Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-26T07:53:37.294Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The language of pity: eleos and oiktos in Sophocles' Philoctetes*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 January 2012

Lucia Prauscello
Lucia Prauscello
Affiliation:
Trinity Hall, Cambridge
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Pity and the characters' response to it have always been recognized as one of the central themes of Sophocles' Philoctetes. In recent years scholarship on the play has mainly focused either on the cognitive aspects of the dynamics triggered by pity-related emotions (that is, how pity seems to activate and at the same time is triggered by rational reflection and experience) or on its self-conscious meta-theatrical dimension (what Halliwell has called the intrinsic ‘theatricality of pity’ and the audience's response to it). My intention is to contribute to this critical debate by focusing more narrowly on the semantics of pity-related words in the play: a linguistic analysis of the language of pity in Sophocles' Philoctetes will show that the seeming interchangeability of the words oiktos and eleos bears further investigation. The first section of this article will offer a brief diachronic survey of the semantics of oiktos- and eleos-related formations in Homer and the fifth century tragedians (with special attention to Sophoclean usage). Building upon recent studies on paradigmatic semantic relations, it will then be argued that the relation of eleos to oiktos is better described, from a synchronic perspective, in terms of ‘hyponymy’ or ’gradient synonymy.’

Type
Research Article
Information
The Cambridge Classical Journal , Volume 56 , 2010 , pp. 199 - 212
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s). Published online by Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

