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MEDEA: TRANSFORMATIONS OF A GREEK FIGURE IN LATIN LITERATURE*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2013

Gesine Manuwald
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Latin writers in the ancient world are well known to have been familiar with earlier Greek writings, as well as with the first commentaries on those, and to have taken over literary genres as well as topics and motifs from Greece for their own works. But, as has been recognized in modern scholarship, this engagement with Greek material does not mean that Roman writers typically produced Latin copies of pieces by their Greek predecessors. In the terms of contemporary literary terminology, the connection between Latin and Greek literature is rather to be described as an intertextual relationship, which became increasingly complex, since later Latin authors were also influenced by their Roman predecessors.

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Greece & Rome , Volume 60 , Issue 1 , April 2013 , pp. 114 - 135
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Copyright © The Classical Association 2013

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Footnotes

*

This paper was originally delivered as an inaugural lecture at University College London on 22 November 2011. English translations are the author's, unless otherwise indicated.

References

1 On the issue of ‘intertextuality’ with reference to classical texts, see Hinds, S., Allusion and Intertext. Dynamics of Appropriation in Roman Poetry (Cambridge, 1998)Google Scholar. On the question of ‘translation’, see also n. 13 below. On the notion of intertextuality applied to Medea, see Hinds, S., ‘Medea in Ovid: Scenes from the Life of an Intertextual Heroine’, MD 30 (1993)Google Scholar, 46: ‘I close, then, by affirming a pleasure in the intertextual richness of Medea. …And her story is from the beginning a story of fragmentation: the innocent girl who is also the all-powerful witch; the defender of the integrity of the family who is also the killer of her own brother and children. Fragmented by her story, fragmented by her constant reinscription in new texts, in new genres, in new eras, Medea will always in the end elude her interpreters.’

2 On the Medea story and its permutations in different artistic genres, see Clauss, J. J. and Johnston, S. I. (eds.), Medea. Essays on Medea in Myth, Literature, Philosophy, and Art (Princeton, NJ, 1997)Google Scholar. On Medea in Roman literature, see now articles in Boyle, A. J. (ed.), Roman Medea, Ramus 41 (2012)Google Scholar. On Medea in Roman drama, see Arcellaschi, A., Médée dans le théâtre latin d'Ennius à Sénèque (Rome, 1990)Google Scholar; Nosarti, L., ‘Divagazioni sul mito di Medea nel teatro latino arcaico’, in Nosarti, L., Filologia in frammenti. Contributi esegetici e testuali ai frammenti dei poeti latini (Bologna, 1999), 53–78Google Scholar.

3 However, the Augustan poet Horace demands that actions such as Medea killing her children should not happen onstage (Hor. Ars P. 185).

4 Mart. 5.53: Colchida quid scribis, quid scribis, amice, Thyesten? / quo tibi vel Nioben, Basse, vel Andromachen? / materia est, mihi crede, tuis aptissima chartis / Deucalion vel, si non placet hic, Phaethon. (‘Why do you write about her of Colchis? Why, friend, do you write about Thyestes? What is Niobe or Andromache to you, Bassus? The most appropriate theme for your pages, believe me, is Deucalion or, if he is not to your liking, Phaethon.’) Translation from Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (ed. and trans.), Martial. Epigrams. Vol. I (Cambridge, MA, 1993)Google Scholar.

5 aut famam sequere aut sibi convenientia finge, / scriptor, honoratum si forte reponis Achillem, / inpiger, iracundus inexorabilis, acer / iura neget sibi nata, nihil non adroget armis. / sit Medea ferox invictaque, flebilis Ino, / perfidus Ixion, Io vaga, tristis Orestes. (‘Either follow tradition or invent what is consistent. If, when you write, you happen to take as your subject the admired Achilles, let him be energetic, moody, ruthless, fierce, let him say that laws are not for him and claim all things at the point of his sword. Let Medea be proud of spirit and indomitable, Ino tearful, Ixion treacherous, Io a wanderer, Orestes melancholic.’) Translation from Davie, J. (trans.), Horace. Satires and Epistles (Oxford, 2011)Google Scholar.

