Euripides

Il presente fascicolo raccoglie i risultati di un progetto, «Alcesti fra mito e scena», nato dalla collaborazione fra il Centro Teatrale Bresciano e la Facoltà di Lettere dell’Università Cattolica, sede di Brescia (corsi di Laurea in Scienze e Tecnologie delle Arti e dello Spettacolo e in Lettere). L’allestimento del dramma Alcesti o La recita dell’esilio di Giovanni Raboni per la regia di Cesare Lievi, Direttore artistico del CTB-Teatro Stabile di Brescia, nella stagione teatrale 2003-2004, presso il Teatro Santa Chiara, ha offerto l’occasione per approfondire le metamorfosi di un mito antico sulla scena moderna e contemporanea e per sperimentare la possibilità che studenti e docenti universitari diventino interlocutori del processo di lavoro registico, svolgendo la funzione che nei Paesi di lingua tedesca è propria del Dramaturg (a questo aspetto è specificamente dedicato l’intervento di R. Carpani, nella sezione introduttiva).

Nei vv. 109-112 dell’Andromaca l’eroina rievoca il momento in cui, tratta prigioniera, ha percorso in lacrime il tragitto che separava il proprio talamo a Troia dalle navi achee ormeggiate in riva al mare, col capo avvolto dall’atroce schiavitù (δουλοσύναν στυγερὰν ἀμφιβαλοῦσα κάρᾳ). L’immagine si rivela particolarmente densa di significato: Euripide riatta il motivo omerico del nobile incedere a capo velato a un personaggio che, a dispetto delle circostanze, conserva nel dramma la propria integrità morale; per altro verso, riprende il filo del racconto iliadico nel punto in cui Andromaca ha perduto simbolicamente, assieme al velo, la propria identità; infine ripropone il motivo, più propriamente tragico, del velarsi in segno di afflizione e isolamento. Questo peculiare ‘velo’, immateriale e greve al contempo, dice della dignità di Andromaca e della sua perdita, del dolore e del desiderio di morte.

In Eur. Andr. 109-112 Andromache remembers when, captured, she went from her thalamus in Troy to the Achaean ships moored by the sea, weeping, her head wrapped into the cruel slavery (δουλοσύναν στυγερὰν ἀμφιβαλοῦσα κάρᾳ). This image seems to be especially meaningful: Euripides fits the Homeric motif of the noble walking with veiled head on a character who, in spite of the current situation, keeps in this tragedy her moral integrity; on the other hand, he resumes the Iliadic tale where Andromache had symbolically lost, together with veil, her identity; finally he repropses the motif of tragic veiling as a gesture of pain and segregation. This unique ‘veil’, both immaterial and heavy, narrates Andromache’s dignity and its loss, the anguish and the quest for death.

La jalousie n’est pas un monstre et, si elle avait les yeux verts, ce seraient ceux, magnifiques, d’Ava Gardner. Ce n’est pas une fantaisie ombrageuse et chagrine, une passion cruelle et petite, le symptôme d’une estime de soi défaillante. Et pourtant c’est ainsi, par le blâme et le mépris, que tant de moralistes en ont parlé.
Tous ceux et celles qui l’ont éprouvée savent très bien que la jalousie n’est pas infime et étriquée, délirante et ridicule. Mais il faudrait en penser tout le mal possible. Il faudrait la soigner, l’éradiquer, la répudier et, surtout, ne jamais l’admettre. La jalousie est une passion inavouable.
Que faire alors ? Continuer à taire ce sentiment parce qu’il n’est pas « politiquement correct » ? Ou bien, à l’instar des héroïnes de la tragédie grecque, le revendiquer comme une attente de réciprocité ? Rendue à son histoire, la jalousie révèle la nature intense et inquiète de l’amour, qui est désir de désir.
Il ne faut pas avoir honte d’aimer.

Há duas ramificações distintas que podemos fazer da temática da Morte na Medeia. Por um lado, temos um conjunto de interpretações directas e imediatas, por outro, encontramos uma variedade de associações indirectas e menos óbvias – e provavelmente menos consensuais –, do recurso do autor à Morte. “Vingança”, “libertação” ou “traição” são algumas das palavras em que as interpretações directas nos fazem pensar. “Salvação”, “heroísmo” ou “valorização” serão as expressões mais associadas a leituras nas entrelinhas, nas omissões e nas ligações que se encontram entre o que Eurípides escreveu e outras versões da mesma história.

