POLITICS AND EURIPIDES. by SUSAN C. LAFONT, B.A. A THESIS HISTORY

Transcription

1 POLITICS AND EURIPIDES by SUSAN C. LAFONT, B.A. A THESIS IN HISTORY Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS Approved Accepted December, 1987

2 So^ T-' l<^2l f 0. ' WOf ' 3U, 3~ ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I was first introduced to the plays of Euripides in a course taught by William Arrowsmith at the University of Texas during the academic year Since then I have read and reread discussions of those plays by Gilbert Murray, David Grene, Richard Lattimore, Rex Warner, Philip Vellacott, Arrowsmith himself, and others. My own interpretations derive in considerable part from theirs, but in a general way that often precludes direct citation. I am indebted to Professors James E. Brink and Peder G. Christiansen for criticism and suggestions that improved this study. I am particularly grateful to Professor Briggs L. Twyman for persevering in the direction of this thesis even after our marriage. I must thank my friend Jane Bell Beard for long hours of help with problems of style. Any faults that remain herein are, of course, my responsibility alone. 11

3 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS TRANSLATIONS ii iv CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTION: THE POET AND HIS TIMES 1 II. ALCESTIS AND MEDEA 20 III. THE ARCHIDAMIAN WAR 43 IV. THE PEACE OF NICIAS AND THE IONIAN WAR 67 V. CONCLUSION: EURIPIDES POLITIKOS 85 ENDNOTES 88 BIBLIOGRAPHY

4 TRANSLATIONS EURIPIDES All translations are from David Grene and Richard Lattimore, eds.. The Complete Greek Tragedies. Vols. 3 and 4, Euripides (Chicago, 1958). Alcestis Lattimore in Euripides 3: Andromache John Frederick Nims in Euripides 3: Electra Emily Townsend Vermuele in Euripides 4: Hecuba William Arrowsmith in Euripides 3: Heracles Arrowsmith in Euripides 3: Heracleidae Ralph Gladstone in Euripides 3: Hippolytus Grene in Euripides 3: Ion Ronald Frederick Willetts in Euripides 4: Medea Rex Warner in Euripides 3: Orestes Arrowsmith in Euripides 4: Phoenissae Elizabeth Wycoff in Euripides 4: : Phoenician Women. Supplices Frank William Jones in Euripides 4: : Suppliant Women. Troades Lattimore in Euripides 3: : Trojan Women. IV

5 OTHER AUTHORS Plutarch Thucydides Ian Scott-Kilvert in Plutarch, Nine Greek Lives (Baltimore, 1964): Pericles, Alcibiades. Richard Crawley in Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (New York, 1951). V

6 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION: THE POET AND HIS TIMES The Athenian Euripides wrote tragedies for a politically astute population of an imperial city. His earlier plays do not survive with a possible exception. Those that do survive date from the decade before the Peloponnesian War and the course of the war that brought ruin on Athens and her Empire. Euripides and other tragic poets obviously meant to advise their audience on proper conduct. Yet the plots of their tragedies always center on situations that are political or involve politics. The question is did such poets, and in particular Euripides, treat universal situations, or did they mean to portray contemporary politics under a veil of myth. Critics and historians alike have long given only tentative or partial answers, if they have not ignored the problem altogether. It warrants full consideration. If the tragedies were topical, as it seems possible to show they were in the case of Euripides, they are of much greater value as historical evidence than is commonly thought. Conversely, recognition of this topicality should deepen and perfect our understanding of Euripides' work as drama.

7 Since Aristotle (Poetics b) it has been supposed that the subject of poetry is properly the universal, whereas history deals with the particular. The plays of Euripides, however, treat concrete problems of politics. War, and peace; or so I will argue. The poet drew upon specific contemporary events, used universal myth as a vehicle to portray those events, and thereby advised his audience on a particular situation. Thus the poet always comes full circle. Before we can formulate our problem fully, we must first consider the life and times of Euripides. The poet was born in the center of Attica at Phlya, 2 on the rich land of the central plain in 485 or 480 B.C. The priesthood of Apollo Zosterios, hereditary in his family, proves aristocratic birth. According to Aristotle, Euripides was challenged to an antidosis which certainly indicates wealth. In this peculiar procedure, any wealthy Athenian assigned to sponsor a liturgy (financially) could refuse and request another citizen to perform it or request an exchange of properties. Both parties gave an accounting of their properties under oath and a court decided which of the two citizens would be responsible for the liturgy. Euripides was apparently never active in politics, although he did serve on an embassy to Syracuse, probably a mission

8 early in the 420s because by the time of the Peace of Nicias in 421, he was a known critic of war. Tradition associates him with the intellectual movement of the sophists. Diogenes Laertius (9.54) gives the house of Euripides as the location of Protagoras' first 4 reading of his agnostic work on the gods. In a broad sense, the sophists descended from the Ionian thinkers who in the course of the sixth century had virtually invented formal logic and the rational discussion of nature and human life. Many of the sophists or teachers did not agree on the nature of the cosmos, the definition of right or wrong, or whether the world of the senses was reality or illusion; rather they shared the common ground of consistent questioning in their search for knowledge. In Athens some of the more prominent sophists such as Protagoras, Anaxagoras, and Socrates were persecuted for their work because the conservative majority feared the new system of inquiry which challenged traditional views. Protagoras practiced his trade as sophist from sometime before 444, when he was appointed to draw up an 5 Athenian law code for Thurii. He is most famous for his statement: "Man is the measure of all things." Toward the gods he adopted an agnostic attitude but seems to have held conventional moral ideas.

