Euanthes and the World of Rhetoric in Achilles Tatius' Leucippe And
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Euanthes and the World of Rhetoric in Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Cleitophon KATHERINE A. MCHUGH The University of Edinburgh In Book Three of Achilles Tatius’ Leucippe and Cleitophon there is an ekphrasis of a painting, one of three within the entirety of the novel. The description takes place after the protagonists’ arrival at Pelusium, as they happen upon the Temple of Zeus and come across “double images” (εἰκόνα διπλῆν, 3,6,3) which have been signed by the artist Euanthes (3,6,3).1 The main aim of this article is to consider the name of this artist, as opposed to the painting itself; it seeks to prove that Euanthes was not a real figure, but a name created by Achilles which is imbued with rhetorical references in keeping with the intellectual climate of 2nd Century AD Greek literature. The name Euanthes and its possible rhetorical connotations will be explored in conjunction with a detailed consideration of Achilles’ use of ekphrasis throughout Leucippe and Cleitophon and his interest in rhetorical edu- cation in order to assert that some of the author’s playful in-jokes have been un- derstudied, and that they can provide us with a clearer picture of how the author strives to appeal to his reader; that is, a reader who is steeped in a rhetorical edu- cation himself. The article also considers the other two ekphraseis of paintings in Leucippe and Cleitophon (which occur in Books One and Five) in order to aid with an understanding of Achilles’ use of the rhetorical technique and how sig- nificant rhetoric is to his novel as a whole. It also examines some examples from other authors of the period (namely, Lucian and Aelius Theon) in order to support the suggestion of Euanthes as a word embedded in rhetoric. Before delving into the ekphrasis in Book Three, and the name Euanthes, a wider consideration of the treatment of the visual artist in Achilles Tatius is nec- essary to provide further evidence of the fact that he was highly invested in using his novel to both comment upon and compete with visual art, whilst also incorpo- rating ideas of rhetoric. To substantiate the argument that Achilles is interested in ————— 1 The Greek text is taken from Garnaud (1991); translations are my own. Ancient Narrative Volume 16, 1-14 https://doi.org/10.21827/an.16.35773 2 KATHERINE A. MCHUGH visual art, as well as the relationship between fictional literary and physical worlds of art, one may compare his work with the other imperial Greek novelists. Achilles often refers specifically to an artist in his work; the word γραφεύς (painter) is used five times in Leucippe and Cleitophon (1,1,4, twice at 3,3,4, 3,7,1 and 3,8,2) and not at all by the other three novelists. Another word for a visual artist, ζωγράφος, is used five times by Achilles (1,1,12; 3,6,3; 3,7,3; 5,3,4 and 5,3,7). It is used once by Chariton, not in an ekphrasis, but in a description attempting to evoke a beau- tiful image of Callirhoe holding her baby, “the sort of image which not even a painter had created” (Call.,3,8,6). The word for an artist or craftsman, τεχνίτης, is perhaps the most interesting to explore here if we also want to consider the rela- tionship between the visual artist and rhetorician. It is used only once by Helio- dorus in an ekphrasis of a carved stone (Aeth.,5,14,4), and in no place in Longus or Chariton; Achilles uses it twice in ekphrastic context (1,1,4 and 1,1,6). Most significantly, Xenophon of Ephesus uses it once, in a rhetorical context. Describ- ing the wealthy Aristomachus, Hippothous says that he is a “craftsman” (τεχνίτης) “of speeches” (λόγων) (Eph.,3,2,8). The fact that the same word can be used for a rhetorician and a visual artist is highly significant when it is put into the context of Achilles Tatius’ work; as will be explored further below, in the naming of Eu- anthes, Achilles was preoccupied with the relationship of the rhetorical, literary and visual worlds. The same phrase for a “craftsmen of speeches” may also have been used by Antonius Diogenes in his Wonders Beyond Thule. Photios, in his summary of the lost work, describes Dinias giving Cymbas tablets made of cy- press in a manner learned from a scribe, Erasinides, a τεχνίτης λόγων.2 Achilles uses the word τεχνίτης both times for a visual artist. However, its usage in other authors’ works in a context of the written word or that of speeches highlights how a craftsman of a visual work of art and one of a written work were associated. As we further explore the ekpraseis in Leucippe and Cleitophon, and how Achilles might be