Ritual Appropriateness in Seven Against Thebes. Civic Religion in a Time of War

Abstract

This paper explores the themes and tensions of the first part of the Seven Against Thebes, against the background of Athenian civic religion. The confrontation between Eteocles and the Chorus can be seen as an opposition between two gender-related religious attitudes. Eteocles describes his religious behaviour as ritually appropriate whereas he rebukes that of the women as inappropriate and disruptive. Thus, sacrifice and euchê-prayer stand against supplication and lamenting prayer (litê). In partial opposition to other interpretations, this paper views Eteocles as more concerned about the religious behaviour of the Chorus—what they do and how they pray—than with their religious views; in other words he castigates them for their heteropraxy, not their heterodoxy. In the background it is possible to make out the needs of a society of soldier-citizens to contain the ritual and emotional expression of fear and lament in order to avoid demoralizing the troops.

Women’s Voice and Religious Utterances in Ancient Greece

“…This opposition is reflected in two opposing ways of dealing with the gods, and as such, a rich source of self reflection. As I have shown elsewhere [21], many of the ritual procedures and religious elements hinted at in the play, find such a confirmation in other sources as to reasonably suppose that the poet's exploration of religious tensions may allow us to understand and reconstruct some perceptions and features of Athenian attitudes towards the gods. I will offer here a reading of the opposition between Eteocles and the Chorus of Theban women by framing it in the semantic context of the polis religion of fifth century Athens.…”