Tuesday, 23 February 2021

The Suppliants (Supplices) - Euripides

The Suppliants, Suppliant Women, Ἱκέτιδες (Hiketides, Latin: Supplices) first produced in 423 BC.

One of Euripides' political plays. The play deals with the appeal made by Adrastus, king of Argos, and the mothers of the Argive force which had attacked Thebes [in the war of Seven against Thebes] but who had lost to allow the bodies of the fallen Argive soldiers to receive a proper burial. King Creon of Thebes refused their appeal, and they asked Theseus king of Athens to intervene.

Argument/Hypothesis

In the days when Theseus ruled in Athens, there was war between Argos and Thebes. For the two sons oj Oedipus, being mindful of their father 's curse, that they should divide their inheritance with the sword, covenanted to rule in turn, year by year, over Thebes. So Eteokles, being the elder, became king for the first year, and Polyneikes his brother departed from the land, lest any occasion of offence should arise. But when after a year's space he returned, Eteokles refused to yield to him the kingdom. Then went he to Adrastus king of Argos, who gave him his daughter to wife, and led forth a host of war under seven chiefs against Thebes. But, forasmuch as in going he set at nought oracles and seers, his array was utterly broken in battle, and of those seven captains none returned, but Adrastus only. Thereafter, according to the sacred custom of Hellas, and the law of war, the Argives sent to require the Thebans to suffer them to bear away their slain that they might bury them. For, among the Greeks, if a man being dead obtained not burial, this was accounted a calamity worse than death, forasmucJi as he was thereby made homeless and accurst in Hades. Yet did the Thebans impiously and despitefully reject that claim, being minded to wreak vengeance on their enemies after death. Then king Adrastus, with the mothers of the slain chiefs, came to Eleusis in Attica, and made supplication at the altar of Demeter to Aitlira the mother of Theseus, and to the king's self. So Theseus consented to their prayer, and led the array of Athens against Thebes, and there fought and prevailed, and so brought back the bodies of those chiefs, and rendered to them the death-rites at Eleusis.

Dramatis Personae

Aithra, mother of Theseus.
Theseus, son of Aigeus, king of Athens.
Adrastus, king of Argos.
Herald from Creon, king of Thebes.
Messenger from the army of Theseus before Thebes.
Evadne, wife of Capaneus, one of the seven chiefs of Argos.
Iphis, father of Evadne.
Sons of the slain chiefs of Argos.
Athene, Patron-goddess of Athens.
Chorus consists of Argive Women (mothers of the chiefs slain before the gates of Thebes) together with their Handmaidens.

Non-speaking silent parts:
Attendants to the Mothers, Aethra, and Theseus; Athenian Herald. guards, Athenian soldiers

Allocation of Roles:
Protagonist:  Theseus, Messenger
Deuteragonist: Adrastus, Iphis
Tritagonist: Aethra, Creon's Herald, Evadne, Athena, Messenger from Theseus

Setting: Skene is the Temple of Demeter at Eleusis. The is an altar bestrewn with Suppliant branches.

Summary

First Episode [Lines 1–364]: 

First Stasimon [Lines 365–381]:

The Chorus appeals to Athens for help.What will Athens resolve to do? Will she ally herself to their cause. 
Chorus: O Athens, Justice you revere. Injustice you abhor. Ever prove the salvation of the wretched.

Second Episode [Lines 382–597]:

Second Stasimon [Lines 598–633]:

Third Episode [Lines 634–954]:

Third Stasimon [Lines 955–979]:

Fourth Episode [Lines 980–1234]:

References

The Suppliants (Euripides) - Wikipedia


Euripides: Suppliants (Ἱκέτιδες) - - Major Reference Works - Wiley Online Library


Suppliants by Euripides GreekMythology.com

The Suppliants - Euripides - Ancient Greece - Classical Literature

Crowell's handbook of classical drama p. 313 - Suppliants (Euripides) - Internet Archive

Adrastus - Wikipedia

Thebaid (Greek poem) - Wikipedia

Seven against Thebes - Wikipedia

Theseus - Wikipedia

Capaneus - Wikipedia


The History of Herodotus: Book IX Chapter 27

Greek tragedy : a literary study Euripides - The Suppliant Women p. 232- : Kitto, H. D. F. - Internet Archive

Greek tragic theatre p. 123-  : Rehm, Rush :- Internet Archive

Euripides: Suppliant Women, with Introduction, Translation and Commentary – Bryn Mawr Classical Review

Ian C. Storey (1 November 2013). Euripides: Suppliant Women. A&C Black. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-4725-2115-6.

