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The Danaid Trilogy of Aeschylus1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 September 2015

R. P. Winnington-Ingram
R. P. Winnington-Ingram
Affiliation:
King's College, London
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Extract

The Supplices was the first play of a trilogy. It was followed by the Aegyptii and the Danaides, and the satyr-play was the Amymone. Single plays that formed part of trilogies are at once tantalising and challenging, and it is natural that scholars should use their ingenuity in the attempt to recover at least the general trend of the lost plays. But their speculations often diverge widely. The most prudent course is doubtless to refrain from speculation altogether. Yet, in the case of the Danaid trilogy, one is haunted by a feeling that the necessary evidence is at our disposal, if only we could use it rightly. In what does the evidence consist?

There are the fragments attributable to the missing plays. With one important exception, these do not amount to much. But fr. 44 N from the Danaides gives us seven famous lines on the universal power of love in nature, and we know that they were spoken by Aphrodite herself. There is the mythographical tradition—Apollodorus and Hyginus; Pausanias; certain scholia. The constant feature—that the Danaids killed their bridegrooms—is known to us already from the Prometheus Vinctus. Apart from this, it is clear that both before and after Aeschylus there were different versions of the story in circulation. We must have independent reasons for saying that any particular late account depends upon him; and it is only Aeschylus himself who can give us these reasons. It is Aeschylus who provides the primary evidence.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 81 , November 1961 , pp. 141 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1961

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References

2 Belief that the trilogy was constituted in this way has been substantially reinforced by P. Oxy. 2256, fr. 3.

3 P. Oxy. 2255, fr. 14, adds nothing to our knowledge.

4 For a recent discussion of the relative dates of the two plays, cf. Murray, R. D. Jr., The motif of Io in Aeschylus' Suppliants (Princeton, 1958)CrossRefGoogle Scholar, Appendix A, 88–97.

5 This principle is laid down by Stoessl, F., Die Trilogie des Aischylos, 84.Google Scholar

6 On ὕβρις, cf. Robertson, H. G., CR 50 (1936), 104–9Google Scholar: references in 107, n. 2.

7 Cf. Wilamowitz, , Aischylos Interpretationen, 20 f.Google Scholar

8 At 630 ff. the Danaids, while calling down blessings on the people of Argos, return again and again to the name of Ares. Some writers have suggested—and it may well be true—that these refer ences foreshadow the murderous actions of the singers (contr. 749). In any case I feel that the ironical effect is greatly enhanced if the Argives in fact suffer the miseries of war.

9 When Danaus receives a bodyguard in the Supplices (985 ff., cf. esp. τίμιον γέρας), this might be regarded as a halfway stage to the kingship. One further point: if Danaus becomes king, his daughters presumably cease to be μέτοικοι (609) in need of a πρόξενος (491) and become full citizens.

10 Cf. 768–70.

11

12 It can safely be assumed that the Danaids formed the chorus of this play, whatever may be true of the Aegyptii (see p. 146 below).

13 Cf. Vürtheim, J., Aisckylos' Schutzflehende, 24 ff.Google Scholar

14 ‘Die Danaidentrilogie des Aeschylus’, Philologus 91 (1936), 121 ff., 249 ff., esp. 256 ff.; cf. Lesky, A., Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen, 70.Google Scholar A similar view has recently been taken by Wolff, Emily A., ‘The date of Aeschylus' Danaid trilogy’, Éranos 56 (1958), 119–39Google Scholar; 60 (1959), 6–34: see esp. 136 f.

15 8–10; 335-g. In the former passage Bam-berger's αὐτογγενεῖ φυξανορίᾳ is the most popular and, I think, the correct solution, since it brings out a suitable contrast with 6–7: their flight is spontaneous (αὐτογενεᾳ), not enforced; it is flight from men (from husbands), not exile from a city. Cf. von Fritz, op. cit. 123. The difficulties of 335 ff. are too complex for discussion here: there is much to be said for the hypothesis of a lacuna or lacunae (Wilamowitz).

