Seven Against Thebes1
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S K E N È Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 4:2 2018 Kin(g)ship and Power Edited by Eric Nicholson SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies Founded by Guido Avezzù, Silvia Bigliazzi, and Alessandro Serpieri General Editors Guido Avezzù (Executive Editor), Silvia Bigliazzi. Editorial Board Simona Brunetti, Francesco Lupi, Nicola Pasqualicchio, Susan Payne, Gherardo Ugolini. Managing Editor Francesco Lupi. Editorial Staff Francesco Dall’Olio, Marco Duranti, Maria Serena Marchesi, Antonietta Provenza, Savina Stevanato. Layout Editor Alex Zanutto. Advisory Board Anna Maria Belardinelli, Anton Bierl, Enoch Brater, Jean-Christophe Cavallin, Rosy Colombo, Claudia Corti, Marco De Marinis, Tobias Döring, Pavel Drábek, Paul Edmondson, Keir Douglas Elam, Ewan Fernie, Patrick Finglass, Enrico Giaccherini, Mark Griffith, Daniela Guardamagna, Stephen Halliwell, Robert Henke, Pierre Judet de la Combe, Eric Nicholson, Guido Paduano, Franco Perrelli, Didier Plassard, Donna Shalev, Susanne Wofford. Copyright © 2018 SKENÈ Published in December 2018 All rights reserved. ISSN 2421-4353 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without permission from the publisher. SKENÈ Theatre and Drama Studies http://www.skenejournal.it [email protected] Dir. Resp. (aut. Trib. di Verona): Guido Avezzù P.O. Box 149 c/o Mail Boxes Etc. (MBE150) – Viale Col. Galliano, 51, 37138, Verona (I) Contents Kin(g)ship and Power Edited by Eric Nicholson Eric Nicholson – Introduction 5 Anton Bierl – The mise en scène of Kingship and Power in 19 Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes: Ritual Performativity or Goos, Cledonomancy, and Catharsis Alessandro Grilli – The Semiotic Basis of Politics 55 in Seven Against Thebes Robert S. Miola – Curses in Aeschylus’ Seven Against 87 Thebes and in Shakespeare’s Richard Plays Elena Pellone and David Schalkwyk – “Breath of Kings”: 105 Political and Theatrical Power in Richard II Miscellany Anna Novokhatko – Epic-Oracular Markedness in 119 Fifth-Century BCE Greek Comic Fragments April Weintritt – The Deliverymen of Florentine Comedy: 137 1543-1555 Konrad Wojnowski – Performative Uncertainty and 159 Antifragile Theatre Special Section Michael Coveney – Dominique Goy-Blanquet, Shakespeare in 183 the Theatre: Patrice Chéreau, London: Bloomsbury (The Arden Shakespeare) Gherardo Ugolini – When Heroism is Female. Heracles 189 at Syracuse Angelo Righetti – Measure for Measure: Shakespeare Festival, 197 Roman Theatre, Verona, 19-21 July 2018 Mark Brown – Waiting for Godot in the Marketplace: 201 Setting the 2018 Edinburgh Festival in Context Books Received 211 Alessandro Grilli* The Semiotic Basis of Politics in Seven Against Thebes1 Abstract Beyond its formal segmentation, the structure of Seven Against Thebes is marked by the successive stages of a confrontation, in which the protagonist Eteocles faces first the panicking Chorus, and then (through the messenger’s report) the boastful assaults of the foreign warriors. In both phases, the conflict reveals a radical divergence in the understanding of language and signs, and points out the prerogatives of language as one of the play’s major themes. This paper tries to read these different stages as illustrations of polarized worldviews reflecting the ambiguous status of the λόγος in the episteme of the first half of the fifth century BCE: in its interaction with the Chorus, Eteocles emphasizes the rational and anal- ytical basis of language in opposition to its expressive value; when discrediting the Seven’s ominous vaunts, the Theban leader highlights the necessity of referential constraint, in which he sees a defence against the primitive, fallacious and anti- cultural misuse of signs. In the final phase, when his action showing him as a rational strategist is disrupted by the re-emergence of his father’s ἀρά, Eteocles does not fail to reaffirm the need for a convergence between the rules governing the linguistic sign and the roots of moral and political order. Keywords: Aeschylus; Seven Against Thebes; philosophy of language; rationalism; archaic and classical thought 1. Linguistic Horizons in Seven Against Thebes This paper starts from the consideration of some distinctive traits of Sev- ¹ Greek quotations are from Hutchinson’s text (1985); different textual choices are discussed in the relevant footnotes. English quotations are from Sommerstein’s trans- lation (2008), occasionally modified to fit Hutchinson’s text or for the sake of my argu- ment. I wish to express my gratitude to my friends and colleagues Guido Avezzù, Sil- via Bigliazzi, and Gherardo Ugolini, for their support and many fruitful discussions on the topics dealt with in this paper. I also thank Carmen Dell’Aversano, Eric Nicholson, Guido Paduano, and the anonymous referees of Skenè, for helping me focus on a num- ber of passages of my argument. It goes without saying that I bear full responsibility for its final version. Susane Payne’s competence and