Passion, Knowledge and Truth: Second Thoughts on Sophocles’ Tereus
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Daniela Milo
Daniela Milo is an Associate Professor in Ancient Greek Language and Literature at the University of Naples Federico II. Her main research interests concern Greek tragic theatre, especially Sophoclean and Euripidean tragedy, both extant and fragmentary, of which she investigates the use of language, questions of dramaturgy, staging, and reconstruction of the plot of lost plays (she is the author of the edition of Sophocles’Tereus , 2008, and of a wide range of publications on these subjects). She is a member of the Board of Directors of Associazione Internazionale di Studi Tardoantichi and of the Scientific Committee of the JournalsΚοινωνία Frammenti sulla scena .
Abstract
This chapter offers a new interpretation of P.Oxy. 5292, paying particular attention to the prologue of the play, the significance of the woven fabric, and the role of the Shepherd. In light of the publication of the new Oxyrhynchus papyrus, the author suggests some interpretative hypotheses. For example, the placement of fr. 583 R2 (= 2 M.) in the prologue should be rejected, and particular attention should instead be devoted to other fundamental aspects of the fragmentary tragedy. Specifically, the author investigates what character recites the prologue; the state of Procne’s mind and knowledge; when and how the meeting between Procne and Philomela takes place; what role the Shepherd plays and the nature of the news he brings; the use of the woven fabric as a dramatic device in the recognition scene; and the purpose of the libations mentioned by the Shepherd in his conversation with Procne. Thus, this essay sheds fresh light on the interpretation of the controversial aspects emerging from P.Oxy. 5292 and re-contextualizes the fragments in the light of Sophocles’ poetics and theatre.
Abstract
This chapter offers a new interpretation of P.Oxy. 5292, paying particular attention to the prologue of the play, the significance of the woven fabric, and the role of the Shepherd. In light of the publication of the new Oxyrhynchus papyrus, the author suggests some interpretative hypotheses. For example, the placement of fr. 583 R2 (= 2 M.) in the prologue should be rejected, and particular attention should instead be devoted to other fundamental aspects of the fragmentary tragedy. Specifically, the author investigates what character recites the prologue; the state of Procne’s mind and knowledge; when and how the meeting between Procne and Philomela takes place; what role the Shepherd plays and the nature of the news he brings; the use of the woven fabric as a dramatic device in the recognition scene; and the purpose of the libations mentioned by the Shepherd in his conversation with Procne. Thus, this essay sheds fresh light on the interpretation of the controversial aspects emerging from P.Oxy. 5292 and re-contextualizes the fragments in the light of Sophocles’ poetics and theatre.
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- (Re)assembling the Tereus Myth: Vase Painting, Memory, and the Senses 15
- Lamenting about the Wrong Crime: Homer, Sophocles and Demonising the Other 41
- Hunting Tereus: Rubens, Shakespeare, Sophocles 61
- Passion, Knowledge and Truth: Second Thoughts on Sophocles’ Tereus 77
- ζηλοτυπ[ίᾳ ......] οἰστρηθεισ̃ α: Domestic Violence and Revenge in Sophocles’ Tereus 95
- Tereus’ Illicit Penetration(s): A New Reading of Fragment 581 R 115
- The Voice of the Shuttle: The Tereus Myth in Aristophanes’ Birds 131
- Tereus in the Fifth and Fourth Century: From Paratragedy to Mythic Burlesque 153
- The Tereus Myth in Roman Republican Drama 179
- “(In)Human, All Too (In)Human”: Ovid’s Tereus and the Vulnerable Body 191
- Postface 205
- Methodological Appendix: The Orchid and the Wasp — Reading Fragments with Assemblage Theory 223
- List of Contributors 241
- General Index
- Index of Sources
Kapitel in diesem Buch
- Frontmatter I
- Acknowledgments
- Foreword VII
- Contents IX
- Introduction 1
- (Re)assembling the Tereus Myth: Vase Painting, Memory, and the Senses 15
- Lamenting about the Wrong Crime: Homer, Sophocles and Demonising the Other 41
- Hunting Tereus: Rubens, Shakespeare, Sophocles 61
- Passion, Knowledge and Truth: Second Thoughts on Sophocles’ Tereus 77
- ζηλοτυπ[ίᾳ ......] οἰστρηθεισ̃ α: Domestic Violence and Revenge in Sophocles’ Tereus 95
- Tereus’ Illicit Penetration(s): A New Reading of Fragment 581 R 115
- The Voice of the Shuttle: The Tereus Myth in Aristophanes’ Birds 131
- Tereus in the Fifth and Fourth Century: From Paratragedy to Mythic Burlesque 153
- The Tereus Myth in Roman Republican Drama 179
- “(In)Human, All Too (In)Human”: Ovid’s Tereus and the Vulnerable Body 191
- Postface 205
- Methodological Appendix: The Orchid and the Wasp — Reading Fragments with Assemblage Theory 223
- List of Contributors 241
- General Index
- Index of Sources
