Forms and Conceptions of Dike in Euripides′ Heracleidae, Suppliants, and Phoenissae

Efstathia Papadodima

doi:10.1524/phil.2011.0002

Abstract

The term dikē has a wide range of meanings in tragic poetry (revenge, retribution, retaliation, punishment, penalty, charge, trial, order, balance, fairness, righteousness, justice). However, we could identify two distinctively or predominantly Euripidean trends that are closely associated with the use of dikē and are actually interdependent. Heracleidae, Suppliants, and Phoenissae are good test-cases in that regard. Whilst the plays bear strong resemblances to Aeschylean and secondarily Sophoclean dramas, the treatment of dikē is differentiated. 1) By contrast with Aeschylus and secondarily Sophocles, dikē in these Euripidean plays is viewed in connection to socio-political values and institutions that are essentially humanly constructed. The focus is shifted to the nature and role of these human conventions and the way(s) in which they interact with deeply-rooted, traditional patterns of conduct. The plays explore the difficulties, complications or failures that can arise in practice, in the frame of the quest for dikē. 2) Despite the occasionally strong individualization and interest in characterization, Euripides focuses on the consequences of the disturbance of dikē for the community as well as on the difficulties involved in the execution of dikē, rather than the rigid, and somewhat abstract, demand for the execution of dikē itself. Individual actions of doubtful justification are largely viewed and assessed in the light of their consequences for the polis. A major, pertinent issue is both the necessity and the limitations of vengeance or punishment, both on an individual and on a collective scale.

Forms and Conceptions of Dike in Euripides′ Heracleidae, Suppliants, and Phoenissae

Abstract

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