›Prometheus Bound‹ - a Separate Authorial Trace in the Aeschylean Corpus

298 Pages·2020·4.574 MB·English

by  Nikos Manousakis

Nikos Manousakis
Prometheus Bound – A Separate Authorial Trace in the Aeschylean Corpus
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Volume 98
Nikos Manousakis
Prometheus Bound –
A Separate Authorial
Trace in the
Aeschylean Corpus
This project has received funding from the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation
(HFRI) and the General Secretariat for Research and Technology (GSRT).
ISBN 978-3-11-068764-4
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-068767-5
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-068781-1
ISSN 1868-4785
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019957900
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
parentibus optimis


ἴσως μὲν οὖν δή, ὦ Κρατύλε, οὕτως ἔχει, ἴσως δὲ καὶ οὔ. σκοπεῖσθαι οὖν χρὴ
ἀνδρείως τε καὶ εὖ, καὶ μὴ ῥᾳδίως ἀποδέχεσθαι —ἔτι γὰρ νέος εἶ καὶ ἡλικίαν ἔχεις.
σκεψάμενον δέ, ἐὰν εὕρῃς, μεταδιδόναι καὶ ἐμοί.
Πλάτων, Κρατύλος 440d 3–7
I was more motivated by curiosity. […] I just wondered how things were put to-
gether. Or what laws or rules govern a situation, or if there are theorems about
what one can’t or can do.
Claude Shannon, Collected Papers
(1993) xxiv

Preface
For the non-classicists the athetesis of Prometheus Bound, traditionally attributed
to Aeschylus, is a rather unpalatable idea. The play is still being staged around
the world as the work of Aeschylus, and most probably that will be the case for
many years. Possibly forever. Even those theatre practitioners who have an idea
about the long-discussed authenticity question, prefer to disregard it. And that is
only natural. Who would want to stage a drama by some anonymous fifth-century
playwright, about whom we know absolutely nothing, when they could stage a
drama by one of the greatest poets of all time? However, the traditional author-
ship of Prometheus Bound has been seriously disputed by various specialists, and
the book at hand has ended up being a further contribution to the growing body
of evidence indicating that the play is most likely not by Aeschylus.
This book is based on my University of Athens DPhil dissertation, submitted
in December 2016. The present text is considerably revised, even if the main struc-
ture and argument are essentially unchanged. The revision took longer than
hoped for, since various academic and other projects left limited time for the nec-
essary work. The delay had one positive consequence; that is, I have been able to
take into account relevant works of scholarship that appeared in the intervening
years.
I am grateful to many scholars and friends for their criticism and help; in par-
ticular, to Professors Dimitrios Karadimas, Georgios Mikros, and Efstathios Sta-
matatos. This book would not have been possible without their invaluable sup-
port. I am also grateful to Professors Ioannis Konstantakos, Maria Kikilia, Eleni
Karamalengou, Sophia Aneziri, Selene Psoma, and Angelos Chaniotis, for their
encouragement and constant help. I want to very much thank my dear friend and
distinguished scholar of Byzantine studies Theofili Kampianaki for generously
providing me with materials from the Bodleian Libraries at Oxford University. I
am truly indebted to Professor Antonios Rengakos. He has been, in so many ways,
the force behind this book. Finally, I want to thank my family and friends for put-
ting up with me while I was writing this book, and before that, and after that:
εὐχὰς ἀγαθάς, ἀγαθῶν ποινάς.
Mount Lycabettus, Athens, Greece, 2020
Nikos Manousakis

https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110687675-202