The tragedians' frequent citation of euboulia (`deliberative virtue') helped audiences to connect the deliberations of tragic characters to the discourses and politics of their own cities in their own time. Euripides' Suppliant Women draws on, and problematizes, contemporary Athenian debates about the extent and nature of the city's euboulia. The important role of pity and sungnomē (`sympathy') in affecting deliberation is also highlighted by this play. The Rhesus is less Atheno-centric but shows Greeks that euboulia, while valuable, is often thwarted by bad luck or divine intervention. Hector's character and actions valorize group consultation. But the plan he agrees upon does not avert disaster. Meanwhile, Odysseus shows that individual leaders sometimes need to be eubouloi without recourse to the advice of others. Both plays model better and worse ways of deliberating whilst at the same time reminding Greeks (especially Athenians) that there are always unknowns which can't be planned for.

This paper analyzes attitudes towards suicide in ancient Greece as presented in Greek tragedies. Although suicide as a social phenomenon was a common motif in various ancient plays, the focus here will be on two tragedies, Sophocles᾿ Ajax and Euripides᾿ Heracles, in which suicidal tendencies motivated by a loss of honor are most clearly depicted. In these plays, the two heroes are faced with a dilemma: choosing between an honorable death or a life spent in shame. In accordance with the ideals of his creator and the strict heroic code, Sophocles’ Ajax decides to commit suicide. Euripides’ Heracles, however, broken and devastated, chooses life by relying only on himself and his friendship with Theseus.

The aim of this paper is to examine in Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis the play’s paralanguage and its relevance to a reconstruction of performance style. In studying how the on-stage speech is being uttered, I have mainly focused on the “vocalizations”, that is, the actual sounds emitted, and on the “vocal characterizers”, that is, laughing, yelling, crying, etc., as well as the “vocal qualifiers”, that is, intensity, pitch height or extent of the on-stage speech. In this paper I have suggested that all the non-verbal sounds function as a means expressing the very emotions of the play’s characters. These paralinguistic elements play a special role in clarifying the ambiguity of the on-stage speech, justifying in this way their presence in the play.

A comparison between the famous debate between Zethos and Amphion in Euripides’ Antiope and the better-known contests of wisdom—the Certamen Homeri et Hesiodi and that in Aristophanes’ Frogs—is put forward. In both of these, the contender who is expected to win is surprisingly defeated by the verdict of the deciding authority. Assuming that fr. 206 Kannicht is placed at the conclusion of the argument between Zethos and Amphion and assigned to the Herdsman who raised the twins, the same may be supposed regarding the Antiope debate. The conjectural attribution of fr. 910 Kannicht to the debate is also supported, in that it may contain the Chorus’ praise for the position held by Amphion, in parallel with the audience’s support for the defeated Homer in the Certamen.

This study analyzes how two recent productions of the Bacchae in the USA—by the SITI Company and the Classical Theatre of Harlem—activated Euripidean themes that confront the politics and rhetoric of Donald Trump. Through various interventions and adaptations, the ancient tragedy yields contemporary resonances: patriarchal control and authoritarianism are constructed and sustained by manufacturing threats posed by marauding bands of foreigners, even as the haunting denouement reveals that the most destructive perils reside within. In the drama as in Trump’s ascendency, political domination is pursued through performances that reorient illusion and reality.

Malgré des débuts prometteurs, le retour de la tragédie grecque en France s'estompe brutalement à partir de 1550, laissant la voie libre à Sénèque comme seul modèle antique dans la naissance et le développement de la tragédie française. Comment justifier le silence étonnant qui sépare les premières traductions de Sophocle et Euripide, sous François Ier , du succès de Phèdre de Racine en 1677 ? L'explication esquissée par l'ouvrage décloisonne les champs de recherche pour montrer que l'intérêt fluctuant envers le théâtre athénien tient à des préférences extra-littéraires : derrière la passion pour le grec s'en cache une autre, inavouable, pour la lecture de la Bible en langue originale. Une passion dangereuse que le Concile de Trente s'empressera d'effacer pendant plus d'un siècle, retardant ainsi l'éclosion d'une tragédie française d'inspiration grecque. L'histoire d'une occasion manquée.

