Euripides, "Alexandros"

Ioanna Karamanou

• Publisher: De Gruyter
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9783110536188
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Letteratura
• Subtopic: Critica letteraria antica e classica

This is the first full-scale commentary on Euripides' Alexandros, which is one of the best preserved fragmentary tragedies. It yields insight into aspects of Euripidean style, ideology and dramatic technique (e.g. rhetoric, stagecraft and imagery) and addresses textual and philological matters, on the basis of a re-inspection of the papyrus fragments. This book offers a reconstruction of the play and an investigation of issues of characterization, staging, textual transmission and reception, not least because Alexandros has enjoyed a fascinating Nachleben in literary, dramaturgical and performative terms. It also contributes to the readers' understanding of the trends of later Euripidean drama, especially the dramatist's innovation and experimentation with plot-patterns and staging conventions. Furthermore, the analysis of Alexandros could stimulate a more comprehensive reading of the extant Trojan Women coming from the same production, which bears the features of a 'connected trilogy'. Thus, the information retrieved through the interrogation of the rich fragmentary material serves to supplement and contextualize the extant tragic corpus, showcasing the vitality and multiformity of Euripidean drama as a whole. ?????

Introduction

Όμως η πτώσις μας είναι βεβαία. Επάνω,

στα τείχη, άρχισεν ήδη ο θρήνος.

Των ημερών μας αναμνήσεις κλαιν κ’ αισθήματα.

Πικρά για μας ο Πρίαμος κ’ η Εκάβη κλαίνε.

Yet we’re sure to fail. Up there,

high on the walls, the dirge has already begun.

They’re mourning the memory, the aura of our days.

Priam and Hecuba mourn for us bitterly.

(C.P. Cavafy ‘Trojans’; trans. E. Keeley and Ph. Sherrard)

1. The Legend

The mythical tradition surrounding the persona of Alexandros/Paris covers a wide range of events, including his exposure in infancy on Mount Ida, the Judgment of the goddesses, the abduction of Helen leading to the Trojan War, as well as his less known love story with the mountain nymph Oenone.1 Euripides’ Alexandros treats the exciting events of the earlier phase of this legend leading to the recognition of the exposed and long-lost royal son Alexandros/Paris with his natal family and his return to the royal oikos of Troy.

This stage of the myth is reflected in [Apollod.] Bibliotheca 3.12.5 (dated to the Imperial period, between the late first century BC and the third century AD):2

δευτέρου δὲ γεννᾶσθαι μέλλοντος βρέφους ἔδοξεν ῾Εκάβη καθ’ ὕπνους δαλὸν τεκεῖν διάπυρον, τοῦτον δὲ πᾶσαν ἐπινέμεσθαι τὴν πόλιν καὶ καίειν. μαθὼν δὲ Πρίαμος παρ’ ῾Εκάβης τὸν ὄνειρον, Αἴσακον τὸν υἱὸν μετεπέμψατο· ἦν γὰρ ὀνειροκρίτης παρὰ τοῦ μητροπάτορος Μέροπος διδαχθείς. οὗτος εἰπὼν τῆς πατρίδος γενέσθαι τὸν παῖδα ἀπώλειαν, ἐκθεῖναι τὸ βρέφος ἐκέλευε. Πρίαμος δέ, ὡς ἐγεννήθη τὸ βρέφος, δίδωσιν ἐκθεῖναι οἰκέτῃ κομίσαντι εἰς ῎Ιδην· ὁ δὲ οἰκέτης ᾿Αγέλαος ὠνομάζετο. τὸ δὲ ἐκτεθὲν ὑπὸ τούτου βρέφος πένθ’ ἡμέρας ὑπὸ ἄρκτου ἐτράφη. ὁ δὲ σωζόμενον εὑρὼν ἀναιρεῖται, καὶ κομίσας ἐπὶ τῶν χωρίων ὡς ἴδιον παῖδα ἔτρεφεν, ὀνομάσας Πάριν. γενόμενος δὲ νεανίσκος καὶ πολλῶν διαφέρων κάλλει τε καὶ ῥώμῃ αὖθις ᾿Αλέξανδρος προσωνομάσθη, λῃστὰς ἀμυνόμενος καὶ τοῖς ποιμνίοις ἀλεξήσας. καὶ μετ’ οὐ πολὺ τοὺς γονέας ἀνεῦρε.