WORKS CITED

Allan, W. (2008) Euripides: Helen, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Benardete, S. (1965) ‘XPH and ΔEI in Plato and others’, Glotta 43, 285–98.Google Scholar
Bollack, J. (1990) L'Œdipe Roi de Sophocles. Le texte et ses interpretations, Villeneuve d'Ascq.Google Scholar
Budelmann, F. (2000) The language of Sophocles. Communality, communication and involvement, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Burkert, W. (1955) Zum altgriechischen Mitleidsbegriff, Erlangen.Google Scholar
Church, K. W., Gale, W., Ganks, P., Gindle, P. and Moon, R. (1994) ‘Lexical substitutability’, in Atkins, B. T. S. and Zampolli, A. (eds.) Computational approaches to the lexicon, Oxford, 152–77.Google Scholar
Cruse, D. A. (2002) ‘Hyponymy and its varieties’, in Green, R., Bean, C. A., Myaeng, S. H. (eds.) The semantics of relationships. An interdisciplinary perspective, Dordrecht, 3–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Erdfurt, C. G. A. (1827) Sophoclis tragoediae septem, editione nova cum annotationibus et indicibus Godfredi Hermanni, vol. 2, London.Google Scholar
Falkner, T. M. (1997) ‘Containing tragedy: rhetoric and self-representation in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, CA 17, 25–58.Google Scholar
Falkner, T. M. (2005) ‘Engendering the tragic theatês: pity, power, and spectacle in Sophocles' Trachiniae’, in Sternberg, R. (ed.) Pity and power in ancient Athens, Cambridge, 165–92.Google Scholar
Fulkerson, L. (2006) ‘Neoptolemus grows up? “Moral development” and the interpretation of Sophocles' Philoctetes’, CCJ 52, 49–61.Google Scholar
Halliwell, S. (2002) The aesthetics of mimesis: ancient texts and modern problems, Princeton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jebb, R. C. (18982) Sophocles: Philoctetes, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Jourdain, B. (2005) ‘Le Philoctète de Sophocle, une tragédie de la pitié humaine’, in Kolde, A., Lukinovich, A. and Rey, A. (eds.) ΚΟΡΥΦΑΙΩΙ ΑΝΔΡΙ. Mélanges offerts à André Hurst, Genève, 133–42.Google Scholar
Kamerbeek, J. C. (1980) The plays of Sophodes: the Philoctetes, vol. 6, Leiden.Google Scholar
Kittmer, J. (1995) ‘Sophoclean sophistic: a reading of Philoctetes’, MD 34, 9–35.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (1998) ‘Philoctetes' pity: commentary on Moravcsik’, in Cleary, J. J. and Gurtler, G. M. (eds.) Proceedings of the Boston Area Colloquium in Ancient Philosophy, vol. 13, Leiden-Boston, 276–83.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2000) ‘Pity and two tragedies’, in Stärk, E. and Vogt-Spira, G. (eds.) Dramatische Wäldchen. Festschrift für Eckard Lefevre zum 65. Geburtstag, Zürich, 47–57.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2001) Pity transformed, London.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2003) ‘Translating ancient emotions’, Aclass 46, 5–19.Google Scholar
Konstan, D. (2006) The emotions of the ancient Greeks. Studies in Aristotle and classical literature, Toronto.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosak, J. C. (2005) ‘A crying shame: pitying the sick in the Hippocratic corpus and Greek tragedy’, in Sternberg, R. (ed.) Pity and power in ancient Athens, Cambridge, 253–76.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Jones, H. (1994) Sophocles, vol. 2, Cambridge (MA) and London.Google Scholar
Lloyd-Jones, H. and Wilson, N. (1992) Sophoclis fabulae, Oxford.Google Scholar
Londo, O. (1968) Commento linguistico alle Trachinie di Sofocle, Padua.Google Scholar
Mastronarde, D. J. (1994) Euripides: Phoenissae, Cambridge.Google Scholar
Matthaei, I. Pr. (1822) Sophodis Philoctetes, Altonae et Lipsiae.Google Scholar
Murphy, M. L. (2003) Semantic relations and the lexicon, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (1976–1977) ‘Consequences and character in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, Philosophy & Literature 1, 25–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (1992) ‘Tragedy and self-sufficiency: Plato and Aristotle on fear and pity’, OSAPh 10, 107–59.Google Scholar
Nussbaum, M. (2008) ‘The “morality of pity.” Sophocles' Philoctetes’, in Felski, R. (ed.) Rethinking tragedy, Baltimore, 148–69.Google Scholar
Papageorgiou, P. N. (1888) Scholia in Sophodis tragoedias vetera, Leipzig.Google Scholar
Parker, R. (1999) ‘Through a glass darkly: Sophocles and the divine’, in Griffin, J. (ed.) Sophocles revisited. Essays presented to Sir Hugh Lloyd-Jones, Oxford, 11–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pelling, C. (2005) ‘Pity in Plutarch’, in Sternberg, R. (ed.) Pity and power in ancient Athens, Cambridge, 277–312.Google Scholar
Pohlenz, M. (1956) ‘Furcht und Mitleid? Ein Nachwort’, Hermes 84, 49–74.Google Scholar
Pucci, P. (2003) in Avezzu, G., Cerri, G. and Pucci, P., Sofocle. Filottete, Milan.Google Scholar
Reinhardt, K. (1979) Sophocles, transl. F.D., and Harvey, H., Oxford (German edn: Sophokles, Frankfurt 1947 3).Google Scholar
Schadewaldt, W. (1955) ‘Furcht und Mitleid? Zur Deutung des Aristotelischen Tragödiensatzes’, Hermes 83, 129–71.Google Scholar
Schein, S. L. (1988) ‘The chorus in Sophocles' Philoktetes’, SIFC 6, 196–204.Google Scholar
Schein, S. L. (2005) ‘Divine and human in Sophocles' Philoctetes’, in Pedrick, V. and Oberhelman, S. M. (eds.) The soul of tragedy, Chicago-London, 27–47.Google Scholar
Scott, M. (1979) ‘Pity and pathos in Homer’, AClass 22, 1–14.Google Scholar
Seyffert, H. (1959) Review of Burkert 1955, Gnomon 31, 389–93.Google Scholar
Sternberg, R. (2005) ‘The nature of pity’, in Sternberg, R. (ed.) Pity and power in ancient Athens, Cambridge, 15–47.Google Scholar
Winnington-Ingram, R. P. (1980) Sophocles: an interpretation, Cambridge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar