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Neoptolemus and the bow: ritual thea and theatrical vision in Sophocles' Philoctetes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 February 2012

Ismene Lada-Richards
Ismene Lada-Richards
Affiliation:
University of Nottingham
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Extract

Much has been written in recent years on the ways in which ritual forms, patterns and sequences are remoulded into the imagery and action of classical Greek plays. A tragedy which offers exceptionally fertile ground for studies on ‘ritual and drama' is Sophocles’ Philoctetes, since theatrical and ritual strands are so intimately interwoven in its plot as to create an inextricable knot. In forthcoming work I explore in full both the ritual liminality of Philoctetes' and Neoptolemus' existence as well as the subtle ways in which the vital dramatic experiences of ‘acting’ and ‘viewing’ are inherently intertwined in this play with the initiatory strands of rites of maturation. The present note, conversely, is less ambitious in its scope, as its exclusive focus is one pivotal moment of the play's action, namely the dramatic exhibition of the bow to Neoptolemus' and the spectator's eyes. No matter how inherently interwoven with the action Philoctetes' bow is, Neoptolemus' close look, as he accepts it in his hands (Phil. 776), ‘theatricalises’ the object by converting it into a dramatic spectacle, a thea. But even before being formally delivered to Neoptolemus' custody (Phil. 762-78), the bow is prominently singled out as the prime focus of attention, becoming, as it does, a stage-prop uniquely capturing the boy's concentrated sight.

Type
Notes
Information
The Journal of Hellenic Studies , Volume 117 , November 1997 , pp. 179 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1997

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References

1 Elaborating on the pioneering work of Vidal-Naquet, ‘Sophocles’ Philoctetes and the ephebeia', in Vernant, J.P. and Vidal-Naquet, P. (eds.), Myth and tragedy in ancient Greece (Eng. trans. Lloyd, J.) (New York 1988) 161Google Scholar ff. (An earlier version of Vidal-Naquet's essay first appeared in 1971, in Annales, ESC, 623 ff.).

2 I. Lada-Richards, ‘Staging the ephebeia: theatrical role-playing and ritual transition in Sophocles’ Philoctetes' (forthcoming, a) and ‘Sophocles’ Philoctetes and ritual liminality' (forthcoming, b).

3 See Taplin, O., Greek tragedy in action (London 1985Google Scholar; first publ. 1978) 89, where the bow is rightly said to constitute ‘a stage property which is, perhaps, the most integrally incorporated of all material objects in the Greek tragedy we have.’

4 For the intersection of multiple levels of viewing in this play, see I. Lada-Richards (n. 2, forthcoming a).

5 See Segal, CP., Interpreting Greek tragedy: myth, poetry, text (Ithaca and London 1986) 121Google Scholar: ‘No visual symbol in Sophocles has a more powerful and far-reaching ethical and psychological meaning than the bow of the Philoctetes.'

6 This observation, of course, will be much more readily acceptable to those willingly ‘initiated’ into the ‘mysteries’ line of approach to Greek drama. It ties up well with, e.g., Zeitlin, F.I.(PCPS n.s. xxxv [1989] 144–97)Google Scholar, Seaford, R.(Hermes cxxii [1994] 275–88Google Scholar, and CQ n.s xxxi [1981] 252–75Google Scholar) or my own forthcoming Initiating Dionysus: ritual and theatre in Aristophanes' Frogs (Oxford). However, as it lies beyond the scope and ambition of a brief note to convert the non-converted, I shall assume for what follows the attention of a reader-‘accomplice’ rather than a reader-sceptic.

