Cassandra and the Poetics of Prophecy in Greek and Latin Literature

278 Pages·2019·0.96 MB·English

by  Emily J. Pillinger

CASSANDRA AND THE POETICS OF
PROPHECY IN GREEK AND LATIN
LITERATURE
Th is book explores the miscommunications of the prophet Cassandra –
cursed to prophesy the truth but never to be understood until too
late – in Greek and Latin poetry. Using insights from the fi eld of
translation studies, the book focuses on the dialogic interactions that
take place between the articulation and the realisation of Cassandra’s
prophecies in fi ve canonical ancient texts, stretching from Aeschylus’
to Seneca’s Agamemnon . Th ese interactions are dogged by confu-
sion and misunderstanding, but they also show a range of interested
parties engaged in creatively ‘translating’ meaning for themselves
from Cassandra’s ostensibly nonsensical voice. Moreover, as the
fi gure of Cassandra is translated from one literary work into another,
including into the Sibyl of Virgil’s A eneid , her story of tragic commu-
nicative disability develops into an optimistic metaphor for literary
canon f ormation. Cassandra invites us to reconsider the status and
value of even the most riddling of female prophets in ancient poetry.
EMILY PILLINGER is Lecturer in Classics at King’s College London.
Her research interests range across Latin (and some Greek) poetry
and poetics, focusing on themes that describe the power and fra-
gility of both spoken and written communications: she has written
on poetry associated with the utterance of prophecies and curses,
with letter-w riting, and with inscribed monuments. She also works
on the reception of the ancient world, and particularly on the infl u-
ence of Graeco-R oman myth and history in music composed after
the Second World War.

CASSANDRA AND THE
POETICS OF PROPHECY
IN GREEK AND LATIN
LITERATURE
EMILY PILLINGER
King’s College London
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www.cambridge.org
Information on this title:  www.cambridge.org/ 9781108473934
DOI:  10.1017/ 9781108564007
© Emily Pillinger 2019
Th is publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2019
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Clays Ltd, Elcograf S.p.A.
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Pillinger, Emily J., 1978– author.
Title: Cassandra and the poetics of prophecy in Greek and Latin literature / Emily Pillinger.
Description: Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2019. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifi ers: LCCN 2018048890 | ISBN 9781108473934 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781108462990 (paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: Cassandra (Legendary character) – In literature. |
Prophecy in literature. | Classical literature – History and criticism.
Classifi cation: LCC PA 3015. R 5 C 377 2019 | DDC 881/.0109351–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018048890
ISBN 978- 1- 108- 47393- 4 Hardback
ISBN 978- 1- 108-46299- 0 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy
of URL s for external or third- party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
For Clio and George

Contents
Acknowledgements page ix
Introduction: Translating Cassandra 1
Translating Cassandra: Who’s Translating Whom? 1
Prophecy as Poetry, Prophets as Poets 8
Th e Prophetic Female Voice and Body 12
Translation, Prophecy, Literary History 1 6
Cassandra’s Foreignising Translations 2 1
Cassandra and the Poetics of Prophecy 25
1 Understanding Too Much: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon 28
Translating Silence 31
Introducing Apollo: Dialogue/ Trialogue 4 3
Singsong, Birdsong 5 0
Choruses and Clarity 5 8
Performative Prophecy 6 6
2 Rewriting Her- story: Euripides’ Trojan Women 74
Continuity and Rupture: Dramatic Time 80
Paradoxical Rhetoric 8 7
Making Nonsense of Sense 9 5
Troy in Greece 1 04
3 A Scholarly Prophet: Lycophron’s Alexandra 108
Th e Instant Messenger 114
Second Sight 1 20
Siren Songs 1 28
East Meets West 138
Commentary 1 45
4 Graeco- Roman Sibylline Scripts: Virgil’s Aeneid 146
Ta(l)king over Cassandra 149
Helenus, Halfway 157
Vaticination, from Voice to Text 1 65
vii
viii Contents
Responsorial 173
Sibylline Postscripts, from Text to Voice 1 86
5 Cassandra Translated: Seneca’s Agamemnon 195
Monoglot Multiculturalism 198
Composing, Connecting, Collapsing the Cosmos 2 09
Spreading the Word 2 15
Conclusion: Transposing Cassandra 226
Bibliography 241
Index Locorum 257
General Index 262
Acknowledgements

Th is project began as part of a doctoral dissertation in the Department
of Classics at Princeton, and I owe a huge debt of thanks to my advisors
there, Denis Feeney and Andrew Feldherr. Both leaven their intellectual
brilliance with warmth, wit and humour, making it a delight to work with
them. Adding to the joy of studying at Princeton were more teachers and
friends than can possibly be listed here, but include: Rosa Andújar, Yelena
Baraz, Mark Buchan, Andrew Ford, Constanze Guthenke, Bob Kaster, Jake
Mackey, Carey Seal, Brent Shaw, Anna Uhlig, Leah Whittington, Michael
Wood, Tom Zanker, Froma Zeitlin, and for wonderful conversations that
continue across the globe, Michelle Coghlan. I am grateful to David Bellos
for organising the Princeton Translation Lunch Series, which addressed in
eye- opening ways the obscure enunciations of everything from Derrida to
dolphins.
Th rough the long process of turning the dissertation into a book I have
been indebted to Michael Sharp at Cambridge University Press, and to
the two anonymous readers for the Press who were exceptionally generous
with their time and suggestions. My thanks to Philippa Jevons, too, for
her indexing wizardry. Th e material in this book benefi ted from road-
testing before kind and helpful audiences in the departments of Classics at
Exeter, Bristol and Swansea (at a congenial KYKNOS seminar), and at the
Classical Association annual conferences in Cardiff and Bristol. Further
thoughts were refi ned during the conference ‘Th e Author- Translator in the
European Literary Tradition’ held at Swansea, and the ‘Text / Performance
Workshop on Don Fowler’s unpublished U nrolling the Text ’ organised in
Oxford by Francesca Martelli.
Since leaving Princeton I have had the support of several universities: the
Institute of Greece, Rome, and the Classical Tradition at Bristol; Balliol
College, Oxford; and most recently the Department of Classics at King’s
College London, where I have found the happiest of academic homes.
ix
x Acknowledgements
I am also grateful for various kinds of intellectual and moral support over
the past few years from Tim Whitmarsh, William Fitzgerald, Greta Hawes,
Deborah Steiner, Alessandro Barchiesi, Helen Van Noorden, Helen Lovatt,
Edith Hall, Hugh Bowden, Dan Orrells, Victoria Moul, Danielle Frisby,
Ismene Lada-R ichards, Lucy Jackson, Paul Cheetham, Kathleen Mysberg,
Anik Monoury, Soo-L in Lui, Vanessa Naish, and fi nally A. E. Stallings,
who provided poetic inspiration at a late stage in the project.
Above all, this book owes its existence to the support of a wonderful
family: my remarkable parents Edward and Suzanne, my brilliant brother
Toby and my beloved Pavlos. In fact Pavlos Avlamis should rightly be
footnoted on every page, since there is no sentence that has not benefi ted
from his wisdom and learning, his patient discussions, frequent hilarity
and unwavering encouragement. Above all, to him I owe the dedicatees of
this book, our future translated: Clio and George.