AESCHYLUS' ORESTELQ: SILENCE,CRITICISM, TRAGEDY BY Sean Alexander Gurd A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements For the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Department of Comparative Literature University of Toronto O Copyright by Sean Alexander Gurd (2001) National Library Bibliothèque nationale du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibiiiraphic Services seMces bibbgraphiques 395 Weiiington Street 3ûS. we Wellington Onaw ON K1A ON4 OltawaON KlAW canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence aliowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distriiute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microfom, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la fmede microfichelfilm, de reproduction sur papier ou suformat électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts fiom it Ni ia these ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Abstract Aeschylus' Oresteia: Silence, Criticisrn, Tragedy By Sean Gurd Doctod of Philosophy 2001 Centre for Comparative Literature University of Toronto In a study of the poetic deployment of silence in Aeschylus' Oresteia, 1 identify a rhetorical form, which 1 cal1 "silencing discourse," that is used by characters throughout the trilogy in order to prevent or ineffectuate dangerous utterances. i argue in particular that the behaviour and speech patterns of the chorus of the Agamemnon can be characterised by a devoted commitment to silencing discourse and its semantic and semiotic structure. The structure of silencing discourse is then shown to be a major informing element in the staging and the narrative development of the trilogy, particularly in the manner in which Clytemnestra is staged during the parodos of the Agamemnon, but dso in the characteristic staging of the Choephori and the Eumenides. Silencing discourse structures the relationship between Apollo and a series of "avenging" figures such as Clytemnestra and the Erinyes. However, Aeschylus intends a critique of the logic of silencing discourse: in his portrayal of Apollo, and then more extensively in his characterisation of the jury of Athenians in the Eumenides, Aeschylus introduces the notion of criticism as a corrective to silencing discourse. In addition to providing acertain interpretation of the Athenian democracy, which 1 touch on lighdy, criticism provides an explanation for the relationship between tragedy, or "tragic knowledge," in Jaspers' terms, and the tragic condition. Acknowledgements One acquires debts. Mine are many: the support of the Centre for Comparative Literature, in this and other projects, has been invaiuable, as has that of the Classics Department, to whom I was a welcome stranger. This work could not have been done without the generous assistance of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, who provided me with a Doctoral Fellowship. Brian Stock is responsible for the impetus to do this and not another dissertation, and for setting the terms for an inquiry 1 can only daim to have begun. Hugh Mason must be thanked for frequent (and last minute) assistance and guidance, as must Ted Chamberlin for always taking my bizarreries seriously. The General Council of the Graduate Students' Union taught me a great deal about the necessity of unpredictability in democratic structures, and Jorge Sousa and the staff at the GSU have at times overlooked my lateness in completing GSU work, nearly al1 of which was due to this thesis. The Classics Department of Vilnius University gave me access to a collection of OCT's and Teubners that was cleady treasured and jealously guarded, despite my poor French and worse Lithuanian. The majority of the writing of this text was done in the faculty library at Vilnius University, where 1 was not supposed to be, and the librarians there, who have a long tradition of kindness towards strangers, are to be thanked for laughing at my foreign idiocy rather than removing me hmthe building. Julija sukys taught me how to proofread, how not to abuse my readers, and a lot more besides, and will continue to receive my gratitude and love. This dissertation must be dedicated to Emmet Robbins, whose spirit it reflects in practically every sentence. Table of Contents Abbreviations .................................................................................................. v .. Editions of Prirnary Texts ................................................................................. vil introduction ................................................................................................... 1 Chapter One: The Logic of Censorship .................................................................. 38 Chapter Two: The Parodos of the Agamemnon and Silencing Discourse ........................... 