Tereus (Sophocles)
Encyclopedia
Tereus is a Greek play by the Athenian
poet Sophocles
. Although the play has been lost
, several fragments have been recovered. Although the date that the play was first produced is not known, it is known that it was produced before 414 BCE, because the Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes
referenced Tereus in his play The Birds
, which was first performed in 414. Based on references in The Birds it is also known that another Greek playwright, Philocles
, had also written a play on the subject of Tereus
, and there is evidence both from The Birds and from a scholiast that Sophocles' play came first.
Some scholars believe that Sophocles' Tereus was influenced by Euripides
' Medea
, and thus must have been produced after 431. However, this is not certain and any influence may well have been in the opposite direction, with Sophocles' play influencing Euripides. Jenny Marsh believes that Euripides' Medea did come before Sophocles' Tereus, based primarily on a statement in Euripides' chorus "I have heard of only one woman, only one of all that have lived, who put her hand on her own children: Ino." Marsh takes this to imply that as of the time of Medeas production, the myth of Tereus had not yet incorporated the infanticide, as it did in Sophocles' play.
of the play dating from the 2nd or 3rd century CE was translated by P.J. Parsons in 1974. According to this hypothesis, Tereus
, the king of Thrace
, was married to Procne
, daughter of the Athenian ruler. Tereus and Procne had a son Itys. Procne wanted to see her sister Philomela
and asked Tereus to escort her sister to Thrace. During the journey, Tereus fell in love with Philomela and raped her. In order to prevent her from telling Procne what he had done, he cut out Philomela's tongue. But Philomela wove a tapestry showing what had happened and sent it to Procne. Procne became jealous and in revenge killed Itys and served him as a meal to Tereus. The gods turned Procne and Philomela into a nightingale
and a swallow to protect them from Tereus, while Tereus was turned into a hoopoe
.
In 2007, Trinity College, Dublin
professor David Fitzpatrick used the hypothesis and the extant fragments to attempt a reconstruction of the plot of Tereus. In this reconstruction, the play begins with a either a Thracian male servant or herald on behalf of the absent Tereus speaking. This is based on fragment 582, translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones
as "O sun, light greatly honoured by horse-loving Thracians. Procne and the chorus enter. Fitzpatrick believes that the chorus is made of Thracian women sympathetic to Procne. Tereus arrives with the mute Philomela, either lying about Philomela or, as Fitzpatrick believes is more likely, having disguised her as a male servant while claiming that Philomela is dead. The recognition scene likely took place on stage, where Philomela's tapestry reveals the rape and mutilation, and possibly Philomela's identity. Based on fragment 588, in which a character is told not to fear because if he speaks the truth he will "never come to grief," Fitzpatrick believes that a male character confirms what happened to Procne. After a choral interlude, Procne plans her revenge. After Tereus learns of the cannibalism he hunts the sisters. In the reconstruction, the revelation that the women and Tereus were turned into birds is related by a deus ex machina
, who Fitzpatrick believes was most likely Apollo
. Lloyd-Jones agrees that fragment 589 appears to be a statement from a deus ex machina. This fragment states that Tereus is mad, but the women acted even more madly by using violence to punish him. The fragment concludes by stating that "any mortal who is infuriated by his wrongs and applies a medicine that is worse than the disease is a doctor who does not understand the trouble."
.
Another possible theme is the contrast between Athenians and barbarian
s. Fragment 587 is translated by Lloyd-Jones as stating that "the whole race of barbarians loves money." Athenians believed Thracians to be a "stereotypical barbaric race." Fitzpatrick believes this stereotype was incorporated into Sophocles' play. Thus, the Thracian Tereus commits the barbaric acts of raping a woman entrusted by her father in his care and mutilating her. In addition, the illiterate Thracian Tereus believes that he can silence Philomela by removing her tongue, but the literate native Athenian woman and Philomela foil this through her weaving ability, weaving a tapestry that might have even included words. By using her domestic skills to denounce her rapist, Philomela uses what were considered to be her "best and most 'Athenian' side," rather than needing to use her tongue, which was considered a woman's most dangerous part. By taking revenge on her husband, Prone effectively sides with her Athenian father, which Fitzpatrick interprets as supporting Athens over foreign entities and affirming Athenian imperialism and its patriarchal society.
One of the extant fragments (fragment 590) appears to include the final lines of the play, given to the chorus
. The chorus here remarks that humans cannot know what the future will bring; that is known only to Zeus
. The sentiments expressed are similar to those in the final chorus of Sophocles' Ajax and Euripides' Medea
. The similarities to Medea also extend to the plot turning on a mother killing her child in order to take revenge on her husband.
