Making the stronger argument the weaker: Euripides, Electra 518–44

Abstract

During the past two centuries there has been much controversy over the merit of the scene in Euripides' Electra in which the Old Man and Electra argue over whether he has seen signs of Orestes at the tomb of Agamemnon. When Schlegel wrote that the passage's parody of the recognition scene in Choephori is 'most foreign to genuine poetry', 2 he set the stage for an attack on its authenticity. First, Mau argued that it was unlikely that Euripides would have interrupted an otherwise skilfully composed scene with a parody which Mau claimed to be criticizing Aeschylus; he therefore pronounced 518-44 an interpolation. 3 Wilamowitz replied that Euripides, in criticizing Aeschylus, was simply behaving like his caricature in Aristophanes' Frogs. 4 Yet the idea that Euripides had ridiculed his illustrious predecessor kept troubling critics, so Fraenkel resurrected the issue with his theory that the passage is the work of a fourth-century interpolator responding to lines of text in the recognition scene of Choephori, which he speculates to have been written by yet another interpolator. 5 Fraenkel's argument has sparked an ongoing debate between defenders of the passage and those who would excise it. 6 Yet, the challenge to the authenticity of the passage rests entirely on aesthetic grounds or perceptions of logical incoherence and inconsistency. 7 There is no ancient or manuscript evidence to support the challenge, which is therefore dubious. Defenders, however, have failed to answer the arguments of the critics adequately. I intend to challenge both sides with an interpretation of the

The court of comedy: Aristophanes, rhetoric, and democracy in fifth-century Athens

“…Scholarship on rhetoric in tragedy has yet to recognize the developments in the recent research on the development of fifth-century rhetoric. Gallagher (2003) attempts a detailed linkage of the agon in Electra with the Sophists' rhetorical doctrines. For an analysis of "rhetoric" in Euripides, very broadly defined, see Mastronarde (2010, 207-45).…”

Bearing Razors and Swords: Paracomedy in Euripides’ Orestes

“…Fraenkel 1950, 815-26;Bain 1977;Basta Donzelli 1980;West 1980;and Kovacs 1989 have objected to Electra 518-44, with some arguing that it is an interpolation, either on the aesthetic grounds that such parody does not belong in tragedy or on perceived logical or linguistic inconsistencies within the play. Lloyd-Jones 1961;Bond 1974;Davies 1998;Gallagher 2003;and Torrance 2011 have made the case that the scene forges thematic and linguistic connections with the rest of the play and, therefore, should not be excised. In particular, Davies 1998, 390-91, andGallagher 2003, 402, n. 8, have refuted the objections of Kovacs 1989, who questions how the scene fits with its immediate surroundings.…”

Writing and self-conscious mythopoiēsis in Euripides

“…On Electra's inability to read signs in this play, see Gallagher (2003) esp. 402-4 and Gellie (1981) 4.…”