6 On the variety of versions that combine to create the portrait of a mythical figure, see also F. Graf, ‘Medea, the Enchantress from Afar: Remarks on a Well-known Myth’, in Clauss and Johnston (n. 2), 21: ‘To those of us who have grown up with it, Greek myth seems to consist of stories about individual, noninterchangeable figures – Odysseus, Orestes, or indeed Medea – each of whom seems to have been shaped by a single, authoritative literary work: Homer's Odyssey, Aeschylus’ Oresteia, Euripides' Medea. We tend to forget that, in reality, each of these works is just a single link in a chain of narrative transmission: on either side of the version that is authoritative for us, there stands a long line of other versions. Moreover, many of these versions not only refer to the episode treated in the authoritative literary work but also include other details, which help to round out a mythic biography. The first phenomenon – the fact that there exist different versions of the same mythic episode – might be called the vertical tradition. The other phenomenon – the fact that the different versions yield a running biography of the mythic figure – might be called the horizontal tradition. (I am aware that the boundaries between the two phenomena are far from precise.) Tensions exist between individual narratives of the same episode, as well as between each of these existing narratives and what might be called the imaginary core narrative, although whether there really ever was such a thing is one question that must be considered. How severe the tensions and differences are between this “core” narrative and existing narrative is another important question: how great is the plasticity of myth?'

7 Fragments are quoted according to the numbering of lines in the editions of O. Ribbeck (Scaenicae Romanorum poesis fragmenta. Vol. I. Tragicorum Romanorum fragmenta, secundis curis rec. [Leipzig, 1871; repr. Hildesheim, 1962], tertiis curis rec. [Leipzig, 1897]) and of Warmington, E. H. (Remains of Old Latin. Newly Edited and Translated. Vol. I. Ennius and Caecilius [London and Cambridge, MA, 1935]Google Scholar; Vol. II. Livius Andronicus, Naevius, Pacuvius and Accius [London and Cambridge, MA, 1936]Google Scholar), the latter providing the Latin text and an English translation of all dramatic fragments by the authors discussed. For an introduction to Roman tragedy, see Boyle, A. J., An Introduction to Roman Tragedy (London, 2006)Google Scholar. For an overview of Roman drama, see Manuwald, G., Roman Drama. A Reader (London, 2010)Google Scholar. For bibliography and overviews of lives and works of the early dramatists, see Suerbaum, W. (ed.), Handbuch der Lateinischen Literatur der Antike. Erster Band. Die Archaische Literatur. Von den Anfängen bis Sullas Tod. Die vorliterarische Periode und die Zeit von 240 bis 78 v. Chr. (HLL 1) (Munich, 2002)Google Scholar.

8 See Suerbaum (n. 7), 126–7. Two tragedies are assumed by Jocelyn, H. D., The Tragedies of Ennius. The Fragments Edited with an Introduction and Commentary (Cambridge, 1967; repr. with corrections 1969), 342–6Google Scholar, with an overview of the evidence and the arguments, and by Boyle (n. 7), 71.

9 Cic. Fin. 1.4–5: iis igitur est difficilius satisfacere qui se Latina scripta dicunt contemnere. in quibus hoc primum est in quo admirer, cur in gravissimis rebus non delectet eos sermo patrius, cum idem fabellas Latinas ad verbum e Graecis expressas non inviti legant. quis enim tam inimicus paene nomini Romano est qui Enni Medeam aut Antiopam Pacuvi spernat aut reiciat, quod se isdem Euripidis fabulis delectari dicat, Latinas litteras oderit?…mihi quidem nulli satis eruditi videntur quibus nostra ignota sunt. (‘Therefore it is more difficult to satisfy those who say that they scorn Latin writings. As regards those people, the first thing I am amazed at is this: why does their native language not provide them with pleasure in most serious matters, while the same people read Latin plays, translated word for word from Greek ones, not unwillingly? For who is so inimical almost to the very name of “Roman” that he despises and rejects Ennius’ Medea or Pacuvius' Antiopa, since he says that he finds pleasure in the corresponding plays of Euripides, but hates Latin literature?…To me at any rate no one to whom our writings are unknown seems sufficiently educated.').

