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The paper discusses a part of the tragedy The Trachiniae by Sophocles from the point of view of experimental chemistry. One of the protagonists of the tragedy tells in a most lively and pictorial way how the preserved blood of the dying Centaur, Nessus, attacked and dissolved a piece of wool. One is inclined to think that the text relates some personal observation of the author. We tried to prepare a liquid, with the appearance of clotted blood, which attacks wool as described by Sophocles. The starting material we chose was related to the myth, and the methods and additives we used were or, at least, could have been at the disposal of the Athenians in the 5th century BC. After having carried out a number of simple experiments we concluded that some mixtures of potassium permanganate plus sulphuric acid fit the requirements.
This paper suggests a new interpretation for verse 523 in Sophocles' Antigone. The prefix συν- in the verbs συνέχθειν and συμφιλεῖν has generally been translated as meaning "with" or "together". The author attempts to prove that the meaning of the prefix in this verse is the completion of an action and suggests the following translation: "I was not born to hate completely, but to love fully." This translation fits nicely into the contexts of Antigone's dialogue with Creon, as well as into the context of the entire drama as a whole.
The second part of the paper cites various passages in which the prefix συν- is used for indicating the completion of an action; the examples include a passage from Sophocles' Ajax that is strikingly similar to verse 523 οf Antigone.
In Hellenistic poetics Aristotle’s description of plot structure in drama (desis — lysis) was transformed into the pattern of protasis (= acts 1 and 2: exposition and first steps of dramatic suspense), epitasis (=acts 3 to 4 med.: suspense and complications increased), catastrophe (=acts 4 fin. and 5: phase of solution). This tripartite formula can be reconstructed by tracing back its Roman adaptations from Aelius Donatus via Euanthius to Aemilius Asper. Short plot analyses of Sophocles’ King Oedipus , Menander’s Epitrepontes and Apollodorus’ Hekyra (reconstructed), and the exploration of Donatus’ analysis of Terentian comedies illustrate the way in which the poets created and varied the tasis (=suspense) pattern.
Sophocles' Trachiniae - similarly to his Oedipus - is a drama of responsibility and conflict unfolding from the sharp contrast between belief and knowing, appearance and reality. Those having the knowledge and those left without it, however, do not clash on the stage here: in Trachiniae, the conflict takes place between the stage and the auditorium. This is why the two protagonists, Heracles and Deianeira do not appear together, and this is the reason for the seemingly uncoordinated diptych-form of the play. Consequently, it is only the spectators that have certain knowledge - or perhaps not even they? The peculiar, frequently-disputed ending, that is, the incompleteness of the drama, turns suddenly all certainty into uncertainty for them, as well.
Zur Präsentation römischer Geschichte in der neulateinischen Dichtung
Vergilrezeption im Lucretiadrama des Samuel Iunius (Straßburg 1599)
In the second half of the 16th century increasing interest in Greco-Roman drama lead to a revival of the fabula praetexta, i.d. plays staging Roman history. One of the finest examples is the “Lucretia, tragoedia nova” by the Silesian writer Samuel Iunius (*1567). In dramatizing the Livian story the poet follows Greek tragedies (e.g. Sophocles, Aias), but first of all imitates Vergil by assimilating Lucretia to Dido. Due to further parallels in structure and narrative technique Iunius' play even emerges as a kind of dramatic counterpart to the Aeneid. The choice of the subject as well as its treatment seem to suggest that the author lent his voice to political criticism and Anti-Habsburg opposition.
Abstract
While memory guarantees a degree of continuity between past and present, it is not without shortcomings. Powerless in the face of the future and threatened by oblivion, memory has the ability to imprison individuals and communities alike in a version of the past that has been promoted to the level of historical truth. This is why the work of Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad (a rising figure in the world of French-language theatre) generally prefers the international kind of memory provided by literature to the historical ties commonly invoked in family retellings of the past. Mouawad’s reworking of memory is particularly present in his best-known play,Littoral (1997), which addresses the various ways in which institutionalized forms of memory prevent the development of individual identities. This article concentrates on his more recent playIncendies (2003), where historical memory no longer yields to literary memory, but rather superimposes itself on an intertextual canvas. While obviously rewriting the Oedipus myth as told by Sophocles (whoseOedipus Rex becomes a “palimpsestuous” plot forIncendies), Mouawad’s text is also replete with references to the civil war in his native Lebanon. Most historical episodes (e.g. the burnt-out bus of 1975, the Sabra and Chatila refugee camp massacres of 1982) are reworked in function of the dramatic plot, and it would be unfair to reduceIncendies to a “message” or any other traditional form of “commitment”. Yet Mouawad does not fit the profile of Jean-Paul Sartre’s “irresponsible” writer either: Lebanon’s civil war, far from being a mere screen onto which the action is projected, informs this play as much as the oedipal plot does. It is indeed the combination of both semantic networks that allows a real working through of memory, which is what is at stake here.
uncertain letters, but at the end it reads ὁ Τρωΐλ̣ο̣ϲ Σο̣φοκλ(έουϲ), a tragedy of Sophocles, based on Troilus, the younger son of Hecuba and Priamus, who was killed by Achilles. However, no other testimonia confirm if there were scene changes in this
design or intention of doing; A II 2 c. acc., give up as hopeless or desperate; Sophocles s. v. to give up in despair. 19 Vö. Sophocles 1066 s. v. deliverance, safety. 20 Chalkokondylés a bizánci historiográfiai gyakorlatnak megfelelően a tulajdonnevek
and this civic Eros governed by Aphrodite. The gentler Eros has even won over the primitive powers of the universe. The Eros belonging to Aphrodite is celebrated by Sophocles in his short but great hymn to the god in the Antigone . Sophocles affirms
the end of Georgics III are polluted by the plague's “cursed flame” ( sacer ignis; G. III 566), like the one which Heracles fatefully dons in Sophocles' Trachiniae before finally ascending the pyre to dispose of his own body – since he, too
