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The End of the Seven Against Thebes1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Affiliation:
Corpus Christi College, Oxford
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Extract

So many scholars nowadays believe that the final scenes of the Seven against Thebes as we have them have been considerably distorted and interpolated that some may not be aware that such an opinion was first expressed little more than ioo years ago. The first scholar to do so was A. Scholl, who afterwards recanted (1 and 2);

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 9 , Issue 1-2 , May 1959 , pp. 80 - 115
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1959

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References

1 The following abbreviations denote the following works, to which frequent reference is made in the next section of my paper: Klotz = Klotz, O., Rhein. Mus. lxxii (1917–1918), 616 f.;Google Scholar Solmsen, T.A.P.A. = Solmsen, Fried-rich, T.A.P.A. lxviii (1937), 197 f.;Google ScholarSolmsen, , H. and A. = id., Hesiod and Aeschylus, New York, 1944.Google Scholar

2 Bethe, E., Thebanische Heldenlieder (Leipzig, 1891);Google ScholarRobert, , op. cit. i. 149 f.Google Scholar

3 Cf. Daube, B., Die Rechtsproblemen in Aischylos' Agamemnon (Zürich, 1938), 89, n. 74.Google Scholar

4 See Robert's discussion, 30, i. 252 f.; Klotz, 621 f.; Solmsen, H. and A., 189, n. 48. L. Deubner's conjecture (Abh. Pr. Akad., Ph.-Hist, Kl., 1942, no. 4, 40 f.) that the story told by ∑ Od. 11. 271 comes from Aeschylus' Oedipus is attractive, but uncertain; other possible sources could be named.

1 P. Oxy. 2255, frs. 9, 10, and 11 are in the same hand. In fr. 9 we read ; in fr. 10 (Lobel quotes Hesychius ), in fr. II, col. i, 3 . This may well come from the Oedipus (part of a hypothesis [in a different hand] of which appears as 2256, fr. 2 in the same volume [P. Oxy., vol. xx]; Cf. ib., frs. 1 and 4, and see Snell, , Gnomon, xxv [1953], 438).Google Scholar Polyneices' friends may then have said Eteocles had cast him out; cf. Th. 642 f.

2 Cf. Jacoby on Pherecydes, I.e. (F.G.H. i a, p. 417): ‘Die gewaltsame Vertreibung, allerdings zeitlich verschieden gesetzt, scheint die Vulgata in Epos und Tragödie gewesen zu sein.’

3 See Solmsen, , H. and A., 219,Google Scholar n. 156 with literature. But the barbarism of the Argives is exaggerated by some scholars. Tydeus and Capaneus stand out in this respect; and though they are more representative of the rest than Amphiaraus, it is worth noting that Adrastus, the commander, is not said to be as impious as they are. 170 has long been cited as evidence of the Argives' unhellenic character. Pauw, Hermann (at one time), and Tucker emended the adjective; Wilamowitz, (A.I. 98)Google Scholar concludes that unlike the Thebans (72–73) the Argives do not speak Greek; and Kranz, W. (Stasimon, p. 78)Google Scholar and Fraenkel, Ed. (S. B. Bay. Akad., 1957, Heft 3, 28)Google Scholar suggest that Aeschylus was transferring to the mythical Argives threatening Thebes a characteristic of the Persians who in his own lifetime had threatened Athens. There is no reason to credit the poet with so strange a confusion. saw the point; it is natural to infer that the Thebans spoke the Theban dialect and the Argives the Argive. For Aeschylus' awareness of dialectal differences, Wecklein-Zomarides, ad loc. quote Ch. 563–4, where Orestes warns Pylades that while impersonating Phocians they must speak Phocian dialect; vid. Groeneboom, ad loc. Again, may, like , have meant little more than . The arrogant Argives show some unhellenic traits; but in spite of Tydeus' Aetolian origins, they are not unhellenic. K. J. Dover aptly reminds me that in English country districts, people still refer to natives of other parts of England as ‘foreigners’.

1 Cf. Kranz, W., Stasimon, p. 65.Google Scholar

2 See Page, D. L., in the Introduction to Denniston-Page, Aeschylus, Agamemnon (Oxford, 1957), pp. xxiii f.;Google ScholarFraenkel, Ed., Der Agamemnon des Aischylos (Zürich, 1957), pp. 11–14. On this important point they are at one.Google Scholar

1 Fraenkel, Ed. (Annali della Scuola Normale di Pisa, ser. ii, vol. xxiii (1954),Google Scholar fasc. iii–iv, 278) has made the attractive suggestion that we should punctuate the opening lines as follows:

2 745 f., scholars translate ‘predicted that he would …’: some with Blomfield emend to : others allege that represents a praesens propheticum. But in view of I Prefer the more natural rendering. Cf. the wording of the oracle in Eur. Phoen.

1 For literature see Klotz, p. 617; Solmsen, , T.A.P.A., p. 205,Google Scholar n. 28; id., H. and A., 219, n. 155.

1 In T.A.P.A., I.e.; cf. Daube, B., Die Rechtsproblemen in Aischylos' Agamemnon (Zürich, 1938), 88 f.Google Scholar Solmsen was following up the article of Regenbogen, O., Hermes, lxviii (1933) 63 f.Google Scholar

1 Brodaeus; codd. Even if is right, it must have been intended to suggest

1 Butler mistakenly put a comma after tamen.

1 Supposing this interpretation of were right, it would be more likely to refer to the brothers' unfortunate relation with their father than to their incestuous birth.

