Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T20:54:50.894Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Style of Aeschylus as Satyr-Playwright

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Thalia Phillies Howe
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Since 1932 there have been available nearly a hundred fragmented lines of a single satyr-play of Aeschylus which require us to reconsider somewhat our image of the dramatist. Not that any revision of Aeschylus is suggested at this point. Such would be intolerable and untrue, for the Aeschylean portraits remain as magnificent as ever. But now there has been added a bright sketch reflecting a humorous and romantic side of the dramatist; as though, after possessing only a half dozen of only the tragedies of Shakespeare, we had found a small portion of A Midsummer-Night's Dream.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , October 1959 , pp. 150 - 165
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

page 150 note 1 For the history of the discovery of these fragments see Fraenkel, E., ‘Aeschylus: New Texts and Old Problems’, Proc. Brit. Acad. xxviii (1942), 238 ff.Google Scholar I am much indebted to Mr. William Stanford for his generous criticism of this paper.

page 150 note 2 Diog. Laert. ii. 133Google Scholar; Paus, . ii. 13. 6Google Scholar; Müller, C., Frag. Hist. Graec. (Paris, 1841–1870), iv. 170.Google Scholar

page 150 note 3 Campo, L., I Drammi satireschi della Grecia Antica (Milan, 1940), 17 ff.Google Scholar

page 150 note 4 Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style (Dublin, 1942), p. 4 and note 7, pp. 13 f.Google Scholar; on p. 137 Stanford writes: ‘Unlike most other classical writers who achieved flawlessness by self-effacement, Aeschylus sometimes would not, or could not, keep his own personality out of his art. In this he comes closest to the Romantics.’

page 151 note 1 Browning, R., Aristophanes' Apology.Google Scholar

page 151 note 2 Until the discovery of these fragments Robert, Wilamowitz, G. Hermann, and others believed that the Diktyoulkoi was the first drama in the Aeschylean trilogy on the Perseus theme: Robert, K., Heldensage, 226. 3Google Scholar; von Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, U., Aischylos Interpretationen (Berlin, 1914), 244Google Scholar; Hermann, G., Aeschyli Tragoediae2 (Berlin, 1859)Google Scholar, ‘Ueber einige Trflogien des Aischylos’, Leipz. Sitzb., 12 1846, 117.Google ScholarSéchan, L., Études sur la tragédie grecque (Paris, 1926), 112Google Scholar, regarded the Phorkides as the satyr-play. Cf. Nauck, A., Trag. Graec. Frag.2 (Leipzig, 1889), i. 83 ff.Google Scholar; Wecklein, N., Αἰσχύλου δράματα, ii (Leipzig, 1896), 607 ff.Google Scholar; Fritsch, C., Neue Fragmente des Aischylos und Sophokles (Hamburg, 1936), 11Google Scholar; Pfeiffer, R., ‘Die Netzfischer des Aischylos’, Bayer. Sitzb. ii (1938), 3 ff., 17 ff.Google Scholar

page 152 note 1 Cf. Norsa, M. and Vitelli, G., Bull. Soc. Alex., N.S., viii. 117Google Scholar; Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 7Google Scholar; Setti, A., ‘Eschilo satirico’, Annali della Scuola normale di Pisa, xvii (1948), 10 f.Google Scholar In note I Setti quotes Fraenkel but gives no reference to the source.

page 152 note 2 Norsa, M. and Vitelli, G., op. cit. 115, 118ff., 247 f.Google Scholar, Mélanges Bidez (Brussels, 1934), 965 ff.Google Scholar; Vitelli, G., Pub. Soc. italiana (Papiri greci e latini), xi (1935), 97. 1209Google Scholar; Körte, A., Hermes, lxviii (1933), 267 ff.Google Scholar, Arch. Pap. xi (1935), 249 (802)Google Scholar; Schmid, W. and Stählin, O., Geschichte der griechischen Literatur, i. 2 (Munich, 1934), 262Google Scholar; Goossens, R., Chronique d'Égypte, xix (1935), 120Google Scholar; Steffen, V., Satyrographorum Graecorum Reliquiae (Poznan, 1935)Google Scholar, ‘Les drames satyriques d'Eschyle’ [in Polish], Eos, xlii (1942), 148–76Google Scholar, ‘Net-Haulers of Aeschylus’, Journ. of Juristic Papyrology, iii (1949), 120 ff.Google Scholar; Pfeiffer, R., op. cit. 4 f.Google Scholar; Olivieri, A., ‘I Diktyoulkoi di Eschilo’, Dioniso, vi (1937–1938), 314 ff.Google Scholar; Mette, H., Supplementum Aeschyleum (Berlin, 1939), 71 f.Google Scholar; Page, D. L., Greek Literary Papyri, i (London, 1942), 8 f.Google Scholar; Martin, V., Museum Helveticum, iv (1947), 92Google Scholar; Setti, A., op. cit. 3Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., I nuovi frammenti eschilei di Ossirinco (Naples, 1948), 59 f.Google Scholar;Siegmann, E., ‘Die neuen Aischylos-Bruchstücke’, Philologus, xcvii (1948), 78.Google ScholarKamerbeek, J. C., ‘De Aeschyli Dictyulcis’, Mnemosyne, Ser. 4, vii (1955), 89 ff.Google Scholar, has the most comprehensive recent survey of the Diktyoulkoi material.