10 For Latin text and English translation of the fragments preserved for Ennius' Medea tragedies, in addition to Warmington (n. 7), see Boyle (n. 7), 71–8; Manuwald (n. 7), 104–7. For details of the interpretation of the fragments, see Jocelyn (n. 8).

11 NURSE: ‘Would that the Argo had never winged its way to the land of Colchis through the dark blue Symplegades! Would that pine trees had never been felled in the glens of Mount Pelion and furnished oars for the hands of the heroes who at Pelias’ command set forth in quest of the Golden Fleece! For then my lady Medea would not have sailed to the towers of Iolcus, her heart smitten with love for Jason…'. Translation from Kovacs, D. (ed. and trans.), Euripides. Cyclops, Alcestis, Medea (Cambridge, MA, 1994)Google Scholar.

12 utinam ne in nemore Pelio securibus / caesa accedisset abiegna ad terram trabes, / neve inde navis incohandi exordium / coepisset, quae nunc nominatur nomine / Argo, quia Argivi in ea delecti viri / vecti petebant pellem inauratam arietis / Colchis, imperio regis Peliae, per dolum. / nam numquam era errans mea domo ecferret pedem / Medea, animo aegra, amore saevo saucia.

13 For this older view of Ennius (and other Republican dramatists), see e.g. Beare, W., The Roman Stage. A Short History of Latin Drama in the Time of the Republic (London, 1964), 74–8Google Scholar, esp. 75–6: ‘In general, where we can set Ennius’ Latin side by side with the Greek, we find that the version is reasonably close. He does not shrink from translating the boldest utterances of Euripides, such as Medea's famous assertion that she would rather fight three battles than bear one child.' For more detailed discussion of the issue of ‘translation’ (with further references), see Manuwald, G., Roman Republican Theatre (Cambridge, 2011), 282–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

14 Moreover, in Ennius' version the Argo is made of fir-wood timber, while it is pinewood elsewhere (cf. Catull. 64.1 vs. 64.7). This may seem like an unimportant detail, but the wood chosen by Ennius agrees with the conventions of his time, when fir-wood was used for military ships and pinewood would have suggested commercial enterprise.

15 quae Corinthum arcem altam habetis, matronae opulentae, optumates… / multi suam rem bene gessere et publicam patria procul; / multi qui domi aetatem agerent propterea sunt improbati.

16 MEDEA: ‘Women of Corinth, I have come out of the house lest you find fault with me. For I know that though many mortals are haughty both in private and in public, others get a reputation for indifference to their neighbors from their retiring manner of life. There is no justice in the eyes of mortals: before they get sure knowledge of a man's true character, they hate him on sight, although he has done them no harm. Now a foreigner must be quite compliant with the city, nor do I have any words of praise for the citizen who is self-willed and causes his fellow-citizens pain by his lack of breeding.’ Translation from Kovacs (n. 11).

17 JASON: ‘Since you so exaggerate your kindness to me, I for my part think that Aphrodite alone of gods and mortals was the savior of my expedition. As for you, I grant you have a clever mind – but to tell how Eros forced you with his ineluctable arrows to save me would expose me to ill will.’ Translation from Kovacs (n. 11).

18 Additional lines that may provide further insight into Medea's character and that are often attributed to Ennius' Medea have been transmitted without an indication of their provenance (Enn. Trag. 226–7, 228–30 R.2–3 = 274–80 W.); it is therefore uncertain whether they actually belong to this play.