patience proved invaluable in pro- viding the English translation of the text, and I am deeply grateful for her help. * University of Pisa – [email protected] © SKENÈ Journal of Theatre and Drama Studies 4:2 (2018), 55-86 http://www.skenejournal.it 56 AlessandroSilvia Bigliazzi Grilli en Against Thebes, specifically of what could be labelled the “epistemic frag- mentation” which emerges from the actions of the protagonist:2 his judge- ments and acts can be seen as expressions of disparate worldviews; this has led interpreters of the text to assume that the play, or its protagonist, lack unity.3 My aim is to show how this inner contrast is made visible in the structure of the play in a tension involving the semantic field of speech and the different possible approaches to the uses of language. My thesis is that the symbolic dynamics underlying Seven Against Thebes encode the ambig- uous status of the λόγος in the episteme of the first half of the fifth centu- ry BC, where the traditional trust in language as the medium for a magi- cal-sacred unveiling of the world is juxtaposed, in a dialectical relationship but on an even footing, with an innovative consideration of the potential of reasoning and discourse as instruments for the analysis and the manage- ment of reality.4 This inquiry is all the more interesting and relevant if we consider that these different views of language can be shown, in the sym- 2 I shall be dealing with this problem in a more systematic manner in a study to be published shortly (Grilli 2018). 3 Starting from Wilamowitz (1914), who sees in the plot’s presumed discontinuity evidence of the play’s different mythical sources. An article by Solmsen (1937) contrib- uted significantly to the consideration of Eteocles as an inconsistent character. Solmsen enhances the sudden irruption of the Erinys during the course of rationally planned ac- tions – a reading which, at the conclusion of a long series of studies, has recently been further developed by Sewell-Rutter (2007: 15-77; 139 ff.). Here the attention of the read- er is drawn to the convergence of the sudden breakthrough of the supernatural and the voluntary action of the character. Among the many analyses intending to demonstrate the discontinuity of Eteocles’ character and attributing this inconsistency to various causes, it is that of Winnington-Ingram (1983: 51) which should above all be mentioned. This study recognises in Eteocles’ disparate nature the emergence of a conflict between his two social identities; for he is at one and the same time ruler of the Cadmeans and son of Oedipus “in virtue of which he is the common focus of a twofold issue, the des- tinies of the city and the family, dangerously intertwined”. In a similar framework, Thomson’s interpretation had already discerned, in the dynamics of theSeven , the pas- sage of the aristocratic system towards the organization of a city state, in which “the clans lose their identity in common citizenship” (1916: 315-316 = 1966³: 285). 4 The hypothesis of a linear evolution from mythical thought to rationalism, cen- tral to a celebrated essay by Wilhelm Nestle (1942²), is by now deemed simply an inter- esting chapter in cultural history, having been supplanted by a debate initiated a few years later by Dodds (1951). However, the fact that the ancient philosophers considered themselves as an alternative to traditional mythical thought is incontestable (as is em- phasized by Lloyd 1987: 1-49). In general, the most recent studies (cf. for example, Bux- ton 1999: 1ff.; Morgan 2000: 15ff., in particular 30-7) tend to go in the direction of an emphasis on the coexistence and the complex interaction between the two planes, both for the relevance of literary texts as documents of the history of philosophy (Wians 2009: 1-4) and for the obsolescence of the view linking the origin of philosophy with the development of writing (Atwood Wilkinson 2009: 7-9). TheOnstage/Offstage Semiotic Basis of(Mis)Recognitions Politics in Seven Against in The Thebes Winter’s Tale 57 bolic makeup of the text, to be the foundations of opposite political visions, which showcase the transition from the aristocratic political tradition to the democratic order, in which the status of language as an instrument of sharing, analysis and negotiation grows more and more central. It is usual, and understandably so, for critical interpretations of the Sev- en to place at the centre of their analyses the second episode with its hyp- notic scene of the so-called Redepaare (369ff.).5 This centrality is obviously justified, but it risks eliminating the sequence, from the prologue to the fi- nal threnos, upon which the structure of the play is based. The initial inter- action between Eteocles and the scout, or, again, the encounter and result- ing argument between the hero and the chorus in the first episode are in danger of losing significance, both from the point of view of content and from that of theatrical impact, if the analysis focuses too closely, or even exclusively, on the deployment of the warriors.