Aeschylus in the Balance: Weighing Corpses and the Problem of Translation

chapter 5 Aeschylus in the Balance: Weighing Corpses and the Problem of Translation

Rush Rehm

5.1 Introduction

In the famous agôn between Aeschylus and Euripides in Aristophanes’ Frogs, Aeschylus proposes that Dionysus weigh out his verses against those of Eurip- ides (Ra. 1365–1367). Comparing the contest to weighing cheese (1369), the god agrees, and a large balance [stathmos 1365, 1381] appears onstage. On the first go, Euripides speaks the opening “winged words” from his Medea – “Would that the Argo had never winged over the sea.” However, Aeschylus’ pan sinks lower with a line from his (lost) Philoctetes about the river Sperchios, pr ompting Dionysus to liken the poet to a merchant who soaks his wool to make it heavier and thus able to weigh down the scales. On the second at tempt, Euripides’ line – “Persuasion has no other shrine but language” – proves no match for Aeschylus’ “Alone of the gods death loves no gifts” from his (lost) Niobe. As Dionysus explains, Aeschylus’ pan dips lower [repei, 1393] because death is much heavier than the ethereal language of persuasion. In the final trial, Euripides makes a mighty effort to “talk tough” with his verse of tragic poetry – “he seized an iron-clamped mace in his right hand” – but Aeschylus’ massive “chariot on chariot, corpse on corpse” (from his lost Glaukos of Potniae) easily wins (Ra. 1365–1410).1 Aristophanes’ comic invention draws on the everyday practice of weighing cheese and wool, but the scales that his Aeschylus asks for also suggest the weighing of human fates found in Homeric epic.2 Fulfilling his promise to Thetis to make the Greeks suffer in battle, Zeus weighs out the fates of the Tro- jans and Greeks, and the death-day of the latter proves heavier (Iliad 8.69-74). In an almost exact reversal near the end of the poem, Zeus weighs out the fates of Achilles and Hector, and the Trojan’s pan dips lower (Iliad 22.209-213).

1 Aristophanes sets up the contest earlier in the play, when the household slave of Pluto ( frequently referred to as Aiakos, but see K.J. Dover, (ed.), Aristophanes, Frogs (Oxford, 1973: 50–53)) tells Xanthias, “Amazing things will come into play here. / Yes indeed – the art of poetry will be weighed out in scales!” (kai gar talantôi mousikê stathmêsetai, Ar. Ra. 796–797). 2 C.H. Whitman, Aristophanes and the Comic Hero (Cambridge, ma, 1964: 243).

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These epic passages set the pattern for later occurrences in Greek literature, where “the sinking down of the heavier pan in the scale means death.”3 In Aristophanes’ Frogs, however, the heavier pan indicates the opposite, not de- feat and death but victory for Aeschylus and his ultimate release from Hades back to the world of the living. In their chapter, Hanink and Uhlig have more to say about the Aeschylus’ “afterlife” in old comedy. Aristophanes also may be referring to Aeschylus’ lost Psychostasia (Weigh- ing of the Souls) mentioned by Plutarch (Moralia 16f-17a). In Homeric fashion, Aeschylus’ title refers to Zeus’ weighing the fates of Achilles and Memnon (like Achilles, a short-lived son of a goddess), who meet in battle at Troy. Although no identifiable fragments of the play survive, several Attic vases depict scenes of the weighing out of these combatants’ souls, perhaps reflecting Aeschylus’ original staging of Psychostasia.4 We have better evidence for a relevant weighing scene in Aeschylus’ lost Phrygians, or The Ransom of Hector. There, Achilles weighed Hector’s corpse in the scales, balanced by the gold ransom brought by Priam. This scene takes up the Homeric passage (Il. 22.346-54) in which Achilles vows he will not return the body for burial even if Priam were to offer Hector’s literal weight in gold.5 Whatever its inspiration, Aristophanes’ use of on-stage scales – to weigh out spoken verses and to decide the fate of humans already in the underworld – provides a multi-layered comic version of an (epic-influenced) Aeschylean tragic theme. The scene in Frogs encourages us to consider references to the balance in Aeschylus’ extant plays, especially where the scales are linked to death and corpses. In the process, I will confront some intractable issues facing a transla- tor or adapter. How does one convey the idea of a balance in a digital world,

3 A.F. Garvie, (ed.) Aeschylus, Persae (Oxford, 2009, line 346). See Iliad 16.658, 19.224-5, 12.432-38, also discussed in Garvie’s insightful commentary. More generally, J.V. Morrison, “Kerostasia , the Dictates of Fate, and the Will of Zeus in the Iliad” Arethusa 30/2 (1997): 276–296. 4 A.H. Sommerstein, (ed.), Aristophanes, Frogs (Warminster, 1996, line 1365). O. Taplin, The Stagecraft of Aeschylus (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1977: 431–433), argues that Zeus did not appear on stage in Psychostasia, nor were there on-stage scales. For a different view, see C. Sourvinou-Inwood, Tragedy and Athenian Religion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2003: 463–464). The scene of Zeus’ weighing the souls of Achilles and Memnon occurs on Attic vases as early as 540, but there are also mid-5th century examples: limc I.1, 172–175, and I.2, pl. 797–805 (“Achilleus”), and VI.1, 451–453, and VI.2, pl. 14–25 (“Memnon”). See also J. March, Cassell Dictionary of Classical Mythology (London, 1998), “Memnon,” 251. 5 See A. Sommerstein, (ed.), Aeschylus iii, Fragments (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2008: 262–269); also scholia to Iliad 22.351, and E. Frankel, (ed.), comm., and trans., Aeschylus, Agamemnon (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1950, line 438).