9 Anaxagoras, long time teacher and confidant of Pericles, continued the speculation of the Ionian school, begun by Thales in the early sixth century, on the nature of the cosmos in which natural law ruled. His astronomical views were the principal bases for the charges of impiety g that forced him to leave Athens. Socrates pursued his famous search for a wise man and questioned various types of people: politicians, philosophers, poets, and craftsmen. Men in each category knew something about their individual concerns, but none could say how to make men better or how to improve their souls. In the course of his search, Socrates angered many. In 399 the democracy condemned him to death on charges of impiety. Protagoras in his great work on theology asserted: "In regard to the gods I cannot know that they exist nor yet that they do not exist, for many things hinder such knowledge the obscurity of the matter and the shortness of human life." The sale of the book was forbidden in Athens, and all existing copies were publicly burned. Accused of impiety, the philosopher left Athens, sailed for 8 Sicily, and was lost in a storm. In 415, Euripides paid tribute to Protagoras in his lost play Palamades, the second play of the trilogy which dealt with the story of Troy and concluded with The Trojan Women. The chorus of

10 Thracian women for Palamades wept and cried: "[You] have slain, [you] Greeks, [you] have slain the nightingale, the winged one of the Muses, who sought no man's pain." Nearly all of the plays of Euripides reflect the sophists' technique of questioning conventional religious, moral, and political beliefs. Protagoras's contention, "that man is the measure of all things," must have strongly influenced Euripides and freed him to create in his plays a world which depicts man not as a static being, but ever changing. The world reacts to the attitudes and actions of men and what results is a world constantly in flux, sometimes good or bad, callous or compassionate, a mixture of honor and baseness, but never consistent. The poet first entered the competition at the Dionysia in 455. This annual competition was held as a part of the festival dedicated to Dionysius. Performances over a several day period included lyric chorus, comedy, and tragedy. Euripides won his first victory in 441. He lived in Attica and presented plays in Athens until 408 when he received and accepted an invitation to the court of 10 Macedonia. One can only speculate as to why Euripides left Athens after a lifetime of residence and involvement with the polis. Following the Peace of Nicias, his plays reflect a growing disillusionment with the war and with attitudes and conditions resulting from the war. Perhaps,

11 like Protagoras and Anaxagoras, he left Athens because he no longer believed that he had the freedom to voice the doubts, questions, and cryptic judgments so prevalent in his plays. Veiled irony no longer offered sufficient protection from public criticism. Whatever the reason, Euripides went to Macedonia and died there in 406. These are the bare facts of Euripides' life and career. Stories about his marital difficulties, references to his mother's connection to a greengrocery, reports that he lived and worked in a cave, an account of his death, torn to pieces by hounds in Macedonia--all are parts of unreliable legend. The ancient "Life" of Euripides and a biography by Satyrus rely heavily on references from Old 12 Comedy which are highly suspect. Euripides' lifetime coincides with the rise of Athens, from the great victory over the Persians at Salamis and the ensuing organization of the Delian League, on through the conversion of that League into an empire, and finally to the verge of defeat at the hands of Sparta. During his childhood and youth Athens appeared the champion of Hellenism against Persia abroad, and the advocate of 13.. freedom and rule by the people at home. As Euripides grew toward maturity of body and poetic power, so did the empire and the democracy. The great empire builder Cimon was aristocratic in politics, temperament, and wealth. He

12 succeeded the earlier heroes Themistocles, exiled amongst the Persians he had conquered, and Aristides the Just. Cimon's victory at the Eurymedon in 469 sealed Athenian domination of the Aegean, which enabled Athens to increase pressure for ships and tribute from allies who had believed they would be free of outside influence once the Mede was driven back. The prospect of empire attracted men who envied the glory of the son of the great Miltiades. Men such as Ephialtes and his young protege Pericles were greedy for power and glory, as they recognized the demos was greedy for wealth. It was Pericles who perhaps first found the name for a constitution granting political power to a citizenry that lives on the tribute of subjects and finds thereby the leisure to contemplate new conquests: democracy. Although Pericles was sometimes cautious about conquest, his successors such as Cleon and his nephew Alcibiades were not. Pericles dominated the political scene in Athens for thirty years, but in 429 he died a victim of the plague that devastated Athens. Throughout the chaotic period of the Archidamian War, which ended with the Peace of Nicias in 421, and almost to the conclusion of the Ionian War, which ended with the surrender of Athens and the destruction of the Long Walls in 404, Euripides wrote and

13 8 presented his plays to Athenian audiences. After the destruction of Melos in 416, his inevitable disillusionment became evident, but the poet persevered in his attempt to reach the conscience of the people through the subtle influence of his drama. Of the eighteen extant plays of Euripides, nineteen if one includes the disputed Rhesus, eight are dated by references in the Didascalia and the Scolia. Another means of dating is style, principally metrical forms. In his last plays Euripides made more use of trochees, resolution in iambic lines (that is, the substitution of two short syllables for a long and a short), and the antilabe in which the line was interrupted by a change of speakers. Metrical evidence cannot pinpoint a play to an exact date, but it is valuable in placing a work within a span of years of a decade or perhaps less. A third method of dating relies on events referred to in the play. Again, the reference to a specific event does not always date a play to an exact year, but it is an excellent means of 14 chronological placement. In the case of the Electra, most scholars would agree that an apparent reference to the Athenian relief expedition sent to Sicily in spring 413 dates the play to the months when the outcome was unknown. Lattimore notes in his commentary on the chronology of Euripides' plays that