James Morwood (6 October 2016). The Plays of Euripides. Bloomsbury Publishing. pp. 45–. ISBN 978-1-4742-3361-3.

Euripidean drama : myth, theme and structure p. 93- Chapter 5 The Suppliants : Conacher, D. J - Internet Archive

Euripides (1975). Supplices: Commentary. Volume II Bouma's Boekhuis. ISBN 978-90-6088-046-3.

Euripides (1975). Supplices: Introduction and text. Volume I Bouma's Boekhuis. ISBN 978-90-6088-046-3.

Collard, C. “Notes on Euripides' Supplices.” The Classical Quarterly, vol. 13, no. 2, 1963, pp. 178–187. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/637608

Collard, C. “THE FUNERAL ORATION IN EURIPIDES' ‘SUPPLICES.’” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, no. 19, 1972, pp. 39–53. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43646290

R. B. Gamble. “Euripides' 'Suppliant Women': Decision and Ambivalence.” Hermes, vol. 98, no. 4, 1970, pp. 385–405. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4475654

Fitton, J. W. “The Suppliant Women and the Herakleidai of Euripides: I. The Suppliant Women.” Hermes, vol. 89, no. 4, 1961, pp. 430–461. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4475182

Toher, Mark. “Euripides' ‘Supplices’ and the Social Function of Funeral Ritual.” Hermes, vol. 129, no. 3, 2001, pp. 332–343. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4477442

Michelini, Ann N. “Political Themes in Euripides' Suppliants.” The American Journal of Philology, vol. 115, no. 2, 1994, pp. 219–252. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/295300

KORNAROU, ELENI. “THE DISPLAY OF THE DEAD ON THE GREEK TRAGIC STAGE: THE CASE OF EURIPIDES' ‘SUPPLICES.’” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies, vol. 51, 2008, pp. 29–38. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43646705

Morwood, James. “Euripides' ‘Suppliant Women’, Theseus and Athenocentrism.” Mnemosyne, vol. 65, no. 4/5, 2012, pp. 552–564., www.jstor.org/stable/41725239

Anderson, A. Sebastian. “The Seven against Thebes at Eleusis.” Illinois Classical Studies, vol. 40, no. 2, 2015, pp. 297–318. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/illiclasstud.40.2.0297.

Greek Versions

Euripides; Frederick Apthorp Paley (1872). Euripides: With an English Commentary : in Three Volumes. Volume I. p. 389- Hikitedes: Whittaker. pp. 389–.


Euripides, Suppliants, Gilbert Murray

Euripidou Hiketides: Euripidis Supplices mulieres [et Iphigenia in Aulide et ... : Euripides, Jeremiah Markland, Thomas Gaisford - Internet Archive



Translations

Plays. Six  : Euripides - Internet Archive Kenneth McLeish

The tragedies of Euripides in English verse Volume III Suppliants p. 357-. by Arthur S. Way - Internet Archive

Suppliants (Euripides) - Wikisource

The Plays of Euripides (Coleridge)/The Suppliants - Wikisource, Euripides

The Internet Classics Archive | The Suppliants by Euripides (Coleridge)

Suppliant Women Ικέτιδες | Bacchicstage

Ion ; Orestes ; Phoenician women ; Suppliant women p.138-  : Euripides - Internet Archive

Orestes, and other plays: The Suppliant Women p. 139 - Internet Archive P. Vellacott (Penguin 1972)

Euripides (2006). Orestes and Other Plays. Suppliant Women: Penguin Books Limited. pp. 231–. ISBN 978-0-14-196198-9.

Euripides (1865). The tragedies of Euripides, literally tr. or revised with critical and explanatory notes, by T.A. Buckley. The Suppliants. pp. 161–.

Euripides. The Suppliants. Wyatt North Publishing, LLC.

Euripides (2007). Suppliant Women. Aris & Phillips/Oxbow. ISBN 978-0-85668-784-6.

Eyripidēs; Euripides; Rosanna (1995). Suppliant Women. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-504553-6

No comments:

Post a Comment