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Fear and Healing Through the Serpent Imagery in
Greek Tragedy
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Dasteridou, Magdalini. 2015. Fear and Healing Through the Serpent Imagery in Greek Tragedy.
Master's thesis, Harvard Extension School.
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Fear and Healing through the Serpent Imagery in Greek Tragedy

Magdalini Dasteridou

A Thesis in the Field of Foreign Literature, Language, and Culture
for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies

Harvard University
November 2015
© 2015 Magdalini Dasteridou
Abstract

This work explores how the tragic poets, by means of snake imagery, convey the
notion of disease. Moreover, it examines how snake imagery contributes to the process of
healing through the emotion of fear that it triggers. My analysis of the tragedies in which
the three main tragedians employ snake imagery builds upon findings from ancient
authors that refer to snakes and their characteristics, and upon the findings of
contemporary scholars. My overall method relies on tools from structuralism and
psycholinguistics. Through snake imagery the tragic poets portray disease as it manifests
itself through arrogance, deception, physical pain, and madness. For this purpose the
poets employ images inspired by the particular anatomy and behavior of the snake.
Within the context of tragedy, and through the fear that it triggers, the snake imagery
encourages self-knowledge and healing through self-correction.
Dedication

“For all things come from You, and of Your own we have given You”
David Chronicles 1.29.14

I would like to dedicate the first fruits of my harvest to God, who has been
making the last ten years of my life a continuous miracle; and to my father, who is with
us, but not among us.

iv
Acknowledgments

I am very much grateful to Dr. Naomi Weiss for her guidance through the
completion of my thesis. Apart from her priceless comments, she helped me to stay
focused on my topic at the times that I was veering away from it. Moreover, I
acknowledge her patience and tact; she has been the right person at the right time. In
addition, I would like to thank Dr. Albert Henrichs; strict and enthusiastic at the same
time, through his courses he has influenced the ways that I use to unlock an ancient
Greek text. Also, I acknowledge Dr. Gregory Nagy and Dr. Kevin McGrath who initiated
me mentally into the world of the ancient Greek heroes and their cult; that course was a
transforming experience. Furthermore, I am grateful to Dr. Sue Schopf; not only did she
help me to begin my thesis’ writing, but also she and Dr. Henrichs contributed decisively
to the completion of my studies at a very crucial moment.
In addition, I would like to thank Vicky Sue Gilpin for her encouragement and
support all these years and my colleague and friend Yimali Gonzalez for reading my
drafts. Moreover, I am indebted to Dr. George Kafkoulis, President of the Archimedean
Schools in Miami, Florida. He supported my residency in the United States when it
became highly uncertain. Finally, I have no words to express my gratitude to my brave
and patient mother Iphigeneia Dasteridou, to my sister Dora Dasteridou, my son-in law
Stavros Voulgaris, and my little nephew Demetrios Voulgaris for cheering me up,
encouraging me, and praying for me all these years.

v
Table of Contents

Dedication.....................................................................................................................iv
Acknowledgments..........................................................................................................v
I. Introduction........................................................................................................1
II. Arrogance and Snakes: How High Can Serpents Fly?.......................................9
Snakes and Warriors: Aiskhylos’ Seven against Thebes and
Euripides’ Phoinissai...........................................................................11
Grooms and Snakes in Aiskhylos’ Suppliants.....................................20
A Kingdom and a Snake: Aiskhylos’ Persians....................................25
Snakes and Tyranny in Aiskhylos’ Agamemnon and Khoephoroi.......29
A Snake against a God: Euripides’ Bakkhai........................................36
III. Snakes and Deception: Criminal Minds...........................................................41
When Love Goes Wrong: Aiskhylos’ Klytemnestra in Agamemnon
and Khoephoroi....................................................................................46
Snake-fighting in Aiskhylos’ Khoephoroi and Euripides’ Orestes......50
Rapes, Murders, Snakes, and the Athenian Lineage in Euripides’
Ion........................................................................................................57
The Snake’s Double Tongue and Odysseus in Euripides’
Trojan Women and Sophokles’ Philoktetes.........................................62
A Snake in Panic: Hermione in Euripides’ Andromakhe.....................67
IV. Snakes, Poison, and Mad Heroes.....................................................................74
Snakes and Punishment in Sophokles’ Trakhiniai and Philoktetes,
and in Euripides’ Bakkhai....................................................................77
vi
Possessed by Lyssa: Herakles in Euripides’ Herakles.........................85
Avenging Spirits in Aiskhylos’ Khoephoroi and Eumenides and
Euripides’ Elektra, Iphigeneia among the Taurians, and Orestes.......89
V. Conclusion......................................................................................................101
Notes...........................................................................................................................105
Bibliography...............................................................................................................110

