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Heracles' Intention in His Second Request of Hyllus: Trach. 1216–51

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 February 2009

J. Kenneth MacKinnon
J. Kenneth MacKinnon
Affiliation:
North–Western Polytechnic, London N.W.5
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Extract

Commentators on the Trachiniae, when dealing with Heracles' second request of Hyllus, normally take it that the dying hero asks his son to marry Iole, Heracles' concubine.

Such a request on the part of any Greek in Heracles' situation would be puzzling. It is specially so on the part of Heracles, who has not been notable in the drama up to this point for tenderness to his womenfolk, having given no consideration to Deianeira's sentiments in the matter of his liaison with Iole, and less to Iole's, in that he has sacked her city, slain her kinfolk, and enslaved herself. Albrecht von Blumenthal expresses the bewilderment which all who have read the passage in this light must initially have felt: ‘Warum Herakles den widerstrebenden Sohn zur Erfüllung dieses mit hellenischer Sitte unvereinbaren Vermächtnisses durch die schrecklichsten Drohungen zwingt, ist ein noch nicht enträtseltes Geheimnis des Sophokles.’ Explanations must be sought.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Classical Quarterly , Volume 21 , Issue 1 , May 1971 , pp. 33 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1971

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References

page 33 note 1 Sir Bowra, C. M., Sophoclean Tragedy, Oxford, Clarendon Press, repr. 1952.Google Scholar

page 34 note 1 Mrs. Easterling, (‘Sophocles, Trachiniae’, University of London Institute of Classical Studies Bulletin, xv (1968), pp. 58–69)CrossRefGoogle Scholar sees an additional point in this expression: Heracles, not Iole, is the slave, a notion which picks up the theme of enslavement which is prominent in the drama.

page 34 note 2 Harrison, A. R. W., The Law of Athens: the Family and Property, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1968.Google Scholar

page 35 note 1 These two broad classes of union are clearly recognized in the work of the tragedians. In Attic society, a third type of union may be taken to exist, that between a free man and a Παλλακή, which has as its end the production of free children (cf. Dem. 23. 53), but there is little clear evidence in Greek tragedy of recognition of such distinction in those women who are not strictly legitimate wives, although it might seem to be implied in the words of the chorus concerning Tecmessa's situation with Ajax:

(Ajax, 211–12)

page 41 note 1 The alternative to this interpretation is to suppose that Patroclus' cheering influence is due to the fact that he implies that she will not be reduced to a slave–concubine at all, but will be kept as a free woman to be Achilles' wife on their return to Phthia. If this is so, then there is no example in either heroic or tragic poetry of a slave–concubine's marriage with a free man, so that the Athenian audience would be most unlikely to think that Heracles asks Hyllus to enter into legitimate marriage with Iole.

page 41 note 2 I should like to express my gratitude to Mrs. P. E. Easterling, of Newnham College, Cambridge, and Mr. J. Kells, of University College, London, for their most helpful advice concerning this article.