(ed. Wagner 19262)

And when a second baby was about to be born, Hecabe dreamed that she had given birth to a firebrand and that the fire spread over the whole city and burned it. When Priam learned of the dream from Hecabe, he sent for his son Aisakos, for he was an interpreter of dreams, having been taught by his mother’s father Merops. He declared that the child was begotten to be the ruin of his country and advised that the baby should be exposed. When the baby was born, Priam gave it to a servant to take and expose on Mount Ida; the servant was named Agelaos. Exposed by him, the infant was nursed for five days by a bear. And when he found it safe, he took it up, carried it away, brought it up as his own son in his farm and named him Paris. When he grew to be a young man, Paris excelled many in beauty and strength and was afterwards surnamed Alexandros, because he repelled robbers and defended the flocks. And not long afterwards he discovered his parents.

(trans. Frazer 1921 with adjustments)

Hecabe’s ill-omened dream, the exposure of the baby, his humble upbringing and return to the Trojan palace are reported in most of the relevant literary and mythographical sources.3 According to the Bibliotheca, it was the seer Aisakos, Priam’s son, who interpreted Hecabe’s dream. This is also reported in Lyc. 224–25, in Euphorion fr. 79 (Lightfoot), in the ancient scholium on Lyc. 224 (Scheer) and in Servius’ scholium on Verg. Aen. 2.32 (Thilo-Hagen), whereas Euripides in Andr. 296–98 assigns this role to Cassandra. Ennius (Alexander fr. 18.55–57 J./ TrRF I fr. adesp. 76.6–8 Schauer: see Appendix) mentions that Priam consulted Apollo’s oracle. Later sources vaguely attribute the intepretation of the dream to seers.4

The infant was exposed in the wilderness and was probably expected to perish, being devoured by wild beasts, which, according to some sources (e.g. h.Hom.Ven. 68), abounded in Mount Ida. The intended death of the baby explicitly emerges from D-schol. Il. 3.325 (van Thiel) and Tzetz. Prooimion Allegor. 145 reporting that it was thrown to the beasts, as well as from other sources (Hyg. fab. 91 = Alexandros T7.7, Myth.Vat. 2.225) mentioning that the baby was handed over to be killed. This combination of elements suggests that exposure in the particular cases of ill-omened children, as Alexandros or, similarly, Oedipus and Perseus in other exposed hero story-patterns, was employed as veiled infanticide and as a means of avoiding the actual murder of the baby by its natal family.5

The baby’s nursing by an animal, as in the case of Alexandros,6 is a recurring element in several myths about children exposed at birth due to unfavourable circumstances. The exposed hero story-pattern is extensively represented in Euripidean drama, as the in-depth study of this motif by Marc Huys (1995a) has indicated. Typical instances of babies suckled by animals involve Hippothoon (Hyg. fab. 287, EΜ 473.46–48 Gaisford), whose story was dramatized in Euripides’ Alope, and Melanippe’s twins, Aiolos and Boiotos, in Euripides’ Melanippe the Wise and Captive Melanippe (hyp. Mel.S.: P. Oxy. 2455.17–18, Mel.D. fr. 489 K., Hyg. fab. 186).7 Well-known cases are also those of Aigisthos (Hyg. fab. 87, 252, Αel. VH 12.42), Telephos, according to certain versions ([Apollod.] 3.9.1, S. Aleadai fr. 89 R.8), Romulus and Remus (Liv. 1.3–4, D.H. 1.79.6, Plut. Rom. 4.2) and Kyros (Hdt. 1.122).9 The suckling animal is often considered to convey its qualities to the child whom it has nursed. Accordingly, Alexandros’ physical strength, which is attested in the Bibliotheca and in several mythical sources (Serv. ad Verg. Aen. 5.370 Thilo-Hagen, Myth. Vat. 2.225, 3.11.24) and contributes to his athletic victory in the tragic treatments of the legend (see §2 and Alexandros frr. 15, 17, 18a, col. ii, 12–13), could be associated with his having been suckled by a she-bear. At the same time, the ambivalent nature of this animal may also account for Alexandros’ insensitive behaviour, to judge from Lyc. 138 referring to his abduction of Helen: ἄρκτου τιθήνης ἐκμεμαγμένος τρόπους.10

