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Phaidra's Aidos Again*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

E. M. Craik
E. M. Craik
Affiliation:
Kyoto University, Japan
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Extract

W. D. Furley, ‘Phaidra's pleasurable aidos (Eur. Hipp. 380–7)’, CQ 46 (1996), 84–90 is in part a response to my article, ‘ in Euripides’ Hippolytos 373–430: review and reinterpretation’, JHS 113 (1993), 45–59. Furley states that I suggest that aidos is ‘a euphemism for aidoia, the genitals, thus = sex’. This is an over-simplification. I argue (at pp. 45, 55, 56) that ‘in this context, is a euphemistic metonymy for ’; that ‘in terms of linguistic use, may be viewed as the natural reaction to the … just as is to ; and hence that ‘the linguistic associations and semantic nuances of are sufficient to allow the word, in appropriate contexts, to mean “sex”’.

Type
Shorter Notes
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 47 , Issue 2 , December 1997 , pp. 567 - 569
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1997

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References

1 See my comments in ‘Sexual Imagery and Innuendo in Troades’, in A. Powell (ed.), Euripides, Women, and Sexuality (London and New York, 1990), pp. 1–15, especially at p. 14, n. 3.

2 See, for instance, B. D. Frischer, ‘Concordia discors and Characterization in Euripides’ Hippolytus’, CRBS 11(1970), 85–100; and F. E. Brenk, ‘Phaidra's Risky Horsemanship: Euripides’ Hippolytos 232–238’, Mnemosyne 39 (1986), 385–8, especially at p. 387 on the ‘creeping eroticism and crossing of language from one character to another’.

3 See A. Motte, Prairies etjardins de la Grece antique (Ac. Roy. Belg. Mem. Classe des Lettres 2.61, fasc. 5) (Brussels, 1973) and J. M. Bremer, ‘The Meadow of Love and Two Passages in Euripides’ Hippolytos’, Mnemosyne 28 (1975), 268–80; also, on usage of and , J. Henderson, The Maculate Muse (Baltimore and London, 1979), hereafter MM, at 76 and 135.30.Google Scholar

4 All citations are from the OCT of J. Diggle.

5 The phrase . Nu. 978, is understood by K. J. Dover, comm. ad loc. (Oxford, 1968), to refer to Cowper's secretion, but see second thoughts in Greek Homosexuality (London, 1978), p. 125 n. 1; and note the suggestion of Henderson, MM16 and 445 that the reference is to ‘athletic sweat’.Google Scholar

6 Furley's stance does not differ substantially from that of Barrett, Dodds, Segal and others; see discussion and bibliography in my article. Reciprocity is noted throughout D. L. Cairns, Aidos (Oxford, 1993); see e.g. pp. 3–4,458–9,184–5.Google Scholar