This volume, arising from a conference held in June 2016, attempts to take a ‘systematic approach to the study of female characters from the perspective of fragmentary tragedy’ (1). As such, it avoids (for the most part) the kind of focus on the texts and dates of tragedy’s existing fragments which is often their most discussed feature, to take a rewarding look instead at the wider understanding of tragedy’s female characters which can be generated by focussing attention on the fragments as well as the extant plays.
Part one includes studies of themes across multiple fragmentary plays, including female violence towards women and girls (Fiona McHardy, Chapter 2), sisterhood (Lyndsay Coo, Chapter 3), women in love in Sophocles (Alan Sommerstein, Chapter 4) and heterosexual bonding in Euripides (Helene Foley, Chapter 5). Patrick Finglass’ Chapter 6 (examining the representation of silent victims of rape on the tragic stage) is primarily a study of the Tereus in relation to the Agamemnon and Trachiniae, so does not quite deliver the scope of fragmentary material considered in the other chapters of the section, but otherwise the wide range of plays brought together by these thematic studies gives a rich and rewarding approach to tackling the material that moves decisively beyond the focussed studies of individual fragmentary works which has tended to dominate the scholarship on fragments so far.
Part two is concentrated on studies of one play or trilogy at a time, barring Chapter 13, in which Matthew Wright examines the character of Medea across multiple appearances. Some of the most familiar and fully discussed fragmentary plays appear in this section, such as the Hypsipyle (chapters 10, Caleb Simone, and 12, James H. Kim On Chong-Gossard), the Achilleis trilogy (Chapter 7, Anna Uhlig) or the Europa (Chapter 8, Niall Slater), but less familiar examples such as the Eurypylus (Chapter 9, Robert Cowan) or the Cretans (Chapter 11, Luigi Battezzato) also feature. This section’s studies also benefit from strong interpretative focusses, with performance and music (chapters 7 and 10), characterization (chapters 8 and 11), female agency (Chapter 12) and maternity (Chapter 9) all making an appearance. It is particularly valuable to see the attention given to performance and music here, reflecting recent trends in the study of tragedy as a genre; Uhlig and Simone demonstrate convincingly why fragmentary plays should not be left out of these discussions.
The volume is successful in demonstrating clearly how ideas of the canon and the survival of the extant plays has shaped our understanding of key topics in the study of women in Greek tragedy. Most obviously, Wright’s Chapter 13 with its range of Medeas argues for the importance of recognizing the wide range of Medea myths represented in tragedy and de-centring the Euripidean figure in our understanding of what ‘makes’ a tragic Medea. Similarly, Sommerstein’s Chapter 4 demonstrates the ways in which including the Sophoclean fragmentary tragedies can make Euripides less of a seeming outlier in his representation of female passion, contrary to Aristophanes (62–63), and Battezzato’s study of Pasiphae in the Cretans reveals how Pasiphae’s awareness of her self and decision-making should provide an important counter to those, such as Bruno Snell (‘Das frühste Zeugnis über Sokrates’, Philologus 97 (1948), 125–34), who have argued for the uniqueness of Medea’s ‘divided self’ speech as demonstrating new ideas about philosophical development (195).
As well as warning us against drawing conclusions about what is ‘usual’ for tragic women based solely on extant tragedies, a further strength of this volume is demonstrated in its ability to make for a more complete picture of their portrayal. This is made clear by the consideration of tragic women’s relationships explored across multiple chapters. Previous work has of course considered tragic women as mothers or wives, but chapters in this volume also consider romantic (chapters 4 and 5) and sororal relationships (Chapter 3), along with their more negative relationships with one another (chapters 2 and 12). Significant new light is also shed on those roles as wives and mothers (chapters 5, 8 and 9), particularly through the discussion of positive spousal relationships in Euripidean fragments (Foley) and how maternal behaviour may be perverted rather than inverted, with Astyoche as an example (Cowan). The absence from extant tragedy of some of the relationships discussed in these chapters (see especially Coo) means that this approach allows for a far more well-rounded view of the full range of women’s relationships as they were portrayed in tragedy.
Given the volume’s subject area, I was a little surprised not to find more explicit work with feminist or other types of theory here (aside from Coo’s Chapter 3, which presents an exciting engagement with political theory and feminist ideas of sisterhood). However, this volume demonstrates convincingly that there is plenty of very rich work to be done by reintegrating the fragmentary women into scholarship alongside their extant sisters, and so provides an excellent stimulus for precisely this kind of work as a next step for the field.
