Title: Euripides' Andromache and the dynamics of Philia
Source document: Graeco-Latina Brunensia. 2019, vol. 24, iss. 1, pp. 145-158
Extent
145-158
-
ISSN1803-7402 (print)2336-4424 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/GLB2019-1-10
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/141164
Type: Article
Language
License: CC BY-SA 4.0 International
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
In the present paper, through the analysis of the different meanings of philia in Andromache, I wish to show how Euripides makes use of the polysemy of the term in his play. There is no consensus among scholars of Ancient Greek about the exact meaning of the word philos or other related expressions such as philein and philia. It seems apparent, however, that the use of these terms went through significant changes from the time of Homer to the fifth century. In classical Athens, the term could take on different meanings depending on the situation it was used in, sometimes denoting emotional relationships based on personal feelings and attitudes, sometimes referring to socially regulated, politically influenced ones. Through a close reading of those passages of Andromache which deal with the situation of Andromache in the oikos of Neoptolemus, I would like to demonstrate that the interpretation of the terms signifying family relationships and friendships are especially prone to change depending on the speaker's current situation and aims. The main conflict of the play revolves around the status of Andromache and most of the cases in which the term philos is used are connected to Andromache, therefore it seems justified to concentrate on the question of who is or might be regarded as her philos. The characters manipulate and distort the meaning of the word to serve their own purposes. My suggestion is that Euripides uses conflicting concepts of philia which belong to different codes of behaviour and sets of values and by doing so reveals the inherent tensions in some of the terms and concepts which were prevalent in fifth-century Athens.
References
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[2] Adkins, A. W. H. (1972). Moral Values and Political Behaviour in Ancient Greece. From Homer to the End of the Fifth Century. London: Chatto & Windus.
[3] Allan, W. (2000). The Andromache and Euripidean Tragedy. Oxford: University Press.
[4] Belfiore, E. S. (2000). Murder among Friends. Violation of Philia in Greek Tragedy. New York – Oxford: Oxford University Press.
[5] Benveniste, E. (1969). Le vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes (Vol. 1). Paris: Les Éditions de Minuit.
[6] Burnett, A. P. (1971). Catastrophe Survived. Euripides' Plays of Mixed Reversal. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[7] Carawan, E. (2008). Pericles the Younger and the Citizenship Law. The Classical Journal, 103, 383–406.
[8] Conacher, D. J. (1967). Euripidean Drama: Myth, Theme and Structure. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
[9] De Jong, I. J. F. (1991). Narrative in Drama: The Art of the Euripidean Messenger Speech. Leiden: Brill.
[10] De Jong, I. J. F (2007). Sophocles Trachinae 1–48, Euripidean Prologues, and their Audiences. In R. J. Allan, & M. Buijs (Eds.), The Language of Literature (pp. 7–28). Leiden – Boston: Brill.
[11] Foley, H. (2001). Female Acts in Greek Tragedy. Princeton: University Press.
[12] Hall, E. (1989). Inventing the Barbarian. Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[13] Harrison, A. R. W. (1968). The Law of Athens. The Family and Property. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[14] Hooker, J. (1987). Homeric philos. Glotta, 65, 44–65.
[15] Just, R. (1989). Women in Athenian Law and Life. London – New York: Routledge.
[16] Kitto, H. D. F. (1939). Greek Tragedy. London: Methuen & Co.
[17] Konstan, D. (1985). Philia in Euripides' Electra. Philologus, 129, 176–185. | DOI 10.1524/phil.1985.129.12.176
[18] Konstan, D. (1996). Greek Friendship. The American Journal of Philology, 117, 71–94. | DOI 10.1353/ajp.1996.0014
[19] Konstan, D. (1997). Friendship in the Classical World. Cambridge: University Press.
[20] Kyriakou, P. (1997). All in the Family. Present and Past in Euripides' Andromache. Mnemosyne, 50, 7–26. | DOI 10.1163/1568525972610058
[21] Lee, K. H. (1975). Euripides' Andromache. Observations on Form and Meaning. Antichthon, 9, 4–16. | DOI 10.1017/S0066477400004408
[22] Lévi-Strauss, C. (1969). The Elementary Structures of Kinship. Boston: Beacon Press.
[23] MacDowell, D. M. (1978). The Law in Classical Athens. Aspects of Greek and Roman Life. New York: Cornell University Press.
[24] Mastronarde, D. J. (2010). The Art of Euripides. Dramatic Technique and Social Context. Cambridge: University Press.
[25] McClure, L. (1999). Spoken Like a Woman: Speech and Gender in Athenian Drama. Princeton – New York: Princeton University Press.
[26] Mueller, M. (2001). The Language of Reciprocity in Euripides' Medea. The American Journal of Philology, 122, 471–504. | DOI 10.1353/ajp.2001.0054
[27] Ogden, D. (1996). Greek Bastardy in the Classical and Hellenistic Period. Oxford: University Press.
[28] Padamitropoulos, L. (2006). Marriage and Strife in Euripides' Andromache. Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies, 46, 147–158.