creating a deceit as he, the writer, is really the creator of the ‘visual’ art he describes, it becomes clear how closely related the worlds of the visual and rhetorical arts were. Having looked briefly at the evidence for the fact that Achilles was particu- larly interested in the visual artist and how their arts can be associated with rhet- oric, I now turn to look in-depth at the paintings by Euanthes in Book Three of Leucippe and Cleitophon. In doing so, I hope to illustrate that Euanthes the artist ————— 2 See Photios, Bibl. Cod. 166, 111a. The possible use of this phrase by Antonius Diogenes is particularly interesting because of the pseudo-documentary nature of the Wonders Be- yond Thule. If, as this article suggests, Euanthes is a literary figure constructed by Achilles to appear to be an historical figure, then this is in itself pseudo-documentarism. For more on pseudo-documentarism in ancient literature, see esp. Hansen (2003) and Ní Mheallaigh (2008) EUANTHES AND THE WORLD OF RHETORIC… 3 encapsulates the relationship between the visual and rhetorical, as his very name seems to fit into a world imbued with rhetorical education. In the ekphrasis of Euanthes’ artworks, Achilles appears to be suggesting a diptych, with one image of Andromeda and one of Prometheus. Cleitophon informs the reader of the con- nected themes between the two: “both are chained to rocks”, “wild beasts are the “executioners” of both” and “members of the Argive family are protectors of both” (Πέτραι μὲν ἀμφοῖν τὸ δεσμωτήριον, θῆρες δὲ κατ̓ ἀμφοῖν οἱ δήμιοι … ἐπίκουροι δὲ αὐτοῖς Ἀργεῖοι δύο συγγενεῖς, 3,6,4). The ekphrasis has an abrupt end at the close of 3,8 and then immediately the main narrative begins again at 3,9. Within the corpus of scholarship on Achilles Tatius, a great deal of attention has been paid to the ekphraseis, with many discussing their proleptic function. In this case, there has been a focus on the foreshadowing function of the two paint- ings; as Bartsch comments, they “foreshadow different aspects of the same event”.3 That is, the (false) sacrifice and disembowelment of Leucippe at 3,15. Clearly this is the case; both Andromeda and Leucippe are chained up, waiting for death. Andromeda’s position chained to the rock-hollow is described, and the narrator says that if someone were to see her beauty she would be like “a new statue” (ἀγάλματι καινῷ, 3,7,2), but if they saw the chains and the sea-monster, they would see the rock as an “improvised/contrived tomb” (αὐτοσχεδίῳ τάφῳ, 3,7,2). Leucippe, too, is “tied up with hands behind her back” (ὀπίσω τὼ χεῖρε δεδεμένην, 3,15,1) and a σορός (tomb) has been made for her near to the altar (3,15,1). In terms of the painting of Prometheus, the violent image of the bird feeding upon his belly after having ripped it open (Ὄρνις ἐς τὴν τοῦ Προμηθέως γαστέρα τρυφᾷ· ἕστηκε γὰρ αὐτὴν ἀνοίγων, ἤδη μὲν ἀνεῳγμένην,4 3,8,1-2) is clearly reflected in the disembowelment of Leucippe, where her entrails “imme- diately leapt out” after she was cut open (τὰ σπλάγχνα δὲ εὐθὺς ἐξεπήδησεν, 3,15,5). The bird eats the insides of Prometheus, and after cutting Leucippe open the brigands, too, feast on their victim. Bartsch discusses how the “proleptic sim- iles” which are the paintings of Andromeda and Prometheus at first cause the reader to feel confident that they have discovered the link between the paintings and what later happens, but that this is Achilles’ deceit as it then turns out that the sacrifice and disembowelment of Leucippe was ultimately fake.5 The analysis of the ekphrasis which characterizes it as a foreshadowing technique is very likely, ————— 3 Bartsch (1989), 55. See also Morales (2004) for comments on the proleptic functions of the ekphraseis in Leucippe and Cleitophon. 4 “A bird fed on the stomach of Prometheus, and it stood there opening it up, or had already opened it”. 5 Bartsch (1989), 58-59. 4 KATHERINE A. MCHUGH and even more credit can be given to this interpretation when one considers that the painting of Europa in Book One does the same thing.6 However, it is not just through the subject matter of the paintings themselves in which Achilles is deceitful. He is, in fact, deceitful from the very outset when he names Euanthes. Few have commented on Euanthes, and when they do it is to dismiss him as an authorial creation without any further explanation, or to deter- mine that he must have been a real artist. Vilborg writes that the name was “cer- tainly … fictitious” without giving any further analysis or explanation.7 Phillips, on the other hand, states that Euanthes was a real artist (although attested nowhere else) and that Achilles’ description is of a painting by him.