The possibility of hospitality is based on an unequal relationship between the host and the guest. The former is the master of a house, either of his or her own house or of what s/he considers to be “his/her own country,” while the latter arrives in this house simply as a visitor. Hence, there is a danger lurking behind every act of hospitality, namely the danger of being limited or perverted by the power of the host. This essay focuses on two pieces of ancient Greek drama, Sophocles’ “Oedipus at Colonus” and Euripides’ “Alcestis,” to illustrate those instances where the provision of hospitality tends to subvert the hierarchical binary opposition between host and guest.

In 5th century tragedy Agamemnon’s son Orestes is conceived as an athlete in various forms: a frenzied charioteer as well as a horse racer, a wrestler, and a runner. In the present paper I discuss how Sophocles and Euripides used, expanded and re-modelled Aeschylus’ athletic conception of Orestes.

En este capítulo queremos centrarnos en las referencias a la parthenía en Helena de Eurípides en tanto juegan un rol pregnante en el drama, no solo respecto de las múltiples aristas del complejo personaje de Helena, sino también de otros, tenida cuenta de que hay asimismo referencias a otras parthénoi cargadas todas de fuerte significación. Analizaremos primeramente las remisiones y las alusiones que giran en torno de la protagonista para dar luego lugar a las que aparecen en función de los otros personajes y poder ver así qué paralelismos se despliegan. Consideramos que Helena es presentada aquí como una “parthenaic figure”, en palabras de Sissa (2013: 84-85), en tanto conforma una mujer que imagina un nuevo casamiento y reactualiza una virginidad perdida. Es nuestro objetivo analizar de qué manera Eurípides presenta las referencias de Helena y de los otros personajes para ir estructurando esta imagen virginal, pese a ser mujer que ya ha pasado por un lecho matrimonial y fértil.

This article explains the concept of myth and the motif of "femme fatale", in order to investigate that motif in the myth of Electra / the myth of Atreus family. Three representations of the myth provided by antiquity (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides) are explored in search of that motif and are compared to each other when necessary.

How much continuity was there in the allusive practices of the ancient world? I explore this question here by considering the early Greek precedent for the so-called 'Alexandrian footnote', a device often regarded as one of the most learned and bookish in a Roman poet's allusive arsenal. Ever since Stephen Hinds opened his foundational Allusion and Intertext with this device, it has been considered the preserve of Hellenistic and Roman scholar-poets. In this chapter, however, I argue that we should backdate the phenomenon all the way to the archaic age. By considering a range of illustrative examples from epic, lyric and tragedy, I demonstrate that the 'Alexandrian footnote' has a long history before Alexandria.

The present paper aims to propose a new interpretation of Iphigenia in Aulis, by showing that XVIIth century French dramatist Jean Racine identified in his own version the secret of Euripides' play. Racine has followed his Greek mentor and has turned up side down the legend in order to put Iphigenia and not Agamemnon at the center. By giving her the choice between escaping death with her lover Achilles and sacrificing herself for her father, Racine has put the accent on the crazy obeisance of a daughter, which becomes the real theme and which hides an even more powerful tragedy, the one of a girl who refuses to grow up.
However, Racine did not invent anything, he just developed a theme already hidden in Euripides' text. The Athenian playwright had been the first one who created a perfectly coherent figure (in spite of Aristotle's view), whose coherence was given by the obeisance to the father. If Iphigenia suddenly transformed herself into a soldier, it was only to please Agamemnon and to remain an obedient daughter.
By highlighting this familiar aspect of Euripides's play, Racine contributes to better understand the legend and the euripidean rewriting of the story of Iphigenia, which becomes the story of the impossible growth of a daughter, whose wedding is voluntarily disrupted while the prenuptial rite of protéleia was intended to deliver her from Artemis' hold. As suggested by the final rescue, she will remain for the rest of her life under the Goddess' control, in an endless and tragic state of infancy and minority.

