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On The Tragedian Chaeremon

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2013

C. Collard
C. Collard
Affiliation:
University of Kent at Canterbury
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Extract

Chaeremon is a shadowy figure in early fourth century tragedy, but one of considerable interest. I attempt here an appraisal of his work, in so far as the fragments and the ancient testimonia allow.

I. Bibliography

Text of the fragments: Nauck, TGF 781–92; P. Hibeh ii 224.

The only general assessments of Chaeremon of any extent date from the nineteenth century with its more expansive approach. Best is G. Bernhardy, Grundriss der griechischen Literatur ii 2 (Halle 1859) 61–3, who there refers to the ‘sorgfältige Monographie’ of H. Bartsch, De Chaeremone poeta tragico (Mainz 1843) (inaccessible to me). Older literature is listed by A. Dieterich s.v. ‘Chairemon’, PW iii 2, 2025 (published 1899).

Since Bernhardy the space accorded Chaeremon not just in general works but even in detailed studies of tragedy diminishes sharply. He still warrants a page or so in A. and M. Croiset, Histoire de la littérature grecque (Paris 1913) iii 402 f.; in Lesky he gets a brief mention, Geschichte 680. He is not mentioned by name in Lesky's Tragische Dichtung, and only in connection with fr. 2 by Pohlenz, Griechische Tragödie (Göttingen 1954) 407; he is ignored, for example, by Kitto, Greek Tragedy (London 1961).

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 90 , November 1970 , pp. 22 - 34
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1970

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References

I am grateful to Dr Shirley Barlow for reading a draft of this paper.

1 Date: the only firm evidence is that of the earliest quotations of fr. 2, especially Pl. Lg. 709b (c. 350 B.C.?), D. ii 22 (349 B.C.).

2 I discuss Chaeremon's use of the trimeter below, pp. 29–30.

3 Earlier editors tried hard to restore these ‘verses’ (see Nauck), but without conviction, and I ignore them here. Attempts have been made to assign AP vii 245 (Stadtmüller) and Stobaeus iii 4.16 (Hense) to Chaeremon.

4 See p. 25.

5 Pack2 only rarely gives the metre of verse anthologies: see, for example, nos. 1876–87.

6 The verses begin supplements by Turner.

7 Hermes lxxxii (1954) 302.

8 S.v. ‘Chairemon’, Der Kleine Pauly i (Stuttgart 1964) 1121.

9 Geschichte 2 680.

10 A brief discussion in Page, GLP; on the single fragment from Chaeremon, 's Oeneus, TGF 2 no. 14, see below pp. 32–34.Google Scholar

11 So O. Rossbach, from the Chryses: rejected by Pearson, A. C., Fragments of Sophocles (Cambridge 1917) ii 328.Google Scholar After writing these lines I saw that Barrett, W., Hippolytus (Oxford 1964) 438 Google Scholar n. 2 thinks that is no longer a reason for supposing the tragedy of P. Hib. 4 to be post-classical'.

12 Agathon (Paris 1955) 14.

13 IG 2 in the following paragraph, Athenaeus on p. 28.

14 The Souda acknowledges Athenaeus as source for one title, but probably took them all from him.

15 1413b8–9

16 Fragments, testimonia in Page, PMG nos. 758–63; a rhetorical theorist (Rh. 1414b17) and teacher of Polus (Pl Phdr. 267c), as well as poet; cf. Norden, E., Die antike Kunstprosa (Leipzig 1909 2) i 73.Google Scholar

17 ‘Die Anagnostikoi’, Festschrift Th. Gomperz (Wien 1902) 382 ff.; echoes still persist of the view discredited by Crusius that these plays were neither performed nor meant for performance: see the comments of Pfeiffer, R., History of Classical Scholarship (Oxford 1968) 29.Google Scholar I cannot document here a problem long resolved.

18 Po. 1462a12–18, 1450b18–19; see Szanto, E., also in Festschrift Gomperz, 275 ffGoogle Scholar, who includes a discussion of the passage from Rh.

19 IG 2 v 2, 118 = Sylloge ii 700; cf. Herzog, R., Philologus lx (1901) 440 fr.Google Scholar The strong-man chose plots which made plausible a display of his muscles (the modern film affords similar opportunities to exceptional physiques).

20 Pace Webster, , Hermes lxxxii (1954) 302 Google Scholar, who thinks the context makes it clear Aristotle is thinking rather of panegyric than forensic composition.

21 Aristotle's Poetics (Harvard 1963) 54–60.

22 is Else's text: he argues convincingly (58 f.) for deletion of a phrase which implies the nature of recited epic for a work quite certainly of dramatic character: Athenaeus 608e calls it

23 Else p. 58; on p. 59 n. 236 he cites in support the similar view of Steffen, V., Satyrographorum Graecorum Reliquiae (Posnan 1935) 195–6Google Scholar (=idem, S. G. Fragmenta [Poznan 1952] 248–9).

