Rhesus (play)

Rhesus

Odysseus and Diomedes stealing Rhesus' horses, red-figure situla by the Lycurgus Painter, ca. 360 BC.
Written by Euripides (disputed)
Chorus Trojan sentries
Characters Odysseus
Hector
Diomedes
Aeneas
Paris
Dolon
Athena
Messenger
Shepherd
Muse
Rhesus
Date premiered Unknown
Original language Ancient Greek
Subject Trojan War
Genre Athenian tragedy
Setting Before Hector's tent at the gates of Troy

Rhesus (Greek: Ῥῆσος, Rhēsos) is an Athenian tragedy that belongs to the transmitted plays of Euripides. There has been debate about its authorship. Its attribution to Euripides has been subject to a degree of dispute since antiquity,[1] an issue that has invested modern scholarship since the 17th century when the play's authenticity was challenged, first by Joseph Scaliger and subsequently by others, by one side on aesthetic grounds and on the other ground on peculiarities in the play's vocabulary, style and technique.[2] The issue as yet remains disputed.

Rhesus takes place during the Trojan War, on the night when Odysseus and Diomedes sneak into the Trojan camp. The same event is narrated in book 10 of Homer's epic poem, the Iliad.

Plot synopsis

In the middle of the night Trojan guards on the lookout for suspicious enemy activity sight bright fires in the Greek camp. They promptly inform Hector, who almost issues a general call to arms before Aeneas makes him see how ill-advised this would be. Their best bet, Aeneas argues, would be to send someone to spy on the Greek camp and see what the enemy is up to. Dolon volunteers to spy on the Greeks in exchange for Achilles's horses when the war is won. Hector accepts the deal and sends him out. Dolon leaves wearing the skin of a wolf, and plans on deceiving the Greeks by walking on all fours. Rhesus, the neighboring king of Thrace, arrives to assist the Trojans soon after Dolon sets out. Hector berates him for coming so many years late, but decides better late than never. Rhesus says he intended on coming in the beginning, but was sidetracked defending his own land from an attack by Scythians.

Meanwhile, on their way into the Trojan encampment, Odysseus and Diomedes run into Dolon and kill him. When they reach the encampment with the intention of killing Hector, Athena guides them to Rhesus' sleeping quarters instead, pointing out that they are not destined to kill Hector. Diomedes slays Rhesus and others while Odysseus takes his prized horses before making their escape. Rumors spread from Rhesus' men that it was an inside job, and that Hector was responsible. Hector arrives to cast blame on the sentinels for, due to the sly tactics, the guilty party could only be Odysseus. The mother of Rhesus, one of the nine muses, then arrives and lays blame on all those responsible: Odysseus, Diomedes, and Athena. She also announces the imminent resurrection of Rhesus, who will become immortal but will be sent to live in an underground cave.

This short play is most notable in comparison with the Iliad. The part with Dolon is pushed to the background, and much more is revealed about Rhesus and the reactions of the Trojans to his murder.

Controversy

According to Gilbert Murray in his introduction to the play, passages from Rhesus were quoted by early Alexandrian writers.[3] However, it was remembered in the ancient hypotheses transmitted with the play to have had its authenticity attacked by a number of scholars names are not given.[2] The first to fully dispute that Rhesus was a play by Euripides was L. C. Valckenaer in his Phoenissae (1755) and Diatribe in Euripidis deperditorum dramatum reliquias (1767).[4] Stylistic differences are one of the main arguments of the controversy. Murray argued that the differences in style could be attributed to a younger, less-developed Euripides. Or the differences could be attributed to it being a reproduction by Euripides' son or other contemporary playwright.

Its authenticity was defended in a book-length study by William Ritchie (1964). His conclusions were opposed by Eduard Fraenkel.

Michael Walton has claimed that modern scholarship agrees with the classical authorities in ascribing the play to Euripides,[5] but in a successive work he has admitted that the play's attribution to Euripides is still disputed by a number of scholars.[6]

Richmond Lattimore stated that he believes Rhesus to have been written by Euripides, probably at some point before 440 BC.[7]

Translations

References

  1. ↑ B. M. W. Knox, "Minor Tragedians", pp. 87–93, in P. E. Easterling & B. M. W. Knox (eds.), The Cambridge History of Classical Literature, vol. I: Greek Literature, CUP, Cambridge, 1989, pp. 90–91.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 W. Ritchie, The Authenticity of the Rhesus of Euripides, CUP, Cambridge, 1964, ISBN 9780521060936, p. vii.
  3. ↑ See his introduction to Rhesus.
  4. ↑ See Ancient History Sourcebook.
  5. ↑ Walton (1997, viii, xix).
  6. ↑ J. Michael Walton 2009, p. 43,
  7. ↑ Lattimore, Richmond. "Introduction to Rhesus," by Euripides. From Euripides IV, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1958. p. 5.

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External links