CHAPTER 9 Phoenician Women

Elizabeth W. Scharffenberger

Euripides’ Phoenician Women (ca. 410–408 BC), set before the royal palace in Thebes, dramatizes the conflict of Eteocles and Polyneices, the sons of Oedipus and Jocasta—a tale that his spectators would have known from several earlier sources, including Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes (467 BC).1 Jocasta explains in the prologue that Eteocles and Polyneices mistreated Oedipus, who had blinded himself upon discovering his crimes of parricide and incest. In retaliation, he cursed them, vowing that they would “divide the house with whetted iron” (l. 68). To thwart the curse, the brothers agreed to take turns as king of Thebes. Eteocles, however, refused to cede power, forcing Polyneices to retreat in exile to Argos.2 Polyneices married the daughter of the Argive king, Adrastus, who promised to restore his new son-in-law to the throne of Thebes. The army led by Adrastus, Polyneices, and five other elite warriors—the Seven against Thebes—is now camped around the city. At the conclusion of her speech, in which she traces her family’s woes back to the day Cadmus, the founder of Thebes’ royal family, arrived from Phoenicia, Jocasta explains that she has arranged for a truce, so that her sons can meet in the city and (she hopes) be reconciled. After Jocasta’s departure, Antigone and an aged male attendant emerge and climb onto the top of the building to survey the attacking army. After they return to the palace, the chorus of women from Phoenicia enter. Their song describes how they had been dispatched from their homeland to serve the god Apollo at Delphi, but have been stranded in Thebes by the approach of the Argive army. Polyneices subsequently arrives and enjoys a bittersweet reunion with his mother, until his brother Eteocles appears. Reconciliation between the brothers proves impossible. Polyneices insists on the justice of his cause; Eteocles dismisses all talk of justice, averring that he prizes absolute power above all else. Jocasta attempts to expose the folly of each son’s stance, but her arguments fail to convince, and the parley devolves into an ugly confrontation. Polyneices then hurries from the city.

1 Mastronarde (1994) 17–30 surveys the sources for the ‘Thebaid’ myth available to Euripides. 2 Phoenician Women 71 identifies Polyneices as the younger brother. In early poetry, the sons of Oedipus were likely twins; see Mastronarde (1994) 27 n. 3. For the relative ages of the broth- ers in later works of reception, see Beyerle (1973) 152; Argent (2010) 111 n. 11; Korneeva (2011) 89–90.

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After a choral song that recalls Cadmus’ arrival from Phoenicia and his kill- ing of a great serpent, sacred to the war-god Ares, on the future site of Thebes, Eteocles consults his maternal uncle Creon. Creon advises his nephew about strat- egies for defending the city, and in turn receives instructions about what to do in case of Eteocles’ death. Eteocles departs for battle. The seer Teiresias brings Creon horrible tidings that Ares is still outraged by Cadmus’ killing of his sacred serpent, and that the war-god, who now threatens to destroy Thebes, can only be appeased by the blood sacrifice of Creon’s younger son Menoeceus. Creon bids Menoeceus, who has been present throughout Teiresias’ speech, to flee the city. But after Creon’s departure Menoeceus asserts his determination to die in order to save Thebes, and he departs for the ramparts. A messenger reports Menoeceus’ self-immolation to Jocasta. After describing the Theban defenders’ success in warding off the attacking army, the messenger warns Jocasta that her sons are about to fight in a single combat. Intent on interceding once again in her sons’ quarrel, Jocasta leaves for the battlefield with Antigone in tow. As he mourns Menoeceus’ death, Creon learns from another messenger that his nephews have killed each other, and that Jocasta, having witnessed the dying moments of her sons, committed suicide. Antigone returns with the three corpses and calls Oedipus outside so that he can grieve with her. Their lamen- tation is interrupted by Creon’s command that Oedipus leave the city.3 The new king also announces that, in keeping with Eteocles’ instructions, Antigone will marry Creon’s surviving son Haemon, and Polyneices’ corpse will remain unbur- ied. Frustrated by Creon in her efforts to perform funerary rites for Polyneices, Antigone promises to escort her father into exile, and the tragedy concludes with their departure.

In Literature

The evidence from papyri and other sources indicates that Phoenician Women was widely popular in antiquity.4 It was an important school text in the

3 Mastronarde (1994) 39–49, 590–4, 627–8 argues that the ending of Phoenician Women as pre- served in the manuscripts, from Creon’s intervention in 1584 until 1736, is for the most part authentically Euripidean. Several passages in the tragedy have been suspected as interpola- tions: see, e.g., Kovacs (1982) 42–5 and (2002) 264–7; Mastronarde (1994) 307–8. In works of reception, most of the passages disputed by modern scholars have been accepted as authentic. 4 Bremmer (1983); Braund (1997) 113.