vii
Chapter I
Introduction

This thesis is a study of snake imagery as it occurs in the plays of the three Greek
tragic poets Aiskhylos, Sophokles, and Euripides, and as it connects with the notion of
disease. Scholars, such as Jacques Jouanna in Greek Medicine from Hippocrates to Galen,
have explored the interplay between tragedy and the medical texts of the 5th century
B.C.E. and indicate the common vocabulary that the tragic poets and the medical authors
used to describe disease and suffering (81). The tragic heroes describe as disease any
condition that causes suffering and not necessarily only an unhealthy physical condition.
Therefore, a hubristic behavior, caused by arrogance and cunningness, which ends up in
suffering is considered as disease as well. In order to highlight a specific quality of their
heroes, the tragic poets often use images of animals, both domesticated, such as heifers
and dogs, and predatory animals, such as lions, eagles, and wolves; among them, the
snake imagery is dominant. So far, many scholars have studied the animal imagery in
ancient Greek literature, but they have not focused exclusively on the snake imagery in
relation to disease and healing in Greek tragedy.
The goal of my study is to examine why the tragic poets employ snake imagery so
often in their tragedies and how this relates to suffering. I hypothesize that the tragic
poets employ serpent imagery often because the snake as a symbol encompasses qualities
of other animals, such as the lion’s pride, strength, and cruelty, the wolf’s cunningness,
and the dog’s hunting skills. Moreover, due to its particular nature and due to its poison,
the snake inspires metaphors, similes, and metonymies that portray disease and suffering.
Therefore, the tragic poets use snake imagery to indicate physical suffering and madness
1
as well as pride and deception, which they perceive as mental disease. Through serpent
imagery and the demonstration of human suffering, the tragic poets deliberately evoke
the audience’s fear by way of empathy, which may lead to a certain level of self-
knowledge. Ultimately, through the reenactment of their suffering, the tragic heroes who
take on serpentine aspects become the people’s wounded healers and teach humility and
moderation.
In order to convey arrogance, deception, or physical and psychological suffering,
the tragic poets employ images derived from the snake’s anatomy and particular behavior,
such as the never-closing eyes, the double tongue, the poison, the hissing, the snake’s
particular movement and coils, its flexibility, adjustment, hiding skills, and unexpected
attacks. In Drakõn: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds,
Daniel Ogden tracks down the appearance of snakes in myths and suggests some
explanations regarding the connection of certain snake features with fear and pain, such
as the poison’s connection with fire (220). However, he does not connect the snake
features with arrogance and deception. In Greek tragedy, arrogance is expressed through
unjust violence and impiety. In order to indicate a hero’s cruelty, the tragic poets either
compare the hero with a snake, a drakõn, or they focus on the hero’s fierce snake-like
glance. Among the scholars who do not concentrate only on violence when they comment
on such comparisons but also see arrogance is Froma Zeitlin. In her work Under the Sign
of the Shield: Semiotics and Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes, Zeitlin makes the
connection between snake, arrogance, and primitivism—a combination that appears often
in tragedy.
These scholars who have studied snake imagery in tragedy have focused on the
notion of deception, mirroring perhaps one of the dominant universal perceptions of the
snake as a symbol of treachery. Two works that include the analysis of snake imagery are
2