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Theatrical Background in Xenophon's Ephesiaca

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Theatrical Background in Xenophon's Ephesiaca Ítaca. Quaderns Catalans de Cultura Clàssica DOI: 10.2436/20.2501.01.72 Societat Catalana d’Estudis Clàssics Núm. 33 (2017), p. 25-36 Theatrical Background in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca Montserrat Camps Gaset Universitat de Barcelona ABSTRACT Xenophon of Ephesus is normally considered a less cultivated writer in com- parison to other authors of Greek love novels. Nevertheless, in Ephesiaca many references to Ancient tragedy are to be found, as well as to other theat- rical performances. This paper studies the dramatic background of the novel and the literary context in which it was written. KEYWORDS: Greek Novel, Tragedy, Mime, Xenophon of Ephesus Scholars usually point out the quotations of Greek tragic authors in Chariton and Heliodorus, and even in Achilles Tatius, whereas Xenophon of Ephesus is normally overlooked, because he is considered a less cultivated writer, and even called more popular. Intertextuality is not a significant matter in the Ephesiaca, if we look for literal quotations of previous writers or ars allusiva, and if there are any to be found, they refer mainly to Chariton’s Chaereas and Callirrhoe, a much more complex and intricate piece of narrative. Xeno- phon’s Ephesiaca is sometimes considered a low and cheap imitation of his model1. But was the author of Ephesiaca really a less educated writer than his col- leagues? Does the stylistic gap which separates Xenophon’s novel from pre- vious and later Greek love novels mean that he paid no attention to literary tradition? It has been asserted that this romance has an oral background and that folklore motifs are more obvious here than in other authors, where eru- 1. Discussion in HÄgg 1966 and BRIOSO 2000. Although the date of these novels are contro- versial, I assume that Xenophon’s text is written after Chariton’s, see BOWIE 2003, 10. 001-172 Itaca 33.indd 25 15/02/2018 08:33:01 26 Montserrat Camps Gaset dite quotations are far more evident2. This is quite obvious at first reading, but what should we understand by oral background and folklore motifs, and are they truly separate from written tradition? Has the Greek tradition of dra- ma nothing to do with this background? The aim of this paper is to propose an answer to these questions. The great number of folklore motifs not only in the Ephesiaca but in almost all novels has already been thoroughly and convincingly discussed, espe- cially in C. Ruiz Montero’s works, where she suggests both a rhetorical and a popular or folkloric aspect in the same texts3. But where does the folkloric material mainly come from? If an oral background is to be seen in this novel in particular, because of its style, formulaic sentences, episodic construction and lack of complex syntax, does it mean that the source for this material is not connected to a literary tradition? Folklore motifs have very usefully been classified by Stith-Thompson Motif- Index of Folk-Literature, reduced to minimal units and conveniently stored for scholars to make use of whenever the need arises to interpret a text. Nev- ertheless, a certain popular approach, which not all scholars are able to re- sist, tends to identify folkloric motifs only with illiteracy or storytelling among uncultivated population, as if the literary tradition of a society and the oral tales transmitted in the closed circles of family and child rising (Haus- und Ammesmärchen, to put it in the well-known words of the most famous story- tellers, the brothers Grimm) had nothing to do with each other or, in a more academic way, as if folklore only belonged to orality. This is not exactly true. The interaction between literary texts and fairy tales has already been estab- lished, as has the reception of Latin texts on medieval and modern tales4. A folkloric motif, however useful it may be for structuralism, never exists as such, in a pure or isolated form, but in a context and a definite performance, either oral inside a story which, once told, disappears for posterity, or in a written account which may reach our times. There are certainly many folkloric motifs in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca, starting with the quest for the beloved. But many of them can also be found in drama and especially in tragedy, which constitutes one of the pillars of literary culti- vated transmission of knowledge, what we call paideia. Among all tragic writers, Euripides was the most read and the most quoted in the Imperial period and later. Quotations of his work are to be found in almost all Greek novels, in a more or less faithful way. In the Ephesiaca, the memory of Eu- ripidean plays is widespread5. Greek tragedy deals with myths, that is, with traditional material concerning heroes and gods, whereas novels do not treat 2. RUIZ MONTERO 2006, 52. 