24 Steffen in 1935 thought all but two satyric (cf. Else 59), but in 1952 only Dionysus, Io and Centaurus; even more cautious opinion excludes Dionysus and Io: see the separate entries. The Souda's erroneous description of Chaeremon as a comedian should not affect this question.

25 Robert, C., Die griechische Heldensage (Berlin 1920 4) 279 ffGoogle Scholar, approved by Séchan, L., Etudes sur la tragédie grecque (Paris 1926) 528 ff.Google Scholar, who gives full details of the myth and ancient literary reflections; cf. Röscher v 668.

26 Nauck thought of a satyr-play, perhaps in view of Thersites' physical ugliness (Il. ii 216–19) and scurrilous behaviour. The play is entitled Thersites in the Souda's quotation of fr. 3; it is not known whether Thersites figured in any other drama, but he must have appeared in this one.

27 Boston 03.804, discussed most fully by Paton, J., AJA xii (1908) 404 ff.Google Scholar, with Plate; cf. Webster, , Hermes lxxxii (1954) 302 Google Scholar for other references, and Séchan. Brommer, F., Vasenlisten der griechischen Heldensage (Marburg 1960 2) 263 Google Scholar gives only this one vase for the story.

28 Beazley, J. D., The Development of Attic Black-Figure (Berkeley 1964 2) 81 n. 31Google Scholar shrewdly notes that Achilles would normally have been the aggressor in any quarrel.

29 Cf. Mette, H. J., Der Verlorene Aischylos (Berlin 1963) 145 fr.Google Scholar An essentially similar plot in Pacuvius' Pentheus ( Servius, on Aen. iv 469 Google Scholar): Mette, , ‘Die Römische Tragödie und die Neufunde zur griechischen Tragödie, 1945–64’, Lustrum ix (1964) 94 Google Scholar, who lists other treatments. See also on Minyades.

30 See Pearson's introduction to Sophocles' Atreus (frr. 140–1) and Thyestes in Sicyon (frr. 247–69); Mette, , Lustrum ix (1964) 64 f. and 114.Google Scholar

31 A. Supp. 538 on this point, see Pearson, , Sophocles i 199.Google Scholar

32 Pearson frr. 270–95, P. Oxy. 2369, ? P. Tebt. 692. Satyric: Pfeiffer, R., ‘Ein neues Inachos-Fragment des Sophokles’, SB München 1958, vi 3–6 Google Scholar (cf. SB 1938, ii 23 ff.); Calder, W. M.'s arguments for satyric nature, in GRBS i (1958) 137 ff.Google Scholar, have found no acceptance. Accius also wrote an Io (386–8 Ribbeck: Mette, , Lustrum ix [1964] 149 Google Scholar)—but there is no other Greek play of this title known.

33 Much less probably, Chiron's offer, when wounded by an arrow of Hercules, to die for Prometheus (mentioned in Aeschylus' Prometheus Lyomenus?— Mette, , Der Verlorene Aischylos 24 Google Scholar).

34 Juv. vii 12 mentions an Alcithoe by Paccius.

35 Which gave Pacuvius his title (Cic. Tusc. ii 21.49); on the relationship with Sophocles see also Mette, , Lustrum ix (1964) 87.Google Scholar Arist. Po. 1453b33 refers to can there have been a third title current for the one play of Sophocles? At Athenaeus 562f severe dislocation has resulted in the apparent ascription to Chaeremon of a Τραυματίας (the quotation, clearly comic in style, is from Alexis: vid. 562d)—but the Souda dutifully included the title in the list of Chaeremon's plays.

36 P. Hibeh i 4 is not from Chaeremon's Oeneus: above, p. 23f.

37 See especially Webster, , Hermes lxxxii (1954) 297 and 306.Google Scholar

38 For the polarity, see above, p. 24. Usually, I leave frr. 1 and 14 for fuller discussion below, p. 30 ff.—and both of these longer pieces were quoted by Athenaeus for their general character rather than particular points or figures.

39 Arist. Rh. iii 2. In Agathon, too, metaphor is most common: Lévêque, , Agathon 127 ff.Google Scholar

40 θρέμματ' for σώματ' Nauck, , rightly, Tragicae Dictionis Index (St Petersburg 1892) xxvi Google Scholar; cf. Od. ix 51.

41 τιθήνημα here and (literal) E. Hyps. fr. 60.i.10 only.

42 With fr. 10.3 compare E. fr. 754.3

43 New: ἐρᾱν and derivatives elsewhere commonly describe human passions for inanimates or abstracts, e.g. E. Heracl. 377 πολέμων ἐραστάς, not of one inanimate for another.

44 Noted already by Eustathius 1658.56. Flowers are ‘earth's children’ A. Pers. 618; cf. fish the sea's children Pers. 678, birds the heaven's E. El. 879, wine the vine's child Pind. Nem. ix 52, gold Zeus' Pind. fr. 222, (inanimates) day the sun's Pind. Ol. ii 35, Echo the mountain rocks' E. Hec. 1110, death Oath's Hdt. vi 86.γ2 (oracle), justice Time's E. fr. 222, lot Chance's E. fr. 989.