14 there are less trochees in the Electra than one might expect for a play as late as 413. This argues strongly against excessive reliance on metrical evidence. Granted, consideration of style is important, but one must remember that Euripides, as any other playwright, was free to experiment with various styles of writing, and therefore, it is very possible that he would use a style, abandon it for the next few plays, and then go back to a previous form for reasons now undiscoverable. Political topicality in many of Euripides plays may be at least as good, if not a better, guide to chronology than metrical considerations. The reference to events, issues, and even important people in the plays can provide a time frame for the work. For example. Ion obviously evokes the rebellion of the Ionian allies in 412. One of the main themes of The Suppliant Women is Theban denial of burial to heroes fallen in war against Thebes. After the battle of Delium in 424 the Thebans refused to allow the Athenians to gather their dead for burial. Momentous events occurred during the years that these plays were written. Even brief examination of the chronology of the plays will give a strong indication of what kind of spectacle confronted Euripides and served as a catalyst for his genius. 1 6 Didascalia, Alcestis, dated to 438 in the falls in the period just after the Saraian

15 Rebellion and the attack on Aspasia, the mistress of 17 Pericles, and two of his friends, Phidias the artist and 10 Anaxagoras the philosopher. According to the Didascalia, Medea was presented in 431 the first year of the Archidamian War before Sparta invaded Attica, and followed a period in the late 430s when Athens came to the aid of Corcyra against Corinth and was involved with Corinth over 18 Potidaea. Hippolytus, dated in the Didascalia to 428, won a 19 first prize for the poet. The two years prior to this presentation saw the outbreak of the plague in Athens and the death of Pericles. It was then that Cleon assumed his role as one of the most prominent players in Athenian politics. The ancient manuscripts do not supply dates for the Heracleidae, Andromache, and Hecuba, but R. Lattimore in his generally persuasive chronology, based on metrical evidence and in some cases political references, assigns dates to these three plays in the period before the Peace of Nicias in year period of war. The Heracleidae in 429 followed a two Attica was twice invaded by Sparta. Captured Thebans were executed by Plataeans, and five Peloponnesian envoys were executed in Athens. In both cases the executions took place without a trial.

16 11 The three years prior to the presentation of Andromache and Hecuba, dated 426 and 425 respectively by 21 Lattimore, saw the revolt of Mytilene, the surrender of Plataea to Sparta, the outbreak of civil war and the eventual triumph of democracy in Corcyra, the Athenian capture of the Spartans at Sphacteria, followed by a Lacedaemonian offer of peace which was refused by Athens. Lattimore prefers the date 423 for The Suppliant Women and 420 for Heracles but admits the strong possibility of a later date by two to three years for both 22 plays. An examination of war and politics between 424 and 420 offers a veritable feast of possibilities for topical comment. In 424 Athens lost the battle of Delium in Boeotia, and a Spartan force led by Brasidas invaded Thrace and Chalcidice. Scione revolted in 423 and was destroyed in 421. The Peace of Nicias in that same year halted hostilities between Sparta and Athens, but the peace was short lived. Sparta's allies, Corinth, Megara, and Boeotia would not agree to its terms. Shortly after the Peace of Nicias, Argos formed an alliance with Athens but two years later, after the battle of Mantinea in 418, changed sides and entered into an alliance with Sparta. Alcibiades took the stage in Athenian politics with his election as strategos in 420.

17 12 The Trojan Women, presented in 415, followed the destruction of Melos in 416 and preceded the first Sicilian 2 3 expedition which set sail in the summer of the next year. No recorded date can be found for Electra, but Lattimore and many other authorities agree on a reference to the ill-fated Athenian relief expedition sent to Sicily in 24 early spring of 413: We two must rush to Sicilian seas. Rescue the salt smashed prows of the fleet. (^ ) Athens suffered the revolt of many of her allies in 412. The next year, 411, the oligarchic revolution temporarily replaced the Athenian democracy with the rule of the Four Hundred from June to September. The democracy was restored in 410. Lattimore's chronology places Ion between 413 and 410 and The Phoenician Women in the latter 25 year or the next. Euripides' last two years in Athens saw the Athenians slowly regain strength. After Alcibiades took command the Athenian fleet reduced many of the Ionian allies to renewed obedience. Orestes, dated to 408 by the Scholia, was the last play Euripides wrote for presentation.4-u 26 in Athens. On the basis of style and structure Lattimore dates Iphigenia in Tauris to 414. The Scholia to Aristophanes' Frogs and Thesmophor iazusae place the presentation of Helen 27 in 412 two years later. In these two plays Euripides

18 produced something like romantic fantasies, as if to offer 13 the audience an escape from reality. Both plays condemn war and make an appeal for peace, but since each play offers a story completely contrary to the accepted version of the myth, it would be difficult to analyze either for topicality. Euripides knew his audience would recognize he was not talking about reality. The war continued until 404 when Athens surrendered and the Long Walls were torn down. Euripides' last two plays, Iphigenia in Aulis and The Bacchae probably date 28 from 407. Both were presented posthumously. These two works from the years after Euripides left Athens can hardly be tested for topicality, since we do not know if they were written for presentation to an Athenian audience. How things looked from Pella is a different matter. It is generally recognized that the content of Euripides' plays is in large part a commentary on war, politics, suffering, treachery, and the loss of moral values. G. Luntz examines two of a supposed three political plays of Euripides, in the belief the rest are not. Lattimore recognizes topicality to some extent. He uses politics or events of the war to reinforce metrical evidence to date some of the plays. P. Vellacott finds even stronger evidence of topicality in a number of the tragedies. H. Konishi recognizes political topicality in