19 For Latin text and English translation of the fragments transmitted for Pacuvius' Medus, in addition to Warmington (n. 7), see Manuwald (n. 7), 108–13. For details of the interpretation of the fragments see Schierl, P., Die Tragödien des Pacuvius. Ein Kommentar zu den Fragmenten mit Einleitung, Text und Übersetzung (Berlin, 2006), 342–85CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 For a more detailed discussion of characteristics of Pacuvius' tragedies, see Manuwald, G., Pacuvius – summus tragicus poeta. Zum dramatischen Profil seiner Tragödien (Munich, 2003)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

21 Persi Solis filio, fratri Aeetae, responsum fuit ab Aeetae progenie mortem cavere: ad quem Medus dum matrem persequitur tempestate est delatus, quem satellites comprehensum ad regem Persen perduxerunt. Medus Aegei et Medeae filius ut vidit se in inimici potestatem venisse, Hippoten Creontis filium se esse mentitus est. rex diligentius quaerit et in custodia eum conici iussit; ubi sterilitas et penuria frugum dicitur fuisse. quo Medea in curru iunctis draconibus cum venisset, regi se sacerdotem Dianae ementita est dixitque sterilitatem se expiare posse; et cum a rege audisset Hippoten Creontis filium in custodia haberi, arbitrans eum patris iniuriam exsequi venisse, ibi imprudens filium prodidit. nam regi persuadet eum Hippoten non esse sed Medum Aegei filium a matre missum ut regem interficeret, petitque ab eo ut interficiendus sibi traderetur, aestimans Hippoten esse. itaque Medus cum productus esset ut mendacium morte puniret, et illa aliter esse vidit quam putavit, dixit se cum eo colloqui velle atque ensem ei tradidit iussitque avi sui iniurias exsequi. Medus re audita Persen interfecit regnumque avitum possedit; ex suo nomine terram Mediam cognominavit.

22 Cic. Nat. D. 2.89: atque ille apud Accium pastor, qui navem numquam ante vidisset, ut procul divinum et novum vehiculum Argonautarum e monte conspexit, primo admirans et perterritus hoc modo loquitur: ‘tanta moles labitur / fremibunda ex alto ingenti sonitu et spiritu. / prae se undas volvit, vertices vi suscitat: / ruit prolapsa, pelagus respargit reflat. / ita dum interruptum credas nimbum volvier, / dum quod sublime ventis expulsum rapi / saxum aut procellis, vel globosos turbines / existere ictos undis concursantibus: / nisi quas terrestris pontus strages conciet, / aut forte Triton fuscina evertens specus / supter radices penitus undante in freto / molem ex profundo saxeam ad caelum erigit.’ dubitat primo quae sit ea natura quam cernit ignotam, idemque iuvenibus visis auditoque nautico cantu: ‘sicut lascivi atque alacres rostris perfremunt / delphini –’ item alia multa: ‘Silvani melo / consimilem ad auris cantum et auditum refert’. See also Boyle (n. 7), 115–17; Manuwald (n. 7), 114–15.

23 tu [sc. Trebatius] modo ineptias istas et desideria urbis et urbanitatis depone et, quo consilio profectus es, id adsiduitate et virtute consequere. hoc tibi tam ignoscemus nos amici quam ignoverunt Medeae ‘quae Corinthum arcem altam habebant matrοnae opulentae optumates’, quibus illa manibus gypsatissimis persuasit ne sibi vitio illae verterent quod abesset a patria. nam ‘multi suam rem bene gessere et publicam patria procul; / multi qui domi aetatem agerent propterea sunt improbati’. quo in numero tu certe fuisses nisi te extrusissemus. sed plura scribemus alias. tu, qui ceteris cavere didicisti, in Britannia ne ab essedariis decipiaris caveto et (quoniam Medeam coepi agere) illud semper memento: ‘qui ipse sibi sapiens prodesse non quit, nequiquam sapit’. Translation from Shackleton Bailey, D. R. (ed. and trans.), Cicero. Letters to Friends. Vol. I (Cambridge, MA, 2001)Google Scholar.