Context: Athenian honorific decrees — which used to encourage citizens to emulate the honorands and to maintain the great image of the city in Greece — could stipulate a public proclamation to be held in the orchestra of the theatre during the Dionysia. This practice began in 410/9 B.C. — with the honours on Thrasyboulus of Calydon (IG I3 102) — and it served to praise the virtues and deeds of Athens’ benefactors through public conferrals of crowns, honours, and privileges. The ceremony had a strong political value: through such rewards Athens was establishing social relationships among Greece in order both to display its magnanimity and to secure future favours and alliances.
Topic: Euripides was a great critic of Athenian political ideology, but the results of scholarly considerations of his engagement with Athenian politics and ideology have often been negative, rendering him a mere social critic rather than someone with a positive contribution to make. As a different approach to ‘tragic politics’, I argue that Euripidean tragedy also had a subtle and nuanced way to talk about Athenian politics: through ethical praises related to specific tragic characters, Euripides revised and dramatised Athenian diplomacy, stating and staging his opinion about the rising honorific system. In my talk, I will focus on Euripides’ Heracles, in order to show the relationship between Euripides, Athenian foreign diplomacy, and one of the Dionysia’s pre-play ceremonies (the proclamations of honours, i.e. public celebrations of honorific decrees).
Throughout the play, Heracles (105: ἀνὴρ ἄριστος) and his family are in need of φίλοι (‘friends’; 55–6, 84–5, 561) — which in Athenian diplomatic rhetoric meant also ‘allies’ (135, 1171) — but no one is about to help them. On the other hand, many virtues of Heracles are praised: eukleia, eugeneia, prothymia, aidôs, philia, eupraxia, euergesia (all that is needed to be a benefactor of people/countries). However, the hero will receive help only in the last part of the play. It is Theseus (representative of Athens) who speaks of exchange of favours (1169–71); he calls Heracles εὐεργέτης and φίλος (1252); also he gives Heracles gifts and honours — a gesture that, in turn, will assure a crown to the Athenians (1324–37). Attention will be paid to the honorific formulae and virtues used both within the tragic play and contemporary honorific decrees, in order to highlight such a rhetorical correspondence. This kind of formulaic language — which clearly refers to Athenian honorific decrees for foreigners — also anticipates those which stipulated a public conferral of honours/crowns in the theatre. Thus, given that Heracles was staged approximately in 424–20 B.C., it emerges that Euripides was 1) conferring to Heracles’ honours a highly political charge, since Athens was depriving Thebes (against which Athens was currently fighting during the Peloponnesian War) a great εὐεργέτης/ξύμμαχος, 2) de-legitimising the Doric character of Heracles by including him in the Athenian socio-political mechanism of exchange of favours, and 3) anticipating the fourth-century B.C. established ‘monumentalised diplomacy’ of honorific decrees by staging it ἐναντίον τῶν Ἑλλῆνων, like a proper public conferral of crowns/honours in the theatre.
It has often been assumed that Euripides was influenced by the historico-political context, but what if, in our case, it was Euripidean tragedy to 1) influence politics by using its honorific rhetoric and ‘building’ new (though mythical) alliances, and 2) ‘prophesy’ a political ceremony such as the proclamation of honours?

In Euripides' Heracles the characters (Heracles' family in the first part and Heracles himself in the second) have to decide, in the face of a difficult situation, whether they accept death or endure life. The family of Heracles accepts to die to fulfil the notion of εὐγένεια. Heracles, by contrast, finally decides to live. The argumentation underlying this decision implies a re-elaboration of heroic values from much more humanistic perspectives.

Este artigo apresenta um panorama da recepção das tragédias fragmentárias de Eurípides durante os séculos V e IV a.C. e de sua contribuição para nossos conhecimentos sobre os enredos. Aspectos selecionados das performances, reapresentações e influências das tragédias Andrômeda, Cresfonte, Éolo, Erecteu, Hipsípile, Télefo e Teseu em poetas trágicos, poetas cômicos, decoradores de vasos e comentadores antigos são brevemente discutidos.

This paper presents an overview of the reception of Euripides incomplete tragedies in Vth and IVth centuries BC, and its contribution to our knowledge of the plots. Selected topics about performances, reperformances and influences of Andromeda, Cresphontes, Aeolus, Erectheus, Hypsipyle, Telephus and Theseus on tragic and comic poets, vase-painting and ancient commentators are briefly discussed.