7 The act of showing and revealing goes back to the foundress of the rites, Demeter herself who, in the Homeric Hymn, δεῖξε […] δρησuοσύνην θ'ίερών καί έπέϕραδεν ὄργια πᾶσι (474-6). This stage of the mysteries is amply reflected in the sources (see passages assembled by N.J. Richardson, The Homeric Hymn to Demeter [Oxford 1974] 302), which most often use the terms δεικνύναι or (άνα) ϕαίνειν. In Isocrates (iv 29) the entire Eleusinian ritual is referred to as an act of deixis (καθ' έκαστον τόν ένιαύτόν δεικνυμεν), while the conception of the Mysteries as acts to be ‘shown’ pervades those texts discussing the notorious profanation of 415 BC (see, e.g. Lys. vi 51; Andoc. i 11, i 12, i 16; Plut. Mor. 621c; Plut. Alc.22 άπομιμούμενον τά μυστήρια καί δεικνύοντα τοῖς αύτοῦ έταίροις έν τῇ οίκίᾳ τῇ έαυτοῦ, ἔχοντα στολήν οίανπερ ό ιεροϕάντης ἔχων δεικνύει τά ιερά) See further Mylonas, G.E., Eleusis and the Eleusinian mysteries (Princeton 1961) 273 ffGoogle Scholar.

8 See Mylonas (n.7) 229-30, and for a very detailed study, see Clinton, K., Trans. Amer. Philosoph. Soc. n.s. lxiv. 3 (1974) 10–47Google Scholar.

9 I.e. that of the epoptes; on grades in the Mysteries, see Dowden, K., ‘Grades in the Eleusinian Mysteries’, RHR cxcvii (1980) 409 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar. and on Eleusinian initiation in general, see Burkert, W., Homo Necans: the anthropology of ancient Greek sacrificial ritual and myth (Engl, transl. Bing, P.) (Berkeley, Los Angeles and London 1983) 248–97Google Scholar and Burkert, , Ancient mystery cults (Cambridge, Mass. and London 1987) esp. 89–114Google Scholar.

10 Vision: cf. PI. Phdr. 250b-c κάλλος δὲ τότ' ήν ίδείν λαμπρόν, ὅτε σὺν εύδαιμονι χορῷ μακαρίαν ὅψιν τε καί 'θέαν, … είδόν τε καί έτελοῦντο τῶν τελετῶν ῆν θέμις λέλειν μακαριωτάτην, […] όλόκληρα δέ καί άπλᾶ καί άτρεμῆ καί εύδαιμονα ϕάσματα μυούμενοί τε καί έποπτ–εύοντες έν αύχῇ καθαρᾷ … Plut. fr. 178 Sandbach σεμνότη–τας άκουσμάτων ίερῶν καὶ ϕασμάτων ἕχόντες Proclus, Resp. II. 185.4 (kroll) ϕάσματα … γαλήνης μεστά Zeitlin (n.6) 160-1 sugests a literary reflection of the blissful Elusinian phasmata in the Dionysiac/Eleusinian scenario of Euripides' Ion. where the recognition of mother and son abounds in the imagery of blessed phantoms (Ion 1354: ὠ μακαρία μοι ϕασμάτων ἤδ' ήμέρα 1395 τί δῆτα ϕάσμα τῶν άνελπιστων όρῶ; cf. 1444). A marble votive rlief from the very Telesterion of Eleusis (LIMC. vol. iv, s.v. ‘Demeter’ n. 161), dedicated ot Demeter by a certain Eukrates, points towards an appearance of Core (or Demeter) as a vision. On the rectangular dedicatory plaque there is the head of a female deity (Core or Demeter) surrounded by shining rays painted in red (see LIMC, vol. iv, s.v. ‘Demeter’ n. 161, and Kerényi, C., Eleusis: Archetypal image of mother and daughter [Eng. trans. R. Manheim] [London 1967] 97)Google Scholar. Statue: cf. PI. Phdr. 254b είδον τήν ὄψιν … άστράπτουσαν …; Themistius Or. xx. 235a-b, where he seems to be conceiving of Eleusinian epopteia as a revelation of a statue, which the priest ἑπεδείκνυε τῷ μυουμένῳ μαρμαρύσσον τε ἤδη καὶ αὐγῇ καταλαμπόμ–ενον θεσπεσία (see C. Riedweg, Mysterienterminologie bei Platon, Philon und Klemens von Alexandria [Berlin and New York 1987] 62 n. 163); cf. P. Boyancé, , REG lxxv [1962] esp. 471–3)Google Scholar, who defends Kern's old suggestion about the moment of the Eleusinian epopteia as comprising ‘un dévoilement de statues qui apparaissent dans l‘éblouissante clarté de la lumière’ (Boyancé [ibid.] 464).

