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The Plot of the Agamemnon

Arthur Platt

The Classical Review / Volume 4 / Issue 03 / March 1890, pp 98 - 99 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X0018970X, Published online: 27 October 2009

Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X0018970X

How to cite this article: Arthur Platt (1890). The Plot of the Agamemnon. The Classical Review, 4, pp 98-99 doi:10.1017/S0009840X0018970X

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Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 138.251.14.35 on 16 Apr 2015 98 THE CLASSICAL REVIEW.

evytl To KeCvtnv, r/v 8' dyajv urofr yAt)\ovp.evol, and pofl-os. Valuable light is thrown on the Ao^os sketches the demagogue in the darkest colours 686vrtoi by a passage in Diodorus (xii. (412 ff.). Euripides will have none of the 70) which tells us that in the front of the young party who iro\£//.ovs av£dvovo~' 0£ipovres OOTOVS, 6 fikv ojnos (TTpaTrj- three hundred, oi Trap' iictivois r/vtoxoi KOL Trapa- Aemj, o 8' v, | | aAAos 8e p 8 interesting because they show that the band | TO ir\rj6os ei n j$\a.irrercu Ttdff)(wv raSe was really a survival from a time when the (233 fE.), words which were as true applied to heroic methods of fighting were still in vogue those who wished to upset the peace of Nikias and might therefore be attributed by in 420 as in the mouth of Hikias himself Euripides without difficulty to the heroic before the Sicilian expedition (Thuc. vi. period. 12, 2). Finally, when we remember that Amphia- It is perhaps worth observing how careful raus had fledfro m before the walls of Thebes Euripides is to make his audience see that he through the district of Oropus where the is not really describing a mythical scene, but Athenians sought refuge after Delium, and one in which the majority of themselves that according to the legend he disappeared have taken part. Little illusion as to the at Psaphis (Strabo, 6 399, Philostratus Im- meaning of the play oould be left after the agines i. 26, 3), we see what opportunities reply of Theseus to the Theban herald (404) Euripides had for connecting the battle of ov yap apteral evbs irpos dvSpos, dAA' iXeoOipa Delium with the story of the Seven and how woAis—a statement which is somewhat out of clei erly he availed himself of these opportu- place in the mouth of even the most consti- nities. tutional of ancient monarchs. The play is It has been made an objection to the play permeated with references to other events of that it has no action. That is true. But the day. The words of Theseus (532) the Athenian absorbed in reviewing the 56ev 8' £Ka(TTOv es rb ^>o>s aiKeTo | ivravO'history of his own time unrolled before him airrj\0e, irvevfw. [lev irpbs aWipa, \ TO crZ/Ma 8' h with only a change of names would not have yrjv are but a paraphrase of the inscription felt this any more than he would have felt on those who fell at Potidaea (Hicks, Inscript. it in the Persae. The play is—as the frag- p. 60) ojBrjp fiev i/ri>xas vire8££aTO, o~u>\jjMTa 8e ment of the inrodeo-is describes it—an iyKotfuov xOv] | ru>v8t K.T.\. The lines 847 If. see'AOTJVUIVm and a much more skilful one than a distant reminiscence of the reply of the the Persae. It was easy for Aeschylus to Spartan captured in Sphacteria to the make his panegyric after a great triumph; it Athenian ally who asked him el oi TtOveSnesrequired much greater skill to do so after a ainutv KaXol KayadoC (Thuc. iv. 40). The great defeat. It is not in either case the course of the battle was obviously meant to highest form of dramatic art. But Euripi- remind the audience of Delium. At the des desired not only to praise Athens. He battle of Delium the right wing of the had a policy to support and a lesson to convey Athenians drove back the Boeotians while to his countrymen and, such being his aim, he their own left wing which was opposed to could not have taken better means to attain the Thebans was defeated (Thuc. iv. 96, 3, it. 4). Compare with this (Suppl. 703) Adxos 8' P. GILES.

THE PLOT OF THE AGAMEMNON.

