The Classical Review http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR
Additional services for The Classical Review:
Email alerts: Click here Subscriptions: Click here Commercial reprints: Click here Terms of use : Click here
The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandinavian Drama. by Bertha S. Phillpotts, O.B.E., Litt. D. One vol. Pp. xi + 216. Cambridge University Press, 1920. 21s.
A. W. Pickard-Cambridge
The Classical Review / Volume 35 / Issue 7-8 / November 1921, pp 160 - 161 DOI: 10.1017/S0009840X00015407, Published online: 27 October 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/abstract_S0009840X00015407
How to cite this article: A. W. Pickard-Cambridge (1921). The Classical Review, 35, pp 160-161 doi:10.1017/ S0009840X00015407
Request Permissions : Click here
Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/CAR, IP address: 128.122.253.228 on 24 Apr 2015 i6o THE CLASSICAL REVIEW docet Aristoteles nunqtiam fuisse, is har- which is confined to the origin of the monised with the enumeration by Suidas world and of the gods, and the Orphic of many poets bearing the name. Eu- type, which is rather a 'Iepo? Aiyos molpos, Keryx and Krokon are similar (the title deoyovla for any Orphic poem projections of the Eumolpidae, Kerykes, does not occur before the Neo- Krokonidae. Platonists), and throws the emphasis Dr. Kern then reviews the charac- on the origin of man, original sin, teristics of this abstract figure, and redemption, and eschatology. Dr. Kern, accounts for them on the above hypo- who hopes soon to conclude his long- thesis. The connexion with Thrace, desired critical edition of the Orphic which first appears in the second half fragments, believes that the ' Rhapsodic of the fifth century, is explained by the Theogony' used by the Neo-Platonists adoption of the Thracian religion of was a great Orphic Bible, the work of Dionysus by the ' Solitary' sect. The many centuries, but dating back in its death of the Greek Apolline singer at essential features to the sixth or seventh the hands of the wild Bassarides was century, and known in its earlier forms like the martyrdom of a Christian mis- to Xenophanes, Empedocles, Aeschylus, sionary. The tearing to pieces reflects Aristophanes,1 Plato, etc. the rending of Zagreus. The creation The third essay is a note on the of the figure of Orpheus dates from Playing Child of the mysteries. Dr. the sixth century or somewhat earlier. Kern calls attention to the inscription In Attica the Orphic movement was on an Eleusinian thymiaterion, pub- vigorous, but went on independently of lished by Skias ('E
THE ELDER EDDA AND ANCIENT SCANDINAVIAN DRAMA. The Elder Edda and Ancient Scandina- attempts to prove—the derivation of vian Drama. By BERTHA S. PHILL- the subjects of the Eddie poems and of POTTS, O.B.E., Litt. D. One vol. many features in their treatment from Pp. xi + 216. Cambridge University primitive ritual drama; but it may be Press, 1920. 21s. permissible to express a warm appre- ciation of the learning and fine judg- THIS is not the place for a discussion of ment shown in the argument, which in the main thesis which Miss Phillpotts its lucidity and fairness is a model of THE CLASSICAL REVIEW 161 what arguments on difficult points in Perhaps the most striking resem- literary history ought to be. It is the blance which Miss Phillpotts brings out more important to insist on this, because between the two literatures is that the supposed parallelism between the between the influence of the Northern development of Scandinavian and that Heroic Saga and that of Homer upon of Greek poetry, which is all that calls the subjects presented to them in for notice here, is not so satisfactorily popular legend—an influence shown made out as most other points in the probably in the elimination of much book. It is not quite clear what theory that was crude and grotesque, and the of the origins of Greek Tragedy Miss presentation of a story better suited for Phillpotts assumes: sometimes she writes more refined audiences. There may be as if it began among the tombs, some- also a true analogy between the exclu- times as if the suggestions of Professor sion of Thor from the finer heroic story Murray and Miss Harrison were proved and that of Heracles (as a rule) from truths. It is only on a very superficial Homer: in both languages the aristo- view that Greek tragic plots can be said cratic epic eschewed some of the to show ' the same features of unhappy subjects appropriate to popular drama. divisions and bride-snatchings within But the interesting comparison (p. 135) the family' as the Northern; a more of the exploits of Thor with those of careful examination will reveal differ- Heracles is followed by a paragraph ences much stronger than the resem- resting on the very risky assumption blances, and a large amount of material of a close original connexion between which cannot be brought into relation the satyric drama and the /ew/tto? from with such a statement at all; and it is which Comedy arose. (Some such therefore not easy to agree with Miss suggestion was made by Dieterich, but Phillpotts that 'the Northern analogy the evidence is all against it.) Conse- makes it difficult not to accept the view quently the statement that Heracles of those who would trace the origin of ' was the mythical leader of a /CO>/AO?, a Greek Tragedy to a ritual Year-Drama.' festal procession,' and so was analogous It is, moreover, very doubtful whether to Thor 'in what we may call the there are really in Greek Tragedy such satyric drama of the North ' is mis- ' traces of the resurrection of the hero' leading. But in relation to the main as the analogy requires; and though theme of the book such matters are but Greek legend presents good evidence of trifles. periodical ritual slayings, with supposed It should be added that a classical magical effect, such ritual does not scholar may find, at many points in stand in that relation to tragedy in Miss Phillpotts' account of primitive Greece which it appears to have borne Northern Drama, interesting if not in the North. The argument from very important resemblances to features analogy is a very frail thing at best in of the earliest Greek Tragedy and literary history, and cannot be accepted Comedy. until both sets of facts are presented in an equally careful analysis. A. W. PICKARD-CAMBRIDGE.
THE FRAGMENTS OF EURIPIDES. The Macedonian Tetralogy of Euripides. lines of an assumed tetralogy of Euri- Discussed and edited by RICHARD pides on the basis of the existing frag- JOHNSON WALKER. 8fx5f. Pp. ments. Such proceedings are neces- 139. 12s. 6d. net. sarily hazardous; the evidence, which Euripidean Fragments. Emended by is apt to be ambiguous or inconclusive, RICHARD JOHNSON WALKER. 8|" X requires scrupulous care in the weigh- 5f. Pp. 52. Burns, Oates, and ing, and the investigator will frequently Washbourne. 7s. 6d. net. be faced with the disappointment of a negative result. In short, there is THE former of these two books is an hardly any region where it is so neces- attempt to reconstruct the main out- sary to tread warily. Mr. Walker's