The story of Tereus, Procne and Philomela was retold in several later versions, most movingly in Ovid
's Metamorphoses, but these versions are believed to be based on Sophocles' play. Although Philomela had lost her tongue and Procne presumably would have lamented her deceased son, Ovid reversed which birds the women were changed into: in Ovid, Philomela was turned into a nightingale and Procne into a swallow.
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
poet Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
. Although the play has been lost
Lost work
A lost work is a document or literary work produced some time in the past of which no surviving copies are known to exist. Works may be lost to history either through the destruction of the original manuscript, or through the non-survival of any copies of the work. Deliberate destruction of works...
, several fragments have been recovered. Although the date that the play was first produced is not known, it is known that it was produced before 414 BCE, because the Greek comedic playwright Aristophanes
Aristophanes
Aristophanes , son of Philippus, of the deme Cydathenaus, was a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his forty plays survive virtually complete...
referenced Tereus in his play The Birds
The Birds (play)
The Birds is a comedy by the Ancient Greek playwright Aristophanes. It was performed in 414 BCE at the City Dionysia where it won second prize. It has been acclaimed by modern critics as a perfectly realized fantasy remarkable for its mimicry of birds and for the gaiety of its songs...
, which was first performed in 414. Based on references in The Birds it is also known that another Greek playwright, Philocles
Philocles
Philocles was an Athenian tragic poet during the 5th century BCE. He was the nephew of the famous poet Aeschylus, being the son of Aeschylus' sister. He is best known for winning first prize in the competition against Sophocles' Oedipus Rex...
, had also written a play on the subject of Tereus
Tereus
In Greek mythology, Tereus was a Thracian king, the son of Ares and husband of Procne. Procne and Tereus had a son, Itys.Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela. He forced himself upon her, then cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. He told his wife that her...
, and there is evidence both from The Birds and from a scholiast that Sophocles' play came first.
Some scholars believe that Sophocles' Tereus was influenced by Euripides
Euripides
Euripides was one of the three great tragedians of classical Athens, the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles. Some ancient scholars attributed ninety-five plays to him but according to the Suda it was ninety-two at most...
' Medea
Medea (play)
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...
, and thus must have been produced after 431. However, this is not certain and any influence may well have been in the opposite direction, with Sophocles' play influencing Euripides. Jenny Marsh believes that Euripides' Medea did come before Sophocles' Tereus, based primarily on a statement in Euripides' chorus "I have heard of only one woman, only one of all that have lived, who put her hand on her own children: Ino." Marsh takes this to imply that as of the time of Medeas production, the myth of Tereus had not yet incorporated the infanticide, as it did in Sophocles' play.
Plot
A hypothesisHypothesis (drama)
In its ancient usage, a hypothesis is a summary of the plot of a classical drama. These hypotheses were often copied as a preface to the text of the surviving Athenian tragedies in Medieval manuscripts...
of the play dating from the 2nd or 3rd century CE was translated by P.J. Parsons in 1974. According to this hypothesis, Tereus
Tereus
In Greek mythology, Tereus was a Thracian king, the son of Ares and husband of Procne. Procne and Tereus had a son, Itys.Tereus desired his wife's sister, Philomela. He forced himself upon her, then cut her tongue out and held her captive so she could never tell anyone. He told his wife that her...
, the king of Thrace
Thrace
Thrace is a historical and geographic area in southeast Europe. As a geographical concept, Thrace designates a region bounded by the Balkan Mountains on the north, Rhodope Mountains and the Aegean Sea on the south, and by the Black Sea and the Sea of Marmara on the east...
, was married to Procne
Procne
Procne may refer to:*In Greek mythology, Procne was sister to Philomela, as well as the wife of Tereus, and mother of Itys.*194 Prokne, an asteroid...
, daughter of the Athenian ruler. Tereus and Procne had a son Itys. Procne wanted to see her sister Philomela
Philomela
In Greek mythology, Philomela was a daughter of Pandion I and Zeuxippe, and a sister of Procne. Despite Ovid's fanciful etymology as "lover of song" , the name means "lover of fruit," "lover of apples," or "lover of sheep."-Myth:Procne's husband, King Tereus of Thrace In Greek mythology,...
and asked Tereus to escort her sister to Thrace. During the journey, Tereus fell in love with Philomela and raped her. In order to prevent her from telling Procne what he had done, he cut out Philomela's tongue. But Philomela wove a tapestry showing what had happened and sent it to Procne. Procne became jealous and in revenge killed Itys and served him as a meal to Tereus. The gods turned Procne and Philomela into a nightingale
Nightingale
The Nightingale , also known as Rufous and Common Nightingale, is a small passerine bird that was formerly classed as a member of the thrush family Turdidae, but is now more generally considered to be an Old World flycatcher, Muscicapidae...
and a swallow to protect them from Tereus, while Tereus was turned into a hoopoe
Hoopoe
The Hoopoe is a colourful bird that is found across Afro-Eurasia, notable for its distinctive 'crown' of feathers. It is the only extant species in the family Upupidae. One insular species, the Giant Hoopoe of Saint Helena, is extinct, and the Madagascar subspecies of the Hoopoe is sometimes...
