Fifth-Century Athenian History and Tragedy

CHAPTER ONE Fifth-Century Athenian History and Tragedy Paula Debnar Prologue: 431 BCE the final months of the fourteenth of Elaphebolion during on the day to Bcfore dawn visitors alike made their way residents of Athens and archonship of Pythodorus, celebration of the City Dionysia. stir surrounded the theater. The usual buzz and had previewed the the tragic poet Euphorion the official opening of the festival, would Bcfore long overdue for a victory, about the Titan Prometheus. Euripides, his plays the satyr-play Reapers. and followed by offer Philoctetes, Dictys, earlier (433 BCE) Medea, with the festival. Two years excitement had to do had Not all of the alliance, and in so doing the Corcyraeans into Athenians had accepted and a the Corcyra's mother-city power in a with Corinth, embroiled themselves quarrel The Athenians had hoped Peloponnesian Leaguc. alliance, the contact ful member of Sparta's could avoid direct themselves to a defensive agreement they the Corinthians sent that by limiting misfired. In retaliation but their had of Corinthian forces, plan theirs but members with Potidacans (colonists of to help the forces the following year and their own forces trapped secede. with Potidaca besieged Athens' alliance) Then, in the fall, a full synod to invade Attica. Early had lobbied the Spartans broken in the city, they Years' Peace had been had voted that the Thirty Peloponnesian League ofthe to war. of the should go certain. Members and that league her allies was not yet with and the vote, war Sparta Greek world knew, despite Despite and as the heralds, - continued to exchange because of it the alliances - both force or perhaps world's finest as the hoplite be avoided; their reputation fall soon, war might were to their to to war. Potidaca would were slow go If invasion of Attica help Spartans an not that Corinthians could argue war. the rumors of at least welcome break from brought a colonists. The Dionysia to nevertheless, it is tempting Dionysia of 431; Medea. third prize at the mosthy of his Euripides won only theater that evening spoke the the did not suspect the crowd leaving most imagine that but likely have known the story, Even so, the poet audience would in Euripides' play. The would commit the crime Medea magnitude of Paula Debmar Fifth-Century Athenian History and Tragedy much as MedeaMedea had his protagonist, dramas forfor her plan to proteet her I mean one surviving produced by Dathy sccret simply the thirty-two sympathy By tragedy of to Keep teel women Acschylus, Sophocles, or Euripides and performed at the dramatic festivals, presum- to children. Kng them ler own Acgeus, Corinthian persuaded murde 1asion and promised her in Athens (on lost see chapter 17 in this volume). Not all of had chorus persuasi ably tragedies Cropp, of Jason by to her the on succumbed these tragedies, as it will turn out, lend themselves toa historical approach. "History persuaded The herselt also own (723-24). also on her king's avenge nlas), and (plhtlos), thecity cityc rathe is more complicated. In one sense it refers to what Pelling calls "real-world events" honor to that sits ally could get Athcns in friendand she of Medea's . (1997b, 213). But "history" docs not consist of empirical facts to which poetry provided ode praise chorus it choral chorus. Still, must Athens, in the in a compriserise occasions who . as well as narratives. The narratives of Women Historians refuge as the tragic pocts compose sanctuary praiscd the birthplace of responds. Cornthian their city offer of necar /s Herodotus, Thucydides, and Xenophon provide the basis for our understanding of of the to the land" mouths spectators breathe upon (838-40). the Athcnian winds Athenian history of the fifth century (on sources see Rhodes 1992a, 62-63), but they the gentle invaded a "siweet of Thebans Plataca, have pleased where band also reflect their authors' purposes and bias and are colored by their historical (830-34), small the be. festival, iinvasion marked Harmony of the the begmning weeks 1hucyaides, circumstances (as is true of my own historical overview). Nonetheless, as products two For his of the Within Athens. id not begin account with however, of the same culture as tragedies, ancient historical narratives are likely to "reflect its allied historiorian, betwee Corinth and Bocotiancity War. The | her with the quarrel categories and concerns, whether psychological, social, or political" (Boedeker 2002, Peloponnesian but esca Plataca, had the on related blood, alated of attack Cities by 116, on myth and history). with the between pihiloi, tic contlict and Sparta, citics tied This quarrel Athens by powertul poilo1, The tragedies under discussion fall into two broad categories. In the first, the Corcyra. more themselves to colony between limiting a contlict of peace. Despite poet alludes directly to fifth-century events or developments, but moves them back a larger quarrel into of a treaty