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The Attribution of Aeschylus, Choephoroi 691–9

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Richard Seaford
Richard Seaford
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Extract

These lines are the first reaction to the false news of the death of Orestes. Their attribution has been much discussed. What prompts my intervention is the recent development, on this important problem, of a confident unanimity which seems to me certainly mistaken. I have been unable to find a single translator, editor, or commentator in recent years who gives the lines to Electra. The case for Electra was best made by Headlam–Thomson in 1938, and a few extra points were added very hesitantly by Winnington-Ingram in 1946. From the wealth of detailed argument in Headlam–Thomson, which has been ignored rather than refuted, I will mention and briefly develop just two points, before going on to add some of my own.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 39 , Issue 2 , December 1989, pp. 302 - 306
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1989

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References

1 They were first attributed to Clytaemnestra by Portus, to Electra by Turnebus (the MS. has only a paragraphus). I reproduce Page's OCT text, even though I disagree with it in some details irrelevant to this paper.

2 Headlam, W. G. and Thomson, G., Aeschylus, The Oresteia (Cambridge, 1938; second edition, Prague, 1966)Google Scholar. Winnington-Ingram, R. P. in CR 60 (1946), 58ff.Google Scholar, reprinted with revisions in Studies in Aeschylus (Cambridge, 1983)Google Scholar. Typical of modern confidence is Taplin's, brusque ‘Electra does not, of course, say 691ff.’ (The Stagecraft of Aeschylus [Oxford, 1977], p. 340)Google Scholar.

3 καλ⋯ς M; κακ⋯ς (Portus) is generally accepted.

4 Compare the moderate (hypocritical) words of Aegisthus at 839–43.

5 cf. also S, . Ant. 136Google Scholar; E, . Alexandros 7.2Google Scholar, El. 1032, Hek. 121, 676, 686, 1076–8, Hel. 543–4, HF 899, 966, 1085, 1119, 1142, Hipp. 550, Ion. 1204, Or. 339, 411, 835, 1492, Phoen. 1489, Tro. 169ff., 307, 342, 349, 367, 408, 415, 500.

6 Cho. 1050. Prag, A. J. N. W., The Oresteia (1985), p. 48Google Scholar, compares, in fifth-cent, vase painting, the Furies with maenads in respect of their snakes.

7 e.g. by Garvie on 698–9; cf. Ag. 1567ff.

8 136–7 ὑπερκ⋯πως … χλ⋯ουσιν μ⋯λα. 140 … σωφρονεςτ⋯ραν … (cf. the paradox at E, . Ba. 940Google Scholar ⋯ταν παρ⋯ λ⋯γον σώφρονας β⋯κχας ἴδῃς).

9 137 (with Garvie ad loc.), 943–5, 974.

10 135, 419. That C. is pleased by O.'s (supposed) death is made quite clear by 738–9 (why else would Aesch. make the nurse say that?).

11 Ag. 1235, 1428, 1576, and perhaps 1409. Cf. Cho. 524, 535, 547.

12 Ἄρη is a generally accepted conjecture for the MSS. ⋯ρ⋯ν (defended by Zeitlin, in TAPA 97 [1966], 645–53Google Scholar).

13 The women of Thebes, the women of Argos, the Minyads, Procne. The idea is implicit in E, . Or. 339Google Scholar ματ⋯ρος αὗμα σ⋯ς, ὅ σ' ⋯ναβακχε⋯ει (cf. 411, 833–5) and perhaps even in Hecuba's βακχεῖοσ ν⋯μος over the corpse of her son (E, . Hec. 686Google Scholar).

14 In their killing maenads may seem inspired not by Dionysos but by Hades, two deities who, Herakleitos tells us (B15), are one and the same. For maenads as dedicated to death see Seaford, in CQ 31 (1981), 261CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 E, . Ba. 733ff.Google Scholar, 1098, 1147; war-cry: 1133; Bacchyl. 11.56; Seaford, in JHS 108 (1988), 134CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Calyx-crater, Leningrad St. 812; discussed and illustrated by Kossatz-Deissmann, A., Dramen des Aischylos auf Westgriechischen Vasen (Mainz, 1978), p. 91Google Scholar and plate 13.

17 See e.g. Kossatz-Deissmann, op. cit. (n. 16).

18 A. fr. 382; and in general Seaford, , art. cit. (n. 15), 125–8Google Scholar.

19 Oinochoe, Bari 1014; discussed and illustrated by Kossatz-Deissmann, , op. cit. (n. 16), p. 99Google Scholar and plate 18.

20 Seaford, , art. cit. (n. 15), 124–8Google Scholar.

21 The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford, 1977), p. 340Google Scholar.

22 Even the farmer objects at E, . El. 341–4Google Scholar. In Soph. El. is with her mother when the strangers arrive.

23 This prefigures her much fuller participation in Soph, and Eur.

24 I would like to thank Alex Garvie for his helpful comments on this paper without implying that he is persuaded by it, and my student Tony Moretta for suggesting that I publish it.