Travelling Through Nemea in Euripides’ Hypsipylē
-
Oliver Taplin
Abstract
In the course of Euripides’ late and eventful play Hypsipylē, the expedition of the Seven passes through Nemea on its way from Argos to attack Thebes. This chapter focusses on the scene, relatively well preserved in POxy 852, when Amphiaraus, the seer and one the Seven leaders, first arrives and asks the nurse-slave Hypsipyle to guide him to a pure source of water. This is of interest both for its reflections on the travails of travelling across wild and unfamiliar terrain, and for the way it creates a picture of the isolated meadow and temple at Nemea as it was before it became the location of the Nemean Games. The play is thus an aetiology both for the Games and for the construction of the well-known sacred complex.
Abstract
In the course of Euripides’ late and eventful play Hypsipylē, the expedition of the Seven passes through Nemea on its way from Argos to attack Thebes. This chapter focusses on the scene, relatively well preserved in POxy 852, when Amphiaraus, the seer and one the Seven leaders, first arrives and asks the nurse-slave Hypsipyle to guide him to a pure source of water. This is of interest both for its reflections on the travails of travelling across wild and unfamiliar terrain, and for the way it creates a picture of the isolated meadow and temple at Nemea as it was before it became the location of the Nemean Games. The play is thus an aetiology both for the Games and for the construction of the well-known sacred complex.
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Maps and Figures IX
- Introduction: On Departing the Polis 1
-
Part I: Theatrical Journeys and Travellers
- Travel to Athens’ Dionysia: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλάδος and the Centripetal Politics of the Athenian Dionysia 19
- Travel beyond Athens: Pilgrims and Sanctuaries in Greek Tragedy 43
- An Archetypical Traveler: Strangers in Distress and Suppliants in Greek Tragedy 89
- Mapping the Cosmos: The Cosmological Imagination of Travelling in Aeschylus’ Persians and the Oresteia 107
-
Part II: Travel and the Tragic
- Sophocles’ Triptolemos and other Tragic Globetrotters 141
- Travelling Through Nemea in Euripides’ Hypsipylē 153
- Euripides’ Melanippē Plays and the Politics of Travel 167
-
Part III: Comic Travels
- The Voyage of Eternal Return: Extraordinary Travel in Aristophanes and Old Comedy 185
- Perceptions of Travel in Greek Comedy: Exploring some Examples from Middle Comedy 209
- The Importance of Overseas in Menander 225
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- List of Contributors 265
- General Index
Chapters in this book
- Frontmatter I
- Preface V
- Contents VII
- List of Maps and Figures IX
- Introduction: On Departing the Polis 1
-
Part I: Theatrical Journeys and Travellers
- Travel to Athens’ Dionysia: Ἑλλὰς Ἑλλάδος and the Centripetal Politics of the Athenian Dionysia 19
- Travel beyond Athens: Pilgrims and Sanctuaries in Greek Tragedy 43
- An Archetypical Traveler: Strangers in Distress and Suppliants in Greek Tragedy 89
- Mapping the Cosmos: The Cosmological Imagination of Travelling in Aeschylus’ Persians and the Oresteia 107
-
Part II: Travel and the Tragic
- Sophocles’ Triptolemos and other Tragic Globetrotters 141
- Travelling Through Nemea in Euripides’ Hypsipylē 153
- Euripides’ Melanippē Plays and the Politics of Travel 167
-
Part III: Comic Travels
- The Voyage of Eternal Return: Extraordinary Travel in Aristophanes and Old Comedy 185
- Perceptions of Travel in Greek Comedy: Exploring some Examples from Middle Comedy 209
- The Importance of Overseas in Menander 225
- Abbreviations
- Bibliography
- List of Contributors 265
- General Index