19 14 Medea. D. Konstan analyzes Electra for examples of philia in the sense of political alliance, rather than the 32 literal "friendship." W. R. Connor uses at least seven of Euripides' tragedies in his study of political life in fifth-century Athens. In Connor's view Medea, Heracles, and The Suppliant Women offer evidence for the use of philia (alliance) in contemporary politics. Hecuba comments on unprincipled politicians such as Cleon. Ion, Hippolytus, and Orestes reflect on young men involved in politics. Yet, surprisingly, Connor asserts that it was "not Euripides' intent to depict, through his plays, the 33 political situation of contemporary Athens." J. H. Finley examines the work of Thucydides to determine if the historian truly represented the period he described. Exiled from Athens in 424, Thucydides did not compose his work until later in the century around 404. Finley compares the work of Euripides with Thucydides and finds evidence of similar ideas, viewpoints, and styles of rhetoric. Accordingly, he concludes that Thucydides did 34 accurately represent the period. Finley's use of Euripides is in itself an indirect argument for topicality in the poet's work. These seven scholars approach but do not overtly propound political topicality. I would suggest that it is possible, indeed necessary, to go farther. This thesis

20 15 will test the hypothesis that the plays are much more specifically political. Out of the fifteen extant tragedies presented in Athens between 438 and 408 at least thirteen appear demonstrably to be direct comments on recent events. Euripides plays, I suggest, were written with specific events and people in mind. the genre to veil topicality in myth. It was the nature of For an Athenian audience the veil could easily be pierced by recognition. From a distance of twenty-five hundred years it is not always so easy for the modern reader to recognize topicality, but in order to understand the plays fully a reader must try. The Trojan Women is a moving play about the tragedy of war and reversal of fortune, but if one is aware of the destruction of Melos by Athens and the part played by Alcibiades, then this play takes on an added dimension. arrogance, Menelaus represents Alcibiades in all his and the Achaean Greeks who destroyed ancient Troy parallel the Athenians who conquered, then executed or enslaved the population of Melos. Aristophanes testifies to the role of a tragic poet. o g In The Frogs Dionysius mourns the death of Euripides and descends into Hades to bring back the poet. When the god arrives a contest ensues between Euripides and Aeschylus, and Dionysius announces that he will take the winner back

21 16 to Athens. As a test he requests specific advice on a politician who had brought much grief to Athens. Now both approach, and I'll explain I came Down here to fetch a poet: "Why a poet?" That his advice may guide the city true And so keep up my worshipl Consequently, I'll take whichever seems the best adviser. Advise me first of Alcibiades, Whose birth gives travail to mother Athens. (Frogs ) Euripides' answer is specific, direct, certainly topical. Athens must not trust Alcibiades. Out on the [citizen], who to serve his state Is slow, but swift to do her deadly hate. With much wit for himself, and none for her. (Frogs ) Perhaps Aristophanes was chiding the tragic poets for lack of directness in their use of topicality, but he was not rebuking them for lack of topicality in general. It should be difficult to deny that the contemporary Athenian audience would make the political associations necessary to recognize topical statements, although a number of critics in effect do just that. Examination of duties and responsibilities of fifth century citizenship suggests that Euripides, along with his contemporaries, was not a man removed from the realities of political life. As an Athenian citizen he was subject to military service from the age of twenty to sixty. No more than fifty-four in 431

22 17 the poet was still liable for defense of the frontiers or even for military expeditions. Citizenship required service in the jury courts, the assembly, and the 37 council. Neither the poet nor his audience were uninformed on the events leading to the outbreak of the war; nor of various political intrigues, such as those that culminated in the prosecution of Anaxagoras, Phidias, and Aspasia. The debate and decision of the Assembly to aid Corcyra in her war with Corinth, though influenced by Pericles, were public knowledge. In all probability the astute Athenian audience of Medea, as well as audiences of the other plays of Euripides, easily understood the references to political events. Politics provided stimulation in their daily round. Topicality is often found in flashes and is rarely consistent throughout a play. Date, plot, character, or specific dialogue, even the tone in which a speech is cast may supply the clue to a reference to a current event or person of prominence. For example, in The Trojan Women Menelaus makes a grand entrance, preening and posturing in his fine clothes. Not to think of Alcibiades, the author of the destruction of Melos, in relation to this character 3 8 would have been impossible for an audience in 415. (This is not to say that Menelaus will represent Alcibiades in

23 18 any of the other plays or even in different scenes in the same play.) Again in the Alcestis the King weeps and pleads for the life of his wife who is to die for him. The play was presented in 438, the same year that Pericles openly wept and pleaded for his mistress Aspasia at her trial on charges of impiety and procuring free born Athenian women for Pericles. Or again, the outbreak of the war and also the presentation of Medea mark the year 431. The play takes place in Corinth, the city that had been instrumental in moving Athens and Sparta towards war. The plot of a mother's destruction of her children parallels Corinth's attempt to destroy her colony Corcyra. Euripides' plays reflect the chaos, confusion, and flux of the latter half of the fifth century. He examines how politics and the war have caused a change in the old ideas of piety, patriotism, loyalty, honor, kinship, and heroism. For Euripides the Athenian experience of empire and war had made the old conceptions sometimes irrelevant and at any rate often inapplicable. For example, the role of the hero in his plays no longer follows the traditional pattern maintained by other Greek dramatists. His heroes are components of one whole individual split into two contrasting halves: Jason and Medea, Hippolytus and

24 19 Phaedra, Admetus and Alcestis, Hermione and Andromache. Jason represents practical objectivity and Medea passionate commitment. Neither is complete without the other. Just as the integrated individual requires a balance, so, Euripides implies, do the polis and Greek civilization if they are to survive. Thus Euripides emerges as a patriot, a conscience for Athens, and a pragmatic interpreter of his 39 time."^^ Since our interest is political topicality the events of Euripides' time lead to natural groupings. The Alcestis and Medea reflect politics before the outbreak of the Peloponnesian War. The plays from The Heracleidae through The Suppliant Women fall during the years of the Archidamian War. The Heracles probably belongs with The Trojan Women and Electra to the years of quasi-truce with Sparta; Ion and the remainder of the plays first produced at Athens to the Ionian War. In each case, the plays appear to comment on contemporary events or current concerns of the citizenry provoked by those events. The plots themselves, the choice of characters, actual allusions in the dialogue, or combinations thereof provide the evidence.

25 CHAPTER II ALCESTIS AND MEDEA The politically motivated attack on Pericles' mistress Aspasia evidently suggested the story of Alcestis to Euripides. Pericles' policy towards Corcyra and Corinth probably inspired the Medea, while Euripides also noticed the similarity in the situations of the foreign witch and the foreign courtesan. The topicality of both plays is clear. The Alcestis, presented in 438, the earliest extant play of Euripides, in several instances appears to refer to the indirect attack on Pericles through the indictment and trial of his mistress Aspasia in that same year. Not a satyr play, though performed fourth in the set, it is 40 commonly classified as a tragicomedy. That this play was fourth in the set could suggest that it was hastily written or rewritten to fit into the position, thus to be ready for presentation in the same year in which Aspasia was tried. It would have been difficult to rework the trilogy for that year's presentation, but the fourth position of satyr play or tragicomedy written with an "all's well that ends well" tone would serve as a convenient vehicle for pointed topicality on short notice. 20

26 Two years before the presentation of Alcestis Samos and Miletus came to conflict over the town of Priene. Miletus appealed to Athens for assistance, and Athens went 41 to war with Samos. The final siege and reduction of Samos required nine months and ended in spring or summer of The victory over Samos strengthened the prestige of Pericles and the Athenian Empire, but the siege was long and the enemies of Pericles in Athens used pockets of public disgruntlement, which accompany any war, to 21 indirectly attack Pericles. The sculptor Phidias and the philosopher Anaxagoras were close associates of Pericles, 43 and both men came under attack. Another natural target was Aspasia, a native of Miletus, the mistress of Pericles, who lived with him from not long after 445, when he had divorced his wife. Rumor had spread after the Samian War that Pericles entered the 44 war in defense of Miletus "for the sake of Aspasia." Furthermore, Aspasia was a remarkable, independent woman, whose actions were uncharacteristic for her time. Plutarch describes Pericles' attachment to her as a combination of 45 passion and admiration for her rare political insight. The enigma of this extraordinary woman is apparent even from the little we read in Plutarch, virtually our only source. Her profession was "the keeping of a house of young courtesans," but her intellect inspired Socrates and

27 many of his disciples to converse with her on a variety of 22 topics on many occasions. Some of the followers of Socrates brought their wives to these discussion sessions, 46 a strong indication of Aspasia's standing in this circle. In 438 Aspasia was tried on the double charge of "impiety and procuring free born Athenian women for 47 Pericles." This was an indirect attack on Pericles and fell close in time to the attack on Phidias and 48 Anaxagoras. Plutarch wrote that Pericles saved Aspasia by making a passionate appeal at her trial and literally 49 breaking into tears before the jury. In the same year that Aspasia was indicted, Euripides' Alcestis was presented. Euripides used one version of a well-known legend. Admetus, King of Phera in Thessaly, does not have to die as a young man if he can find someone to take his place. Neither of his parents will die for him, but his young wife, Alcestis, offers her life for his. He accepts, and early in the play when she is dying, Admetus openly grieves over his loss: The sun sees you and me, two people suffering. Who never hurt the gods so they should make you die. ( ) I implore the gods to pity you They have the power. ( ) There would be nothing left for me if you died.

