EURIPIDEAN PARACOMEDY DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Craig Timothy Jendza, M.A Graduate Program in Greek and Latin The Ohio State University 2013 Dissertation Committee: Thomas Hawkins, Advisor Fritz Graf Dana Munteanu Copyright by Craig Timothy Jendza 2013 Abstract This dissertation explores the relationships between the dramatic genres of Greek comedy, tragedy and satyr drama in the 5th century BCE. I propose that Athenian tragedians had the freedom to appropriate elements and tropes drawn from comedy into their plays, a process that I call ‘paracomedy’. While most scholars do not admit the possibility of paracomedy, I suggest that there are numerous examples of paracomedy to be found in all three tragedians (Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides), though I focus on providing examples between Euripides and Aristophanes. In Chapter 1, I demonstrate the extent of paracomedy in tragedy, explore the theoretical background behind the interplay of genres and intertextuality, and provide a methodology for determining paracomedy based on distinctive correspondences, the priority of the comedic element, and the motivation for adopting features from outside the genre. In Chapter 2, I explore the rivalry between Euripides and Aristophanes concerning plots and scenes involving ‘sword-bearing’ and ‘razor-bearing’ men, arguing that the numerous references to ‘sword-bearing’ men in Euripides’ Orestes respond to Aristophanes’ parody of a ‘razor-bearing’ man in Thesmophoriazusae. In Chapter 3, I suggest that the parodos to Euripides’ Orestes is modeled on the parodos of Aristophanes’ Peace, due to the adoption of the comedic element ‘varying levels of choral volume in a madness scene’. Furthermore, I analyze the evidence from satyr drama, ultimately proposing the possibility of a two-pronged response to Aristophanes in 408 BCE in Euripides’ Orestes and Cyclops. In Chapter 4, I analyze the tragedic and comedic traditions of ‘hostage scenes’ developing from Euripides’ Telephus, ii arguing that Aristophanes innovated the addition of a ‘incineration plot’ to the hostage scene tradition, which Euripides subsequently adopted into the hostage scene at the conclusion of Orestes. In Chapter 5, I treat the paratragic and paracomic use of costume dealing with rags and cross-dressing, proposing a back-and-forth rivalry between Aristophanes’ Acharnians, Euripides’ Helen, Aristophanes’ Thesmophoriazusae, and Euripides’ Bacchae. iii For my wife Chelsea, who has helped me in more ways than she knows iv Acknowledgments I am very grateful for all the support I have received in the writing of this dissertation. I am above all indebted to Tom Hawkins, who has been a constant source of inspiration and extraordinary feedback and who encouraged me to keep striving and pushing further. I would also like to thank the other members of my committee, Fritz Graf and Dana Munteanu, for their intellectual and moral support. I am grateful for the support of all the faculty in the Classics Department, and I would like to especially thank Sarah Iles Johnston, Brian Joseph, and Will Batstone, who have broadened my knowledge greatly in their respective fields. I am grateful to the Graduate School of The Ohio State University for their generous fellowship support, the Classics Department for supporting me as a Graduate Teaching Associate, and to the Arts and Humanities Graduate Research Small Grants Program as well as the Classics Department for providing the financial support that allowed me to present my research at various conferences. Last but not least, I can never thank enough my family, especially my wife Chelsea for her support and encouragement especially over the last year with its numerous trials and sudden deadlines. v Vita 2002 ...............................................................Agawam High School, Agawam MA 2007 ...............................................................B.A. Classical Civilization, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2007 ...............................................................B.B.A. Management, University of Massachusetts, Amherst 2010 ...............................................................M.A. Greek and Latin, The Ohio State University 2010 to present ..............................................Graduate Teaching Associate, Department of Classics, The Ohio State University Fields of Study Major Field: Greek and Latin vi Table of Contents Abstract................................................................................................................................ii Dedication...........................................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................v Vita .....................................................................................................................................vi Table of Contents...............................................................................................................vii List of Tables.....................................................................................................................viii Chapter 1: An Introduction to Euripidean Paracomedy..................................................... 1 Chapter 2: Bearing Razors and Swords: Rivalry Between Aristophanes and Euripides ... 55 Chapter 3: Tragedic and Comedic Madness in Euripides’ Orestes ................................... 78 Chapter 4: Hostages and Incineration in Euripides and Aristophanes............................ 114 Chapter 5: From Rags to Drag: Paracomic Costuming in Euripides and Aristophanes . 140 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 177 Bibliography.................................................................................................................... 181 Appendix A: Dates of Relevant 5th Century Dramas ...................................................... 195 Appendix B: Proposed Examples of Paracomedy........................................................... 196 Appendix C: Further Potential Connections Between Acharnians and Helen ................ 198 vii List of Tables Table 1. My Methodology for Arguments Involving Paracomedy................................... 33 Table 2. Herington’s Correspondences Between Eumenides and Comedy....................... 38 Table 3. Verbal Correspondences Between Aristophanes' Birds 209-216 and Euripides' Helen 1107-1113 .............................................................................................................. 41 Table 4. Process of Typicalization in Aristophanes' Coinage............................................ 57 Table 5. Predicaments, Escape Attempts and Resolutions in Thesmophoriazusae........... 68 Table 6. Characteristics of Sleep-Scenes in Sophocles and Euripides ............................... 87 Table 7. Verbal Correspondences between Heracles 1042-1087 and Orestes 132-210.... 88 Table 8. Characteristics of Tragedic and Comedic Madness ............................................ 95 Table 9. Summary of Madness Scenes ........................................................................... 112 Table 10. Summary of Hostage Scenes .......................................................................... 115 Table 11. Increasing Levels of Menelaus' Wretchedness in Euripides' Helen ................. 158 Table 12. Proposed Examples of Paracomedy................................................................ 196 viii Chapter 1: An Introduction to Euripidean Paracomedy This dissertation explores the muddy interfaces between 5th century Athenian tragedy and comedy, and to a lesser extent, satyr drama. My primary contention is that Athenian tragedians had the freedom to incorporate elements drawn from comedy into their plays, pushing beyond the widespread view among classicists and scholars of Greek drama that any allusive relationships between 5th century BCE tragedy and comedy were limited to comedy poaching from tragedy and not the other way around. Most scholars entirely ignore the issue of tragedy appropriating elements from contemporary and previous comedy; what follows summarizes some views of scholars who do address it. In a discussion of influences within and across dramatic genres, Silk writes: “it makes sense to discuss, for example, Aeschylus’ influence on Euripides, or epic influence on tragedy or tragic influence on Aristophanes’ Clouds, or the question of possible comic influence on tragedy, or Menandrian New Comedy as a convergence of Old Comedy and Euripides’ ‘romantic melodrama’.”1 Whereas the other options are presented as certainties, the idea of comic influence on tragedy gets removed to the realm of theoretically possible, though unproven, through Silk’s use of the words “the question of possible comic influence on tragedy [my emphasis]”. Even though Silk goes on to suggest that “the kind of example one might choose to argue for specific influence from κωµῳδία would be Pentheus’ cross- dressing at Bacch. 913-44, in comparison with Ar. Thesm. 213-268,” he describes this in 1 Silk 2013, 30. 1 hypothetical terms.2 Similarly, in the same volume on genres and Greek comedy as Silk, Wright adds, “Whether the genres [sc. of tragedy and comedy] are interdependent or whether we should talk in terms