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11 - Fragmented Self and Fragmented Responsibility

Pasiphae in Euripides’ Cretans

from Part II - Plays

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 June 2020

By
Luigi Battezzato
Edited by
P. J. Finglass  and
Lyndsay Coo
P. J. Finglass
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
Lyndsay Coo
Affiliation:
University of Bristol
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Summary

This chapter analyses the particularly complex representation of responsibility and selfhood present in the speech of Pasiphae in Euripides’ Cretans, in which the queen defends her act of falling in love with the bull. The chapter shows how Pasiphae is able to dissociate herself completely from her past actions by appealing to divine intervention, the role of her husband Minos, and an understanding of human morality and motivation that is rooted in hedonistic principles. Pasiphae’s defence thus relies on a concept of the fragmentation of the self that reveals her as one of Euripides’ most philosophically sophisticated female speakers.

Keywords

Greek literatureGreek tragedyfragmentspapyrifemale charactersPaisphaeEuripidessexresponsibility
Type
Chapter
Information
Female Characters in Fragmentary Greek Tragedy , pp. 179 - 197
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2020

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