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Euripides, Medea 108–1101

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 November 2018

H. D. Jocelyn
H. D. Jocelyn
Affiliation:
University of Sydney
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Extract

Herwerden altered μεγαλό- to μελανόσπλαγχνος. Dr Diggle (P.C.Ph.S. n.s. XV (1969), 38–9) commends this alteration, alleging that Medea suffers from melancholy and adducing a number of passages of Greek verse which refer to blackness of viscera or soul.

These passages are a mixed lot. The Homeric φρένες ἀμφὶ μέλαιναι2 is formulaic and seems to be used in descriptions of almost every imaginable emotional state. At Aeschylus, Choeph. 413–14 σπλάγχνα δέ μοι (Schütz: μου Μ) κελαινοῦται πρὸς ἔπος κλυούσᾳ Pers. 115–16 ταῦτά μοι μελαγχίτων φρὴν ἀμύσσεται φόβῳ, Suppl. 785 κελαινόχρως δὲ πάλλεται μου καρδία, the emotion is fear.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society (Second Series) , Volume 16 , 1970, pp. 42 - 43
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 1970

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Footnotes

1

I am grateful to Dr Diggle for helpful correspondence.

References

page 42 note 2 Il. I. 103 Google Scholar, 17. 83, 17. 499, 17. 573, Od. 4. 661 Google Scholar.

page 42 note 3 Cf. Aristotle, , Resp. 26 Google Scholar (479 b 22), Probl. 27. 8 (948 b 13), fr. 243 (Rose), Lucretius 3. 152 ff., Pliny, , Nat. II. 224 Google Scholar.

page 42 note 4 Cf. Ovid, , Met. 8. 465 Google Scholar saepe metu sceleris pallebant ora futuri, Horace, , Ep. I.1.61Google Scholar nil conscire sibi, nulla pallescere culpa (after the commission of a crime), Lucan 7. 466–8 omnia torpor pectora constrinxit, gelidusque in uiscera sanguis… coit (in blood-relatives about to kill each other).

page 43 note 1 For the physiology see Plato, , Tim. 70 b–cGoogle Scholar, Aristotle, , Probl. 27. 3Google Scholar (947 b 23), Lucretius 3. 288 ff.