In the Footprints of Aeschylus: Recognition, Allusion, and Metapoetics in Euripides

Abstract

It is well known that Euripides responds to Aeschylus in several of his plays, most notably in Electra . In this article I suggest a new reading of the recognition scene in Euripides' Electra , comparing also the recognition sequence in Iphigenia among the Taurians , which alludes to the same Aeschylean model. I argue that through their allusions to Aeschylus, both scenes can be read as metapoetic reflections on the constraints and conventions of dramatic composition. The issue, therefore, is not one of criticism of or homage to Aeschylus (or Homer), as scholars have generally held. Rather I argue that Euripides presents his audience with an invitation to recognize and appreciate the poetic challenges of composing a dramatic performance, through metaphor, word-play and metapoetic suggestions. The poetic self-consciousness present in both scenes underlines the poet's awareness that he is following in the footsteps of mighty poetic predecessors.

Bearing Razors and Swords: Paracomedy in Euripides’ Orestes

“…Fraenkel 1950, 815-26;Bain 1977;Basta Donzelli 1980;West 1980;and Kovacs 1989 have objected to Electra 518-44, with some arguing that it is an interpolation, either on the aesthetic grounds that such parody does not belong in tragedy or on perceived logical or linguistic inconsistencies within the play. Lloyd-Jones 1961;Bond 1974;Davies 1998;Gallagher 2003;and Torrance 2011 have made the case that the scene forges thematic and linguistic connections with the rest of the play and, therefore, should not be excised. In particular, Davies 1998, 390-91, andGallagher 2003, 402, n. 8, have refuted the objections of Kovacs 1989, who questions how the scene fits with its immediate surroundings.…”

ARISTOPHANES VS TYPHON: CO(S)MIC RIVALRY, VOICE AND TEMPORALITY INKNIGHTS

“… 74. As Gowers (1993), 103, has shown, Plautus' re-enactment of Medea's rejuvenation of Aeson in Pseudolus (868-72) has metapoetic implications too, suggesting the Roman playwright's ‘self-deprecating view of his restoration of Greek drama’. On the representation of interpoetic rivalry as an opposition of liquids, see the case of Euripides vs Aeschylus in Euripides' Electra discussed by Torrance (2011), 185. …”