WILLI, A.: The Languages of Aristophanes. Aspects of Linguistic Variation in Classical Attic Greek (original) (raw)
Related papers
Collaborating with Euripides: Actors and Scholars Improve the Drama Text
2018
This article examines a passage from Euripides’ Electra which has been suspected of being textually interpolated. It is a fairly long passage, covering twenty-six lines out of overall fourty-four, between 357 and 400. Through an analysis of the cotextual and contextual consistency of the suspect portions, the article wishes to demonstrate that the scene under scrutiny, which shows no trace of incongruous additions, is coherent with the overall play text Electra as it has been passed down to us under Euripides’ name.
The Opsis of Helen: Performative Intertextuality in Euripides
Comicality penetrates Euripides’ Helen much deeper than so far noticed. By focusing on Euripides’ configuration of various aspects of opsis, this paper argues that the inter-generic give-and-take in the construction of plot and theme is strikingly replicated in the granularity of the staging technique. Elements of comedy and satyr play have been detected at work at the level of plot, individual scenes, characterisation and use of motifs. Irony and a sense of amusement are inherent in the multiple paradoxes which Euripides’ new, chaste and noble, Helen has to face. In any reading, the wit and playfulness of this play cannot be dismissed. What has not received sufficient emphasis in previous analyses is the profound extent to which this interaction between genres operates on several levels: dramatic space, blocking, proxemics, and skeue. The context and the way of handling staging motifs reinforce the association with the comic trope. By focusing on staging technique, this paper rereads the Helen through a different lens. Furthermore, by indulging in a synkrisis of comic and tragic performance poetics of fifth-century drama, it engages in the wider debate on tragedy as genre and its development in the late fifth century.
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Philo of Alexandria speaks with fondness of his experience in the audience at ap erformance of Euripides, and throughout his corpus he quotes from this playwright on 21 occasions and from 10 different plays.Asawriter whose driving interest was the exposition of Jewish scriptures in conjunction with Hellenistic philosophy, Philo'sr epeatedr ecourset otragedy is noteworthya nd illustrative of his intellectual milieu. This studyw ill consider whya nd how Philo deploys Euripides. Most often, his quotations are gnomic sayingsand philosophicalproof texts which werecommon currencyamong contemporary writers.With respect to at least one drama, however, the satyr-play Syleus,P hilo engagesi namore extensive discussion of its context, producing astring of five fragments, four of which are unattested elsewhere. By surveying his use of Euripides, Iaim to make evident the extent to which Philo was dependent upon receivedp hilosophical and literary sources, along with moments of his own innovation as he reads Attic drama in connection with his distinctive Jewish religious commitments. At first glance, Philo of Alexandria and Euripides appeart oh avel ittle in common. They wered ivided by four centuries, inhabited separate continents,a nd identified with different religious traditions. Euripides' works wereperformed at Dionysiac festivals;h is plays both celebrate and interrogate the ideals of Greek religion and society;bycontrast,Philo'sprosetreatisesare steeped in Jewish thought and frequently engagei nt he exposition of authoritative scriptural texts.I ns ome other respects, however,the intellectual projects of Philo and Euripides converge. Both inherited established generic and literarym odels-dramatic conventions for Euripides, and accepted modes of biblical exegesis for Philo. Each adopted these, respectively,while at the sametime transformingthem in numerous and, at times, unexpected directions. And while their remarkable literary outputs had profound influences, the trajectory of their innovations werenot directlyrealized: Euripides is the lastofthe celebrated Attic playwrights, and Philo'sd istinctive approach to the Bible would largely not be taken up by his fellow Jews, though manye arlyC hristians would appropriate it. Additional similarities are evident.E uripides and Philo inheritedc orporao fl iterature consistingo fh eroic legends, whose meanings they probed and tested; for both, culturalo rm ythological heroes become, on occasion, vehicles for expressing contemporaryp hilosophical problems. Fori nstance,i nafragmento fE uripides' Chrysippus (fr.839 Kannicht), the chorus relatethe cosmological views of the philos
Much Ado about Greek tragedy? Shakespeare, Euripides, and the histoire tragique
What Is a Greek Source on the Early English Stage? Fifteen New Essays, 2024
This article approaches the relation between Shakespeare and Greek tragedy by looking at one of the main known sources for the Claudio-Hero plot of Much Ado about Nothing, Matteo Bandello’s novella of “Timbreo and Fenicia”, and its French rewriting by François de Belleforest. It considers the generic implications of the transition from novella to histoire tragique, in light of the French rewritings’ key role in the reception of ‘Bandello’ in England. After exploring certain intersections between the early modern reception of Greek tragedy and the project of the histoires tragiques, it looks closely at the notable presence of Euripides in “Timbrée et Fénicie”. It concludes by arguing that, out of all the proposed sources of Much Ado, Belleforest’s rewriting of this tale is the one most likely to have led Shakespeare to Euripides’ Alcestis, which it re-proposes as an intertext in the ending of Much Ado. This layering of texts seems to have resonated with the playwright for over a decade, since, in The Winter’s Tale, he is thought to have returned not only to the same moment from Alcestis, but also to the same story in ‘Bandello’.
Cuadernos de filología clásica. Estudios griegos e indoeuropeos, 2022
The aim of this paper is to examine the plot-makers in Euripides' Ion, focusing in this way on an aspect of the Euripidean metapoetry. Ion's four characters (Apollo, Xuthus, Creusa, and Ion) are transformed into plot-makers, with each of them trying to compose a plot. I have suggested that Apollo is the poet's double, and thus his plot echoes that of Euripides. The fact that, despite various deviations (that is, unsuccessful sub-plots), the plot is redirected every single time to the god's original plot, credits Apollo with the title of a successful theatrical writer (internal playwright), a title that Euripides himself assumes.