Alcmaeon in Corinth

Alcmaeon in Corinth
Written by Euripides
Chorus believed to be female
Characters Alcmaeon
Amphilochus
Tisiphone
Merope
Apollo
Others?
Date premiered 405 BC
Setting Corinth

Alcmaeon in Corinth, also known as Alcmaeon at Corinth or Alcmaeon, is a play by Greek dramatist Euripides. It was first produced posthumously at the Dionysia in Athens, most likely in 405 BCE, in a trilogy with The Bacchae and Iphigenia in Aulis.[1][2][3] The trilogy won first prize.[3] Except for a few fragments, Alcmaeon in Corinth has been lost. Irish playwright Colin Teevan published a reconstruction of the play in 2005.[4][5] Approximately 23 fragments covering about 40 lines of Alcmaeon in Corinth are extant and were incorporated by Teevan in his reconstruction, although it is not certain that all these fragments belong to this play.[5] No complete scene has survived, nor has the cast of characters.[5]

Contents

Plot

What is known of the plot of Alcmaeon in Corinth is based on a summary in Apollodorus' Library.[5] According to this summary, during the time he went mad Alcmaeon had a son Amphilochus and a daughter Tisiphone by Manto.[5][6] Alcmaeon left the children to be raised by King Creon of Corinth, but Creon's wife Merope, jealous of Tisiphone, sold her into slavery.[5][6] Alcmaeon unknowingly purchased Tisiphone as a slave, and returning to Corinth with Tisiphone as a slave, reunited with Amphilochus, who was to later found Amphilochian Argos.[5][6][7]

The play began with a prologue narrated by the god Apollo during which he told that although Manto did not have any children with him, she had two children by Alcmaeon.[7] While Alcmaeon was in Corinth, there would have been a recognition scene in which Tisiphone's identity was revealed, likely by Merope.[7] Based on one of the surviving fragments, Creon fled childless into exile after Amphilochus' true father was revealed to be Alcmaeon rather than Creon.[7]

The chorus was likely a group of females.[8]

British classics scholar Edith Hall finds a possible thematic link between the three plays in the trilogy that included Alcmaeon in Corinth.[5] Iphigenia in Aulis tells the story of King Agamemnon sacrificing his teenage daughter Iphigenia.[5] The Bacchae tells the story of Agave killing her young adult son Pentheus.[5] Similarly, Alcmaeon in Corinth incorporated a story of a parent's relationship with a teenage child.[5]

Hall suggests that Alcmaeon in Corinth may have used at least a partially comic tone.[5] This is based on a fragmentary dialogue exchange. One character, possibly Alcmaeon, says that he "killed his mother, to put it in a nutshell."[5] Another character responds "Was this a consensual act, or were you both reluctant?"[5]

Fragments

According to Christopher Collard and Martin Cropp, only four fragments of more than a few words have been definitively assigned to Alcmaeon in Corinth.[7] In fragment 73a, Apollo states that Manto had no children by him but had two by Alcmaeon.[7] In fragment 74, upon Alcmaeon's arrival in Corinth, the chorus asks who the stranger who has just arrived who he is.[7] In fragment 75, a character, possibly Tisiphone or Alcmaeon, says to Amphilochus "Son of Creon, how true then it has proved, that from noble fathers noble children are born, and from base ones children resembling their father's nature."[7] Fragment 76 tells of Creon fleeing into exile after Amphilochus is revealed to be Alcmaeon's son rather than Creon's.[7]

In addition to these fragments, there are several extant fragments that belong either to this play or to Euripides' earlier play Alcmaeon in Psophis (438 BCE), but the specific play to which they belong cannot be determined definitively or the assignment is not universally agreed upon.[7]

Themes

Alcmaeon in Corinth was written towards the end of the Peloponnesian War, which Athens was on the verge of losing.[7] The play treats the king and queen of Athens' enemy Corinth negatively.[7] On the other hand Amphilochus, the Argive founder of Athens' Peloponnesian ally Argos, is shown to have been falsely appropriated by Corinth.[7]

References

  1. ^ Euripides, Kovacs, D. (2002). Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus. Harvard University Press. p. 2. ISBN 9780674996014. 
  2. ^ Murray, G. (1913). Euripides and his age. H. Holt. p. 171. 
  3. ^ a b Euripides, Dodds, E.R. (1960). Bacchae (2 ed.). Oxford University Press. p. xxxix. ISBN 9780198721253. http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=nCFIPMZPkFcC&oi=fnd&pg=PR10&dq=Alcmaeon+corinth+euripides&ots=zpC-ariDdA&sig=YSh24qykai9saZRiY4z18QRRZ0k#v=onepage&q=Alcmaeon&f=false. 
  4. ^ Euripides, Teevan, C. (2005). Alcmaeon in Corinth. Oberon Books. ISBN 978-1840024852. 
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n Hall, E. (2010). Greek tragedy: suffering under the sun. Oxford University Press. pp. 341–343. ISBN 9780199232512. 
  6. ^ a b c Apollodorus (1976). Gods and heroes of the Greeks: The library of Apollodorus (2 ed.). University of Massachusetts Press. p. 150. ISBN 9780870232060. 
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Euripides (2008). Collard, C. & Cropp, M.. ed. Euripides Fragments: Augeus-Meleager. Harvard College. pp. 77, 87-99. ISBN 9780674996250. 
  8. ^ Mastronarde, D.J. (2010). The art of Euripides: dramatic technique and social context. Cambridge University Press. pp. 102-103. 
Plays by Euripides
Extant plays
Lost and
fragmentary plays