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Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles

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Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles by Adriana Elisabet Brook A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics University of Toronto © Copyright by Adriana Brook 2014 Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles Adriana Brook Doctor of Philosophy Department of Classics University of Toronto 2014 Abstract This dissertation seeks to analyze the ritual content of the Sophoclean corpus using ritual poetics, which offers an approach to the interpretation of poetic texts based on the predictable structure and communicative properties that ritual and poetry share. In particular, drawing on the ritual theories of Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner, as well as the dramatic theory of Aristotle, I suggest that ritual and dramatic narrative function in an analogous way in Sophocles because both advance according to a predictable progression that facilitates a change of status expressed through community membership. Due to this analogy, any deviations from the expected on the level of ritual have implications for the way in which the audience experience the plot. Sophocles, relying on his audience’s ritual competence, incorporates three kinds of discernable ritual mistakes in his plays: problems of ritual conflation, ritual repetition and ritual status. On the basis of the analogy between ritual and narrative, these ritual mistakes influence the audience’s dramatic perceptions and expectations. In the Ajax, I explore ritual conflation, showing how scenes that confuse two distinct rituals contribute to the ambivalent characterization of the protagonist, while the conflation of rituals across the play generates competing expectations about the progression of the plot. The Electra illustrates Sophocles’ use of ritual repetition. In this ii play, the normal repetitious nature of ritual is skewed as corruptions of the ritual process consistently demand further rituals, rendering the sequence of ritual and dramatic action potentially infinite. The Philoctetes demonstrates that, even when a ritual is performed correctly, problems with the status of ritual participants can invalidate the rite, creating a productive dissonance between the failed ritual effect of the action and its nonetheless powerful dramatic effect. Finally, the Oedipus at Colonus, through the unifying motif of supplication, incorporates all three kinds of ritual mistakes to both describe and effect Oedipus’ movement toward and ultimate acceptance among the Eumenides. My investigation sheds new light on Sophocles’ dramatic technique and, especially, offers a new way of approaching the problem of dramatic closure in the ambiguous endings of his plays.1 1 I have used the Cambridge conventions throughout this dissertation. All translations are my own except where noted. I have attempted to be as literal and as faithful to the original Greek as possible for the sake of clarity. iii Acknowledgements First and foremost, I must thank my incomparable supervisor, Victoria Wohl, who has had the uncanny ability to know exactly when to intervene to correct my course and exactly when to leave me to my own devices throughout my time at U of T. I am grateful for her understanding and kindness, for her impressive expertise in all matters concerning fifth-century Athens, for her apparently limitless availability to schedule meetings and for her shockingly fast turn-around times when I submitted each chapter. I am also grateful to the other members of my committee, Ben Akrigg and Andreas Bendlin, who, above all, kept me honest with regard to historical sources and ritual theory when I all wanted to do was gush about my love of Sophoclean drama. My thanks also go to my external examiner, Peter Burian, and my “internal external,” Jonathan Burgess, for many helpful and insightful comments before, during and after my defence. Nathan Gilbert read and commented on several sections of this dissertation in draft and, among many other valuable insights, reminded me that, in fact, I do not have access to Sophocles’ inner thoughts and intentions. Matthew Carter provided much-needed help with Italian and the benefit of his wide acquaintance with Classical literature and its scholarship. This dissertation has profited from many chance conversations with conference attendees (especially at the annual meeting of the Classical Association of Canada), fellow graduate students and visiting speakers at U of T. I would also like to acknowledge the inspiration provided by the undergraduates I have taught, whose random comments, untainted by exposure to the literature, have often prompted me to look at old problems in new ways. Above all, I wish to thank my family – my parents, Christina and Michael Brook, and my sisters, Annelise and Amelia Brook – for their generous support and iv encouragement and especially for being an unfaltering source of stability and love during a period in my life that has been anything but stable. v Table of Contents Chapter 1: Introduction: Ritual Poetics in the Plays of Sophocles............................... 1 Sophoclean Rituals and Ritual Theory......................................................................................... 8 Van Gennep and Turner in Application: Some Aeschylean and Euripidean Examples ............ 14 Ritual Structure, Narrative Structure: Aristotle’s Poetics.......................................................... 20 Ritual Poetics.............................................................................................................................. 23 Prospectus................................................................................................................................... 26 Chapter 2: Ritual Mistakes in the Sophoclean Corpus: Antigone, Trachiniae, Oedipus Tyrannus ............................................................................................................ 29 Ritual Conflation........................................................................................................................ 33 Ritual Repetition ........................................................................................................................ 43 Ritual Status ............................................................................................................................... 53 Chapter 3: Ritual Conflation and the Ajax ................................................................... 62 The Ajax and Ritual Conflation.................................................................................................. 62 Part I – The Sacrificial Slaughter of the Herds .......................................................................... 66 Part II – The Sacrificial Suicide ................................................................................................. 76 Part III – Burial and Beyond ...................................................................................................... 93 The End .................................................................................................................................... 107 Chapter 4: Ritual Repetition and the Electra ............................................................. 113 The Electra and Ritual Repetition............................................................................................ 113 Apollo....................................................................................................................................... 121 Iphigenia................................................................................................................................... 125 Agamemnon ............................................................................................................................. 129 Orestes...................................................................................................................................... 139 Clytemnestra............................................................................................................................. 142 Aegisthus.................................................................................................................................. 145 Lament...................................................................................................................................... 148 The End? .................................................................................................................................. 158 Chapter 5: Ritual Status and the Philoctetes .............................................................. 164 The Philoctetes and Ritual Status............................................................................................. 164 The Status of Neoptolemus ...................................................................................................... 167 The Status of Philoctetes.......................................................................................................... 175 The Status of Odysseus ............................................................................................................ 183 Prayer and Curse ...................................................................................................................... 185 Supplication.............................................................................................................................. 188 Oath-taking and the Bow of Heracles .....................................................................................
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