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The “aetiology” of tragedy in the Oresteia1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2013

Peter Wilson  and
Oliver Taplin
Peter Wilson
Affiliation:
University College, Oxford
Oliver Taplin
Affiliation:
Magdalen College, Oxford
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Extract

‘The modes of music are never disturbed without disturbance of the most fundamental political and social nomoi’. This dictum of the influential fifth-century musical theorist Damon, friend and adviser of Perikles, reflects the deep-seated relation that was felt to exist between the modes of music and the fundamental conventions governing social and political life in ancient Greece. This relation deserves much further exploration. Our present thesis is that elaborate linguistic and semantic play between the registers of the musical and the social order is to be found in the Oresteia far more than in any other surviving work. It is, perhaps, not surprising that in this trilogy, where the claims of conflicting nomoi are powerfully dramatised, the musical order is also exploited in complex and subtle ways to reflect upon the social and political order; and that disruptions or distortions in the social order find their counterpart in the musical order. Though some have noted the operation of this interpenetration of registers, it has not been studied in the depth it deserves.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 39 , 1994 , pp. 169 - 180
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1994

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References

NOTES

2. On Damon see West, M. L., Ancient Greek Music (1992) 174, 243–249, 350Google Scholar.

3. Cf. also e.g. Plato, , Republic 424C–425AGoogle Scholar; Timotheos, , Persai 791Google ScholarPMG esp. 196–240; [Aristotle], Probl. 19.28. Grieser, H., Nomos: ein Beitrag zur griechischen Musikgeschichte (1937)Google Scholar; Fleming, T. J., ‘The musical nomos in Aeschylus' Oresteia’, CJ 72 (1977) 222–233 at 229Google Scholar.

4. Cf. Moutsopoulos, E., ‘Une philosophie de la musique chez Eschyle’, REG 72 (1959) 18–56CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Zeitlin, F. I., ‘The motif of the corrupted sacrifice in Aeschylus' Oresteia’, TAPA 96 (1965) 463–505 at 496–497Google Scholar; Haldane, J. A., ‘Musical themes and imagery in Aeschylus’, JHS 85 (1965) 33–42CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Fleming (n. 3) 222; Macleod, C. W., ‘Politics and the Oresteia’, JHS 102 (1982) 124–144CrossRefGoogle Scholar, reprinted in Collected Essays (1983); Scott, W. C., Musical design in Aeschylean theater (1984) esp. chh. 1–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Prins, Y., ‘The power of the speech act: Aeschylus' Furies and their binding song,’ Arethusa 24 (1991) 177–94Google Scholar.

5. Despite its polysyllabic unwieldliness we shal use ‘self-referentiality’ rather than ‘metatheatre’, because it is more inclusive and carries less associated baggage.

6. E.g. Segal, C. P., Dionysiac poetics and Euripides' ‘Bacchae’ (1982)Google Scholar; ‘The Bacchae as metatragedy’ in Burian, P. (ed.), Directions in Euripidean criticism (1985), 156–171Google Scholar; Goldhill, S. D., Reading Greek tragedy (1986) esp. chh. 10 and 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar; also Zeitlin, F. I., ‘The closest of masks: role-playing and myth-making in the Orestes of Euripides’, Ramus 9 (1980) 51–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

7. Bain, D., ‘Some reflections on the illusion in Greek tragedy’, BICS 34 (1987) esp. 9–12Google Scholar; Actors and audiences: a study of asides and related conventions in Greek drama (1977) 210Google Scholar. To some extent OT held this position in Taplin, O., ‘Fifth-century tragedy and comedy: a synkrisis’, JHS 106 (1986) 163–174CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and to some extent it is retracted in this article – though not the contrast with comedy.

8. Some of the most important passages are not even discussed, such as (i) the third stasimon of the Agam., the song of the thymos which is ‘self-taught’ , like the bard Phemios (Od. 22.347), and ‘hymns a threnos of an Erinys without the lyre’ (990–993); (ii) the ‘paian of the dead’ (Choe, 151) which the choros of the Choephoroi sings and which gives them a clear affinity with the ; (iii) many aspects of the enormous kommos of the Choephoroi, this ‘hymn of the gods below’ (475) which sings, inter alia of ‘the bloody, unmusical blow of Ate’ (467–468: ): v. Silk, M. S., Interaction in poetic imagery (1974) 110CrossRefGoogle Scholar; (iv) at the end of Choe, Orestes' approaching madness is described in ‘musical’ terms that recall the Agamemnon and look forward to the singing and dancing of the Erinyes: (1024–5) ‘And at my heart fear is ready to sing, and the heart to dance in accompaniment to anger.’: .