28 23 All rests in you, our life, our not having life. Your love is our worship. ( ) Such lines would naturally have evoked the image of Pericles shedding tears for Aspasia. After Alcestis' death, the Choragus charges Admetus to endure the calamity, offering the proverbial wisdom that men have lost wives before and he will not be the last, since all are doomed to die. Admetus replies in this curious way: I understand it. And this evil which has struck was no surprise. I knew about it long ago, and knowledge was hard. ( ) The reply of Admetus strikes a cryptic note until one reflects that surely Pericles anticipated a political attack on himself through Aspasia. Pericles was renowned for his constancy and foresight. He knew what was best for Athens. Thucydides argues that "Pericles... was enabled to lead them (the people) instead of being led by them." The people trusted his honesty and judgment (2.65.8). The historian concludes his obituary of Pericles: "So superfluously abundant were the resources from which the genius of Pericles foresaw an easy triumph in the war over the unaided forces of the Peloponnesians" ( , emphasis added). Plutarch describes "the admiration and good-will the people felt

29 24 towards Pericles, since he now seemed to them a man of foresight as well as a patriot."^^ When the body of Alcestis has been carried to the palace followed by Admetus, the chorus sings, praising her: Much shall be sung of you by the men of music to the seven strung mountain lyre-shell, and in poems that have no music, in Sparta when the season turns and the month Carneian comes back, and the moon rides all the night; in Athens also, the shining and rich Such is the theme of song you left in death, for the poets. ( ) The language is certainly evocative of Pericles' funeral oration after the first year of the war: " But rather daily behold the power of the city; and when her great glory has inspired you, then reflect...." Very likely Pericles used much the same sort of rhetoric earlier in his career, for example, in his justification of the grand and costly, building project for the Acropolis. In this play Euripides used not only Admetus, but also Apollo, the very symbol of foresight, and Heracles as champions of a noble woman undeserving of an early death. Apollo's opening plea and argument with death over the life of Alcestis offers another parallel to Pericles' plea for Aspasia. Closing the dialogue with death Apollo warns:

30 25 For all your brute ferocity you shall be stopped. The man to do it is on the way to Phere's house now, on an errand from Eurystheus, sent to steal a team of horses from the wintry land of Thrace. He shall be entertained here in Admetus' house and he shall take the woman away from you by force. (64-69) The mortal described by Apollo with the courage to physically challenge death is the mighty Heracles who fights and defeats Death at Alcestis' tomb. This reference to Heracles and the land of Thrace in the north could be a reference to Pericles' Pontic expedition. Plutarch (Per. 20.1) stresses the importance of the expedition, but we have no definite date. D. Kagan agrees with most scholars in placing the expedition in the 430s after the rebellion of Samos and Byzantium. 52 Athens depended heavily on grain and dried fish from the Black Sea, and an open route to the Ukraine through the Hellespont and the Bosporus was vital to the grain supply of Athens. Particularly in war, grain was vital to Athens if the city was to remain strong behind the Long Walls and independent of local food supplies. Euripides' audience would have been well aware, through public discussion and preparation, of such an important expedition whether it was in the planning stages, or under way, or completed. Only two years before, at the time of the Samian rebellion, Sparta had sought to launch an

31 26 invasion of Attica the main aim of which would have been destruction of the grain crop. The play concludes with great rejoicing after the rescue of Alcestis by Heracles. "Beside the tomb itself, I sprang and caught him [Death] in my hands" (1142). Reference to the defeat of Death suggests an allusion to the value of Pericles. The Greek mind formed a natural connection between grain supply, famine, and death. As Heracles defeats Death, so Pericles defeats famine which leads to Death. Considering that the sensational trial of Aspasia and the presentation of the play occurred in the same year, it would seem obvious that the audience would have identified the pleas and grieving of Admetus with the behavior of Pericles in court, and heard the song of the chorus as veiled praise for Aspasia, an exceptional woman, respected by many and known throughout Hellas. As Pericles feared his political survival would cost Aspasia's conviction, so Admetus saw that his survival involved an insupportable loss. Admetus's admission that he has expected this evil seems to suggest Pericles also, a man who must finally face and deal with what he has feared for years: a threat to the woman he loves. The year 431 brought the outbreak of the Archidamian War and also the presentation of Medea. The scene is

32 Corinth, the city most instrumental in moving Sparta toward 27 war with Athens. Euripides' play portrays human love, betrayal, murder, and revenge, but it also presents a political indictment of Corinth as the polis most responsible for the breakdown of the Thirty Years' Peace. Historically the first step in the breakdown of the peace involved the Corinthian colony of Corcyra. This colony, located on the west coast of Greece, refused in 435 to send aid to its colony at Epidamnus where a civil war of several years, involving democrats pitted against exiled aristocrats and their barbarian allies, had culminated in the democratic faction requesting Corcyrean assistance to "reconcile them with the exiles and put an end to the war 54 with the barbarians." When Corcyra refused, Epidamnus turned to Corinth. On the advice of the Oracle at Delphi the Epidamnians offered to turn their city over to Corinth 55 in exchange for aid. Corinth accepted. Corcyra, in alarm, proposed to Corinth that this matter be submitted to arbitration. Corinth flatly refused. Kagan argues, probably rightly, that Corinth wanted war with her colony Corcyra. Corinth was no rival of Sparta and Athens, but she had made a concentrated effort to compensate for her dwindling prestige by building a sphere of influence in c g northwestern Greece. Corcyra flourished as a growing

33 28 power in this area and in addition, according to Thucydides, offered insult to her mother country by public disdain for Corinth at religious festivals common to all 57 the colonies of Corinth. Corinth's defense of Epidamnus was not based on rational motives. 58 revenge on the child. The mother wanted The revenge backfired. In the same year Corcyra with eighty of her one hundred twenty ships defeated the Corinthian navy of seventy-five ships, and Epidamnus surrendered to Corcyra. For the next two years Corinth built and equipped more ships in preparation for a second meeting with her insolent colony. Alarmed by the reports of massive ship construction and crew enlistment in Corinth, Corcyra turned to Athens for help. Corinth as well sent envoys to the Athenian assembly, attempting to persuade Athens to avoid involvement in the coming conflict, by labeling Corcyra's action against her mother polis as an insult deserving punishment, and also mentioning past services rendered to Athens. But the case was weak, and the only argument to merit Athenian consideration was the possible violation of the Thirty Years' Peace. Though not a member of the Athenian league, Corcyra prepared a strong case to justify Athenian aid, a practical appeal. If Corinth defeated Corcyra and absorbed the

