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Delahoyde & Hughes
Orpheus
THE SUPPLIANT MAIDENS
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The Suppliant Maidens is the first play in a trilogy or tetralogy,
the other parts of which are now lost. It may be the earliest play we
have in Western drama, because the Chorus functions as the protagonist
and Aristotle says that this was an archaic practice. It is a dull
practice too: "A chorus can convey only a lyrical mood; it can hardly
support any genuine passion" (Benardete 4). The play seems to capture a
middle stage in the evolution from the earlier choral dithyramb to the
full-blown drama.
The fifty daughters of Danaus, descended from Io (the erstwhile cow) and
Zeus (see Ovid's Metamorphoses, Book I), have fled Egypt, "From a
holy precinct bordering Syria" (7), and come as refugees to a sacred
grove near Argos. They are illegally avoiding marriage to their cousins,
the sons of Egyptus, and invoke the once-exiled Apollo and other gods for
protection. When a group of men including Pelasgus, the King of Argos,
enter, the maidens make their case and explanation, detailing their
lineage. Pelasgus, fearing potential war with the Egyptians, withholds
any promise of sanctuary until the populace okays it, but the maidens try
to force him into an immediate alliance. He holds his ground, and the
maidens are distraught, but he and the girls' father Danaus persuade the
citizens to defend them.
A sacrifice -- "slaughter [of] many kine to the gods" (22) -- seems in
questionable taste considering the maidens' heritage, but whatever. The
Egyptian cousins, viewed as "Mad, ... cursed, / In war unsated" (31),
land, which is worrisome because "Women are nothing alone; no Ares is in
them" (32). The Egyptian herald comes to escort them off until Pelasgus
and his army arrive: "And men is what you'll find here, who don't /
Guzzle a brew of barley-beer!" (39). They drive off the invader and the
gals are invited into the city to live. Danaus speechifies about proper
behavior and modesty, and the play ends with songs of deliverance and
praise to Artemis and Aphrodite.
In the next play of the sequence, the maidens were forced to marry their
cousins after all. Each vows to kill her husband on their wedding night,
and all do except Hypermnestra. In a later play she must stand trial for
violating her oath, but Aphrodite serves as the deus ex machina.
Aeschylus. The Suppliant Maidens. Trans. Seth G. Benardete. Aeschylus II. 2nd ed. by David Grene & Richmond Lattimore. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 1-42.