page 152 note 3 See Cantarella, R., op. cit. 61 ff.Google Scholar, and also Kamerbeek's commentary, op. cit. 93 ff.

page 153 note 1 Cf. Earp, F. R., The Style of Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1948), 46, 86 ff., 160Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style, 48 ff.Google Scholar

page 154 note 1 Earp, F. R., op. cit. 54 ff.Google Scholar

page 154 note 2 Stanford, W. B., op. cit. 41.Google Scholar

page 154 note 3 Earp, F. R., op. cit. 60Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., op. cit. 48Google Scholar (‘Knowledge of everyday speech in early fifth-century Athens is very slight and a matter of conjecture from later authors’), and also 15, 112 ff., 114 ff., 125.

page 155 note 1 Aristoph, . Peace 296 ff.Google Scholar; cf. Setti, A., op. cit. 9Google Scholar f. Goossens, R., Chronique d'Égypte, xix (1935), 127 f.Google Scholar, argues that the islanders who came were not satyrs, but were of the appearance that Diktys described. For evidence that they were satyrs see below, p. 160 and note I.

page 155 note 2 Pfeiffer, R., op. cit. 19.Google Scholar

page 155 note 3 Smyth, H. W., Aeschylean Tragedy (Berkeley, 1924), 130.Google Scholar Cf. Pickard-Cambridge, A. W., Class. Rev. liii (1939), 37CrossRefGoogle Scholar, ‘Illustrations to Aeschylus' Tetralogy on the Perseus Theme’, Am. Journ. Arch. lvii (1953), 269 ff.Google Scholar

page 155 note 4 P. Oxy. 2165Google Scholar; Lobel, E., Oxyrhynchus Papyri, Part XVIII (London, 1941), 9 ff.Google Scholar Cf. Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 241 ff.Google Scholar; Setti, A., op. cit. 17 ff.Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., I nuovi frammenti eschilei di Ossirinco, 62 ff.Google Scholar; Siegmann, E., Philologus, xcvii (1948), 79Google Scholar; Steffen, V., Journ. Jur. Pap. iii (1949), 125 ff.Google Scholar; Kamerbeek, J. C., Mnemosyne, Ser. 4, vii (1955), 95 ff.Google Scholar

page 155 note 5 Steffen, V., op. cit. 132.Google Scholar Euripides' Cyclops contains only 708 lines.

page 155 note 6 Setti, A., op. cit. 17.Google Scholar

page 156 note 1 All the quotations from the Diktyoulkoi cited from here onwards are from E. Lobel, op. cit. See Kamerbeek's, J. C. restoration of this fragment, op. cit. 96.Google Scholar

page 156 note 2 Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 241Google Scholar; cf. Setti, A., op. cit. 23 and note 4Google Scholar; J. C. Kamerbeek, l.c.

page 157 note 1 See above, p. 151.

page 157 note 2 Setti, A., op. cit. 22.Google Scholar In Stanford's opinion, it is taking too rigid a view of στρατός to regard it solely as meaning ‘army’; and he suggests that the other interpretation is more likely. See also Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 95.Google Scholar

page 157 note 3 Danae's speech and situation have their counterpart in the figure of Helena in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, who also takes for mockery the unexpected offers of protection of Demetrius and Lysander. She inveighs against them:

O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent

To set against me for your merriment:

If you were civil and knew courtesy,

You would not do me thus much injury.

Can you not hate me, as I know you do,

But you must join in souls to mock me too?

