Phaethon (play)
Phaethon | |
---|---|
Parthenoi, virgin women | |
Characters | Phaethon Clymene Merops Helios ? Messenger |
Date premiered | c. 420 BC |
Place premiered | Athens |
Original language | Ancient Greek |
Genre | Tragedy |
Setting | Aethiopia |
Phaethon (
Plot
Euripides' version of the myth was set in a mortal landscape, with Phaethon nominally the son of the
Perhaps to get her son overcome his reluctance, Clymene revealed to Phaethon his true, divine parentage, and urged him to go travel and find his father to confirm so himself, mentioning that the god had promised to grant one favour back when he slept with her; convinced of the truth of his mother's words, Phaethon agrees to travel and find his biological father.[8][2] What follows is the parodos, where the chorus, made up of the palace's slave girls, describe the dawn and express their enthusiam over Phaethon's upcoming marriage. Then, in the first episode, few lines survive of an argument between Merops and Phaethon.
Nothing survives from the first stasimon. Next someone, perhaps a
Subsequently, the still smoking body of Phaethon is brought on scene, which points to Zeus having indeed struck him with a thunderbolt. Clymene orders the slave girls to hide the body from Merops and laments Helios' role in his demise, noting that he is rightfully called "Apollo" (here understood to mean "destroyer") by the mortals who know the gods' true names.[11][10][a] The remainder of the plot seems to have revolved around Merops finding the charred corpse and the real parentage of Phaethon.[2] Near the end, Merops, who has now discovered the truth about Phaethon's fatherhood, seems to try to retaliate against Clymene by killing her[12] as the chorus advises Clymene to plead with her father, the river god Oceanus to save her from perishing;[13] it is unclear whether Clymene survives thanks to an ex machina intervention by a god, as well as that god's exact identity, whether it is Oceanus indeed trying to save his daughter, Helios or even Athena.[12] Diggle suggests that Clymene and Merops were reconciled in the end.[13]
Of unknown position in the play is a fragment in which Clymene expresses hatred over the handy horned bow, and youths' pastime exercises, as they remind her of her slain son.[14] At another points she cries that her "best beloved, but now he lies [a]nd putrefies in some dark vale".[15]
Other works
In one of the earliest surviving artistic attestations of the myth, a cast taken from an Arretine mould now housed in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston,[16] Phaethon is shown falling from the car, while Helios with a spare horse (as Euripides alone described) by his side has caught two horses and is preparing to catch the other two. Several other figures appear, like Zeus holding his thunderbolt, Tethys, Artemis, Iris and maybe Isis.[17][18]
Footnotes
- ^ This Euripidean fragment in fact constitutes one of the earliest evidence for the identification of the two gods.
References
- ^ a b Diggle, pp 7–8
- ^ a b c d Gantz, pp 31–32
- ^ Strabo, Geographica 1.2.27
- ^ Diggle, p. 37
- ^ Hugh Lloyd-Jones, The Classical Review Vol. 21, No. 3 (Dec., 1971), pp. 341–345
- ^ Diggle, p. 12
- ^ Gantz, pp 32–33
- ^ Cod. Claromont. - Pap. Berl. 9771, Euripides fragment 773 Nauck
- ^ Euripides Phaethon frag 779; Longinus, On the Sublime 15.4
- ^ a b Diggle, p. 42–43
- ^ Euripides, Phaethon frag 781 N²
- ^ a b Collard and Cropp, p. 202
- ^ a b Diggle, p. 44
- ^ Plutarch, Consolatio ad Uxorem 3
- ^ Plutarch, Quaestiones Convivales 665c, translation by William Watson Goodwin.
- ^ Which can be seen here.
- ^ Cook, pp 473-475
- ^ Gantz, p. 34
Bibliography
- Editions, translations, and commentaries
- Collard Christopher, Cropp Martin, Lee Kevin H.; Euripides: Selected Fragmentary Plays: Volume I, ISBN 978-0-85668-619-1.
- Christopher Collard, Martin Cropp; Euripides: Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus. Other Fragments Loeb Classical Library 506. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.
- ISBN 978-0521604246.
- Onori, Silvia (2023). L'auriga dal breve destino: commento critico-esegetico ai frammenti del Fetonte di Euripide. Tübingen: Narr Francke Attempto. ISBN 9783381107612.
- Primary witnesses
- .
- .
- Strabo, The Geography of Strabo. Edition by H.L. Jones. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press; London: William Heinemann, Ltd. 1924. Online version at the Perseus Digital Library.
- Discussions
- Cook, Arthur Bernard, "Zeus God of the Bright Sky" in Zeus: A study in ancient religion, Cambridge University Press, 1914, Online text available at Internet Archive.
- ISBN 978-0-8018-5362-3(Vol. 2).