Parting Words: Final Lines in Sophocles and Euripides

Abstract

This passage, which appears without variation at the end of four of Euripides' tragedies and with slight variation in a fifth,1 is perhaps the most notorious of the brief sequences of lines, usually anapaestic and usually assigned to the chorus, with which nearly all the extant plays of Sophocles and Euripides conclude.2 Unlike the more varied final speeches of extant Aeschylean tragedy, which are closely integrated with the play's concluding action, these passages often seem almost detachable from such action, a comment upon or merely after finished business rather than a part of its finishing. In some instances there is general scholarly agreement that the concluding lines are relevant to the action of a play, but many of these passages have been variously dismissed by scholars - as interpolations, as mere dramatic conveniences, or as intentional throwaways.

Do we have the end of Sophocles'Oedipus Tyrannus?

“…We do not know for sure, of course, but to judge from Sophocles' practice not much would seem to be lacking for a characteristically Sophoclean ending. The ends of Sophoclean plays were discussed ably by Roberts (1988Roberts ( ), (1993Roberts ( ) and (1987. Her analysis has not been bettered in more recent literature, and I turn to three observations of hers to make the case that not much is missing and to a fourth for guidance in the exempli gratia restoration of that 'not much'.…”

“…Sophocles, says Roberts (1988) 178, does not make an issue of ending his plays: they achieve closure principally by the fact that the expectations raised in them have all been fulfilled. In OT everything the play has led us to expect has been fulfilled by 1467: the discovery of the killer of Laius, the discovery of Oedipus' identity as son of Laius and Jocasta, the transformation of Oedipus from respected king to polluted outcast and his blinding.…”

“…journey down the eisodos. Roberts (1987) 58 gives a typology of such parting speeches, both the anapaests and the preceding iambics, and it seems most likely that Sophocles here would have concentrated on the immediate future, the departure of Oedipus into the palace and the burial, with a glance at the Chorus' sense of personal loss. I venture, therefore, to offer future producers of OT a supplement that will enable them to end the play without the noticeable falling off (see above, n. 27) of the last 63 transmitted lines.…”

“…There are two further benefits to this interpretation. First, as Roberts (1988) 178−79 has shown, Sophocles several times ends his plays with a glance at the future, a specific story, known to mythic history, that is still to come. An allusion to the War of the Seven would be as characteristic of Sophocles as a vague reference to undefined future trouble would be anomalous.…”

Double Motivation and the Ambiguity of “Ungodly Deeds”: Euripides'sMedeaand Milton'sSamson Agonistes

“…This repetition has inspired a long critical debate as to the lines' relevance to each tragedy. On the lines in general, see Barrett 417‐18; on their use in Medea , see Kovacs, Roberts, and Mastronarde, Euripides Medea 386‐87; and on their relationships to the religious content of each play, see Sourvinou‐Inwood 291‐317.…”