If you were men, as men you are in show,

You would not use a gentle lady so.

page 158 note 1 Lobel, E., op. cit. 12.Google Scholar See also Kamerbeek's, J. C. summary, op. cit. 97Google Scholar, and commentary, 98 ff.; and Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style, 124.Google Scholar

page 158 note 2 Cf. Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 100 ff.Google Scholar

page 159 note 1 As Lobel states (op. cit. 12), it is difficult to interpret her speech literally, especially line 783. What she means to say here, probably, is that Zeus was responsible for the greater part of her troubles. Cf. Setti, A., op. cit. 19, and 25 f.Google Scholar, where he compares her speech with that in Euripides, Ion 425–51Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., I nuovi frammenti eschilei di Ossirinco, 45Google Scholar; Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 100.Google Scholar

page 159 note 2 For πάντ' ἔχει[ς] λόγον cf. Aesch. Ag. 582, where the Herald uses the same expression to end his speech. I am grateful to Mr. G. T. W. Hooker for pointing this out.

page 160 note 1 It was this passage which settled the question whether the Diktyoulkoi had a chorus of satyrs, for who else in early Greek drama had bald pates and wore spotted dresses? See E. Lobel, l.c.; Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 94 ff., 102 ff.Google Scholar

page 160 note 2 Lobel, E., op. cit. 9Google Scholar; cf. Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style, 53Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., op. cit. 47Google Scholar; Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 101, 104.Google Scholar

page 160 note 3 Earp, F. R., The Style of Aeschylus, 2 f.Google Scholar, discusses the difficulties of translating Aeschylus with mechanical literalness. Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 241 ff.Google Scholar, includes Beazley's charming translation of this speech and his account of the circumstances. Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 104Google Scholar, describes the μικκός and νεοσσός as voces blandae.

page 160 note 4 Lobel, E., op. cit. 9Google Scholar, does state, however, that it is possible to assign those lines in other ways—meaning, presumably, to Papasilenos. See also Steffen, V., Jaurn. Jur. Pap. iii (1949), 131Google Scholar; Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 242Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., op. cit. 47Google Scholar; Setti, A., op. cit. 28 f.Google Scholar; Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 105 ff.Google Scholar Of all the discussions of this satyr-drama, that of Setti shows the most sensitive and at the same time most realistic appreciation, for he never forgets to think of it in terms of dramatic presentation.

page 161 note 1 Cf. Setti, A., op. cit. 32Google Scholar; Lobel, E., op. cit. 9, 12Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style, 53Google Scholar; Cantarella, R., op. cit. 50Google Scholar; Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 106 ff.Google Scholar

page 161 note 2 Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 242Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., op. cit. 81Google Scholar, on ποππυσμός and onomatopoeia. Cf. Xen, . Eq. ix. 10.Google Scholar

page 162 note 1 E. Fraenkel, l. c. Setti, A., op. cit. 29, 33Google Scholar, assumes that the whole expression δεῦρ' ἐς παῖδας simply meant something like ‘andiamo a giocare’; cf. Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 107.Google Scholar

page 162 note 2 Cf. Lobel, E., op. cit. 9Google Scholar; Stanford, W. B., Aeschylus in his Style, 53Google Scholar; Setti, A., op. cit. 34Google Scholar; J. C. Kamerbeek, l. c.

page 162 note 3 Cf. Fraenkel, E., op. cit. 243Google Scholar: ‘It must indeed have been a kind fairy who reserved for our harassed generation this unhoped-for treasure. Aeschylus turning topics of the nursery to a song of purest poetry and enchanting melodious ness!’ Beazley's translation of this, which Lobel prints, though full of warmth and charm, is phrased in the style of the nineteenth century and thus falls short of the natural vigour and contemporaneousness of the Greek.

page 163 note 1 θῶσθαι is one of the Dorisms listed by Lobel; they include μικκός φίντων πάπας θῶσθαι, and όβρίχοισι—five examples in about one hundred lines, which is regarded by him (l.c.) as an ‘unusual proportion of Doric words and forms’. Of these five, the first two do not seem to be Doric, and it is suggested that the third word, πάπας, may be no more than a mis-spelling of the Attic πάππας. Moreover, it would have been pointless to try to achieve a Doric effect with this form, since both had the same pronunciation. Even if we add the word зύγαινα to the list, as Stanford suggests (Aeschylus in his Style, p. 5 and note 12Google Scholar), the proportion does not seem unduly large. For Dorisms as the result of Aeschylus' visit to Syracuse, see Stanford, W. B., op. cit. 40 f.Google Scholar, and Cantarella, R., I nuovi frammenti eschilei di Ossirinco, 64 ff.Google Scholar The latter regards the date of this visit as c. 472 B.c. Cf. Kamerbeek, J. C., op. cit. 108 ff.Google Scholar

page 165 note 1 Cf. Setti, A., op. cit. 36.Google ScholarEarp, F. R., The Style of Aeschylus, 61Google Scholar, discusses the naturalness of parts of the speeches of Eteokles in the Seven against Thebes.