[29] Papadomia, E. (2010). The Greek/Barbarian Interaction in Euripides' Andromache, Orestes, and Heracleidae. Digressus, 10, 1–42.
[30] Patterson, C. B. (1990). Those Athenian Bastards. Classical Antiquity, 9, 40–73. | DOI 10.2307/25010920
[31] Perdicoyianni, H. (1996). Philos chez Euripide. Revue belge de philologie et d'histoire, 74, 5–26.
[32] Philippo, S. (1995). Significant Patronymics in Euripides' Andromache. The Classical Quarterly, 45, 335–371.
[33] Rabinowitz, N. (1984). Proliferating Triangles. Euripides' Andromache and the Traffic in Women. Mosaic. An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal, 17, 111–123.
[34] Rabinowitz, N. (1993). Anxiety Veiled. Euripides and the Traffic in Women. Ithaca – London: Cornell University Press.
[35] Rabinowitz, N. (1998). Slaves with Slaves. Women and Class in Euripidean Tragedy. In S. R. Joshel, & S. Murnaghan (Eds.), Women and Slaves in Greco-Roman Culture. Differential Equations (pp. 57–69). London – New York: Routledge.
[36] Robinson, D. (1990). Homeric Philos. Love of Life and Limbs, and Friendship with One's Thymos. In E. M. Craik (Ed.), 'Owls to Athens'. Essays on Classical Subjects Presented to Sir Kenneth Dover (pp. 97–108). Oxford: University Press.
[37] Rubin, G. (1975). The Traffic in Women. Notes on the 'Political Economy' of Sex. In R. Reiter (Ed.), Toward an Anthropology of Women (pp. 157–210). New York: Monthly Review Press.
[38] Schein, S. L. (1988). Philia in Euripides' Alcestis. Mètis. Anthropologie des Mondes Grecs Anciens, 3, 179–206.
[39] Schein, S. L. (1990). Philia in Euripides' Medea. In M. Griffith, & D. Mastronarde (Eds.), Cabinet of the Muses. Essays on Classical and Comparative Literature in Honor of Thomas G. Rosenmeyer (pp. 57–73). Atlanta: Scholars Press.
[40] Schuren, L. (2015). Shared Storytelling in Euripidean Stichomythia. Leiden – Boston: Brill.
[41] Scott, M. (1982). Philos, Philotes and Xenia. Acta Classica, 25, 1–19.
[42] Seaford, R. (1990). The Structural Problems of Marriage in Euripides. In A. Powell (Ed.), Euripides, Women, and Sexuality (pp. 151–176). London – New York: Routledge.
[43] Sealey, R. (1984). On Lawful Concubinage in Athens. Classical Antiquity, 3, 111–133. | DOI 10.2307/25010809
[44] Silver, M. (2018). Slave-Wives, Single Women and "Bastards" in the Ancient Greek World. Law and Economics Perspectives. Oxford – Philadelphia: Oxbow Books.
[45] Skouroumouni Stavrinou, A. (2014). Inside Out. The Dynamics of Domestic Spaces in Euripides' Andromache. Hermes, 142, 385–403.
[46] Spahn, P. (2006). 'Freundschaft' und 'Gesellschaft' bei Homer. In A. Luther (Ed.), Geschichte und Fiktion in der homerischen Odyssee (pp. 163–216). München: Verlag C. H. Beck.
[47] Stanton, G. R. (1990). Philia and Xenia in Euripides' Alcestis. Hermes, 118, 42–54.
[48] Stanton, G. R. (1995). Aristocratic Obligations in Euripides' "Hekabe". Mnemosyne, 48, 11–33. | DOI 10.1163/156852595X00022
[49] Stevens, P. T. (1971). Euripides: Andromache. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
[50] Storey, I. C. (1989). Domestic Disharmony in Euripides' Andromache. Greece and Rome, 36, 16–27. | DOI 10.1017/S0017383500029296
[51] Storey, I. C. (2016). Andromache. In L. McClure (Ed.), A Companion to Euripides (pp. 186–202). Oxford: Blackwell.
[52] Taillardat, J. (1982). Φιλότης, πίστις et foedus. Revue des Études Grecques, 95, 1–14. | DOI 10.3406/reg.1982.1304
[53] Torrance, I. (2005). Andromache Aichmalōtos. Concubine or Wife? Hermathena, 179, 39–66.
[54] Vernant, J. P. (1979). Marriage. In Idem, Myth and Society in Ancient Greece (pp. 55–79). New York: MIT Press.
[55] Vester, C. (2009). Bigamy and Bastardy, Wives and Concubines: Civic Identity in Andromache. In J. R. C. Cousland, & J. R. Hume (Eds.), The Play of Texts and Fragments. Essays in Honour of Martin Cropp (pp. 293–308). Leiden – Boston: Brill.
[56] Wohl, V. (1998). The Intimate Commerce. Exchange, Gender, and Subjectivity in Greek Tragedy. Austin: University of Texas Press.