The Suppliants (Aeschylus) - Revision history

Irlandos: The Suppliants moved to The Suppliants (Aeschylus): to be specific

2008-05-20T15:20:12Z

The Suppliants moved to The Suppliants (Aeschylus): to be specific

Irlandos at 15:14, May 20, 2008

2008-05-20T15:14:21Z

Irlandos: /* Related contemporary works */

2008-05-20T15:12:28Z

Related contemporary works

Irlandos: New page: ''The '''Suppliants''''' (Greek "Hiketides", also translated as ''The Suppliant Maidens'') is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the firs...

2008-05-20T15:12:06Z

New page: ''The '''Suppliants''''' (Greek "Hiketides", also translated as ''The Suppliant Maidens'') is a play by Aeschylus. It was probably first performed sometime after 470 BC as the firs...

New page

''The '''Suppliants''''' (Greek "Hiketides", also translated as ''The Suppliant Maidens'') is a play by [[Aeschylus]]. It was probably first performed sometime after [[470 BC]] as the first play in a trilogy which included the lost plays ''The Egyptians'' and ''The Daughters of Danaus''.<ref>The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed the existence of a trilogy, probably produced in 463. See Garvie 163-97 Johansen/Whittle 1.23-25 Sommerstein 141-52 for discussions of the trilogy's date, constituent plays and a hypothetical reconstruction of the plot.</ref> It was once thought to be the earliest surviving play by Aeschylus due to the relatively anachronistic function of the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] as the protagonist of the drama. However, recent evidence places it after [[The Persians]] as Aeschylus's second extant play.

== Plot ==

The [[Danaids]] form the chorus and serve as the protagonists. They flee a forced marriage to their Egyptian cousins. When the Danaides reach [[Argos]], they entreat King [[Pelasgus]] to protect them. He refuses pending the decision of the Argive people, who decide in the favor of the Danaids. [[Danaus]] rejoices the outcome, and the Danaids praise the Greek gods. Almost immediately, a herald of the Egyptians comes to attempt to force the Danaids to return to their cousins for marriage. Pelasgus arrives, threatens the herald, and urges the Danaids to remain within the walls of Argos. The play ends with the Danaids retreating into the Argive walls, protected. In the other two-thirds of the trilogy as it is generally reconstructed, following a war with the Aegyptids in which Pelasgus has been killed, Danaus becomes tyrant of Argos. The marriage is forced upon his daughters, but Danaus instructs them to murder their husbands on their wedding night. All do except for [[Hypermnestra]], whose husband, Lynceus, flees. Danaus imprisons or threatens to kill Hypermnestra for her disobedience, but Lynceus reappears and kills Danaus; Lynceus becomes the new king of Argos, with Hypermnestra as his queen. Lynceus now must decide how to punish the forty-nine homicidal Danaids, when [[Aphrodite]] appears in ''deus ex machina'' fashion. She absolves them of the murders, as they were obeying their father; she then persuades them to abandon their chaste ways, and the trilogy closes with their marriage to forty-nine local Argive men. The trilogy was followed by the satyr-play ''Amymone'', which comically portrayed one of the Danaids' seduction by Poseidon.<ref>Ibid.</ref>

==Footnotes==

<references/>

==Sources==

* Garvie, A.F. ''Aeschylus''' Supplices'', Play and Trilogy''. Cambridge, 1969.
* Johansen, H.F. and Whittle, E.W. ''Aeschylus:'' The Suppliants. 3 vols. Copenhagen, 1980.
* Sommerstein, Alan. ''Aeschylean Tragedy''. Bari, 1996.

==Translations==

* E. D. A. Morshead, 1908 - verse: [http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/a/aeschylus/suppliants/ full text]
* Walter Headlam and C. E. S. Headlam, 1909 - prose
* Herbert Weir Smyth, 1922 - prose: [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0016 full text]
* G. M. Cookson, 1922 - verse
* S. G. Benardete, 1956 - verse
* Philip Vellacott, 1961 - verse

==Related contemporary works==
A recent contemporary adaptation of this play is [[Charles L. Mee|Charles Mee]]'s "Big Love"

{{Credit wikipedia}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek plays|Suppliants]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 15:14, May 20, 2008
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−	''The '''Suppliants''''' (Greek "Hiketides", also translated as ''The Suppliant Maidens'') is a play by [[Aeschylus]]. It was probably first performed sometime after [[470 BC]] as the first play in a trilogy which included the lost plays ''The Egyptians'' and ''The Daughters of Danaus''.<ref>The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed the existence of a trilogy, probably produced in 463. See Garvie 163-97 Johansen/Whittle 1.23-25 Sommerstein 141-52 for discussions of the trilogy's date, constituent plays and a hypothetical reconstruction of the plot.</ref> It was once thought to be the earliest surviving play by Aeschylus due to the relatively anachronistic function of the [[Greek chorus\|chorus]] as the protagonist of the drama. However, recent evidence places it after [[The Persians]] as Aeschylus's second extant play.	+	''The '''Suppliants''''' ([[Greek language\|Greek]] Ικέτιδες "Hiketides", also translated as ''The Suppliant Maidens'') is a play by [[Aeschylus]]. It was probably first performed sometime after [[470 BC]] as the first play in a trilogy which included the lost plays ''The Egyptians'' and ''The Daughters of Danaus''.<ref>The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed the existence of a trilogy, probably produced in 463. See Garvie 163-97 Johansen/Whittle 1.23-25 Sommerstein 141-52 for discussions of the trilogy's date, constituent plays and a hypothetical reconstruction of the plot.</ref> It was once thought to be the earliest surviving play by Aeschylus due to the relatively anachronistic function of the [[Greek chorus\|chorus]] as the protagonist of the drama. However, recent evidence places it after [[The Persians]] as Aeschylus's second extant play.

	== Plot ==		== Plot ==

← Older revision	Revision as of 15:20, May 20, 2008
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 * Philip Vellacott, 1961 - verse
-==Related contemporary works==
 {{Credit wikipedia}}
 [[Category:Ancient Greek plays|Suppliants]]