9. Belfiore, E., Tragic pleasures: Aristotle on plot and emotion (1992) 26–30Google Scholar; Padel, R., In and out of the mind (1992) 162–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

10. These are aspects to be treated in greater depth by PJW in a study of the Athenian Choregia. cf. e.g. Aristoph., Frogs 1419Google Scholar (οἱ χοροί used to refer simply to tragedy). was similarly used in inscriptions and literary texts of tragic choreutai, and by extension of the performance of tragedy (and only later of tragic actors); v. Pickard-Cambridge, A., Dithyramb, Tragedy, Comedy (1962) 112–124Google Scholar; Winkler, J. J., ‘The Ephebes' Song: Tragoidia and Palis’, in Winkler, J. J. and Zeitlin, F. I. (edd.), Nothing to do with Dinysos?: Athenian drama in its social context (1990) 20–62 at 37, 42Google Scholar. For the choros as the focus in organisational and material terms, consider the mechanism of the choregia which was absolutely central to the funding and organisation of tragedy, and the related expressions: (e.g. Aristoph., Knights 513Google Scholar), (e.g. Aristot., Poetics 1449BGoogle Scholar; Kratinos Fr. 17 (K–A)), (e.g. Aristoph., Frogs 94Google Scholar); at Aristoph., Ach. 10–11Google Scholar means ‘to start the drama’.

11. For an ancient criticism of this process which construed it as the unlawful levelling-out of distinctions between different types of mousike parallel to the levelling-out of aristocratic distinctions by democracy, leading to theatrokratia v. Plato, Laws 700A–701AGoogle Scholar. The perpetrators are described (700D) as . See Svenbro, J., ‘La découpe du poème: notes sur les origines sacrificielles de la poétique grecque’, Poétique 58 (1984) 215–232Google Scholar.

12. See esp. Alkman, PMGF 1Google Scholar; cf. Calame, C., Les chœurs de jeunes filles en Grèce archaïque I (1977)Google Scholar; also Lefkowitz, M., First-person fictions: Pindar's poetic ‘I’ (1991[1963])Google Scholar ch. 1 on Pindar.

13. Some examples among many: Aischylos, see below and cf. Hiketides second stasimon; Sophokles, , Aias 701Google Scholar, Trachiniai 216–220, Oidipous Tyrannos 896; Euripides, , Herakles 673–675, 685–686, 761Google Scholar, Bakkhai 1153, Elektra 860–865. v. Davidson, J. F., ‘The circle and the tragic chorus’, G&R 33 (1986) 38–46Google Scholar; Loraux, N., ‘La métaphore sans métaphore: à propos de l'Orestie’, Revue Philosophique 2 (1990) 247–268 at 263–268Google Scholar for a very suggestive discussion.

14. See Fraenkel, E., Aeschylus ‘Agamemnon’ (1950)Google Scholarad loc. Unless otherwise noted, the text used is that of West, M. L., Aeschyli Tragoediae (1990)Google Scholar.

15. See Fitton, J. W., ‘Greek dance’, CQ 23 (1973) 259CrossRefGoogle Scholar: ‘The protoplasm of Greek lyric poetry was a song-and-dance. The integrated nature of the performance is reflected in the word , …’

16. On this passage see Fraenkel (n.14) ad loc..; Pucci, P., ‘Human sacrifices in the Oresteia’, ch. 14 of Hexter, R. and Selden, D. (edd.), Innovations of antiquity (1992) at 515–516Google Scholar.

17. Suggested by F. A. Paley ad loc.; so too LSJ s.v.

18. Fraenkel ad loc.

19. The term katastasis is also used by later writers of the ‘establishment’ phase of lyric traditions, like that attributed to Terpander at Sparta: thus Nagy, G., Pindar's Homer: the lyric possession of an epic past (1990) 343Google Scholar; see [Plu.] On music 1134B; Plu. Lykourgos 4.2–3; cf. Aristoph., Thesmo. 958Google Scholar. These were regarded in the mythic imagination as necessary prerequisites for, or as being equivalent to, the establishment of the social order itself. If such a sense could have been felt here, it would be as though the Watchman's words optimistically prefigure a refounding of his society.

