De Gruyter (2016) h/b 336pp £59.99 (ISBN 9783110439069)
Almost every happening in epic or tragedy is witnessed by some onlooker—friends, enemies, servants, messengers, a god, the chorus etc.—and it is often through their reactions that the audience is drawn by the author into his desired emotional or moral response. In this insightful and intriguing book, A-H. studies some examples of a particular subset of such witnesses: those who see the effect of their own earlier actions and whose responses, once they have realised what they have done, become key to the evolving tragedy.
The book is divided into four main chapters, dealing with four such cases. The first is Patroclus in the Iliad, during the Patrocleia up to his death. A-H. points out that, unlike all other major deaths in the poem (e.g. Sarpedon), no friend or friendly god is with Patroclus when he dies; the only witnesses are we, the audience, and we represent Achilles whose fault it all was, whose absence makes him helpless (as we are), and whose violent reaction when he learns the truth precipitates the horrors to come. Chapter 2 deals with Deianeira in Sophocles’ Trachiniae, who innocently and with the best intentions does something which turns out disastrous; when she finds out too late what she has done, she cannot live with it and takes her life, but the gods do not care (and it was all Aphrodite’s fault anyway). The third chapter focuses on Euripides’ Electra and the violent emotional reaction suffered by both Electra and Orestes immediately after the matricide; for Euripides, there is no need of external Furies: the psychological mood swing revealed in their ‘lament’ is painful enough. The final section deals with Sophocles’ Philoctetes and the maturing of Neoptolemus: a rare case where the protagonist, having observed the result of his action, is able to do something to put things right, and in so doing ‘grows up’ and discovers (or rediscovers) his own moral nature.
A-H. explores these four themes with painstaking analysis and frequent references to and quotations from the text (always shown both in Greek and English). A particular pleasure is her focus on the way the poets use language to gain their effect. For example, Patroclus is apostrophised (addressed in the vocative) more often than anyone else in the Iliad, and most of these cases occur close to his death. This is one way in which the poet speaks as if he were Achilles helplessly watching; we see with Achilles’ eyes not only Patroclus’ vulnerability but his own. In Philoctetes, we are shown how silences, inarticulate noises and cries of pain are used to create responses in other characters and the audience. A-H. ranges widely through other examples which enhance her argument. In Electra, although her focus is Euripides, she gives us a full analysis of the equivalent scenes in Sophocles and Aeschylus, and brings out clearly how Euripides was influenced by, as well as sharply differing from, the latter.
Notes are extensive and on every page, and there is a full bibliography. A-H. is generous in saying that the ideas she is putting across are not originally hers alone and quoting others who have made similar points It is an enjoyable and readable book, which will be helpful for anyone reading or viewing a Greek play (or Homer). The reviewer has only one, minor, criticism. Some passages seem overwritten: A-H. has a tendency to repeat the same points and to spell them out in a bit too much detail. This means that without loss the chapters could have been shorter, and there is a question whether quite so many notes were necessary. The space thus created could have been made for another chapter or two dealing with other plays. This reviewer would love to see A-H. applying her magnifying glass to Oedipus, Ajax or Hippolytus, for example (although all these do get a number of mentions). But this would only make an even better book out of what is, as it is, a very good one.
Colin McDonald