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Aeschylus and the unity of opposites*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Richard Seaford
Richard Seaford
Affiliation:
University of Exeter
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Abstract

The idea of the ‘unity of opposites’ allows one to see important connections between phenomena normally treated separately: verbal style, ritual, tragic action and cosmology. The stylistic figure of Satzparallelismus in lamentation and mystic ritual expresses the unity of opposites (particularly of life and death) as oxymora. Both rituals were factors in the genesis of tragedy, and continued to influence the style and action of mature tragedy. The author advances new readings of various passages of the Oresteia, which is seen to advocate the replacement of a Herakleitean model of the unity of opposites with a Pythagorean model of their reconciliation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 123 , November 2003 , pp. 141 - 163
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 2003

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