had invited the obligations the Athenians into the mythological past. In this category I place Aeschylus' Persians and Orestei. the eustomary the Corcyracans, honor. alliance with As in Euripides play, defensive their Tragedies in the second group generally avoid overt references to fifth-century events into own city. ties and friendshio and Corcyra based on blood between Corinth - to friendship dst or figures, paradoxically, they also draw the mythological past into the present (see obligations account. conflicting in Thucydides revenge, and prominently Sourvinou-Inwood, chapter 18 in this volume). The bulk ofthe plays in this category would all figure custom based on are by Euripides. Strains of fifth-century Athenian rhetoric, sketches of political types, and reflections of Athens' institutions and society lend plays of this category a Tragedy and History distinctly fifth-century Athenian flavor. The emphasis in Euripides' Orestes on political when Corinthians, have been present example, is directly relevant to the Athens of 408 BCE. and Euripides may to have factions, for Both Thucydides alliance. Both are likely debated the proposed Sophocles contributes to both categories; indeed, one of his tragedies moves in and Athenians of Corcyracans, a long history avoiding both directions. Although Ajax's followers resemble fifth-century Athenian rowers that prodded Corcyra, despite about the a certain of known quarrel there is overlap more as we have noted, the first half of Athens' And, Sophocles' Ajax draws the audience to seek help. no one would argue than heroic-age spearmen, alliances, history. Yet toward the the the first book of Thucydides' epic past. Following hero's suicide, however, the historical themes in Meden and Cornth and on play's berween Corcyra motion reverses direction. modeled his account of the quarrel Sophocles' Agamemnon and Menelaus, with their mean that Thucydides from the quarrel ness and tlawed that Euripides took inspiration rhetoric, have more in common with what we know of or, conversely, are politicians of Euripides' tragedy between the two narratives the second half of the fifth and The interrelationships century than with characters in or, for that matter, in between Corinth Corcyra. raise are epic the questions they extant more To begin with, any of dramas. raised more subtle and pervasive. Aeschylus' Questions by Philoctetes (409 BCE) at once and in the law courts the concern BCE. In assembly ing relative power of nomos and not to them or to 431 meetings of the phusis (roughly "nurture and nature") locate it peculiar witnessed debates in which honor in the - will have squarely midst of a - Athenians in other tragedies as well fifth-century sophistic debate. The suspicion of rhetoric clashed. Moreover, although Philoctetes as with and conflicting obligations generates, well as the conflict in the between and competed expedience the play appearance reality, about to flee from Corinth to Athens, also project its into the Euripides tragedy ends with its protagonist mythic past world of Athenian politics of the final decade of nor is Athens of the tragedy the century. Corinth of Medea is not the Corinth of the fifth century, locates at the Athens of Euripides' audience. Sophocles Oedipus Colonus (406 BcCE; his last tragedy) in the mythological What is the relationship between tragedy's mythical past and the fifth-century past of Athens under Theseus. King The poet distances the action from contemporary Athenian audience's present? The goal of this chapter will be to lay the groundwork Athens by the from shifting setting the heart of the polis to its outskirts at Colonus. to the and direction of This move, as we will allows for answering this question. In order suggest range the see, the tragedy to gesture toward a future that bodes well movement between past and present in surviving tragedies, I will interleave with a for Athens. brief overview of fifth-century Athenian history discussions of different facets of the interplay between tragedy and history. 1These subjects are, of course, more complex, and the scholarly debate much more nuanced, than I can convey in a short Athens and the Sea Indeed, even the terms more than survey. "tragedy" and "history" require some preliminaryY Of the nine hundred tragedies that could have been performed in the fifth explication. century at the City Dionysia alone, only thirty-two have survived. Morcover, these do Paula Debnar end. Fifth-Century Athenian History and Tragedy between the 1 roughly the composed were thene fourth-cent but her allies (on to the century, and willingncss pursue enemy in the aftermath of that battle made them the entire fifth Vernant (1988 likely the Sparta 988a) speaks f to assume not span defeat by When candidates of an alliance of Greeks, Athens' volume). leadership primarily islanders, against Wars and this Greck tragedy Persian in born Persian aggression.

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