24 requiretur fortasse nunc quem ad modum, cum haec ita sint, reliquum possit magnum esse bellum. cognoscite, Quirites; non enim hoc sine causa quaeri videtur. primum ex suo regno sic Mithridates profugit ut ex eodem Ponto Medea illa quondam profugisse dicitur, quam praedicant in fuga fratris sui membra in eis locis qua se parens persequeretur dissipavisse, ut eorum conlectio dispersa maerorque patrius celeritatem persequendi retardaret. sic Mithridates fugiens maximam vim auri atque argenti pulcherrimarumque rerum omnium quas et a maioribus acceperat et ipse bello superiore ex tota Asia direptas in suum regnum congesserat in Ponto omnem reliquit. haec dum nostri conligunt omnia diligentius, rex ipse e manibus effugit. ita illum in persequendi studio maeror, hos laetitia tardavit. Translation from Berry, D. H., Cicero. Political Speeches. Translated with Introduction and Notes (Oxford, 2006)Google Scholar.

25 Cicero's reference is connected with Accius' version by Arcellaschi (n. 2), 185–90; by Schierl, P., ‘Die Rezeption des Medea-Mythos bei Pacuvius und Accius’, in Faller, S. and Manuwald, G. (eds.), Accius und seine Zeit (Würzburg, 2002), 284–5Google Scholar; and, more cautiously, by T. Baier, ‘Accius: Medea sive Argonautae’, in Faller and Manuwald (this note), 60–1.

26 postquam pater / adpropinquat iamque paene ut conprehendatur parat, / puerum interea obtruncat membraque articulatim dividit / perque agros passim dispergit corpus: id ea gratia, / ut, dum nati dissipatos artus captaret parens, / ipsa interea effugeret, illum ut maeror tardaret sequi, / sibi salutem ut familiari pareret parricidio. (‘After her father drew near and was nigh already preparing to have her seized, she meanwhile slaughtered his boy and carved his limbs joint by joint, and strewed the carcase far and wide over the fields: and this she did so that, while the child's father was grasping at his son's scattered limbs, she herself meanwhile might escape, and grief might delay him from pursuit, and she might conceive a plan to save herself by this vile manslaughter of her own kin.’ Translation from Warmington (n. 7)).

27 For the fragments of the tragedy, see Ribbeck (1871, n. 7), 230 and Ribbeck (1897, n. 7), 267. For Latin text and English translation of Metamorphoses, see e.g. Anderson, W. S. (ed.), Ovidius. Metamorphoses. Editio stereotypa editionis secundae (MCMLXXXI) (Stuttgart, 1998)Google Scholar and Raeburn, D. (trans.), Ovid. Metamorphoses. A New Verse Translation (London, 2004)Google Scholar; of Heroides, see e.g. Showerman, G., Ovid in Six Volumes. I. Heroides and Amores (2nd edition rev.Goold, G. P., Cambridge, MA, 1977)Google Scholar. On connections between Ovid's different ‘Medeas’, see e.g. Hinds (1993, n. 1). On Medea in Metamorphoses in relation to other Ovidian figures, see C. E. Newlands, ‘The Metamorphoses of Ovid's Medea’, in Clauss and Johnston (n. 2), 178–208.

28 laese pater, gaude! Colchi gaudete relicti! / inferias umbrae fratris habete mei; / deseror amissis regno patriaque domoque / coniuge, qui nobis omnia solus erat! / unum non potui perdomuisse virum, / quaeque feros pepuli doctis medicatibus ignes, / non valeo flammas effugere ipsa meas. / ipsi me cantus herbaeque artesque relinquunt; / nil dea, nil Hecates sacra potentis agunt. Translation from Showerman (n. 27), slightly modified.

29 quodsi forte preces praecordia ferrea tangunt, / nunc animis audi verba minora meis! / tam tibi sum supplex, quam tu mihi saepe fuisti, / nec moror ante tuos procubuisse pedes. / si tibi sum vilis, communis respice natos; / saeviet in partus dira noverca meos. / et nimium similes tibi sunt et imagine tangor, / et quotiens video, lumina nostra madent. / per superos oro, per avitae lumina flammae, / per meritum et natos, pignora nostra, duos – / redde torum, pro quo tot res insana reliqui; / adde fidem dictis auxiliumque refer! / non ego te inploro contra taurosque virosque, / utque tua serpens victa quiescat ope; / te peto, quem merui, quem nobis ipse dedisti, / cum quo sum pariter facta parente parens. / dos ubi sit, quaeris? campo numeravimus illo, / qui tibi laturo vellus arandus erat. Translation from Showerman (n. 27), slightly modified.

