Historical Analysis of the Peloponnesian War, Euripides Satyr Play - Term Paper Example

?DISCERNING THE YEAR THAT CYCLOPS WAS PRODUCED BY USING OTHER PLAYS AND HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF THE PELOPONNESIAN WAR The Euripides play Cyclops was produced during the Peloponnesian War, and was clearly meant as some kind of allegory for this war. This is evident by the fact that this play was produced many centuries after the original Homer play which concerned these events. The only reason to re-tell this story would be for it to stand as an allegory of the war that was currently raging during Euripides’ time. The Cyclops was probably a stand-in for Sparta, which was raging war against Athens at that time. When Odysseys defeats Cyclops by poking out his eye, this was clearly an allegory for Athens defeating Sparta. That said, there are a few clues as to when this play was produced. It was most likely produced after 415 B.C., which was the year of The Trojan Women, because, in The Trojan Women, Odysseys had not yet had his trials and tribulations detailed in Cyclops. This is made clear by a speech made by Cassandra, and by the fact that Hecuba was set to become Odysseys’ slave in this play. However, it was most likely produced before 411 B.C., because this was the year that Lysistrata was produced. Lysistrata was a satire about the Peloponnesian War, and it was a light-hearted one at that. Producing a light-hearted satire would steal the thunder of a serious play which is meant as an allegory, when both plays are concerning the same war. Therefore, Euripides probably would not have produced Cyclops after Lysistrata. The most likely date for Cyclops is between the dates of 411 B.C. and 415 B.C., and this date is probably 413 B.C. According to Thucydides, this was the year that the Spartans attacked from Selinus. Since the name Selinus is very similar to Silenus, which was a major, added character in Cyclops, one can imagine that the word Selinus was on Euripides mind that year, which his why he added the character of Silenus into Cyclops. This paper will explain these points more fully, and comes to the conclusion that Cyclops was written in the year 413 B.C. for these reasons. The Evidence of When Cyclops Was Produced In this play, there are several events which can be used to discern the date that this play was written. At the start of the play, it makes reference to the fact that the play was set “not long after the Trojan War.” Odysseys lands to speak to Silenus, who is the main character in the play. Moreover, Silenus talks about the fact that he landed on the island of the Cyclops because he was chasing pirates who kidnapped Bacchus. Odysseys goes on to tell a Satyr that he had laid waste to the house of Priam. Another reference in the play is the fact that Helen had eloped with an interloper, and that was the reason why Odysseys was in Troy. So, these are the clues as to when the play was produced. The first reference which can be used is The Trojan Women, which can be found in the volume Ten Plays (Roche, 1998). In this play, which was produced in 415 BC, there are references made to similar events which are described in Cyclops. Namely, that Priam was killed. Also, in the play, there is a reference to the fact that Odysseys is the King of Ithaca, who was to take Hecuba as his slave (Roche, 1998, p. 181). The implication of this is that this play was set either before Cyclops or after Cyclops, for Odysseys is apparently not lost at sea at this point, as he was still the King of Ithaca, and, since he was able to take a slave, this would mean that he is well situated in Ithaca at the time that this play was produced. Furthermore, there is a reference to Helen. Specifically, there is a reference to Helen being a “fatal bride” to Agamemnon, who is referred to as “Achaeans’ noble king” (Roche, 1998, p. 183). There is further reference to Helen, and how the Greeks went chasing after her and perished in the thousands because of her. Further, there is more proof that this particular play was set before The Cyclops, in the passages that make reference to Odysseys, and the fact that Hecuba is to be his slave. Cassandra, who is the daughter of Hecuba, talks about how cursed Odysseys will be and what his trials will be ahead. She talks about how he will have to see Charybdis, and will have to go and see Cyclops (Roche, 1983, p. 184). Therefore, the events of Trojan Women clearly predate the events of The Cyclops. The assumption is that this play would have been produced before