53 Chapter Three: The Secondary Receiver: Sovereignty ................................................88 Chapter Four: Apollo and the Impossibility of Healing .............................................-150 Chapter Five: Tragedy and Criticism ..................................................................191 Endings ...................................................................................................248 Endnotes ..................................................................................................... 252 Works Consulted .......................................................................................... 274 Abbreviations Blomfield C. Blornfield, Aeschyli Agamemnon. London: B. Fellowes, 1832. Denniston J. P. Denniston, The Greek Particles. Oxford: Clarendon, 1934, Fraenkel E. Fraenkel, AeschyluslAgamemnon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1950. Ga~ie A.F. Gawie, Aeschylus ' Choephori. Oxford: Clarendon, 1986. IEG M. West, ed. Iambi et Elegi Graeci Ante Alexandmm Cantati, tt.1-II. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972. LSI H. G. Liddell, R. Scott, H. Jones, A Greek-English Lexicon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1968. Nauck A. Nauck, ed. Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, ed. 2. Leipzig: Teubner, 1936. Page J.P. Denniston & D. Page, Aeschylus' Agamemnon. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. PMG D. Page, ed. Poetae Melici Graeci. Oxford: Clarendon, 1962. SA O. Taplin, The Stagecrufi of Aeschylus. Oxford: Clarendon, 1977. Silences O. Taplin, "Aeschylean Silences and Silences in Aeschylus." HSCP 76 (1972) 57-97. Somrnerstein A. Sommerstein,Aeschylusl Eumenides. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989. TrGF t.1 Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, t.1, ed. B. SneIl. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck, 1986. TrGF t.II Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, t.F, ed. K. Kannicht and B. Snell. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck, 1981. TrGF t.III Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, t.iiI, ed. S. Radt. Gottingen: Vandenhoeck, 1985. West M. West, ed. Aeschylus: Tragoediae. Leipzig: Teubner, 1990. Editions of Primary Texts Aeschylus Septem Quae Supersunt Tragoediae, ed. D. Page. Oxford: Clarendon, 1972. Antiphon Orationes et Fragmenta, ed. F. Blass. Leipzig: Teubner, 1892. Apollonius Rhodius Argonautica, ed. H. Frankel. Oxford: Clarendon, 1961. Aristophanes Comoediae, tt.1-II, ed. F.W.Hall and W.M. Geidhart. Oxford: Clarendon, 1906. Aristotle Ars Rhetorica, ed. W.D.Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1959. De Arte Poetica, ed. R. Kassel. Oxford: Clarendon, 1965. Politica, ed. W.D. Ross. Oxford: Clarendon, 1957. Athenacus The Deipnosophists, tt.1-VI, ed. and tr. C. Gulick. New York: Putnam, 1927. Demosthenes Orationes, [.II, ed. S.H.Butcher. Oxford: Clarendon, 1907. Dionysius of Halicarnassus Roman Anriquiries, ed. and tr. E. Cary. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1937. Euripides Fabulae, tt.1-III, ed. J. Diggle. Oxford: Clarendon, 1984. Harpokration Lexeis of the Ten Orators, ed. J. Kearney. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1991. Herodotus Historiae, tt.1-iI, ed. C. Hude. Oxford: Clarendon, 1927. Hesiod Opera, ed. F. Solmsen. Oxford: Clarendon, 1970. Hesychius Lexicon, ed. M. Schmidt. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1965. vii Homer Opera, tt.1-IV, ed. T.W. Allen. Oxford: Clarendon, 1917. Macrobius Saturnalia, ed. 1. Willis. Leipzig: Teubner, 1963. Pausanias Description of Greece, ed. and tr. W.H.S. Jones. New York: Putnam. 1931. Photius Bibliothèque, ed. and tr. R. Henry. Paris: Les belles lettres, 1991. Plato, Laws Opera, tt.V-VI, ed. 1. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon, 1907. Plato, Republic Res Publica, ed. 1. Burnet. Oxford: Clarendon, 1902. Piutarch Lives, tt.1-X, ed. and tr. B. Perrin. New York: Macmillan, 1914. Morulia, tt.1-XIV, ed. and tr. W.H.S. Jones. New York: Putnarn, 1927. PollLLu Onornasticon, tt.1-III, ed. E. Bethe. Stuttgart: Teubner, 1967. Seneca Moral Essays, t.11, ed. and tr. J. Basore. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1979. Servius In Vergilii Carmina Commentariorum, ed. E.K. Rand, et al. Lancaster, PA: A.P.A., 1946. Sophocies Fabulae, ed. H. Lloyd-Jones and N.G. Wilson. Oxford: Clarendon, 1990. Thucydides Historiae, tt.1-II, ed. H. Jones. Oxford: Clarendon, 1942. Xenophon Opera Omnia, t. IV, ed. E.C. Marchant. Oxford: Clarendon, n.d. viii Introduction In this essay 1attempt to elucidate two complementary themes with respect to Aeschylus' Oresteia: the processes by which silence is produced, and the relationship between tragedy, as a dramatic art form, and "the tragic." Tragedy 1 define as