Sarah Derbew [email protected] University of Warwick 25 October 2018
‘Africa and the Making of Classical Literature’ Seminar Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women
A. Physical appearance of the Danaids Although there is no confirmed iconographic representation of the Danaids that depicts them as black, a fourth century BCE kratēr offers insight into the physical appearance of their Egyptian cousins.
Heracles slaying Busiris/Orestes murdering Aegisthus/Lynceus killing Danaus, Attic red-figure krater, attributed to the Brooklyn-Budapest Painter, c. 350 BCE. H. 49 cm. Bonn, Akademisches Kunstmuseum der Universität, 2667.
B. Race ≠ skin color I) …Classicists have continued to reduce the broader concept of race to its narrow modern “biological” form, one that holds skin color as its primary sign. Recognizing rightly that ancient Greeks and Romans did not base identities on skin color, classicists have not asked instead whether racial identities were based on other criteria, but have instead dismissed the term “race” altogether. (McCoskey 2003: 104-105)
II) Suzan-Lori Parks 2005, “A New Black Math” A black play sometimes puts its foot in its mouth, but, hell, a black play sometimes gots mouths to feed and shoe leather tastes like chicken when yr HONGRY. A black play wants to know where HARRIET TUBMAN stay at? […] A black play is tragic. A black play is funny as hell. A black play has contempt for the other. And love too. (Suzan-Lori Parks 2000: 578, 582)
C. Identifying the hero The Danaids threaten to kill themselves (and thereby pollute the city) if Pelasgus does not give them refuge. Who is the hero?
Danaus (Suppliant Women, 222-233) • You all, honor the altar that is common to all of the gods! Sit on the holy seat like a flock of doves who are frightened of their fellow birds, the hawks, hated relatives and defilers of their kin! How could a bird who gnaws on a part of another bird be pure? How could a man who marries an unwilling bride against her father’s wishes be pure? Not even a dead person in the underworld flees the blame of the impieties if he does these things. Even there, as the story goes, a different Zeus judges the offenses, the last judgments among the dead. Consider the situation and reply in this particular way so that this action may turn out victorious for you all. Pelasgus (Suppliant Women, 517-523) • I am
2 may persuasion, and the fortune of success, go with me! • Is this a “narrative of white men saving brown women from brown men”? (Wohl 2010: 410, 420) Danaids (Suppliant Women, 455-467) • Chorus: Listen to the conclusion of my many respectful words. Pelasgus: I am listening. Speak on; it will not escape me. Chorus: We have girdles and belts to hold our robes together. Pelasgus: I suppose that is appropriate for women to have. Chorus: Well, these, I tell you, give us a fine method— Pelasgus: Say what words these are that you are going to utter. Chorus: If you don’t make a promise to our band that we can rely on— Pelasgus: What is your girdle-method meant to achieve? Chorus: To adorn these images with votive tablets of a novel kind. Pelasgus: Those words are a riddle. Speak plainly. Chorus: With all speed—to hang ourselves from these gods. Pelasgus: I hear words that flay my heart. Chorus: You understand! I have opened your eyes to see more clearly.
Select bibliography: • Brill, Sara (2009) “Violence and Vulnerability in Aeschylus’s Suppliants,” in William Wians (ed.) Logos and Muthos: philosophical essays in Greek Literature. SUNY Press: 161-80. • Loraux, Nicole (1987) Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman, translated by Anthony Forster. Harvard University Press. • Parks, Suzan-Lori (2005) “New Black Math,” Theatre Journal 57: 576-83. • Snowden, Frank Jr. (2010) “Iconographical Evidence on the Black Populations in Greco-Roman Antiquity,” in David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr. (eds.) The Image of the Black in Western Art: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire (Volume I). Harvard University Press: 141-250. • Wohl, Victoria (2010) “Suppliant Women and the Democratic State: White Men Saving Brown Women from Brown Men,” in Karen Bassi and J. Peter Euben (eds.) When Worlds Collide: Classics, Politics, and Culture. Lexington Books: 409-35.
3