The Cyclops, as the events of The Cyclops were projected to be in the future when Cassandra talks about them. The Greek audience would have been confused if this play were produced after The Cyclops, because it would have been similar to a sequel being produced before the original movie today. Because of this, one can safely assume that The Cyclops would have been produced after 415 B.C. Lysistra is another play which might provide some clues as to the date of the play The Cyclops. Lysistrata was produced in 411 B.C. (Mack, 1956, p. 701). There is some indication that this play would have been produced after The Cyclops. The reason for this is that, the implication in The Cyclops was that war was still going on when Odysseys set sail and ended up at Etna. For instance, Odysseys explains that he had taken off from Ilium and the troubles at Troy. He also states that he had taken Troy and destroyed Priam. He does state, and neither does any other character in the play, that the war had ended. The events of Lysistrata imply that war was finished by the end of the play. Granted, this play was satirical, in that the overall premise of the play was that the women of Greece would end the war by withholding sexual favors. However, at the end of this play, the Athenians and the Spartans, who were the foes in the Peloponnesian Wars, are singing and dancing with one another, after having called a truce. Because this play implies, however satirically, that the Peloponnesian Wars were over at the end of Lysistrata. Granted, as noted above, this was satire, and this play would, and should, very clearly be taken as more of a fantasy than reality. However, if we take the playwright at face value, and assume that the war had ended during the events of this play, one can state that this play would have been produced post The Cyclops. Lysistrata was produced in 411 B.C. and The Trojan Women was produced in 415 B.C. Therefore, one can assume that the play The Cyclops would have been produced sometime between these two dates. Granted, these two plays concern two different wars – the Trojan War and the Peloponnesian Wars. This complicates the analysis somewhat. However, if one can assume that a play about an on-going war would not be produced after a play in which a different war had effectively ended, then this is a good argument that the play Lysistrata would have been produced after The Cyclops. The Peloponnesian Wars was a contemporary war at this time - in other words, these wars were being fought around the same time that Lysistrata was produced. Perhaps Euripides meant for The Cyclops to be a kind of commentary on the on-going Peloponnesian Wars, which were raging at the time that Euripides was alive. In this way, it might have been commentary, much like Lysistrata was considered commentary to those wars, in that it proposed a satirical way of ending these wars. In which case, it stands to reason that the Cyclops play would have been produced prior to Lysistrata, as both are considered commentary on on-going conflict, Euripides digging more into the past to show the perils of war, Aristophanes looking more in the present for the on-going war. A play that deals with a past war would be more effective if it is produced before a play regarding an on-going war, because if it was produced after a play concerning an on-going war, than that play would steal the thunder of the latter play. For this reason, The Cyclops was probably produced prior to Lysistrata. Another way of approaching this would be to understand why it is that Euripides would revisit a period of time which was so far in the past. Perhaps, as stated above, he did intend for the play to be a commentary on what was going on in the world. In this play, The Cyclops, there is, essentially, a tyrannical monster who feasts on the flesh of men, Odysseys’ men. This was a familiar tale, of course. In The Odyssey, Book IX, there was the original account of what occurred on the island of the Cyclops (Mack, 1956). However, in this tale, Silenus is not present and it is unclear that this part of the play took place on the island of Sicily. These are the two hints that might pinpoint when this play was produced – Silenus and Sicily. These are the two additions that Euripides made when he produced the play, the two embellishments that he added from Homer’s original telling of the Cyclops event. And, according to Thucydides, in 413 B.C., Gyplippus and Sicanus were traveling to Selinus, and they passed through Sicily on their way to Selinus. Gyplippus and Sicanus