.
In 2007, Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin
Trinity College, Dublin , formally known as the College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, was founded in 1592 by letters patent from Queen Elizabeth I as the "mother of a university", Extracts from Letters Patent of Elizabeth I, 1592: "...we...found and...
professor David Fitzpatrick used the hypothesis and the extant fragments to attempt a reconstruction of the plot of Tereus. In this reconstruction, the play begins with a either a Thracian male servant or herald on behalf of the absent Tereus speaking. This is based on fragment 582, translated by Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Hugh Lloyd-Jones
Sir Peter Hugh Jefferd Lloyd-Jones FBA was a British classical scholar and Regius Professor of Greek at Oxford....
as "O sun, light greatly honoured by horse-loving Thracians. Procne and the chorus enter. Fitzpatrick believes that the chorus is made of Thracian women sympathetic to Procne. Tereus arrives with the mute Philomela, either lying about Philomela or, as Fitzpatrick believes is more likely, having disguised her as a male servant while claiming that Philomela is dead. The recognition scene likely took place on stage, where Philomela's tapestry reveals the rape and mutilation, and possibly Philomela's identity. Based on fragment 588, in which a character is told not to fear because if he speaks the truth he will "never come to grief," Fitzpatrick believes that a male character confirms what happened to Procne. After a choral interlude, Procne plans her revenge. After Tereus learns of the cannibalism he hunts the sisters. In the reconstruction, the revelation that the women and Tereus were turned into birds is related by a deus ex machina
Deus ex machina
A deus ex machina is a plot device whereby a seemingly inextricable problem is suddenly and abruptly solved with the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability, or object.-Linguistic considerations:...
, who Fitzpatrick believes was most likely Apollo
Apollo
Apollo is one of the most important and complex of the Olympian deities in Greek and Roman mythology...
. Lloyd-Jones agrees that fragment 589 appears to be a statement from a deus ex machina. This fragment states that Tereus is mad, but the women acted even more madly by using violence to punish him. The fragment concludes by stating that "any mortal who is infuriated by his wrongs and applies a medicine that is worse than the disease is a doctor who does not understand the trouble."
Themes
One fragment (fragment 583) appears to be a lament by Procne about the status of married women. In the Lloyd-Jones translation, this passage begins "But now I am nothing on my own. But I have often regarded the nature of women in this way, seeing that we amount to nothing." The passage goes on to note that as children living with their father girls "live the happiest life." But then they are "pushed out and sold, away from our paternal gods and from our parents, some to foreign husbands, some to barbarians, some to joyless homes, and some to homes that are opprobrious." But regardless, they must approve and be happy with their lot. Fitzpatrick believes that the tension between husband and wife was one of the themes of the play. The tension between families by marriage and families by birth may also be a theme, as by raping Philomela, Teseus betrays the trust of Procne's and Philomela's father PandionPandion
Pandion may refer to:* Pandion I and Pandion II, two kings of Athens in Greek mythology* Pandion son of Phineas in Greek mythology* Pandion, a son of Aegyptus, husband and victim of Callidice, daughter of Danaus, in Greek mythology...
.
Another possible theme is the contrast between Athenians and barbarian
Barbarian
Barbarian and savage are terms used to refer to a person who is perceived to be uncivilized. The word is often used either in a general reference to a member of a nation or ethnos, typically a tribal society as seen by an urban civilization either viewed as inferior, or admired as a noble savage...
s. Fragment 587 is translated by Lloyd-Jones as stating that "the whole race of barbarians loves money." Athenians believed Thracians to be a "stereotypical barbaric race." Fitzpatrick believes this stereotype was incorporated into Sophocles' play. Thus, the Thracian Tereus commits the barbaric acts of raping a woman entrusted by her father in his care and mutilating her. In addition, the illiterate Thracian Tereus believes that he can silence Philomela by removing her tongue, but the literate native Athenian woman and Philomela foil this through her weaving ability, weaving a tapestry that might have even included words. By using her domestic skills to denounce her rapist, