THE POETIC TECHNIQUE OF [EURIPIDES]: THE CASE OF RHESUS 118

Abstract

recently redirected our attention to a vexed expression in Rhesus, which from Late Antique school texts, presumably, had found its way into the lexica of Cyril / Hesychius and the Suda. 1 The aim of this study is to explain its genesis more accurately in the light of the playwright's compositional style. At Rhes. 116-18 Aeneas warns Hector of the dangers, should his intended night attack meet with Achaean opposition: πῶς γὰρ περάσει σκόλοπας ἐν τροπῇ στρατός; πῶς δ᾽ αὖ γεφύρας διαβαλοῦσ᾽ ἱππηλάται, ἢν ἆρα μὴ θραύσαντες ἀντύγων χνόας; 2 The difficulty lies with 118 ἀντύγων χνόας. In order to make sense of that phrase, one must take the Homeric ἄντυξ, 'rail round front of chariot' (LSJ s.v. I 2), metonymically of the entire vehicle, which is the interpretation of choice in Rhes. 237 Φθιάδων δ᾽ ἵππων ποτ᾽ ἐπ᾽ ἄντυγα βαίη and Callim. Hymn 3, 140-1 καὶ ἄντυγες, αἵ τε σε ῥεῖα | θηητὴν φορέουσιν ὅτ᾽ ἐς Διὸς οἶκον ἐλαύνεις and still preferable at Eur. Hipp. 1231 σιγῇ πελάζων ἄντυγι ξυνείπετο, Phoen. 1193 ἔθρῳσκον ἐξέπιπτον ἀντύγων ἄπο and Theoc. Id. 2.166 ἀστέρες, εὐκάλοιο κατ᾽ ἄντυγα Νυκτὸς ὀπαδοί. 3 The χνόαι could then regularly refer to the wheels' axle boxes or naves (LSJ s.v. χνόη 1). But as Magnani (108-10) has observed, it is surprising to find normally distinct parts of a chariot (cf. Eur. IA 229-30 παρ᾽ ἄντυγα | καὶ σύριγγας ἁρματείους) combined to denote a part of the whole; 4 and 'nothing authorizes us to regard * I am grateful to Patrick Finglass and Martin West for their help and encouragement, and to CQ's anonymous referee for pointing out places where my argument needed clarification. Gregory Klyve kindly allowed me to cite his unpublished Oxford dissertation (nn. 18, 25). 1 M. Magnani, '"Mozzi di parapetti"? (Suda α 2660 A. ~ [Eur.] Rhes. 118)', Paideia 56 (2001), 107-11. The high number of Rhesus glosses in Hesychius (cf. J. Diggle, Euripidea. Collected Essays [Oxford, 1994], 517 n. 27 for the letter α) suggests that, contrary to its relative absence from other indirect sources, the play was as relevant to the ancient curricula as the rest of the Euripidean 'Selection'. 2 Cf.