16 Cf. Headlam, W., CR 14 (1900), 111–12Google Scholar; K. von Fritz, op. cit. 125. The whole δίκη-theme is acutely discussed by Kaufmann-Bühler, D., Begriff und Funktion der Dike in den Tragödien des Aischylos 38–50.Google Scholar

17 Cf. 486 ff., after 478 f.; 639 ff.

18 War: 83, 335, 1064. Birds: esp. 223 ff., 510.

19 Cf. 141 ff.

20 K. von Fritz, op. cit. 262: ‘Die Abneigung gegen einen bestimmten Freier hat nie und nirgends als Beleidigung der Liebesgöttin gegolten.’ The attribution of these lines to a supplementary chorus of Handmaidens is still denied by some. But why introduce handmaidens at all, unless they had this role to play? And a division of opinion among the Danaids is inappropriate at this stage, before their common action in the sequel. Aphrodite is given due honour first by the Handmaidens, then by Hyper-mestra, then by all the Danaids?

21 K. von Fritz, op. cit. 262: ‘Die Verletzung ihrer Weiblichkeit durch die Aigyptossöhne hat die Danaiden mit Abscheu erfüllt gegen jede Ehe und gegen jede Verbindung mit einem Mann.’

22 3.12.2.

23 Perhaps, as Miss Cunningham suggests, the marriage of Hypermestra and Lynceus alone was solemnised (or about to be solemnised) at the end of the trilogy: perhaps under new rites invoking the protection of Hera (see n. 52).

24 It is a minor point whether sounds of battle were heard, as in the Septem, before the outcome of the fighting was announced. It is perhaps worth saying that, because the Supplices has no prologue, we cannot therefore assume that both the later plays opened with the pandos.

25 The impression of 11 ff. is reinforced by the first words of Danaus (176 fr., esp. προμηθίαν); they are echoed at 969 f. (πρόνοον καὶ βούλαρχον, followed by μῆτις). Every reference in the Supplices to his wisdom, forethought and planning must look forward to the disastrous device of the Aegyptii.

26 The filial obedience of the Danaids, in the Supplices (204 ff., 968 ff.)Google Scholar prepares for a more dramatic instance in the Aegyptii? K. von Fritz (op. cit. 256 f., 259 n. 1) criticises Elisei, A. (Studi ital. di filologia classica, N.S.6 (1928), 197 ff.Google Scholar), perhaps rightly, for overstressing the submissiveness of the Danaids, but I feel that he himself underestimates the role probably played by Danaus in the sequel. In the absence of the play, however, we cannot know what was the balance between the two factors of their decision.

27 Nor would the Danaids give themselves κατ' εὔνοιαν φρενῶν (though the Argives were not to know this).

28 If this is right, it strengthens Miss Cunningham's case for attributing P. Oxy. 2251 to the Aegyptii (RhM 96 (1953), 223–31). The attribution is criticised by H. Lloyd-Jones in the Loeb Aeschylus, vol. ii (1957), 571 f.; a rejoinder by Miss Cunningham will appear in RhM shortly. I would point out (i) that the attribution is consistent with Snell's ν[ῦν δόμον, which would be particularly appropriate to the situation I envisage below, and that such an appeal to Zeus Xenios by the chorus in the early part of the play would have a powerful irony in view of their future action; (ii) that ὁρᾶν, ἐφορᾶν are common of deities in the Supplices (cf. Hiltbrunner, O., Wiederholungs- und Motivtechnik bei Aischylos 39Google Scholar) to a degree unparalleled in Aeschylus. For appeals with the imperative or optative of these verbs, mostly to Zeus: 1, 104, 145, 206, 210, 359, 811, 1030, cf. 531.

29 Cf. Wilamowitz, op. cit. 21; F. Stoessl, op. cit. 84.

30 Cf. 970 ff.

31 Cf. Pohlenz, M., Die griechische Tragödie 2, 51Google Scholar; A. Lesky, op. cit. 70. This trilogy will have been extraordinarily closely knit, ifit had unity of chorus as well as approximate unity of time and place.

32 Miss Cunningham's suggestion.

33 That both Hypermestra and Lynceus had speaking parts and that there was dialogue between them seems unlikely.

34 Harrison, E., Proc. Cambr. Philol. Soc. 160–2 (1935)Google Scholar, 8 (oddly misreported by R. D. Murray, op. cit. 60 n. 6), argues that to take παίδων with ἵμερος ‘is more consonant with the tragic poets’ use of παῖς', but this argument has little force in view of γέννα πεντηκοντάπαις preceding (853), and I would rather ask whether it is consonant with ἵμερος θέλξει in a context of wedlock. The interpretation I reject is put in an extreme form, and given a historical setting, by Diamantopoulos, A., ‘The Danaid Tetralogy of Aeschylus’, JHS 77 (1957), 222.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

35 It is most unfortunate that 1001 f., with their reference to Kypris, are so corrupt. Still, Kypris is mentioned—and doubtless made responsible for the phenomena that Danaus so deplores.

