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A Playwright Relaxed or Overworked?
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 January 2009
Extract
Having been associated with a recent production of Euripides' Cyclops in the original Greek at Ibadan, I feel prompted to reply to Peter Arnott's charges against Euripides' adaptation of the well-known episode in Homer's Odyssey, ix. We know very little about the origin and nature of satyric drama, and it seems unfair to discuss the structure of the Cyclops on a priori grounds or to compare it with the form of Greek tragedy. We do not subject Old Comedy to this kind of treatment because we are aware in this case of the dissimilar elements which came together to produce the disjointed articulation that Old Comedy displays. It may well be that ‘the pattern of decline’ in the composition of the choruses and episodes noted by Arnott is not the result of hasty composition and overwork but is merely indicative of a looser structure allowed by the conventions of the satyr play. On the other hand, the intervention of the chorus in the Cyclops is always eminently dramatic— not too long-drawn-out or too brief—and gives a life and impetus to the play which modern audiences, unfamiliar with the choral tradition of Greek tragedy, miss in more regularly constructed plays. The ‘miserable couplet’ which serves as exodos is not unparalleled even in tragedy, although the iambics in place of the more usual anapaests are certainly unexpected. In general, the choral odes are admirably suited to the grotesque personalities of the satyrs; they include two haunting lyrics, lines 495–502 and 511–18 (unfortunately somewhat mutilated) which rank in rhythm and imagery with some of the best of Euripides, and at the moment of greatest tension, in the third and fourth stasima, are commendably brief and onomatopoeic.
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References
page 123 note 1 Greece & Rome, Second Series, viii (1961), 164–9.Google Scholar
page 123 note 2 For instance, in Euripides, the Herakles ends with two anapaestic dimeters, the Hecuba, Supplices, and Electra with three.
page 123 note 3 One of the great merits of Sir John Sheppard's acting version of the Cyclops is his success in recapturing in English the lilt and dramatic qualities of these choral odes.
page 123 note 4 See also Duchemin, J., Le Cyclope d'Euripide (Paris, 1945), p. xviiiGoogle Scholar: ‘II semble, ici aussi, que le poète ait disposé d'un temps suffisant pour écrire le début de sa pièce, mais ait été obligé de se réduire, pour la fin, à de simples indications qu'il aurait développées s'il en avait eu le loisir.’
page 124 note 1 e.g. at vv. 215 ff. and 437 ff.
page 125 note 1 Cf. vv. 328, 383 ff., 505, 704.
page 126 note 1 How far can Homer's influence reach? Even Gilbert Murray is under Homer's spell when he writes in the textual note to vv. 669–75 of his O.C.T. edition: ‘Xo.] Forte ἅλλοι Κ⋯ κλωпες ἔνδοθεν.’
page 126 note 2 See, however, J. Duchemin's discussion of the debates in the Cyclops in L'⋯γών dans la tragédie grecque (Paris, 1945)Google Scholar, where she says: ‘Le partage de chaque plaidoyer entre différents personnages est de toute évidence, malgré la parfaite uniformité du rythme, un emprunt à la comédie. Quoique construit comme une tragédie, le drame satyrique s'accommode aisément de quelque fantaisie.’
page 126 note 3 For the evidence on the probable date of the production of the Cyclops see Duchemin, J., Euripide: Le Cyclope (Paris, 1945).Google Scholar
page 127 note 1 Cf. L. Méridier's stage directions for the satyrs during this scene in Euripide, Tome I (Paris, 1956).Google Scholar
page 127 note 2 Even this is not strictly so, but may be implied by the choral ode, w. 483 ff.
page 128 note 1 See the note to v. 214 in Duchemin, op. cit., for an incredible piece of sophistry in an attempt to save Euripides’ logic.
page 129 note 1 It is interesting that Euripides, as if to defy his future critics, seems to harp on this illogicality (vv. 376 and 480).
page 129 note 2 e.g. the double burial of the Antigone or the improbabilities of the O. T.
page 129 note 3 Soph. Track. 779 ff.Google Scholar
page 129 note 4 See especially vv. 220, 283 f., and 343.
page 129 note 5 Cf. Duchemin, op. cit., and her apposite remark: ‘L'acteur devait tout faire pour accentuer le rappel.’
page 130 note 1 In the Cyclops at least three spring to mind—Silenus’ ⋯ρпάγη, and Polyphemos' gigantic club and drinking cup.