CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSION: SUICIDE IN EURIPIDES' HELEN

To die is best. How could I die well? Helen 298

Euripides' Hekn presents in microcosm the range of possibilities for the suicide motif in Greek tragedy. Tragic suicide includes actual self-destruction, suicide threatened but not carried out, coercive sui• cide used to gain some ends that would be otherwise unattainable and suicide as a possible explanation for deaths not clearly attribut• able to other causes. Tragic characters commit suicide because they have been disgraced and must restore their honor, because they have suffered an unbearable loss and cannot endure the grief, because they seek to avoid future suffering, or because they sacrifice them• selves for a greater good. The Hekn is a microcosm of the range of possibilities for the suicide motif in Greek tragedy, and the ironic tone of the entire play permits us to step back from the heart wrench• ing phenomenon for final reflections on the theatricality and ethics of self-destruction. 1

1 Bibliography on the Helen includes: H. Steiger, "Wie Entstand die Helena des Euripides," Phiwwgus 67 (1908) 202-8; F. Solmsen, "Onoma and Pragma in Euripides' Helen," CR 48 (1934) 110-2 I; G.M.A. Grube, The Drama ef Euripuks (London 1941; reprint 1961); W. Strohm, Euripuks: Interpret,ationen ;:,ur dramatischen Fonn, Zetemat,a 15 (Munich 195 7); R. Lattimore, The Poetry ef Greek Tragedy (Baltimore 1958) 122-5; A.N. Pippin, "Euripides' Helen: A Comedy of Ideas," GP 55 (1960) 151---1l3; G. Zuntz, "On Euripides' Helen: Theology and Irony," Entretiens Fondation Hardt VI (Geneva 1960) I 99---241; K. Alt, "Zur Anagnorisis in der Helena," Hennes 90 ( 1962) 6-24; DJ. Conacher, Euripukan Drama. Myth, 1herne and Structure (Toronto 1967); C. Wolff, "On Euripides' Helen," HSCP 77 (1973) 61-84; G. Dimcock, "God, or Not God, or Between the Two?-Euripides' Helen," Katharine Asher Engel Lectures, Smith College, 1976; D. Sansone, "Theonoe and Theoclymenus," Symbolm Oswenses LX (1985) 17- 36; K.H. Lee, "Helen's Famous Husband," GP 81 (1986) 309---13; C.P. Segal, Inter• preting Greek Tragedy. Myth, Poetry, Text (Cornell 1986); D.G. Papi, "Victors and Sufferers in Euripides' Helen," A]Ph 108 (1987) 27-40; J.S. Zembaty, "Plato's Republic and Greek Morality on Lying," JHPh 26 (1988) 517-45; C.W. Willink, "The Parodos of Euripides' Helen (164--90)," CQ. 40 (1990) 77-99. Editions and commentaries: G. Murray, ed., Euripidis Fabulm vol. 3 (Oxford 1909); H. Gregoire, ed., Euripuk, Bude ed., vol. 5 (Paris 1923); A.Y. Campbell, Euripuks' Helena (Liverpool 1950); A.M. Dale, Euripuks' Helen (Oxford 1967); R. Kannicht, Euripuks, Helena (Heidelberg 1969). CONCLUSION 169

Since the interpretations of Solmsen and Pippin,2 the appearance and reality dichotomy in the Helen has been central to any reading of the play. This dichotomy finds poignant underpinnings in the way in which Euripides uses the suicide motif to highlight the paradox. That is to say, the eidolon, the image of Helen that went to Troy in place of the real Helen, inspires men and women to acts of valor based on a set of accepted social standards that includes honorable suicide, while the real Helen, though she and her husband contem• plate suicide and use coercive suicide threats, inspires men and women to acts of deceit. 3 Furthermore, although the real Helen and Menelaus may suggest suicide for themselves, in fact they escape their predica• ment by less honorable means, and demonstrate that survival dis• places the need for good repute.4 By the end of the prologue of the Helen, Teucer, Helen's first in• terlocutor, has recounted four suicides, one of which is well known in Greek literature (Ajax), three of which (Leda, Castor and Poly• deuces) Euripides apparently invented. However, all of these suicides ultimately occur because of the eidolon "Helen," who has taken the place in Troy of the real Helen who has been all this time in Egypt. Several questions arise concerning the opening dialogue of the play between the real Helen and Teucer, and its relationship to the rest of the play. The essential question of why Teucer is the bringer of the news has been addressed before, though not exhaustively.5 A second closely related question has not been previously asked; namely, why does Euripides emphasize suicide so dramatically in the content of Teucer's dialogue? Clearly, the burden of guilt on Helen increases,6 and the unfairness of her situation becomes even more pronounced. However, these suicides are reiterated throughout the play and cre• ate not only significant dramaturgic links between the prologue and the rest of the drama, but also lay the ground for the death and rebirth theme that informs the play as a whole. 7 According to this play, Helen never experienced the heroic world

2 Above, note I. 3 K.V. Hartigan, "Salvation via Deceit. A New Look at Iphigenia at Tauris," Eranos 84 (1986) 119-25, discusses how salvation may come from what in real life ought to be condemned. Here rescue occurs through using almost flippantly something that in real Heroic life is honorable, acceptable and serious. • See Dimcock (above, note I) I 7. 5 E.g., Strohm (above, note I); Conacher (above, note I); Kannicht (above, note I). 6 See Dale (above, note I) ad Joe. 7 See Segal (above, note I).