DH. VEBEALL'S brilliant and ingenious satisfies such modest demands as the introduction to the Agamemnon opens up a aesthetic feeling of every reader makes with question which it will take time to decide regard to the construction, or the skeleton, upon. Having been much discontented for of a tragedy. It is in the hope that the a long time with the plot of the play as we following considerations may do something to have all been taught it, I at any rate am further elucidate this difficult matter that I glad to have something set before me which submit them to the reader. THE CLASSICAL REVIEW. 99 Dr. Verrall lays great stress, as we all If Dr. Verrall is right the conspirators know, on the beacons, a feature of the play had information from Troy. Why then before inexplicable. Now it has never, I watch for a year 1 They need not have think, been pointed out in this connexion begun watching till they heard of the capture that in another story of the voyage home of Troy. The inconsistency is that (1) they from Troy beacons play an important and had news continually, (2) they fear they may disastrous part. Nauplius, the father of be taken unawares. This comes of the epic Palamedes, in revenge for his. son's death, story being transplanted. Homer naturally lighted false beacons and so caused the supposes they have no news, and he sets a returning fleet to suffer shipwreck. Accor- OTCOTTOS. Aeschylus naturally supposes they ding again to the Scholiast on Lycophron's have news but keeps the ownros all the same, •Alexandra, 1093, Nau7rA.ios 8ia.Tp{J3u>v br and leaves the inconsistency to look after 'EAAaSt irapetrKcvatre (jLOLxtvOrjvai Tas yuvai/cas itself as Sophocles does with much worse TUIV hi rrj Tpoia- KO.1 KAvTatytviJarpav fitv ones in Oedipus Hex. If he had troubled crweiu£a> Alyiv\a£ only have been looking out fora week 1096) are connected with the adultery of or two, but it is no wonder that he prefers the Aegisthus and Clytemnestra to bring about Homeric year. the ruin of the fleet and of Agamemnon ; in 'If we are to fill up the story in all its the other story, that of Aeschylus, or of Dr. details we must suppose that watch was kept Verrall if you like, beacons and the adul- by day as well as by night, for a fleet is terous pair are connected for the ruin of more likely to return by day of the two. Agamemnon. This is hardly an accidental But if the story said they returned by night, coincidence. why should the poet trouble himself further? Again, Aeschylus must have known the Dr. Verrall justly lays stress on and story of Nauplius. For Nauplius was one defends line 1644 : of the characters of the NOOTOI. irplv 8k Te\tvrfj(r oi OVK avrbs rjvdpi£es, aAAa ? o« 6 rovs voarovs ypat/rais, &i\vpav. Apollodorus Bibl. In further defence it may be observed that I. 2 (page 40 Teubner ed.). And the story this line is a reminiscence of Homer X. 409 : of the shipwreck was told in the Noo-rot. IKTO. UVV ovXoju.cn/ aX6\io. In both the point eTO' 6 vepl Tas Kav\a£. The Homeric watch- was a familiar story in the time of Aeschylus; man knows perfectly what he is about; why at any rate it is more likely that he adapted does the Aeschylean play a part he does not this beacon story to his own ends than that understand ? It is due, I think, to the Attic there were two independent stories about irony, which is powerfully developed in his beacons. joy at what he supposes the sign of his Can the beacon, one may ask, be doing master's success while it is really the sign of double duty ? Is it both a signal to Gly tem- his ruin, and in his being the unconscious nestra to be ready, and a false fire to destroy instrument, like Emilia, of what he least the Greek fleet 1 Aeschylus does not suggest wishes. this and it seems improbable, though it The great speech in which the beacons are would give extra point to irvp KOX OdXaarara describein d may well have had a special Agam. 656. Rather he prefers to make the interest for the audience, which would ex- beacon help in destroying Agamemnon in cuse its falsity, if a Aa/AiraSij^opia were to another way than in the old story, he or the take place that evening after the tragedies authority he follows. He keeps the signal were over. Clytemnestra herself speaks of because it was in the legend, but drops it as a Xafnra.$r)opia.. Nauplius because he is not wanted and is ARTHUR PLATT. better away.