12 Cf. eg. IG II2 1040 of 43/2 BC (Reinmuth, O.W., Hesperia xxxiv [1965] 255 ffCrossRefGoogle Scholar.) ἐποιήσαντο δὲ καὶ τὴν ὐπαπάντησιν τοῖς ἐν ὄπλόις καὶ προέπεμψαν αὐτὰ καὶ τὸν “Ιακχον ὠσαύτως (lines 6-7). See Pélékides, C., Histoire de l' éphébie attique des origines à 31 avant Jésus-Christ (Paris 1962) 221 n. 4Google Scholar.

13 For the processional escorting of the sacra and related events over these days, see Foucart, P., Les mystères d'Eleusis (Paris 1914) 299–308Google Scholar.

14 See Pélékides (n. 12) 220.

15 See Burkert (n. 9 Homo Necans) 292 n. 85 (with inscriptional evidence, dating from the first and second centuries BC).

16 See for a brief summary Richardson (n.7) 224.

17 See, e.g. Arist. Thesm. 1150-1 όὑ δὴ άνδράσιν οὐ θέμις εἰσορᾶν / ὄργια σεμνὰ θεοῖν;. Eur. Bacch. 470 ff., as the Stranger skilfully excites Pentheus’ curiosity about Dionysus’ orgia: ἔχει δ' ὄνησιν τοῖσι θύονσιν τίνα, Διόν. ού θέμις ἀκοῦσαί σ', ἔστι δ' ἄξι' είδέναι (473-4; cf. 78-9); Pl. Phdr. 250b-c; Diod. v 48. 4; sepulchral inscription from Cumae (fifth century BC): οὐ θέμις έντοῦθα κεῖσθαι ἰ μὲ τὸν βεβαχχ–ευμένον (see Cole, S.G., GRBS xxi [1980] 231)Google Scholar.

18 Dodds, E.R., Euripides, Bacchae 2 (Oxford 1960) 119Google Scholar (on Bacch. 370-2), referring to Bacch. 69-70 στόμα τ' εὔϕη–/ μον ἄπας ἐξοσιούσθω; Bacch. 77 ὁσίοις καθαρμοῖσιν; Bacch. 113-14 ἀμϕὶ δὲ νάρθηκας ὑβριστὰς / ὀσιοῦσθ'; Ar. Frogs 327 ὀσίους εἰς θιασώτας, Frogs 336 ὀσἰοις μύσταις; H. Orph. lxxxiv 3 ὁσίους μύστας; Pl. Rep. 363c συμπόσιον τῶν ὁσίων (where it seems that hosioi should be understood as equivalent to initiated into Eleusinian/ Orphic (?) mysteries; see F. Graf, Eleusis und die orphische Dichtung Athens in vorhellenistischer Zeit [Berlin and New York 1974] 97-8); see especially Eur. fr. 472.15 N2 Βάκχος ἑκλήθην ὁσιωθείς. Most importantly (although the evidence is post-classical), an entire Dionysiac cultic sect at Delphi (see Burkert [n. 9 Homo Necans] 125) bears the name Hosioi; see Plut. Mor. 365a καὶ θύουσιν οἰ Όσιοι θυσίαν ἀπόρρητον ἐν τῷ ἰερῷ τόῦ Άπόλλωνος.

19 Cf. e.g. how Pausanias excuses himself for not being able to describe the Dionysiac mysteries at the bottomless pool of Lerna in Argolis: τὰ δὲ ὲς αὐτὴν Διονύσῳ δρώμενα ἐν νυκτὶ κατἀ ἔτός ἔκαστον οὐχ ὄσιον ἑς ἄπαντας ἤν μοτ γράψαι (Paus. ii 37.6).

20 Among post-classical material, note the much quoted Firm. Mat. Err. Prof. Rel. 22 θαρρεῖτε μύσται, τοῦ θεοῦ σεσωσ–μένου. / ἔσται γἀρ ἠμῖν ἑκ πόνων σωτηρία. For possible reflections of the exhortation-formula in Plato, see Joly, R., REG lxviii (1955)Google Scholar; for an interpretation of Euripides’ passage in this light, see Seaford, R.S.(CQ n.s. xxxi [1981] 258Google Scholar), who does not, however, mention the comic reflection in the Frogs (for the latter, see I. Lada-Richards [n. 6]). See now also Seaford, , Reciprocity and ritual: Homer and tragedy in the developing city-state (Oxford 1994) 379Google Scholar n. 48 (on Eur. Her. 624-7).

