Lamenting about the Wrong Crime: Homer, Sophocles and Demonising the Other
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George A. Gazis
George A. Gazis is Associate Professor in Greek Literature and Philosophy at the Department of Classics and Ancient History, Durham University. His main research interests lie in Archaic Greek Epic and Lyric in general, Plato and the Early Academy, as well as Athenian drama. He is the author ofHomer and the Poetics of Hades (OUP, 2018), and the editor of the volumesAspects of Death and the Afterlife in Greek Literature (LUP, 2021), andHomer in Sicily (Parnassos Press, 2023) while he is currently preparing an edition, translation and commentary of the pseudo-epigraphicLetters of Euripides with Dr A. Giannotti for Aris & Phillips Classical Texts, while at the same time he is working on his second monographGhosts on Stage: Spectres, Spectacles and Alternative Memories in Athenian Drama .
Abstract
This chapter unpacks the geographical associations of the Tereus myth with the barbarian “other”. This contribution explores how the Aedon myth narrated by Homer was adapted from an aetia for the nightingale to a narrative including Tereus as a barbarian king. The paper charts the migration of the myth to Thrace and Daulis to examine how the myth was reimagined by Sophocles and referenced by Plutarch as a cultural aphorism for the otherness of the East. Whilst other contributions focus on adaptations of the myth in different traditions, the author uncovers how the myth was associated in different regions as a means of further characterising Tereus as an antagonist within the rape episode.
Abstract
This chapter unpacks the geographical associations of the Tereus myth with the barbarian “other”. This contribution explores how the Aedon myth narrated by Homer was adapted from an aetia for the nightingale to a narrative including Tereus as a barbarian king. The paper charts the migration of the myth to Thrace and Daulis to examine how the myth was reimagined by Sophocles and referenced by Plutarch as a cultural aphorism for the otherness of the East. Whilst other contributions focus on adaptations of the myth in different traditions, the author uncovers how the myth was associated in different regions as a means of further characterising Tereus as an antagonist within the rape episode.
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
