Refiguring Tragedy: Studies in Plays Preserved in Fragments and Their Reception

166 Pages·2019·1.312 MB·English

by  Ioanna Karamanou

Ioanna Karamanou
Refiguring Tragedy
Trends in Classics –
Supplementary Volumes
Edited by
Franco Montanari and Antonios Rengakos

Associate Editors
Stavros Frangoulidis · Fausto Montana · Lara Pagani
Serena Perrone · Evina Sistakou · Christos Tsagalis

Scientific Committee
Alberto Bernabé · Margarethe Billerbeck
Claude Calame · Jonas Grethlein · Philip R. Hardie
Stephen J. Harrison · Richard Hunter · Christina Kraus
Giuseppe Mastromarco · Gregory Nagy
Theodore D. Papanghelis · Giusto Picone
Tim Whitmarsh · Bernhard Zimmermann

Volume 80
Ioanna Karamanou
Refiguring
Tragedy
Studies in Plays Preserved in Fragments and Their
Reception
ISBN 978-3-11-065974-0
e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-11-066127-9
e-ISBN (EPUB) 978-3-11-066000-5
ISSN 1868-4785
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019938414
Bibliographic information published by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie;
detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de.
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
In loving memory of my grandparents:
Ioannis and Efrossini Karamanou
Ioannis and Eleni Xanthaki

Preface
The present book has grown out of my earlier and ongoing interest in fragmen-
tarily preserved tragedies and their reception over the course of the last fifteen
years. Despite the evergrowing attention which dramatic fragments have been
attracting especially during the last two decades, the afterlife of fragmentary
plays has still remained underexplored. Their Nachleben calls for further investi-
gation, not least because it could add to the contemporary critical interest in
tragic fragments and their literary appreciation and could shed light on those
very aspects which have given rise to their later transformations, thus revealing
their continuing cultural power.
I am truly grateful to the General Editors of Trends in Classics Supplementary
Volumes, Professor Franco Montanari and Professor Antonios Rengakos, for en-
couraging me to submit this book for publication in their renowned series and for
their brilliant guidance throughout. Ever since the beginning of my scholarly re-
search in the early 2000s, I have been extremely fortunate to have received the
unstinted interest of my three supervisors, Professor Chris Carey, Professor Pat
Easterling and Professor Richard Janko, with whom I have discussed several as-
pects of this material at the early stages of this work.
I have also benefited significantly from the great expertise of Professor Lorna
Hardwick in classical reception and from her warmly encouraging me to write on
the afterlife of fragmentary plays. I am much indebted to Professor Stavros
Tsitsiridis for his insightful criticism and thoughtful advice on several aspects of
this book, as well as for kindly supplying me with essential bibliography on Aris-
totle’s Poetics. Warmest thanks are due to David Stuttard for discussing with me
the challenges of the performance of Euripides’ Alexandros on the contemporary
stage and to the two anonymous readers for their constructive criticism.
At this point, I feel the need to express my everlasting gratitude to late Pro-
fessors Daniel Jacob and Herman Van Looy, both of whom had read earlier ver-
sions of chapters of this book, offering me vigorous scholarly advice and unfail-
ing support.
Last but not least, I owe a huge debt to my family: to my children, Zoe-Geor-
gia and George-Christos, for brightening my life; to my parents, Andreas and
Georgia, and my brother, Yiannis, for always being there. This book is fondly ded-
icated to the memory of my grandparents for showing me the way.
I.K.
Nafplio and Thessaloniki, December 2018
https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110661279-202

Contents
Preface | VII
Abbreviations | XI
Introduction | 1 
Part I: Inter-dramatic Dialogues
‘All’s well that ends well’: Euripides’ response to Sophocles’ Antigone | 15 
Alope’s legend and its dramatic refigurations | 26 
Tragedy into Comedy: Euripides’ Alcmeon in Corinth as a source text of
Menander’s Periceiromene | 48
Part II: Tragedy through Aristotelian Spectacles
Exploring Aristotle’s Poetics as a source for lost tragedies | 61 
Aristotle’s reception of the lysis in Theodectes’ Lynceus: Remarks on Poet. 11,
1452a 27–29 and 18, 1455b 29–32 | 73 
Part III: Iconographic Reception
The representation of Euripides’ Dictys in South Italian painted pottery | 85 
The reception of Euripides’ Alexandros in Etruscan iconography | 97 
Part IV: Performing Fragments
Euripides’ Alexandros in performance | 117
Bibliography | 129
General Index | 153
Index of Passages Discussed | 159