30 According to the list of works in an ancient biography, Seneca's nephew Lucan composed a tragedy about Medea that remained unfinished and has not been preserved (Vacca, Vita Lucani: tragoedia Medea inperfecta; p. 185.64 in Rostagni, A., Suetonio. De poetis e biografi minori. Restituzione e commento [Turin, 1956]Google Scholar).

31 For Latin text and English translation of Seneca's Medea, see e.g. Fitch, J. G. (ed. and trans.), Seneca. Hercules, Trojan Women, Phoenician Women, Medea, Phaedra (Cambridge, MA, 2002)Google Scholar. On possible developments in Roman drama leading up to Seneca, see Tarrant, R. J., ‘Senecan Drama and its Antecedents’, HSPh 82 (1978), 213–63Google Scholar.

32 For Latin text and English translation of Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, see Mozley, J. H. (ed.), Valerius Flaccus (Cambridge, MA, 1934)Google Scholar. For a brief introduction to Valerius Flaccus, see Zissos, A., ‘Valerius Flaccus’, in Foley, J. M. (ed.), A Companion to Ancient Epic (Oxford, 2005), 503–13CrossRefGoogle Scholar. On Medea in Valerius Flaccus, see e.g. Hull, K. W. D., ‘Medea in Valerius Flaccus's Argonautica’, Proceedings of the Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society (Literary and Historical Section) 16 (1975), 1–25Google Scholar.

33 For the Latin fragments, see Blänsdorf, J., Fragmenta poetarum Latinorum epicorum et lyricorum praeter Enni Annales et Ciceronis Germanicique Aratea. Post W. Morel et K. Büchner editionem quartam auctam curavit (Berlin, 2011), 231–7Google Scholar.

34 sola animo Medea subit, mens omnis in una / virgine, nocturnis qua nulla potentior aris. / illius ad fremitus sparsosque per avia sucos / sidera fixa pavent et avi stupet orbita Solis. / mutat agros fluviumque vias, suus alligat ingens / cuncta sopor, recoquit fessos aetate parentes / datque alias sine lege colus. hanc maxima Circe / terrificis mirata modis, hanc advena Phrixus / quamvis Atracio lunam spumare veneno / sciret et Haemoniis agitari cantibus umbras. / ergo opibus magicis et virginitate tremendam / Iuno duci sociam coniungere quaerit Achivo. / non aliam tauris videt et nascentibus armis / quippe parem nec quae medio stet in agmine flammae, / nullum mente nefas, nullos horrescere visus: / quid si caecus amor saevusque accesserit ignis? Translation from Mozley (n. 32), slightly modified.

35 illa sequi iubet et portis expectat in ipsis. / …ceu… / … / … / …: / haud aliter deserta pavet perque omnia circum / fert oculos tectisque negat procedere virgo. / contra saevus amor, contra periturus Iason / urget et auditae crescunt in pectore voces. / heu quid agat? videt externo se prodere patrem / dura viro, famam scelerum iamque ipsa suorum / prospicit et questu superos questuque fatigat / Tartara. pulsat humum manibusque immurmurat uncis / noctis eram Ditemque ciens, succurrere tandem / morte velint ipsumque simul demittere leto / quem propter furit. absentem saevissima poscit / nunc Pelian, tanta iuvenem qui perderet ira: / saepe suas misero promittere destinat artes, / dein negat atque una potius decernit obire; / ac neque tam turpi cessuram semper amori / proclamat neque opem ignoto viresque daturam; / atque toro proiecta manet, cum visa vocari / rursus et impulso sonuerunt cardine postes. / ergo ubi nescioquo penitus se numine vinci / sentit et abscisum quicquid pudor ante monebat, / tum thalami penetrale petit quae maxima norat / auxilia Haemoniae quaerens pro rege carinae. Translation from Mozley (n. 32), slightly modified.