Emily Allen-Hornblower: From Agent to Spectator. Witnessing the Aftermath in Ancient Greek Epic and Tragedy (original) (raw)

This book, stemming from the author's PhD dissertation (Harvard, 2009), analyzes several works of Greek literature, concentrating on moments in which characters reflect and comment on their actions, consider the consequences, and subsequently evaluate them. This process whereby agents become spectators often brings a change of perspective on the part of the characters themselves. There are four chapters, an introduction, a copious bibliography, and index. The first chapter is devoted to Homer's Iliad, whereas the other three are on tragedy: one on Sophocles' Trachiniae, one on the murders of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Aeschylus' Oresteia and Sophocles' and Euripides' Electras and one on Sophocles' Philoctetes. Each chapter begins with a brief summary of its contents. Passages in which agents become spectators turn out to be more common in both epic and tragedy than one might have anticipated. Examining the texts in this light reveals new insights into how characters are constructed and the audience's expected response to them. Characters reflect on their actions in three contexts: simultaneously with the action itself, after it has been performed, or before it takes place, when a character anticipates the likely outcome of his/her action and modifies it accordingly. These passages constitute first-person or homodiegetic narratives and are variations on the traditional messenger speech of tragedy, though with several differences, most notably that messenger speeches are delivered by anonymous secondary figures, while the passages examined in this book concern major characters. In the Introduction Allen-Hornblower (hereafter A.-H.) presents the book's contents, defines its aims, and defines her method, indicating her particular attention to emotions. The first chapter, on the Iliad, begins by analyzing responses to human suffering on the battlefield, very often pity, noting differences between divine and human reactions. When the gods pity their favorite heroes they intervene to help them, with patterned actions expressed in formulaic language (pp. 25-29). If they are unable to prevent the death of their favorites, as with Sarpedon and Hector, the pattern is nevertheless similar: divine scenes precede the event and exhibit the gods' reaction, with a formula of 'seeing and pitying' (τοὺς δὲ ἰδὼν ἐλέησε Κρόνου παῖς ἀγκυλομήτεω, 16. 431). Patroclus' death is unique, however, in that no audience debates over or witnesses it and no attempt is made to delay or prevent it. Patroclus dies alone, without pitying spectators and witnessed only by the aggressive Apollo, who attacks him in a way unprecedented in the Iliad (p. 45). But a series of apostrophes addressed to Patroclus by the poet materialize a voice heard by the external audience. These apostrophes, notable for their number, become more frequent as the hero's death nears. A.-H. shows how the 'metalepses' addressed to Patroclus and Menelaus share formulaic, thematic and structural elements, which allows her to highlight what is specific to the narrative of Patroclus's death: The successive apostrophes «generate a sense of aprehension in the audience and ... gradually build up the tension underlying the entire episode» (p. 50). Sarpedon's and Hector's deaths are lamented by their philoi beforehand. By contrast, Achilles