The Tangled Ways of Zeus: And Other Studies In and Around Greek Tragedy

353 Pages·2010·2.36 MB·English

by  Alan H. Sommerstein

THE TANGLED WAYS OF ZEUS
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The Tangled Ways
of Zeus
and other studies in and around
Greek Tragedy
ALAN H. SOMMERSTEIN
1
3
GreatClarendonStreet,Oxfordox26dp
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ISBN 978–0–19–956831–4
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Preface
This book is the ‘further volume mainly consisting of articles
on tragedy’ that was foreshadowed in the preface to my previous
collection Talking about Laughterand other studies in Greek Comedy
(Oxford, 2009). The ‘mainly’, and the ‘in and around’ in the title of
the present volume, refer to Chapters 1 and 2, which areconcerned
withissuesrelevanttoallvarietiesofGreekdrama.
Mostoftheessaysinthisvolume,asinthepreviousone,havebeen
published before—all of them, like all but one of those in the pre-
vious volume, within the last twenty years. With one exception, as
before, I have excluded papers which first appeared in books or
periodicals likely to be widely accessible in academic libraries in the
English-speakingworld,orine-journalsaccessiblewithoutsubscrip-
tion; the exception, included at the special request of OUP’s editor
and referee, is Chapter 7. Five of the chapters have not appeared
previously: Chapters 3 and 17 are papers presented at Classical
Association conferences, Chapter 4 is the Gaisford Lecture which
I had the honour of delivering at Oxford in 2007, Chapter 15 is a
semi-popularlecture,andChapter18wastohavebeendeliveredata
LondonmeetingoftheSocietyforthePromotionofHellenicStudies
(seethefinalnotetothatchapter).
Allpapersappearhereessentiallyastheywereoriginallypublished
orpresented,withtheoriginalpagination(ifany)inserted(insquare
brackets and in boldface) at the point where each new page of the
original began (in Ch. 8 the same has been done in the footnotes,
sincethesewereoriginallyendnotes).Ingeneral,theonlychangesin
the text have been those of style, referencing, brief explanatory
additions,andthecorrectionoferrorsthatshouldhavebeenspotted
inproof,specifiedintheprefacetoTalkingaboutLaughter;butthose
chapters which have not previously appeared in print (3, 4, 15, 17,
and18)orwhichappearedinpublicationswheretheusualscholarly
apparatus would havebeen inappropriate (9, 12, and 19) have been
provided with the footnotes which they would have had originally
if that had been possible. Most of the chapters are followed by an
vi Preface
addenda section drawing attention to significant subsequent devel-
opments in the relevant scholarship, or to points where my own
thinking haschangedsincethetimeoftheoriginalpaper.
For a second time I express my gratitude to Hilary O’Shea and
her colleagues at Oxford University Press; to the British Academy,
the Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies, and especially
the University of Nottingham, for the support they have given me
in attending many conferences; and to those who invited me to
write or present so many of these papers—Guillermo De Santis,
H. D. Jocelyn, Ben Jourdain, Manfred Lossau, Benedetto Marzullo,
Pantelis Michelakis, Duncan Murdoch, Christopher Pelling, David
Stuttard,IsabelleTorrance,and(onceagain)BernhardZimmermann.
alanh.sommerstein
Nottingham
Contents
Abbreviations ix
Introduction 1
1.ThetitlesofGreekdramas 11
2.ViolenceinGreekdrama 30
3.Adolescence,ephebeia,andAtheniandrama 47
4.Sherlockismusandthestudyoffragmentary tragedies 61
5.TheseniorityofPolyneikesinAeschylus’Seven 82
6.ThebeginningandtheendofAeschylus’Danaidtrilogy 89
7.Thetheatreaudience,theDemos,andtheSuppliants
ofAeschylus 118
8.Sleepingsafeinour beds:stasis,assassination,and
theOresteia 143
9.ThetangledwaysofZeus 164
10.TheomenofAulisor theomenofArgos? 171
11.PathosandmathosbeforeZeus 178
12.OresteiaActII:twomisconceptions 189
13.Aeschylus’epitaph 195
14.DearestHaimon 202
15.‘Theyallknewhow itwasgoingtoend’:tragedy,myth,
andthespectator 209
16.AlternativescenariosinSophocles’Electra 224
17.Sophocles’PalamedesandNaupliusplays:notrilogyhere 250
viii Contents
18.‘TheruggedPyrrhus’:thesonofAchillesintragedy 259
19.WhatoughttheThebanstohavedone? 277
References 288
Indexlocorum 307
Generalindex 331
Abbreviations
This list includes only abbreviations not listed in the Liddell-Scott-Jones
Lexicon(Oxford,1940),initsRevisedSupplement(Oxford,1996),orinthe
revised third edition of the Oxford Classical Dictionary (Oxford, 2003). In
somecasesabbreviationsofancientauthornamesortexttitlesmaybeless
drastic than those used in these works, or maydiffer from them owing to
transliterationconventions(e.g.byusingkratherthanc).Wherethenumber
of a fragment, hypothesis, etc., is followed by the name of a scholar, the
referenceistothatscholar’seditionoftheauthorortextinquestion;where
theremightbeambiguityaboutthemeaningofsuchareference,theeditor’s
nameislistedbelow.
AJP AmericanJournalofPhilology
CA ClassicalAntiquity
CAG CommentariainAristotelemGraeca(Berlin,1882–1909)
Davies M.Davies,EpicorumGraecorumFragmenta(Go¨ttingen,1988)
Fowler R.L.Fowler,EarlyGreekMythography,i.Texts(Oxford,2000)
h.Herm. HomericHymntoHermes
HSCP HarvardStudiesinClassicalPhilology
Hypoth. Hypothesis(headnoteto,orsynopsisof,aliterarytext)
IGUR Inscriptiones Graecae Urbis Romae, ed. L. Moretti (Rome,
1968–90)
Mu¨ller C.Mu¨ller,FragmentaHistoricorumGraecorum(Paris,1841–84)
NAWG Nachrichten der Akademie der Wissenschaften in Go¨ttingen,
Philologisch-historischeKlasse
PdP ParoladelPassato
Proleg. Prolegomena
QSt QuadernidiStoria
RhM RheinischesMuseumfu¨rPhilologie
SemRom SeminariRomanidiCulturaGreca
UCPCP UniversityofCaliforniaPublicationsinClassicalPhilology
West (forepic)M.L.West,GreekEpicFragments(Cambridge,Mass.,
2003)
(for iambus and elegy) M. L. West, Iambi et Elegi Graeci
(Oxford,1971–2)
YCS YaleClassicalStudies
(cid:1) scholium
# number