36 E. A. Wolff, op. cit. 31, on 991–1013: ‘This eloquent plea would surely be superfluous if the Danaids had an inborn antipathy to men, or if they were devotees of Artemis.’ Perhaps, though I should prefer to say that it throws light not on the Danaids as they are, but as first Hypermestra and then her sisters will become—susceptible to the charm of sexual desire.

37 Danaus may have come to wake his daughters and have made a prologue-speech (see n. 24) of sinister irony. To such a speech fr. 43 might have belonged; equally, or better, it may have come towards the end of the play in connexion with the marriage of the Danaids: cf. von Fritz, op. cit. 134 f., 267. But both text and interpretation are doubtful.

38 Pausanias 2.19.6; 21.1.

39 Σ Eur. Or. 872.

40 Cf. 365 ff., 397 ff.

41 201, 398 ff., 484 f. (on which see p. 149 below).

42 With 775 compare fr. 45.

43 It will be observed that an injunction laid by Danaus on his daughters involved them, if I have read the situation aright, in a (highly Aeschylean?) clash between two religious duties: they can honour their father or their guests, but not both. These are two of the three duties to which reference is made in 698–709 (on which see Ehrenberg, V. L., Historia 1 (1950), 522 n. 21Google Scholar and Kaufmann-Bühler, op. cit. 22).

44 R. D. Murray, op. cit. 81, makes the same point from a rather different angle. I am not concerned to deny that the name of Apis was also intended to link Argos and Egypt: cf. Sheppard, J. T., CQ 5 (1911), 220–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, R. D. Murray, op. cit. 24 f.

45 The Supplices requires two actors only, and we have no reason to suppose that a third would have been available in the later plays. But it would not have been easy to stage such a trial with only two actors.

46 Miss Cunningham's suggestion.

47 It is an advantage, if we can dispense with Tucker's non-dramatic interpretation of these lines: ‘a subtle reproof administered to “Demos’”. As to the text, there is much to be said for Headlam's punctuation after

48 His death might have entailed the consequence to which he refers at 988. He was spared at the command of Aphrodite?

49 Supplices 482, 494, 501 may suggest that altars within the city itself played a part in the sequel—in the Aegyptii perhaps as well as in the Danaides. All three plays may have involved some movement of the Chorus between orchestra and altar.

50 Apollodorus 2.1.4. Hermes would come in well as a link not only between the upper and nether worlds, but between Hellas and Egypt (cf. 220, 920).

A silent appearance, as in the Eumenides? This is of course quite speculative, and one could equally argue that Apollo had a role to play: in the light of 214–16 (for he had himself been banished for bloodshed, yet could be described as ἁγνός—was his συγγνώμη to extend beyond the context of the Supplices?) and of 262 ff. (he was the father of Apis).

51 For this theme, cf. also 643 ff., 913, 1068. The right relation of men and women in society was a problem with which Aeschylus was exercised, and not only in this trilogy (cf. JHS 68 (1948), 130 ff.).

52 Cf. Robertson, D. S., ‘The end of the Supplices trilogy of Aeschylus’, CR 38 (1924), 51–3Google Scholar, who suggests that the trilogy ended with the inauguration of the Thesmophoria (cf. Herodotus 2.171) as a festival safeguarding the dignity of women in mar riage. This suggestion, accepted broadly by Thomson, G. (Aeschylus and Athens 308)Google Scholar and criticised by Vürtheim, op. cit. 74 f., is not without attraction. I should myself have expected that, if the cult of Demeter was to play such a part, there would have been some preparation in the Supplices. It may have been sufficient for the purposes of Aeschylus that marriage was to be under the joint protection of Zeus and Hera: cf. Eum. 213 f. Fr. 383 might belong here?

53 Since my lecture was delivered, there has appeared Mr R. D. Murray's interesting study of the Io-theme and its related imagery (see n. 4). It may well be that this theme deserves more prominence than I have given it. To discuss this complicated subject adequately would, however, have added greatly to the length of this article, and I have therefore left unchanged the remarks which I made in my lecture.

54 Valckenaar. If the reading is uncertain, the combination of the notions of force and benevolence is not. A similar combination seems also to be found at 576 ff., also in connexion with the story of Io, but this passage too is unfortunately corrupt.

55 This is certain for the Oresteia, virtually certain for the Danaid trilogy, and, in my view, highly probable for the Prometheia: cf. Gnomon 23 (1951), 420.