Tereus’ Illicit Penetration(s): A New Reading of Fragment 581 R
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Alessandra Abbattista
Alessandra Abbattista is Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Roehampton and Classics teacher at St. Olave’s Grammar School. Her research interests are ancient Greek language, literature and drama. She has published articles on the analysis and interpretation of animal imagery in the depiction of female avengers in fifth-century Athenian tragedy.Chiara Blanco is Lecturer in Classics at the School of History, Classics and Archaeology, Newcastle University. Her main research interests lie in the intersections between ancient literature (Greek tragedy and Ovid in particular) and medicine, and she has produced several articles on the subject. Her published works include a new interpretation of Sophocles’Women of Trachis by reading the text side-by-side with Hippocratic treatises (‘Heracles’ itch: The first case of male uterine displacement in Greek literature’,Classical Quarterly , 2020) and a paper on the character of Philomela in Sophocles’Tereus (‘The Frenzied Swallow: Philomela’s Voice in Sophocles’ Tereus’,Classical Quarterly , 2023). She is currently working on a monograph on medical influences on Ovid’sMetamorphoses .
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the metamorphosis enacted by Tereus as represented in fr. 581 R of Sophocles’ Tereus. By applying assemblage theory, the authors aim to show the different layers of the myth in the fragmentary play and how Sophocles added these to the previous accounts of Tereus’ story. They specifically identify the double metamorphosis into the hoopoe and the hawk, the attribution of a vengeful role to Itys and the feminisation of Tereus’ body as the most innovative aspects introduced by the dramatist. The analysis of these dramatic innovations leads the authors to interpret the structure of Sophocles’ play in a chiastic way: the double metamorphosis reflects the reversal of the illicit penetrations of Tereus, placing him in the roles of both agent and victim of violence. Tereus pays for the intentional crime of rape through the unwilling consumption of his son’s flesh by undergoing a double process of animalisation and feminisation. His stomach functions simultaneously as the tomb where Itys is buried after being killed and dismembered, and as the womb from which the hoopoe and the hawk take flight.
Abstract
This chapter focuses on the metamorphosis enacted by Tereus as represented in fr. 581 R of Sophocles’ Tereus. By applying assemblage theory, the authors aim to show the different layers of the myth in the fragmentary play and how Sophocles added these to the previous accounts of Tereus’ story. They specifically identify the double metamorphosis into the hoopoe and the hawk, the attribution of a vengeful role to Itys and the feminisation of Tereus’ body as the most innovative aspects introduced by the dramatist. The analysis of these dramatic innovations leads the authors to interpret the structure of Sophocles’ play in a chiastic way: the double metamorphosis reflects the reversal of the illicit penetrations of Tereus, placing him in the roles of both agent and victim of violence. Tereus pays for the intentional crime of rape through the unwilling consumption of his son’s flesh by undergoing a double process of animalisation and feminisation. His stomach functions simultaneously as the tomb where Itys is buried after being killed and dismembered, and as the womb from which the hoopoe and the hawk take flight.
Chapters in this book
- 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
Chapters in this book
- 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
