593fF. Eos is accompanied by twelve Horai when she comes down from heaven to lament Memnon.

40 Welcker (n. 6), 434, ‘den Kampf konnte man ohne die Scene der Höhe darstellen… aber nicht umgekehrt die Psychostasie ohne den Kampf.’

41 Cf. Wilamowitz (n. 10), 59.

42 Hermann, Opuscula 7.354.

43 Wilamowitz (n. 10), 246.

44 Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 431–3.

45 There is some likelihood that in the Prometheus Lyomenos Thetis appeared in flight from Zeus (Fitton-Brown, A. D., JHS 19 [1959], 57Google Scholar; West, M. L., JHS 99 [1979], 144).CrossRefGoogle Scholar But that does not mean that Zeus himself arrived on stage. Hermes may have come on his behalf, as in the Desmotes.

46 Wilamowitz (n. 10), 246, n. 0, ‘die Maschine war gleicher Art wie der Vogel des Okeanos’.

47 West (n. 5), 7–8, cf. 54.

48 We can hardly suppose that he held up his scales without saying a word.

49 Or dilogy, as suggested by Wilamowitz (n. 10), 59, n. 1; Griechische Tragödien 4 (Berlin, 1923), 314, n. 2.

50 The belief that he was not killed in the Memnon rests on the premise that the play was at some time produced together with the Psychostasia. But no one doubts this.

51 Already proposed as the first play of the Memnon trilogy by W Schmid, Gesch. d. gr. Lit. 1.2.189, n. 0, followed by Mette, H. J., Der verlorene Aischylos (Berlin, 1963), 108ff.Google Scholar; Kossatz-Deissmann, A., Dramen des Aischylos auf westgriechischen Vasen (Mainz, 1978), 74Google Scholar; contra,Gantz, T., CJ 74 (1979), 303, n. 82. My anonymous referee draws my attention to the coupling of Memnon and Sarpedon as objects of the gods’ grief in Ar. Nub. 622: ‘evidence that Athenians had fairly recently had cause to think of these two heroes and to link them together?’Google Scholar

52 Hartung, J. A., Aeschylus’ Fragmente (Aeschylus’ Werke 8, Leipzig, 1855), 95–6.Google Scholar

53 P. Didot (Louvre inv. 7172) col. iv 10-v 9; F **99 Radt;Diggle, J., Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta Selecta (Oxford, 1998), 16–17.Google Scholar I must refer to their apparatuses for most details of what the papyrus gives in each place and who made sense out of it. Line 1 is the conclusion of a sentence in which the subject seems to have been Europa's father, Phoenix. I interpret the transmitted λιμω as an ‘Attic’ accusative (λ∊ιμὼυ Weil); for the end of the line, e.g. πμβοτου (-ος Weil) πορώυ (Platt) would do. In 3 I write αὐτς for -του, in 7 and 9 I follow Weil, except in putting (γουσι rather than -αῖσι (γωυ∊ις pap.); in 101 adopt Bergk's øιτυμτωυ for the papyrus’ ψυδ∊υματωυ, and in 17 an exempli gratia supplement by Barrett. In 11 I would favour Mυω<υ>; at Cho. 618 Mυω is the genitive.

54 One might have expected that it would be Lycia, as that is where Sleep and Death take Sarpedon's body in the Iliad (16.454–7, 671–5, 681–3), and where his kinsmen bury him. But Strabo (14.3.3) writes that tragedians mixed up the names of peoples, for example calling the Lycians Carians: ο ποιητα δ, μλιστα ο τραγικο, συγχουτ∊ς τ ἔθυη, καθπ∊ρ τοὺς Tρας κα Mυσοὺς κα τοὺς Aυδοὺς “øργας” παοσαγορ∊ουσιυ, οὓτω κα τοὺς Aυκους “Kρας”. He must have in view a tragedy which spoke of ‘Carians’ where he thought they should be called Lycians. The obvious candidate is the Kares, which dealt with the death of the Lycian Sarpedon. The mention of Mylasa, however, implies that the poet was not applying the name ‘Carian’ to Lycians but actually locating Sarpedon's home in Caria. Cf.Wilamowitz, , Einleitung in die griechische Tragödie (Berlin, 1907), 108Google Scholar, n. 65;Schwartz, E., Gesammelte Schriften 2 (Berlin, 1956), 76.Google Scholar

55 Hartung (n. 52; before the publication of the papyrus, be it remembered) reconstructed the plot in almost precisely similar terms: ‘Dann wird ein Bote angekommen sein, welcher den Tod des Helden meldete, und zuletzt werden seine irdischen Reste in der Weise angelangt sein wie deren Heimschaffung bei Homer II. ξ [read π], 667–683 beschrieben ist. Die übrige Tragödie nun mufite die Todtenklage enthalten.’

56 Cf. also Eur. Or. 67–70.

57 F99.12 ‘Pαδμααυθυυ 21 υυπρβατου (a convincing correction of the papyrus’ nonsensical αστυβ∊ρβαρτου.

58 Griffith, M., The Authenticity of ‘Prometheus Bound’ (Cambridge, 1977), 77–8.Google Scholar

59 Prom. 562—3 τυα ø λ∊σσ∊ιυ τυδ∊ χαλιυοῖς υ π∊τρυοισιυ χ∊ιμαξμ∊υου 838 ø’ οὗ παλιμπλγκτοισι χ∊ιμξηι δρομοις.

60 West, M. L., JHS 99 (1979), 146–7CrossRefGoogle Scholar, where I listed the authors he appears to have been acquainted with: Hesiod, Aristeas, Aeschylus, Pindar, Protagoras, Pherecydes of Athens, Sophocles; add Acusilaus (2 F 34 ≈ Prom. 559) and Herodotus (Bees, R., Zur Datierung des Prometheus Desmotes [Stuttgart, 1993], 133–241).Google Scholar

61 Io, Epaphos, Libye, Belos, Aigyptos, Lynceus, Abas, Acrisius, Danae, Perseus, Alcaeus, Amphitryon, Heracles.

62 ‘Hes.’ fr. 140–1.

63 New York, Metropolitan Museum 16.140; Kossatz-Deissmann (n. 51), 66–74.

64 For the Oceanids, however, I continue to believe that several cranes must have been used. My arguments in JHS 99 (1979), 136–7, have been dismissed in offhand fashion but not answered.

65 Taplin, Stagecraft of Aeschylus, 39–49.

66 See Hutchinson, G. O., Aeschylus, Septem contra Thebas (Oxford, 1985), 209–11.Google Scholar Hutchin son considers the interpolation to postdate the closing scene of the Phoenissae, but argues as if this were the only alternative to the scene in the Septem being genuine Aeschylus. It may be related to the scene in the Phoenissae, but I see no reason for assuming the priority of the latter. It is relevant that Hutchinson does not admit that Aeschylean plays were revived before 386 b.c. (op. cit., xlii). The usual view, that there were revivals in the fifth century, has been reasserted by Dover, K. J., Aristophanes, Frogs (Oxford, 1993), 23.Google Scholar

67 Cf. West (n. 5), 59–61.