were Syracusans, and they were attacking the Athenians from this vantage point (Smith, 1923). If one can assume that Euripides was influenced by the current events of his day, and that Cyclops can be seen as an allegory for the Peloponnesian War, with the Cyclops representing tyrannical forces, then one can assume that the Cyclops represented a force which was opposed to Athens, as Euripides was Athenian (Roche, 1983, p. 173). The events of 413 B.C., then, would be very influential to Euripides. According to Thucydides (he Spartans were preparing to attack the Athenians from the vantage point of Selinus during this year. Moreover, Silenus, which is spelled slightly differently from Selinus, in the play Cyclops, was a traitorous sort. He pretended to befriend Odysseys, then turned against him, urging the monster to eat Odysseys. One can assume that perhaps the events of Selinus were on the mind of Euripides as he wrote his play Cyclops, which is why he would have brought the character of Silenus into the play. After all, Silenus was nowhere to be seen in the original play. Just as the Spartans used Selinus as a vantage point to attack the Athenians in real life, Silenus was used as a point to attack Odysseys by selling him out to the monster (Smith, 1983, p. 101). Conclusion The play Cyclops was probably written around 413 B.C. It was definitely written after 415 B.C., as that was the year that The Trojan Women was produced. In The Trojan Women, the events that are described in Cyclops had not yet occurred. This is made clear, as one of the main characters, Cassandra, who is the daughter of Hecuba, states that Odysseys has turmoil ahead of him, and she specifically makes mention of his trials and tribulations ahead. Moreover, Odysseys is a King in The Trojan Women, and he is to take Hecuba as his slave, so this, too, implies that the events in Cyclops are yet to come. Assuming that Cyclops was intended as a sequel to The Trojan Women, in that the events in Cyclops clearly took place after the events of The Trojan Women, then the play was produced after The Trojan Women. On the other hand, Aristophanes produced the play Lysistrata as a kind of satire for the never-ending Peloponnesian Wars. Most likely, Euripides would be hesitant to produce an allegory against war, which is what Cyclops was, in that the Cyclops himself probably represented Sparta, which was against Athens in the war, after a satire on the war would have been produced. Lysistrata would have effectively taken the wind out of the sails of Euripides play if it would have come after Lysistrata, because Lysistrata was making a joke out of the Peloponnesian Wars. This would indicate that the people of Athens were ready for the war to be made fun of, which would also mean that, perhaps, they were not as ready for another serious allegory about that war. So, the play was most likely produced between the years of 415 B.C. and 411 B.C., which were the years that these two plays were produced – Trojan Women in 415 B.C., and Lysistrata in 411 B.C. 413 B.C. is between these two dates, and it was the year when the Spartans used Selinus as a vantage point to attack the Athenians. This would explain why Silenus was a part of the Cyclops play, where Silenus was not a part of the original Odysseys play – Euripides must have had Selinus on his mind when writing this play. The conclusion is therefore inescapable – as there were only a few years in between Lysistrata and The Trojan Women, and 413 B.C. is in between those years, and this was also the year that the Spartans attacked Athens from Selinus, this is probably the year that Cyclops was produced. Sources Used Aristophanes (1984) Complete Plays. (Hadas, M., Trans.). New York, NY: Bantam Group. Aristophanes (1984) “Lysistrata.” In Aristophanes (1984) Complete Plays. (Hadas, M., Trans.). New York, NY: Bantam Group. Euripides (1998) “Cyclops.” In Roche, P. (1998) Euripides: Ten Plays. (Roche, P., Trans.). New York, NY: Penguin Group. Euripides (1998) “The Trojan Women.” In Roche, P. (1998) Euripides: Ten Plays. (Roche, P., Trans.). New York, NY: Penguin Group. Fagles, R. (Translator) “The Odyssey.” In Mack, M. (Ed.). (1956). The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. Mack, M. (Ed.). (1956). The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. Roche, P. (1998) Euripides: Ten Plays. (Roche, P., Trans.). New York, NY: Penguin Group. Smith, C. (1923). Thucydides: History of the Pelopennesian War Books VII and VIII. T.E. Page (Ed.). Cambridge, MS: Harvard University Press. Read More