2 The resolved longum preceding the disyllabic biceps is unusual. See the treatment of this anomaly in ‘Marsch-anapäste, by J. D. Denniston on Eur. El. 1319; other scholars who have dealt with it cite examples from ‘Klaganapaste’, which are irrelevant. Fr. 91 is suspect; the only Aeschylean instance which counts is Eum. 949 Weil's may be right, but this parallel should restrain us from laying too heavy a stress on this metrical peculiarity. Sophocles has no instance, Euripides only one solid one (Ion 226): Tr. 101 and El. 1319 are easily emended. Hec. 145 involves a proper name; El. 1322 has a full stop after at Tr. 127 probably disyllabic. Hartung emended this word to ; Wecklein tentatively suggests (see his 1902 ed., p. 81; cf. his 1885 ed., ii. 83). Neither suggestion is convincing. There is slightly more to be said for the possibility that arouse out of two variants and : the metrical consideration indicates that would be the likelier to be correct. occurs nowhere in manuscripts, but is convincingly restored by Verrall at Eur. Hel. 1321: his conjecture is accepted by Maas, P, Epidaurische Hymnen, p. 144.Google Scholar occurs only in Plutarch, , vit. C. Gracchi 19.Google Scholar

1 I made the same point with regard to modern views of Aeschylus' theology in an article ‘Zeus in Aeschylus’, Journal of Hellenic Studies, lxxvi (1956), 55 f.,Google Scholar esp. p. 65. It may be significant that several of the contemporary scholars who have done most to popularize this view of Aeschylus are distinguished authorities on the Greek philosophy of the fourth century and later. Those who see archaic poetry as one of the cultural phenomena ‘leading up to’ later philosophy are in danger of reading into it ideas derived from that philosophy (or from later ones) which in fact have no place there.

1 See Schmid-Stählin, i. ii. 215, n. 2.

1 Italie (on 1053, p. 133) argues that in that line implies that the other members of the government are not present.

2 1009: Wakefield's conjecture is indefensible, and despite Verrall, , Tucker, , and Broadhead, H. D. (C.Q. xlvi [1950], 121),Google Scholar nothing is wrong with

1 Also Wecklein (16), p. n; Italie (62), p. 14, n. 3, etc.

2 is my emendation: Cod. R, Wilamowitz.

1 This difficulty occurred to Robert, who tries to deal with it by the suggestion that ‘Kreon bei Aischylos nicht als Schwager des Oidipus vorkam, sondern nur als der greise Vater des Megareus erwähnt war’ (30, p. 376). There is no evidence whatever in favour of this supposition. Robert refers us to p. 262 of his book, where he maintains that Creon is referred to in the Seven (at 474 f.) in a way which shows that he cannot have been imagined as the brother of the queen and the later regent. Is this because he is mentioned as of the race of the This proves nothing of the sort; nor do Robert's remarks on p. 247 strengthen his case.

2 I cannot agree with this writer (I.e.) that it is ‘ganz unverstandlich’ that Antigone ‘so heftig antritt ohne dass ihr jemand ein Unrecht oder eine Beleidigung zugefügt hat’; they have forbidden the burial of her brother. Nor do I agree that Th. 1027 is ‘offenbar eine Reminiscenz an Ant. 45’.

1 Robert, too, thought it corrupt (Oidipus ii, p. 129, m. 89);Google Scholar cf. Schmid-Stählin, p. 214, n. 3.

1 Quoted by Wundt, 20, pp. 367 ff. and by several others since Westphal, R., Prolegomena zu Aischylus Tragoedien (1864), p. 145.Google Scholar

1 G. S. Kirk complains that this instance is irrelevant, since the Olympians were not the only gods; but I doubt whether the poet means to distinguish them from the in this place.

1 is explained in LSJ as ‘deep-girded’, a word I cannot understand; but I suppose it is meant to mean the same thing.

2 ∑ B thinks that means ‘girdle’: a possibility which cannot quite be ruled out: Sidgwick in his commentary ad loc. adopts this view. If this were right, the exprsseion would be still closer to or .

1 The exclamation is extra metrum.

1 Srebrny, S., Critica et exegetica in Aeschylum (Torun, 1950), cuts out 995–7.Google Scholar

1 It cannot seriously be argued that any member of the Chorus can have claimed that to her above all others the death of the royal brothers was a grief, nor that any other member can have capped this preposterous claim by one equally preposterous. Wilamo-witz saw this. It is odd that Wundt, who on p. 369 refers to this passage, missed this point. But the standard text was then that of Wecklein, who prints 1. 996 only in the apparatus.

2 Dover points out that it would be more reasonable to use this to argue that the Phoenissae was echoing the Seven than vice versa.

1 Italie, G., Index Aeschylus, 294,Google Scholar bottom, thinks TCAOS in Aeschylus can mean ‘turba, coetus’, which if true might be relevant here. But Pers. 47 is an instance of the well-known military sense, which is different, and fr. 151 is too corrupt to count.

1 Murray mentions H. D. Broadhead's .

1 If one had to emend the passage, I should prefer to Elmsley's conjecture that of Burges: But the irregular caesura, though attested in Aeschylus, is not a thing to introduce by emendation.

1 Nestle, Wilhelm, Class. Philol. v (1910), 138Google Scholar = Griechische Studien 204 thinks this shows ‘sophistic influence’, and finds here another argument in favour of Wilamowitz's view. Pohlenz (66, p. 46) thinks that young women cannot have been allowed to criticize the government. I see little force in these arguments.

1 Dr. W. Ritchie of the University of Sydney is soon to publish a thorough examination of the problem of the Rhesus.

2 The publication of part of a hypothesis to a play of the Danaid trilogy (P. Oxy. 2256, fr. 3, now printed as fr. 288 in my appendix to vol. ii of the Loeb Aeschylus) has lately reminded us of this.