ECHOES OF THE PROMETHEIA IN EURIPIDES’ ANDROMEDA?
A.J. Podlecki
Euripides’ Andromeda,whenitwasfirstputonattheCityDionysiain Athens in bce,1 seems to have created a sensation. A vicious sea monster threatening to devour a beautiful captive princess, a hero flying in on a winged horse, carrying an ugly severed head with opponents being turned to stone or coming within a hair’s breadth: this was exciting stuff, even for audiences who by now could count on being treated to something unexampled and even shocking from the dramatist they loved to hate. When news got around that among the Euripidean offerings at the forthcoming Dionysia was a version of the Andromeda story, what kind of expectations were aroused in prospective audience members? They would have been familiar with the general outlines of the story since Perseus was a figure from the earliest strata of Greek myth. He is men- tioned by Homer (Iliad .) and his union with Andromeda can be traced back at least as far as the Catalogue of Women (fr. .– ). Perseus, battling or pursued by Gorgons, appears in Greek art from the middle of the seventh century and a century later he is shown with divine helpers, usually Hermes or Athena.2 Andromeda enters the visual repertoire c. when she joins Perseus and the sea-monster on a late Corinthian black-figure amphora and by the fifth century her rescue by PerseushadbecomeapopularsubjectwithAthenianred-figureartistsas
1 Although the evidence for the date is not all internally consistent, is the date generally accepted in the scholarly literature; is a remotely possible alternative. See Gibert : –. If is correct, another play certainly was Helen. Eur. IT has been suggested as the third tragedy by Wright (: and passim), but others have demurred (Marshall, this volume). 2 A painted clay metope in the Corinthian style from an Apollo temple at Thermon in Aetolia (Woodward [] – with figs. a and b); ivory plaques c. – from the Heraion in Samos and from the Artemis Orthia sanctuary in Sparta (Athena; Roccos : cat. a and b); an Attic black-figure neck amphora c. in Frankfurt (Athena; Roccos : cat. ); an Attic black figure olpe by the Amasis painter c. now in London (Hermes; Roccos : cat. ; illustrated by Woodward [] fig. a and b). a.j. podlecki well as South Italian vase painters of the following century.3 This “inno- vative and influential play” (Gibert : ), “the kind of long and eventful play which Euripides was writing at this time” (Webster b: ), made an impact that lasted well beyond its first production. Besides an extended parody in the Thesmophoriazousai (), to which we owe about of the fragments that Kannicht accepts,4 in the opening scene of Frogs (), Dionysos whimsically recalls his days as a shipmate of the much-reviled Kleisthenes when he spent time on deck reading a copy of the play. (It was this, he claims, that aroused his pothos for Euripides.5) Alexander the Great is said to have acted from memory a scene from the Andromeda at his last dinner.6 Lucian reports an incident that occurred in Abdera during the rein of Lysimachos (– bce): one of the symp- toms of a fever that swept through the population was a mania for reciting dialogue and singing choral odes, especially from Euripides’ Andromeda (here he cites the first verse of fr. , B). He conjectures, playfully, that the Abderites had caught their “infection” after watching an impassioned portrayal of Perseus with the Gorgon’s head in the blazing heat of sum- mer.7 It was popular with the Roman dramatists and Ennius’ version is thought to have been strongly influenced by Euripides’ play but, if so, not much light is thrown on the model from the meagre remains. It became a favourite theme with the mural painters at Pompeii. The basic plot of Euripides’ play cannot have diverged very far from the account provided by Lucian in one of his Dialogues of the Sea Gods. Polydektes king of Seriphos wished to marry Danae and so he sent her sonPerseusofftofetchtheGorgon’shead.Onhiswaybackwithhisprize
3 Full catalogue by Schauenburg ; Dearden : n. for some South Italian scenes. The late Corinthian amphora from Cerveteri, Berlin Staatliche Museen F , is cat. ; illustrated by Woodward [] pls. a and b. 4 Kannicht : –, now the definitive edition. Kannicht’s numbering is adopt- ed by Gibert , which supersedes all previous work in English on the play. In general I use Gibert’s translations in the text and give fragment numbers as in Kannicht/Gibert and Jouan and Van Looy (designated “B” for Budé). 5 Frogs . Was it his own private copy as patron divinity of the festival? an edition for limited circulation? 6 Athenaios . D citing Nikoboule (date unknown), who wrote on Alexander’s expeditions, especially the botanical aspects. 7 Jouan and Van Looy (: ) cite an analogous tale from the fourth-century bce historian Eunapios. After a particularly moving performance the inhabitants of an unnamed town incessantly sang and recited excerpts and subsequently became so debilitated from diarrhea that it was depopulated and had to be resettled by people from a neighbouring town.