|
Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
THE PHOENICIAN WOMEN
|
 |
4th-century producers have edited and augmented this Euripides play named for the
Chorus of young women commenting on the Theban material (after the blinding of
Oedipus). The play begins with Jocasta, not dead and disturbingly calm and
informative about the incestuous background. She tells of warnings before conceiving
Oedipus with her initial husband Laius, of Oedipus' road-rage-fueled killing of Laius,
of his becoming ruler of Thebes, and of the contention between their two sons Eteocles
and Polyneices.
We get a "teichoskopia" -- a viewing from the wall -- with daughter Antigone and
a Pedagogue, in which the "seven against Thebes" and their armies are identified.
Appropo of nothing much, the Pedagogue sends Antigone back inside with the
declaration,
After speaking with Eteocles, Creon (Jocasta's brother) calls in Teiresias, the
blind seer. "This would be best, that none of Oedipus' house, / live in the land
as citizen or lord, / since the gods hound them on to spoil the state" (111).
But to save Thebes, Creon must sacrifice his own son, Menoeceus, "and so give
libation blood / for Cadmus' crime, appeasing Ares' wrath, / who now takes
vengeance for his dragon's death" (114). Naturally Creon reacts harshly, and
Teiresias remarks,
Some time later, a Messenger reports to Creon that Eteocles had struck Polyneices
in the navel with his sword, piercing through to the spine. With a last lunge,
Polyneices pierced Eteocle's liver (130). Jocasta, in grief, grabbed a sword and
drove it into her own neck; she lies with her sons dead.
Antigone informs her father Oedipus of the sad events. She defies Creon regarding
the latter's ban on treating Polyneices' corpse with the proper respect, and on the
topic of her marrying Menoeceus (138-139). She leads off her blind father. The odd
last lines of the Chorus (a spurious ending):
The female sex is very quick to blame.
Jocasta and the wronged and attacking Polyneices chat. Jocasta's take is that
"Some god is ruining all of Oedipus' children. / The beginning was my bearing
outside law. / It was wrong to marry your father and to have you" (90). Eteocles
arrives and Jocasta's purpose, insists the Chorus, is to reconcile the brothers,
"for argument can straighten out as much / as enemy steel can do" (96). Jocasta
has the opportunity to remark, "My son Eteocles, old age is not / a total misery.
Experience helps. / Sometimes we can speak wiser than the young" (96). One of
the seemingly wise moments: "Sufficiency's enough for men of sense. / Men do
not really own their private goods; / we simply care for things which are the
gods', / and when they will, they take them back again" (97). Ultimately the
brothers renew their vows of hatred and war.
If one of them gets a little launching place,
far, far she drives. There seems to be some pleasure
for women in sick talk of one another. (85)
A man's a fool to use the prophet's trade.
Creon sends his son far away, but Menoeceus privately notes that he could not
run away from his responsibility to his "fatherland" (116). He will go to his
own killing bravely. The Chorus prays, "Pallas, make us mothers / of sons as
good as this" (118). We soon learn that Menoeceus thrust his own sword through
his own neck, as a Messenger tells Jocasta while reporting on the war. He also
must report, however, the brothers' decision to engage in single combat with
each other.
For is he happens to bring bitter news
he's hated by the men for whom he works;
and if he pities them and tells them lies
he wrongs the gods. (114)
O great Victory, stay with me
all my life.
Nor cease to give me crowns!
(143)
Euripides. The Phoenician Women. Trans. Elizabeth Wyckoff. Euripides V. Ed. David Grene and Richard Lattimore. NY: Washington Square Press, Inc., 1959. 75-143.