34 Corcyrean navy of one hundred twenty ships, the Corinthian 29 navy would rival that of Athens. On the other hand, Corinth was an ally of Sparta, and since war between Athens and Sparta was inevitable, Corcyra's navy as an ally would join that of Athens to fight the enemies of Athens. After hearing Corcyra's case the Athenian assembly voted to form a defensive alliance with Corcyra. Athens sent ten ships to help assist Corcyra in case of attack by Corinth. The vote of the assembly for defensive aid to Corcyra avoided a technical violation of the Thirty Years' Peace. By refusing an offensive treaty which would have been a violation of the peace treaty, Pericles chose the moderate path, and he took steps to prevent the large Corcyrean navy from falling under Corinthian control. In late summer of 433 near Sybota a Corinthian fleet of one hundred fifty ships joined battle with the Corcyrean fleet of one hundred ten ships. The ten Athenian ships entered the battle to prevent the complete defeat of 60 Corcyra. Another twenty ships from Athens appeared shortly, giving the impression that a larger Athenian force was coming to the rescue. The Corinthians withdrew and both Corcyra and Corinth claimed victory. The next day the 6 1 Corinthians refused battle and returned home. The conflict between Corinth and Corcyra set in motion a chain of events that would quickly escalate toward

35 30 general war. in the next year Athens and Corinth became involved in another conflict over the control of the Corinthian colony Potidaea, which was also a tributary ally of Athens. Annually Corinth sent magistrates to this colony, and for many years Potidaea had functioned without conflict as a loyal colony of the mother city as well as a tributary ally of Athens. In 433/32 Athens raised the tribute of Potidaea from six to fifteen talents. Thucydides does not discuss the matter, but Kagan believes that this increase along with that for other allies in the area was needed to support Athenian garrisons at Brea and Amphipolis on the Macedonian border. Fearing the power and ambition of King Perdiccas of Macedon, Athens, Kagan argues, made a treaty with the brother and nephew of the king, a policy designed to reduce, if not eventually to overthrow, the power of Perdiccas. The struggle with the king and the protection of Athenian allies in this area would cost money, therefore, the tribute was increased. Perdiccas attempted to gain the support of Corinth by suggesting his willingness to encourage rebellion at Potidaea. Alarmed by the combined threat of Perdiccas and Corinth and forewarned in the summer of 433 by a Corinthian speech at Athens in which Corinth strongly hinted of plans to stir up trouble among Athenian allies, Athens demanded that Potidaea tear down her "walls on the side of the

36 Pallene, give hostages and send away the Corinthian 62 magistrates." Potidaea refused, and Athens was involved in a costly effort to put down the rebellion of Potidaea 31 aided by a volunteer army from Corinth. Corinth actively worked to involve the Spartans and urged them to declare war against Athens. The intensity of the war increased as both Corinth and Athens added reinforcements. Envoys from Potidaea went to Sparta to ask for aid in spring of 432, and in summer of the same year the Spartans voted for war. In the same year of the Potidaea conflict, Athens passed the Megarian Decree against a polis which had supplied ships to be used by Corinth against Corcyra. After the battle of Sybota, Pericles was aware that Corinth would attempt to cause problems between Athens and her allies, that is, Potidaea, and he retaliated, not with open war, but with a decree that prohibited Megarians from entering the Athenian Agora or any of the ports of the Athenian Empire. This economic weapon resulted in a disaster for Megara and emphasized the danger of supplying 6 3 aid to the enemies of Athens. Although these three events did not specifically cause the war, they cumulatively gave Corinth the pretexts needed to arouse fear and jealousy of the Athenian Empire at the gathering of the Peloponnesian League in Sparta in

37 Without Corinth to fan the flames of fear the Thirty Years' Peace might have survived. Corinthian hostility towards Athens and the circumstances that produced that enmity evidently suggested the story of Medea to the poet. Euripides based his plot on a tale well known to the Athenian audience of the fifth century. In Corinth Jason has recently abandoned Medea, his foreign wife of many years and mother of his sons, in order to marry the daughter of King Creon of Corinth. By royal decree Medea is banished from the city and allowed one day to make preparation for exile. Medea and defends his recent marriage. Jason confronts He argues from logical, objective motives, and this defense reveals not only the cold calculation behind his second marriage, but also his earlier marriage to Medea. According to Jason the gods ordained that Medea, a foreign princess from Colchis with occult powers, would fall in love and go to any length, even to murder her brother, to aid him in the theft of the Golden Fleece and escape from Colchis. Thus his debt fell not to Medea, but to the gods who guided and protected his adventure. Jason expresses incredulity at Medea's anger over his new royal alliance, especially in light of the obvious power and prestige which accompanied the marriage. Why should Medea feel deserted and slighted when the new

