Hypsipyle (play)
Hypsipyle | |
---|---|
Written by | Euripides |
Place premiered | Athens |
Original language | Ancient Greek |
Genre | Tragedy |
Hypsipyle (
Originally only known from a few fragments, knowledge of the play was greatly expanded with the discovery of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 852 in 1905, and its publication by Grenfell and Hunt in 1908.[4] Of his lost plays, it is the one with the most extensive fragments.[5] The prologue referenced Dionysus leading a dance along Mount Parnassus.[6]
Plot
The heroine of Euripides' play is
As the action of the play begins, Hypsipyle's twin sons by Jason, Euneus and Thoas, arrive seeking shelter for the night.[8] The sons have been separated from Hypsipyle since infancy, so neither recognizes the other. When Jason left Lemnos he had taken his sons to Colchis. After he died, Jason's fellow argonaut Orpheus took the boys to Thrace, where he raised them. They eventually met Hypsipyles' father Thoas, who took them back to Lemnos. From there they embarked on a search for their mother.[9]
The Seven against Thebes have also just arrived and encounter Hypsipyle. Amphiaraus tells Hypsipyle that they need water for a sacrifice, and she leads the Seven to a spring.[10] Hypsipyle brings Opheltes with her, and somehow, in a moment of neglect, Opheltes is killed by a serpent.[11] The child's mother Eurydice is about to have Hypsipyle put to death, when Amphiaraus arrives and Hypsipyle pleads with him to speak in her defense.[12] Amphiaraus tells Eurydice that the child's death was destined, proposes that funeral games be held in Opheltes' honor, and is able to convince Eurydice to spare Hypsipyle's life.[13] Funeral games are held, and Hypsypyle's sons participate, as a result of which, a recognition and reunion between Hypsipyle and her sons is effected, who then manage to free Hypsipyle from her servitude.[14]
The surviving fragments of Euripides' play do not make it clear how the recognition between Hypsipyle and her sons was brought about, but two later accounts may have been based on the play.
Notes
- ^ For the extant fragments of Euripides' play, with introduction and notes, see Collard and Cropp, pp. 250–321.
- ^ Collard and Cropp, p. 251.
- ^ Collard and Cropp, pp. xiv, 254.
- ^ Collard and Cropp, pp. 250, 255; Gantz, p. 511 with note 44.
- ^ Collard and Cropp, p. 255.
- ^ Aristophanes, The Frogs
- ^ Gantz, p. 511; Collard and Cropp, p. 251; Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 759a.72–74, 79–87 (Hypsipyle's flight, capture by pirates, slavery), fr. 752h.26–28 (Lycurgus as priest of Zeus), fr. 757 (Eurydice as mother), fr. 757.41–44 (Hypsipyle as nurse). Although Lycurgus is a king in later accounts, there is no indication of that here, see Bravo, p. 107.
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 752c [= fr. 764 Nauck], fr. 752d.
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 759a.93–105 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 314–315).
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 752h, fr. 753.
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 753d, fr. 754, fr. 754a.
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 757.37–68 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 294–297).
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 757.69–144 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 297–303. The seer Amphiaraus describing his defense of Hypsipyle as relying "on piety", (fr. 757.73) is suggestive of the child's death having been ordained by the gods.
- ^ Euripides, Hypsipyle fr. 759a.58–110.
- ^ Collard and Cropp, pp. 253 259, tests. iv, va with notes.
- = 164 Pepin, pp. 166–167].
- ^ Greek Anthology 3.10 [= Palatine Anthology 3.10 = Euripides Hypsipyle test. iv]. Compare with Euripides Hypsipyle fr. 759a.110, where Euneus mentions a "wine-dark grape-bunch".
References
- Bravo, Jorge J., III, Excavations at Nemea IV: The Shrine of Opheltes, Univ of California Press, 2018. ISBN 9780520967878.
- Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp, Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, .
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3(Vol. 2).
- Grenfell, B. P.. and Hunt, A. S., P. Oxy VI 852, London, 1908.
- Paton, W. R. (ed.), Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams, Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus, Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies, Book 5: Erotic Epigrams, translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller, .
- Pepin, Ronald E., The Vatican Mythographers, Fordham University Press, 2008. ISBN 9780823228928.