The whole of the MA Thesis (284 pages) has been published - see «Sileno» 41/1-2 2015 [First Chapter], «Vichiana» 55/2 2018 [Second Chapter], «Sileno» 44/1-2 2018 [Third Chapter], «Giornale Italiano di Filologia» 70 2018 [Fourth Chapter] - and has been awarded the Prize (Year 5th, 2017) by the Delegation of Catania "Q. Cataudella" of the "Italian Association of Classical Culture" (A.I.C.C.) for the best MA thesis in 'Latin Language and Literature' ||
Report of the Academic Committee (President: Carmelo Ugo Crimi, Full Professor of Byzantine Civilisation):
«[...] La Commissione prende in considerazione la dissertazione suddetta, la quale appare pienamente congruente con l'ambito disciplinare "Lingua e letteratura latina". La Commissione all'unanimità giudica la predetta dissertazione meritevole del premio,  per l'originalità della ricerca, la metodologia raffinata e competente che è stata adottata, per le risultanze cui il dott. Nolfo è giunto, per l'ampiezza della informazione bibliografica e le grandi capacità di analisi, approdando a una ricerca pienamente matura (= The Academic Committee considered unanimously my MA thesis “worthy of the prize on account of his original research approach, the refined research methodology, the aims and results of the research topics, the bibliographical richness of the Thesis, and the insightful analysis in the discussion”)».

Intervista al regista Carmelo Rifici in occasione della messa in scena al Piccolo Teatro di Milano – Teatro d'Europa dello spettacolo "Ifigenia, liberata", di autori vari. Piccolo Teatro Strehler, 27 aprile 2017. Testo pubblicato nel programma di sala dello spettacolo, disponibile presso l'Archivio Storico del Piccolo Teatro Strehler (Largo Paolo Grassi 2, archiviostorico@piccoloteatromilano.it)

...With national boundaries relativised and national imaginaries and national subjects destabilized, it is only natural to wonder about the future of the classics, whether there is still any room left for them to step in and make their presence felt, locally or globally. Whether they can accommodate the growing diversity of the planet, in which millions of people cross boundaries doing business or running away from war zones...

This paper presents a reflection on the relationship between tragedy and comedy in classical Greece. We have developed our work through the comparison of three Athenian plays’ final scenes: Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae, Euripides’ Iphigenia
among the Taurians and Helen. We examine the role of the duped barbarian, a character common to all three plays, and how his presence determines the plays’ reception.
Keywords. Greek theater; Euripides; Aristophanes; exodos; barbarian.

Troyanas es la tragedia que se centra en las mujeres tomadas tras la destrucción de la ciudad vencida. Su trama gira sobre el reparto de las mujeres entre los jefes griegos y, por lo tanto, la problemática del lecho resulta crucial en su desarrollo: las mujeres, que acaban de convertirse en botines de guerra, están a punto de experimentar el traspaso de un lecho ya desaparecido a otro donde las reglas de juego cambian radicalmente. Este reparto de lechos incumbe a todas las troyanas a excepción de Hécuba quien, en virtud de su edad, queda relegada solamente a la función de sirvienta. Hécuba presenta una problemática similar: tras la caída de Troya las mujeres, en tanto esclavas, aguardan que las naves las conduzcan a tierras desconocidas y hostiles. Se focaliza la desgracia de la reina y de las mujeres troyanas en las muertes de sus hijos más jóvenes, Polidoro y Políxena. En Alejandra toda la composición conforma el relato por parte del guardián de Alejandra a Príamo de los vaticinios emitidos por su hija, en el momento en el que Paris parte hacia Esparta . Las palabras de Casandra se hallan enmarcadas por las del guardián, quien es, por otra parte, el emisor de las mismas en la composición. El objetivo de este artículo es analizar los diferentes "lechos" que aparecen en torno de Casandra en estas tres obras.

Supplements are proposed for lines 892-4 Kannicht of 'Hypsipyle', and it is argued that enallage occurs in line
893. According to the resulting text, Amphiaraos is explaining to Eurydike that he intended to use the waters from the spring to which Hypsipyle had led him for two different sacrificial procedures: these correspond to the two purpose clauses introduced by 'hina' and 'hos'  (cf. E. Hel. 63-7).