38 33 arrangement will benefit their sons in the future? For Medea's sons to also be the sons of the future King of Corinth is a cause for joy, not rage and recrimination. Following Jason's exit, Aegeus, King of Athens, makes a brief appearance in Corinth and offers sympathy and sanctuary to Medea. The play concludes as Medea, in a jealous rage, sends her two small sons to Jason's young wife with gifts, a robe and golden diadem that cling to the flesh and burn upon contact. Both Creon and his daughter perish in flames. Still unsatisfied, Medea is torn between love for her children and an overpowering desire to inflict the ultimate anguish on Jason. Mother love succumbs to revenge; she murders their sons and escapes from Corinth in a dragon-drawn chariot to the sanctuary of Athens. Considering the part played by Corinth in pushing Sparta and the members of the Peloponnesian League into war, it is not surprising that Euripides selected Corinth as the setting for one of his plays presented in 431. In addition, the main characters reflect the faults attributed to the city by Thucydides. Commenting on the conflict between Corinth and Corcyra, the historian describes the Corinthians as excessively proud, jealous, and uncompassionate ( ). The speech he gives the Corinthians in the summer of 432 at the congress of the Peloponnesian League, reveals greed, arrogance, and

39 34 jealousy ( ). In the play neither Creon, the King of Corinth, nor Jason who aspires tp..the throne, is a sympathetj.c character. Each embodies and reflects the characteristics of arrogance, jealousy, and greed peculiar to a second-rate power. Medea is a play about a mother's destruction of her own children, and just as Medea murders her own sons, so did Corinth attack and attempt to destroy her own colony of Corcyra. Another indication of topicality arises from the common difficulties faced by Medea and Aspasia. foreign, clever, and attached to powerful men. Both are Both face exile and the loss of any secure future prospects for their children. Both have greatly aided their men, but are now 64 without a place of refuge. It is not known whether Aspasia became the mistress of Pericles before or after Athens expelled the leading oligarchic families and imposed a democratic constitution on Miletus. Possibly the two became acquainted during the revolution, or they may have met after Aspasia's family left Miletus. The reports of Aspasia's education and learning point to a wealthy family, possibly one of the leading Milesian families forced into exile. Aspasia could not hope to return to Miletus if Athens refused her a home. Her son by Pericles was denied Athenian citizenship under a law Pericles himself had sponsored in 451/50, which

40 35 provided that no child could be admitted to citizenship whose mother and father were not both Athenian citizens, legally married. Although in Medea Jason's behavior bears no resemblance to Pericles' defense and support of Aspasia, possibly Euripides' statement was indirect support for Pericles, in that he emphasized the disaster for Athens which could result from narrow and self-serving behavior g g such as Jason's. Aegeus, the King of Athens, offers his protection to Medea who is in danger from Corinth and the wrath of Creon, a gesture symbolic of Athens' protection of Corcyra. The appearance of Athens' King presents the chorus with a convenient excuse to praise Athens. This is a pointedly patriotic speech meant to inspire the Athenian audience in the first year of the war. From the viewpoint of dramatic composition the sudden appearance of Aegeus has often been considered weak and contrived, but from the viewpoint of political topicality an Athenian audience in the first year of the war would have recognized and welcomed Aegeus' appearance and the patriotic speech of the chorus as a fitting statement of support for Athens in a war brought on by Corinth's jealousy and greed. Throughout the play are pointed allusions to Corinth's role as a troublemaker. Euripides has the nurse speak of great people's erratic tempers, and how moderation

41 36 is better. This could easily refer to the actions of Corinth's leaders that had brought on the war. Corinth could not accept the balance of power between Athens and Sparta brought about in 445 by the Thirty Years' Peace. This agreement would have allowed the people in Greece to live on fair terms with each other, but because of jealousy Corinth was determined to create situations which would in turn alarm her Spartan allies and lead Sparta to a war with Athens. The nurse reflects: Having their own way, seldom checked. Dangerous they shift from mood to mood How much better to have been accustomed To live on equal terms with one's neighbors. I would like to be safe and grow old in a Humble way. What is moderate sounds best, Also in practice is best for everyone. ( ) Lines given Medea allude to the Corinthians' hasty judgment of and consequent war with Corcyra in 435 and again in 433. Corinth refused the arbitration proposed by Corcyra in 435 and then spent two years preparing for a second encounter with her colony. The Corinthians refused to consider any peaceful solution to the Corcyra problem. Medea complains: For a just judgment is not evident in the eyes When a man at first sight hates another, before Learning his character, being in no way injured;

42 37 I'd not approve of even a fellow-countryman Who by pride and want of manners offends his neighbors. ( ) Regardless of the Athenian involvement in Corcyra, Megara, and Potidaea, it was Corinth's fear and jealousy of the Athenian empire and Athenian naval superiority that triggered the violent speech against Athens at the first assembly in Sparta in 432. While fearing Athens, Corinth at the same time underestimated Athens' ability to withstand a land attack from the Peloponnesian forces. Medea makes the bitter observation that people envy cleverness in others, but this could also apply to Corinth's jealousy of Athens: For apart from cleverness bringing them no profit. It will make them objects of envy and ill-will. If you put new ideas before the eyes of fools They'll think you foolish and worthless into the bargain. ( ) Medea represents Corinth when the chorus questions her and later weeps for her. How can Corinth turn on and kill her own colony of Corcyra? Such an act is as much against nature as a mother's destruction of her own children. But can you have the heart to kill your flesh and blood? (816) In your grief, too, I weep, mother of little children. You who will murder your own. ( )