The servant who raised the exposed baby as his own son was a herdsman (Alexandros T1.5–7, 14, T7.8–9, IA 573–75, 1291–93, Asclepiad. FGrH 12 F12, schol. Andr. 293 Schwartz, D-schol. Il. 3.325, 12.93, 15.341 van Thiel, schol. Lyc. 86 Scheer).11 His name is reported to have been either Ἀγέλαος, as occurring in the Bibliotheca, or Ἀρχέλαος, as mentioned by Tzetzes (schol. rec. Lyc. 138 Scheer). Both names have been attributed to several mythical and historical figures.12 Their striking palaeographical and phonetic similarity may well account for the confusion between them. Though the scanty evidence cannot lead to any firm conclusion with regard to the original reading, it is worth making certain observations.

Firstly, Asclepiades’ Tragodoumena (fourth century BC) is the earliest known work to have dealt with tragic myths13 and is also the earliest source to attest the name of Alexandros’ foster-father, albeit in a corrupt passage. The Homeric scholium (schol. vet. Il. 3.325b Erbse) reporting Asclepiades’ version runs as follows: Πορφύριός φησιν ἱστορεῖν τὸν γράψαντα τὰ Τραγῳδούμενα ὅτι ὁ θρέψας τὸν Πάριν νομεὺς †ἀρχιάλας† ἐκαλεῖτο. The obvious emendation of the unintelligible reading ΑΡΧΙΑΛΑC would be ΑΡΧΕΛΑΟC, as A and Λ are easily confusable in the uncial and easily transposed.14 Moreover, it is noteworthy that the reading Ἀγέλαος is also reported instead of Ἀρχέλαος (son of Temenos, the principal character in Euripides’ Archelaos) in another passage of the Bibliotheca ([Apollod.] 2.8.5).15 This fact might favour the possibility that Ps.Apollodoros or perhaps a scribe may similarly have substituted Ἀγέλαος for Ἀρχέλαος in the case of the reference to Alexandros’ foster-father, as well. It should additionally be noted that Tzetzes, who extensively derives the mythographical information of his scholia from Ps.Apollodoros,16 deviates from this passage of the Bibliotheca only in terms of the foster-father’s name, which he reports to have been Ἀρχέλαος instead of Ps.Apollodoros’ Ἀγέλαος. On balance, the available evidence might tell in favour of the prominence of the name Ἀρχέλαος rather than Ἀγέλαος in the mythographical tradition, though the sample is admittedly very meagre. In any case, the detection of the exact name of the foster-father is quite unlikely to bear serious implications for the tragic treatments of the legend, not least because minor characters usually remain unnamed in tragedy. Though they are often given names in the mythical tradition, in tragedy they tend to be ‘identified not by name but by occupation’17 (and the foster-father might conceivably have been reported as βουκόλος or βοτήρ); an eloquent example is the case of the herald in the Heraclidae being unnamed in the play, though mentioned as ‘Copreus’ in the narrative hypothesis of this tragedy.18

The Bibliotheca mentions that Priam’s servant raised the baby as his own son naming him ‘Paris’ (see also Alexandros T1.7, T7.9, schol. Lyc. 138 Scheer, Const. Manass. Comp. Chron. 1141). The origin of the name ‘Paris’ is evidently non-Greek and possibly Luvian; it has plausibly been suggested that ‘Paris’ is of the same etymology as ‘Priam’ (Pariya-muwas, ‘supreme in ...