20. Cf. Bollack, J., Agamemnon 1. Cahiers de philologie (1981) 110Google Scholar; Loraux (n. 13) 263.

21. See Fraenkel (n. 14) 539.

22. See Choe. 32–41 where fear – (unless we should read Phoibos?) – ‘breathes wrath’ and ‘falls heavily’ on the women's quarters, bringing Klytaimestra's dream.

23. Thus Page, D. L., Aeschyli tragoediae (1972)Google Scholar. is Hermann's supplement, not accepted by West who obelises, cf. Agam. 1354, where suggests that the would-be tyrants have taken the ‘musical’ initiative – their actions ‘strike up a prelude’ to the great of tyranny. Cf. Hubbard, T. K., ‘Tragic preludes: Aeschylus Seven against Thebes’, Phoenix 46 (1992) 299–308CrossRefGoogle Scholar for discussion of similar usages of phroimion in the Seven.

24. Euripides too employs this use of privative alpha with a cognate form. cf. Agam. 150–151 and Fraenkel (1950) on 1142 for further references; also Fehling, D., ‘. A. Eum. 1034 und das sogenannte Oxymoron in der Tragödie’, Hermes 96 (1968) 142–155Google Scholar.

25. See Deubner, L., ‘Ololyge und Verwandtes’, APAW 1 (1941)Google Scholar; Calame I (n.12) 150–151; Garvie, A., Aeschylus ‘Choephori’ (1986) 146Google Scholar; Pucci (n. 16), 528–529.

26. See Agam, 28, 587, 594–597, 1117–1118, 1236; Choe. 386–8, 942–5; Eum. 1043, 1047; cf. Haldane (n.4) 37–39; Macleod (n. 4) 137; Moritz, H. E., ‘Refrains in Aeschylus. Literary adaptation of traditional form’, CP 74 (1979) 187–213 at 210Google Scholar. We have not been able to consult Colwell, S., ‘Ololugmos in the Eumenides: the political poetics of choral song’, dissertation summary in American philological association abstracts 1988 (1989) 46Google Scholar.

27. The ‘orthios nomos’: see Fleming (n. 3) cf. 1150–1155.

28. PJW intends to discuss elsewhere the connections between choral and political stasis in tragedy.

29. Perhaps too, as Moreau suggests, because it is with the house, and so in fact is properly at home there: Moreau, A. M., Eschyle: la violence et le chaos (1985) 50Google Scholar. cf. Eum. 476.

30. Moreau (n.29) 48.

31. Some follow Stanley in reading , feminine.

32. See Taplin, O., The stagecraft of Aeschylus (1977) 331–332Google Scholar.

33. Cf. Fleming (n.3) 229; Prins (n.4).

34. See esp. Agam. 979, cf. Hardie, A., Statius and the ‘Silvae’: poets, patrons and epideixis in the Greco-Roman world (1983) 30–36Google Scholar.

35. Belifiore (n. 9) 29. She goes on to argue for a form of identification between Aeschylus' Erinyes and the Gorgons, and describes the function they share: ‘they are reminders of the danger of internal strife that are particularly great at festivals of the wine god, and they are used to arouse reverence and respect, which restrain aggression againstphiloi.’ (30) Belfiore develops this idea within the context of her main argument about Aristotle's Poetics. Padel (n.9) 189–92 emphasises how the Erinyes are simultaneously internalised and externalised, relating this to their new location ‘beneath Athens.’

36. See LSJ s.v. 3 and 4. The expression ‘to provide songs/themes for songs’ has a poetic ancestry which places this intimate relation between the subject-matter of song and song itself within the discourse of song: as well as familiar Homeric passages, such as Iliad 6.357–358; Odyssey 8.580; 24.200, see also Theognis 251ff.; Eur., Troiades 1244–1245Google Scholar; Theokr. 12.11.

37. For choral uses v. Aischylos, Hiketides 695Google Scholar with Johansen, H. Friis and Whittle, E. W., Aeschylus: ‘The Suppliants’, 3 vols (1980)Google Scholarad loc., citing others. Pi. P. 1.1ff is perhaps the locus classicus; cf. Pal. Anth. 13.28, where it is used of choral singers of dithyramb at the Great Dionysia at Athens in a victory-epigram.