3. RUIZ MONTERO 2006, 37. 4. ZIPES 2006a 2-11; ZIPES 2006b, 3; HOGSTAD 2011, 2; KEMPTNER 2009, 35-50; BOTTIGHEIMER 2010, 480-482. 5. Unfortunately, when writing this paper for publication, I had not been able to get full ac- cess to the recently published book of A. TAGLIABUE 2017. His approach from “thematic in- tertextuality”, pp 6-7. applied to this novel, sounds highly promising. 001-172 Itaca 33.indd 26 15/02/2018 08:33:01 Theatrical Background in Xenophon’s Ephesiaca 27 myth, but create narratives of ordinary men and women, and love and trav- els, in what has sometimes been called a “bourgeois” narrative or an escape from ordinary life6. Tragedy, some centuries after its creation, becomes a part of Greek paideia and may belong to the literary background of authors writ- ing in a very different context7. As for Euripides, there are three tragedies in particular which deserve men- tioning on behalf of Xenophon, Hippolytus, Electra and Helen, and some others which may also be considered, Medea and the fragmentary Andro- meda8. At the beginning of the book, Habrocomes refuses all kinds of love, which is embodied in a very particular divinity, Eros. His reported words against the god9 are full of strength and decision, and certainly of young im- prudence. He swears never to fall in Eros’ traps, at least μὴ θέλων. It is possi- ble to think of Hippolytus’ beginning and the rejection of Aphrodite in fa- vour of the chaste Artemis10. But Habrocomes, who predictably falls desperately in love some pages later, keeps nevertheless a faithful attachment to Anthia, who has a strong likeness to Artemis. Habrocomes once abhorred any kind of relationship with any other woman, and in the course of the novel he says that he won’t cause any harm to Anthia ἕκων11. The similarity of this statement to stoic philosophy has been pointed out12, but certainly this ἕκων echoes the μὴ θέλων of his first speech. It has been rightly stressed13 that the proper subject of this novel is faithful- ness and chastity, more than the pursuit of love. Lovers are married at the very beginning of the novel and the plot deals mainly with their capability of sustaining a faithful union even when they are separated by destiny14. They are reunited at the end, as should happen in any happy end, and Greek novels certainly do have a happy end, but the plot of the novel puts a higher stress on the assaults against the chastity and faithfulness of both characters rather than on their separation. Habrocomes is consecrated to Anthia at the beginning of the story, and this consecration will last for the rest of the tale, just as Hippolytus consecrates his worship to Artemis at the beginning of the tragedy and remains faithful to her until the end — a very 6. RUIZ MONTERO 1996, 52; 2006, 30; HOLZBERG 2005, 35. See a broad discussion on approaches to the novel in WHITMARSH 2011, 7-12. 7. LÉTOUBLON 2014, 353; RUIZ MONTERO 1996, 52-3. As for the literary tradition, see FUSILLO 1996, 278. 8. On the relationship between Euripides and the Greek novel, see the very useful chapter «Matrici, modelli, riscritture» in FUSILLO 1989 especially pp. 40-42. 9. XEN. EPH. 1.1.4-6. 10. EUR. Hipp. 73-113. See the mythological tradition in CUEVA 2004, 35-43. 11. XEN. EPH. 2.4.4. 12. MIRALLES 1967, 55. 13. SCHMELING 1980, 116; RUIZ MONTERO 2006, 102; and for a comparison between Anthia and Penelope, as faithful wives confronted by dangerous suitors, see ZANETTO 2014, 403-404. 14. On Love in this work, see the very useful papers of BIERL 2006, 85-92, TAGLIABUE 2012, 37- 38 and KONSTAN 1994. 001-172 Itaca 33.indd 27 15/02/2018 08:33:01 28 Montserrat Camps Gaset different end, however. But Anthia is not an ordinary woman. After intro- ducing Habrocomes, Xenophon describes Anthia with the features that myth attributes normally to Artemis: a short chiton, a fur cape around her shoulders, a bow and arrows, and to stress the point, the author explains that the Ephesians had many times adored her as if she was the goddess herself or at least a work of the divinity (1.2.6-7). A reader of the novel might think of Hippolytus faithfulness to Artemis when reading of Habro- comes love for the Artemis-like Anthia, causing him to be chaste and de- voted to her through the novel. One of her misfortunes brings Anthia to Egypt, where she asks for the favour of the goddess Isis and her protection. In the Imperial period, Isis was often identified with Artemis, and she was worshipped in Ephesus some centuries before the writing of the novel15. At a certain moment of the plot, Anthia pre- tends to be consecrated to Isis, a trick which allows her to delay an unwant- ed marriage, and in fact she could easily have been a servant of the goddess, if she had led a normal life in Ephesus.
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