The Suppliants (Aeschylus)
The Suppliants | |
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The Suppliants (
Plot
The
Themes
George Thomson, expanding on D. S. Robertson, interpreted the tetralogy as a defence of the Athenian law requiring widows to marry a brother or cousin of their deceased husband in some circumstances in order to keep his property within the family.[10] According to this interpretation, the Danaids' predicament of being forced into a marriage with their cousins would not have generated so much sympathy with the initial audience, which was accustomed to such marriages, as it might today.[10] This is reflected in the question Pelasgus asks of the Danaids' in The Suppliants that echoes Athenian law on the subject: "If the sons of Aigyptos are your masters by the law of the land, claiming to be your next-of-kin, who would wish to oppose them?"[10] Thomson speculates that as Oresteia ends by validating the contemporary Athenian law regarding trial for murder by the court of Areopagus, the Danaid plays may have ended by validating the contemporary Athenian law regarding marriage of next-of-kin when the husband dies without an heir.[10] Thomson further suggests the possibility that as Oresteia's ending dramatizes the establishment of the court of Areopagus, the Danaid plays may have ended by dramatizing the establishment of the festival of the Thesmophoria, a festival reserved for women that was based on the cult of Demeter which, according to Herodotus, was brought to Greece from Egypt by the Danaids.[10]
Ridgeway, on the other hand, interpreted the plays as a dramatization of the conflict between
Edith Hall writes,
Aeschylus' Suppliants concerns the shared history of the Argive Greeks and the Egyptians, but at its pscyhological heart lies the dramatization of violent ethnic confrontation. In its discussion of physical appearance, skin colour, and clothing, as well as in its comparisons of religion, behavioural codes, and political culture, the dialogue richly reflects the interest that mid-fifth-century Greeks had in the different peoples with whom they shared the Mediterranean litoral.[12]
Lost plays of the tetralogy
The remaining plays of the tetralogy have been mostly lost. However, one significant passage from The Danaids has been preserved. This is a speech by the goddess of love Aphrodite praising the marriage between the sky (the groom) and the earth (the bride) from which rain comes, nourishing cattle, corn, and fruits.[10]
As the plot of the remaining plays has been generally reconstructed, following a war with the Aegyptids in which Pelasgus has been killed, Danaus becomes tyrant of Argos. The marriage is forced upon his daughters, but Danaus instructs them to murder their husbands on their wedding night. All do except for Hypermnestra, whose husband, Lynceus, flees. Danaus imprisons or threatens to kill Hypermnestra for her disobedience, but Lynceus reappears and kills Danaus; Lynceus becomes the new king of Argos, with Hypermnestra as his queen. Opinions differ as to the ending, although certainly Aphrodite was involved in the denouement. One opinion is that Lynceus now must decide how to punish the forty-nine homicidal Danaids, when Aphrodite appears in deus ex machina fashion and absolves them of the murders, as they were obeying their father; she then persuades them to abandon their celibate ways, and the trilogy closes with their marriages to forty-nine local Argive men. An alternative opinion is that Hypermnestra is put on trial for disobeying her father and Aphrodite successfully defends her similarly to Apollo's defense of Orestes in Oresteia. The trilogy was followed by the satyr play Amymone, which comically portrayed a seduction of one of the Danaids by Poseidon.[4]
Notes
- ^ Paley, F. A. (1864). Aeschylus Translated into English Prose. Cambridge. Printed by Jonathan Palmer, 58, Sidney Street.: Deighton, Bell, and Co. London : Bell and Daldy. p. 1. ark:/13960/t4rj4dx0t.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location (link) - ^ Paley, F. A. (1879). G. Long and Rev. A. J. Macleane (ed.). The Tragedies of Aeschylus (4th ed.). London : Gilbert and Rivington Printers St. John's Square.: London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane ; George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden. pp. 1–5. ark:/13960/t8gf0q32t.
- JSTOR 629361.
- ^ a b The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed the existence of a trilogy, probably produced in 463. See Garvie 163-97, Friis Johansen/Whittle 1.23-25 and Sommerstein 141-52 for discussions of the trilogy's date, constituent plays and a hypothetical reconstruction of the plot.
- ^ See note 4.
- ^ Peter Burian. Introduction. The Suppliants by Aeschylus. Translated by Peter Burian. Princeton University Press, 1991. p. xi.
- ^ H. D. F. Kitto. Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study. Routledge, 1939. pp. 1-22.
- ^ "The Suppliants - Aeschylus - Ancient Greece - Classical Literature". Ancient Literature. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- ^ "Suppliants by Aeschylus". www.greekmythology.com. Retrieved 5 January 2021.
- ^ a b c d e f g Thomson, G. (1973). Aeschylus and Athens (4th ed.). Lawrence & Wishart. pp. 285–295.
- ISSN 1080-6504.
- ^ Edith Hall. Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun. Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 207.
Sources
- F. A. Paley, Aeschylus Translated into English Prose., Cambridge, 1864
- F. A. Paley, The Tragedies of Aeschylus., London, 1879
- Friis Johansen, H. and Whittle, E.W. Aeschylus: The Suppliants. 3 vols. Copenhagen, 1980.
- Garvie, A.F. Aeschylus' Supplices, Play and Trilogy. Cambridge, 1969.
- Sommerstein, Alan. Aeschylean Tragedy. Bari, 1996.
Translations
- Theodore Alois Buckley, 1849 - prose: full text
- F. A. Paley, 1855 - prose: full text
- F. A. Paley, 1864 - prose: full text
- Anna Swanwick, 1886 - verse: full text
- E. D. A. Morshead, 1908 - verse: full text
- Walter George Headlam and C. E. S. Headlam, 1909 - prose
- Herbert Weir Smyth, 1922 - prose: full text
- G. M. Cookson, 1922 - verse: full text
- Gilbert Murray, 1930 - verse: full text
- S. G. Benardete, 1956 - verse
- Philip Vellacott, 1961 - verse
- Peter Burian, 1991 - verse
- Christopher Collard, 2008
- George Theodoridis, 2009 - prose: full text
- Ian C. Johnston, 2013, verse: full text
External links
- Works related to The Suppliants at Wikisource
- The Suppliant Maidens public domain audiobook at LibriVox