38. See Taplin, O., Comic Angels (1993) 68 n. 2Google Scholar, arguing for metatheatrical uses in Knights, Peace and other comedies.

39. Cf. Zeitlin's discussion of the representation of the female in Greek tragedy as ‘playing the other’: Zeitlin, F. I., ‘Playing the other: theater, theatricality, and the feminine in Greek drama’, Winkler, and Zeitlin, (edd.) (1990) 63–96Google Scholar; also Loraux, N., Les expériences de Tirésias: le féminin et l'hommegrec (1989) 7–26Google Scholar.

40. The prominence of the Oresteia among the plays cited in Aristophanes' Frogs is at the very least an indication that these were among Aischylos' most famous works. Moreover, the fact that the end of the Frogs presents, as is generally recognised, a visual and verbal (cf. v. 1530) ‘re-play’ of the end of the Eumenides would seem to strengthen the case. Comic evidence will be further considered by OT in the paper cited in n. 1. For evidence and arguments concerning the reperformance of the Oresteia and other Aischylean tragedies v. Newiger, H.-J., ‘Elektra in Aristophanes' Wolken’, Hermes 89 (1961) 427–430Google Scholar. There are also the anecdotes, for what they are worth, of the effects of the choros of the Eumenides on the audience: Vita Aeschyli 9; Pollux 4.110.

41. These are well surveyed in the LIMC III. 1 825–843Google Scholar ‘Erinys’ article by H. Sarian. For some further additions, including scenes related to Hippolytos, the baby Aigisthos (cf. Vermeule, E. in PCPS 213 (1987) 122 ff.Google Scholar) and Oidipous at Kolonos v. the Index to Trendall, A. D. and Cambitoglou, A., The red-figured vases of Apulia supplement II = BICS suppl. 60 (1992)Google Scholar s.v. ‘Fury (Furies)’. (This is on p. 471 of Part II).

42. v. Taplin (n. 38) 17, 22–23.

43. [sc. Erinyes] (Paus. 1.28.6) Examples include no's 21, 27, 45, 61, 69, 70, 99 in LIMC III.2. For detailed discussion of the great iconographic impact of the Oresteia, v. Prag, A.J.N.W., The ‘Oresteia’: iconographic and narrative tradition (1985) esp. 48–57Google Scholar on ‘the sudden and clearly defined change in the iconography that took place immediately after the first production of Aeschylus’ Oresteia, in this episode in the story [sc. the pursuit of Orestes by the Erinyes] as in no other … Aeschylus with his Eumenides apparently had a profound effect on the Greek conception of the Furies.’ (48, 51).

44. Cf. Padel (n.9) 171 on iconography and 177–8 on Aischines. For iconographic assimilation of Erinyes and Poinai add RVAp Supp. II 18/47b (Part I.148, with plate XXXVI. 1). Some have seen in the passage of Aischines a reference to the fourth-century Chairemon's Akhilleus Thersitoktonos (of soon before 350 BC), which may have included a ΠΟΙΝΑ in its dramatis personae: v. TrGFI 71 Chaeremon Flc.

45. The fact that the robes must have been put on over their dark outfits makes of their action a ‘(re)costuming’ and not a ‘reidentification’. v. Taplin (n.32 ) 412–413.

46. See Thoukydides 1.126.11; Plu. Solon 12.1 for the location of the altar of the Semnai Theai; cf. Aristophanes, Knights 1312Google Scholar, Thesmo. 224.

47. On this see Taplin (n.32) 372; Scott (n.4) 133. One of the most frequently mentioned qualities of the good choros is its or ; it is so essential a characteristic that the choros itself is often used, as for example by Xenophon describing order on board ship (Mem 3.5.6), as a model of these virtues for comparison in other fields of action. Another fascinating example in Xenophon, clearly a devotee of , is his ‘choros of plates’ at Oik. 8.20. Cf. in general Winkler (n.10) 50–52. The importance of collective unity and order in the choros means that those relatively rare moments in tragedy where it breaks up (as especially at Agam. 1347–1371) have much more than a formal significance.

48. is a rare noun in Aischylos, occurring only at Agam. 106 and in this passage of Eum.