The Male Characters of Euripides

The Male Characters of Euripides

By E M Blaiklock MA

THE AMAZON'S SON

The only two lines in the Latin play which might conceivably have been uttered by the Greek character are those with which Hippolytus flings aside his sword:
Abscede, vive ne quid exores, et hic contactus ensis deserat castum latus.
(Seneca, Hipp. 713, 714)
*And let this sword, polluted by thy touch, quit this chaste side? That Euripidean touch of damning pride is in the words. (15)
How completely Racine misunderstood the Euripidean Hippolytus is obvious from the Preface to his tragedy, in which, with the French classicist's respect for Aristotle, he explains how he has taken pains to supply the hero with an âpapría (translation needed). The tragic fault in the Greek Hippolytus was too subtle for him. "Pour ce qui est du personnage d'Hippolyte (16) he writes, "j'avois remarqué dans les anciens qu'on reprochoit Euripide de l'avoir représenté comme un philosophe exempte de toute imperfection, ce qui faisoit que la mort de ce jeune prince causoir beaucoup plus d'indignation que de pitié. Ta ru lu devoir donner quelque foiblesse qui le rendroit un per coupable envers son père, sans pourtant lui rien ôter de cette grandeur d'âme avec laquelle il épargne l'honneur de Phèdre, et se laisse opprimer sans l'accuser. J'appelle foiblesse la passion qu'il resent malgré lui pour Aricie, qui est la fille et la socur des ennemis mortels de son père.' How thoroughly the introduction of this love interest revolutionises the Euripidean conception of Hippolytus needs no elaboration.
Hippolytus has left the stage at l. 113. In a score of lines Euripides has outlined his character with a firm, convincing touch, and the way is clear for his counterpart, the astonishing Phaedra.
Addenda:
(15)It might be noted in passing how ancient in the detail of this universal story is the malicious use to which Phaedra turns the abandoned sword. 'And it came to pass," lies Potiphar's wife, 'when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled.' (Gen. 39: 7-20) So Phaedra:
Hic dicet ensis quem fumultu territus
liquit stupnator civium accursum timens. (Seneca, Hipp., 995, O).
(16)More modern critics have as completely misunderstood. e.g. Max Pohlenz who writes of 'der echte Amazonensohn, auch in seiner Abneigung gegen alles Gesch-lechtliche nicht aus einer krankhaften Abnormalität heraus, sondern aus der positiven Reinheit seines Wesens." The Amazon blood may have counted for something, but it is difficult to see such virtue in it. Addenda ends.

Her presence and the unfolding of her character fill the scene until the first climax of the play. For five hundred lines in which the tragedian brilliantly analyses the stricken woman's emotions, Hippolytus does not appear. As the Chorus conclude their song to Eros, his voice, loud-raised, comes from within the palace.
It is the son of the Amazon', gasps Phaedra,
'Hippolytus, hurling fearful curses at mine handmaid’.
The Chorus can make out no clear word, but Phaedra, whether by the keener hearing of youth, or because her conscience gives substance to the sound, both hears and understands:
Kai pn rapos ye rne kaker mpournorpiar,
Tv BeaToTou mpooovoar efavod ^fyos. Translation from Greek needed here.
(Hipp. 589, 590)
"Pander of sin, traitress to her husband', these words prepare the way for the second appearance of the tragic hero of the play, and set the stage for the violent scene between him and the guilty nurse which follows. A dozen lines need full quotation for they are the context of one of the most famous sayings in Euripides:
H. O Mother Earth, unveilings of the sun,.
What words unutterable have I heard?
N. Hush, O my son, ere one have heard thy cry.
H. I have heard horrors, should I hold my peace?
N. Yea, I beseech thee, by thy fair right hand.
H. Hence with thine hand!-touch not my vesture thou.
N. O, by thy knees, do not, ah, slay me not!
H. How, if thou hast said no wrong, as thou dost say?
N. No talk is this, my son, for all men's ears.
H. Tush, a fair tale is fairer told to the world.
N. My son thine oath! dishonour not thine oath.
H. My tongue hath sworn: no oath is on my soul.
N. O son what wilt thou do?—wilt slay thy friends?
H. Avaunt the word!—no villain is my friend.
(Hipp. 601-614. Way)
Line612(nyleooouepox, notopny aviporos: translation please) is one which was
constantly used against Euripides. Its context, of course, is its explanation. Hippolytus is half insane with anger. Beside himself with passion, as his next line shows, he is in a mood to repudiate every obligation. An attack has been made upon
sadeity eatid os the satet of that Witch Les bencath the
whole structure of his self-respect, and the crude suggestion of the nurse has reduced him to something like hysteria.
Oaths, relations, what are they before this enormity, this foul und unclean thing?!? It is to be remembered that the same Lippolytus, restored to normality, kept that oath at disastrous ost. Whether or not the oath was introduced into the second dition of the play to meet a 'dramaturgical need's does not ter the psychological aptness of the reference to it at this ital point in the drama's development. It is possible that uripides used the opportunity of revision to build Hippolytus to something more than a foil for Phaedra.