45 A. Ag. 4

46 S. OT 191 E. And. 119, ἄξιφος Lycophron, ἄνασπις Nonnus (all literal).

47 Simple in e.g. A. Th. 947 S. OC 1568, E. Ph. 1508, Pl. Tim. 31b; complex, Emped. B 100.11 S. fr. 255.4 Pearson. Cf. also δέμας in LSJ s.v. 1.2.

48 See Nauck on Choer. fr. 2 (p. 719).

49 The correct text of fr. 12 is ‘Cypris' high season could be seen in his chin's darkening bloom’. The ungrammatical χρόνου, replaced with γένυν by Kaibel on Athenaeus 608f, cannot be defended from Pind. Nem. v 6 where both οἰνάνθη and ὀπώρα are literal in sense. The presence of Κύπρις confirms a context of sexual ripeness, as in Pind. Isthm. ii 5, but Chaeremon's comparison of the darkening beard to the colour of the grape is again second-hand: E. Cret. 15 (cf. Call. hymn. v 75); οἴνωπος γένυς E. Ba. 438 (ornans Ph. 1160).

50 Cf. Pl. Lg. 837c adesp. trag. 403

51 P. 32f.

52 Also of colour, Nicand. fr. 74.64; ὀξύς ‘bright’, of natural light or whiteness, Il. xiv 345, xvii 352 (cf. Pind. Ol. vii 70), Pind. Pyth. i 20.

53 μελάμφνλλος S. OC 481, lyric; also in P. Hibeh ii 172 col. 1.2 (from ?Philitas' Ἄτακτοι γλῶσσαι, R. Pfeiffer, History of Classical Scholarship [Oxford 1968] 79 n. 6).

54 Accented conjunctions are not uncommon here in Sophocles, very rare otherwise; in the minores cf. e.g. Dionys. fr. 7.1; in general, see Descroix, J., Le Trimètre Iambique (Macon 1931) 288–95.Google Scholar

55 I include fr. 24

56 The corrupt text of fr. 1.2 has a ‘fifth foot’ tribrach: cf. below, p. 31 n. 66.

57 1.7, 15, 17.2, 33 (20 is corrupt). Cf. Müller, C. F., De pedibiis solutis in tragicorum minorum trimetris iambicis (Berlin 1879)Google Scholar, whose figures are based on Nauck, TGF 1

58 Zielinski, T., Tragodumenon (Cracow 1925) 141.Google Scholar

59 De pedibus, etc. 34; a slightly different view in Descroix, 125.

60 Which is often slightly varied, of course: compare the lemmata to the six quotations from Chaeremon which follow. On Athenaeus' ‘formulae' see Zepernick, K., Philologus lxxvii (1921) 311 ff.Google Scholar, and on the accuracy of his tragic quotations, my article in RFIC xcvii (1969).

61 Kaibel altered the lemma of fr. 1 to read maintaining the continuity of fr. 1 with fr. 14 as illustrations of κάλλος, but also the displacement of the introduction to the flower-quotations.

62 So Euripides, Apollodorus: see Lévêque, , Agathon 93 Google Scholar n. 4 and Pearson, , Sophocles i 69 Google Scholar for the evidence.

63 Details of tragic treatments of the Alcmaeon myth and of discussions in Else, , Poetics 392 Google Scholar and Mette, , Lustrum ix (1964) 142 f.Google Scholar; cf. Lévêque, , Agathon 95 n. 1.Google Scholar

64 There is no reason to distrust Athenaeus' use of the quotation to illustrate female beauty and think that Chaeremon may have been describing a youth: see the note on vv. 5–7.

65 It is most unlikely that Chaeremon here gave a unique (and satyric?) dramatisation of the seduction of the nymph Alphesiboea by Dionysus in the guise of a tiger on the banks of the Tigris (pseudo-Plutarch, Mor. 1165d).

66 Metrically possible: there are 22 ‘fifth foot’ tribrachs in Euripides' complete plays ( Zielinski, , Tragodumenon 140 Google Scholar), all in terminal quadrisyllables, including one example of ‘position’ in the resolved longum at Ph. 494 περιπλοκάς. Müller 15 (see n. 57 above), however, can give no example from the minores before Lycophron fr. 2.1 (satyric).

67 Philocles also wrote an Oeneus (Souda Φ 378 Adler), perhaps Sophocles too, though the evidence is flimsy: Pearson, , Sophocles ii 120.Google Scholar

68 Mette, , Lustrum ix (1964) 147–8.Google Scholar

69 Mette, , Lustrum 93 Google Scholar; cf. Séchan, , Études 444.Google Scholar

70 For the immediate influence of the Bacchae, see the Introduction to Dodds' edition.