21 See also Horn. h. Dem. 211 ὀσίης ἔνεκεν (with Richardson [n. 7] 225 ad loc.); cf. an Eleusinian inscription (third century BC) (Clinton [n. 8] 23) honouring an hierophant ἀρετῆς ἔνεκεν / καὶ εὐσεβείας/ καὶ ϕιλοτιμίας.

22 See Riedweg (n.10) 6-7, citing passages from Diodorus (e.g. v 77. 3 τήν τε γἀρ παρ' Άθηναίοις ἐν Έλευσῖνι γινομένην τελετήν, […] μυστικῶς παραδίδοσθαι), Hippolytus, Ref. Haer. (e.g. v 2 τἀ μυστικἀ παραδόντες), Cicero, Tusc. i 29Google Scholar, Apuleius (Met. xi 29 sacrorum traditio), Clement, et al.

23 On the mystic initiatory epopteia, see above n.10.

24 See, e.g. Plut, . Flam. xix 4Google Scholar θέαν ἔχοντος ἑν τῷ θεάτρῳ; Aeschines ii 55 θέαν εἰς τἀ Διονύσια κατανεῖμαι τοῖς πρέσβεσιν… etc.

25 See, most recently, Seaford's (n.6 [1994] 285) impressive argument on the Chorus’ much discussed exclamation in Sophocles’ Ajax 694 ἔϕριξ' ἔρωτι… as suggesting ‘the contradictory emotions of mystic initiation’, i.e. the shuddering of fear mixed with joy and eager expectation, desire.

26 Cf. Gould, T., The ancient quarrel between poetry and philosophy (Princeton 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar). One of the main theses sustained in this kaleidoscopic book is that at many climactic moments of the tragic pathos, the emotional ‘thrill experienced by the audience is most likely to have been akin to that which they knew from their initiatory rites’ (28); at such moments, words denoting ‘sight’, whether wonderful or terrible, are found in close proximity with pathos.

27 Taplin (n. 3) 89.

28 See Gould's (n. 25) 47 important suggestion that Sophocles in the OT ‘puts the dancers in the position of worshipers or initiates at a holy pathos’. Gould's findings tally very well with Winkler's (‘The Ephebes’ song: tragôidia and the polis', in Winkler and Zeitlin [eds.], Nothing to do with Dionysos? Athenian drama in its social context [Princeton 1990] 20 ff.) general hypothesis for the ephebic status of Choral performers, but although this thesis opens up a great range of interpretative possibilities, it can by no means be unequivocally accepted.

29 See Richardson (n. 7) 306-7.

30 The fusion of ephebic and mystic frameworks implied throughout this note need not suprise. Rather than being inflexible, dramatically recast initiation frames can freely interact with one another, since a fictive creation, whether literary or pictorial, is not a sacred document: drawing on a common cluster of cultural assumptions with his addressees, the artist combines his building blocks at will, without being haunted by the fear of inconsistency or inaccuracy. Perhaps the most well-known example of such a cross-institutional fusion of data is the Aeschylean Oresteia: although it dramatises an archetypal scenario of ephebic initiation, i.e. Orestes’ transition to manhood, it is also a storehouse of Eleusinian language and imagery, as was argued in detail by Tierney and Thomson as early as the first decades of our century. See Thomson, G., JHS lv (1935) 20CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.; Tierney, M., JHS lvii (1937) 11CrossRefGoogle Scholar ff.; Headlam, W.G. and Thomson, G., The Oresteia of Aeschylus 2 (Amsterdam 1966Google Scholar; first publ. Cambridge 1938).

31 Warmest thanks to Richard Hunter, who has kindly read and commented on earlier versions of this note, and especially to Pat Easterling for having patiently discussed my work on Philoctetes, provided inummerable suggestions, and saved me from many errors.