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ΑΙΔΩΕ in Euripides' Hippolytos 373-430: review and reinterpretation*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 October 2013

E. M. Craik
E. M. Craik
Affiliation:
University of St. Andrews
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Extract

Lines 380–7 have been much discussed, sometimes in isolation, without due regard for context in speech, scene, and play; and sometimes with regard primarily to the history of ideas, or of Greek moral values. Phaidra states that virtue may be subverted, despite knowledge, by pleasure, of which αὶδώς—dual, harmless and harmful—is an instance. A notorious problem of interpretation centres on the related questions of how αὶδώς, shame can be listed among ήδοναί, pleasures; and of what is meant by dual αὶδώς. The interpretation here advanced is bold, but in essence simple: in this context, αὶδώς is a euphemistic metonymy for ἔρως, which is harmless and pleasurable in its proper place (allied with sexual σωφροσύνη), but potentially troublesome or painful (bringing sexual αὶσχύνη).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 113 , November 1993 , pp. 45 - 59
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1993

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References

1 Quotations from Euripides are from OCT: Diggle i and ii, Murray iii. The following works are cited by author's name alone: Barrett, W.S., Euripides: Hippolytos, ed. (Oxford 1964)Google Scholar; Claus, D., ‘Phaedra and the Socratic paradox’, YCS xxii (1972) 223–38Google Scholar; Conacher, D.J., Euripidean drama: myth, theme and structure, (Toronto 1967)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Dodds, E.R., ‘The αίδώς of Phaedra and the meaning of the Hippolytus’, CR xxxix (1925) 102–4Google Scholar; Irwin, T.H., ‘Euripides and Socrates’, CPh lxxviii (1983) 183–97Google Scholar; Kovacs, D., ‘Shame, pleasure and honor in Phaedra's great speech (Euripides' Hippolytus 375–87)’, AJP ci (1980) 287–303Google Scholar; Lombard, D.B., ‘Aspects of αίδώς in Euripides’, AC xxviii (1985) 5–12Google Scholar; Luschnig, C.A.E., Time holds the mirror. A study of knowledge in Euripides' Hippolytus, Mnemosyne Suppl. cii (1988)Google Scholar; Manuwald, B., ‘Phaidras tragischer Irrtum: zur Rede Phaidras in Euripides' Hippolytos (vv 373–430)’, RhM cxxii (1979) 134–48Google Scholar; Michelini, A.N., Euripides and the tragic tradition (Madison 1987)Google Scholar; Moline, J., ‘Euripides, Socrates and virtue’, Hermes ciii (1975) 45–67Google Scholar; Segal, C.P., ‘Shame and purity in Euripides' Hippolytus’, Hermes xcviii (1970) 278–99Google Scholar; Snell, B., Scenes from Greek drama (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1964)Google Scholar, Solmsen, F., ‘“Bad shame” and related problems in Phaedra's speech (Euripides Hippolytus 380–388)’, Hermes ci (1973) 420–5Google Scholar; Willink, C.W., ‘Some problems of text and interpretation in Hippolytus’, CQ xviii (1968) 11–43CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Winnington-Ingram, R. P., ‘Hippolytus: a study in causation’, Euripide, Entretiens de la Fondation Hardt vi (Geneva 1960) 169–98.Google Scholar

2 See Calder, W.M. III, ‘The riddle of Wilamowitz' Phaidrabild’, GRBS xx (1979) 215–36Google Scholar; also Gilula, D., ‘A consideration of Phaedra's εὔκλεια’ RSCC vii (1981) 121–33Google Scholar, Kawashima, S., ‘αίδώς and εὒκλεια: another interpretation of Phaedra's long speech in the Hippolytus’, SIFC iv (1986) 183–94Google Scholar and cf. Braund, D.C., ‘Artemis Eukleia and Euripides' Hippolytus’, JHS c (1980) 184–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

3 Cf. already Dodds 103–4 ‘each is the victim of his own and the other's submerged desires, masquerading as morality’ and now Gill, C., ‘The articulation of the self in Euripides' Hippolytus’ in Euripides, women and sexuality, ed. Powell, A. (London 1990) 76–107CrossRefGoogle Scholar, esp. 80–5; also Zeitlin, F.I., ‘The power of Aphrodite’ in Directions in Euripidean criticism, ed. Burian, P. (Durham NC 1985) 52–111Google Scholar and notes, esp. n. 80. For the underlying importance of marriage, so important in the final aetiology, as a compromise between unremitting chastity and unbridled lust, see Burnett, A.P., ‘Hunt and hearth in Hippolytus’ in Greek tragedy and its legacy: Essays presented to D.J. Conacher, edd. Cropp, M., Fantham, E., Scully, S.E. (Calgary 1986) 167–85.Google Scholar For other parallelisms, see Knox, B.M.W., ‘The Hippolytus of Euripides’, YCS xiii (1952) 3–31Google Scholar, repr. in Word and action (Baltimore 1979), and Frischer, B.D., ‘Concordia discors and characterization in Euripides' Hippolytus’, GRBS xi (1970) 85–100.Google Scholar

4 See Cairns, Douglas, Aidos: the psychology and ethics of honour and shame in Greek literature (Oxford 1992)Google Scholar, Freiherr von Erffa, C.E.Aidos und verwandte Begriffe in ihrer Entwicklung von Homer bis Demokrit, Philologus - Suppl. xxx. 2 (Leipzig 1937)Google Scholar, and, on the connection of words of *aizd-root with obscenity, Henderson, J.J., The maculate muse (New Haven 1975) 3–5.Google Scholar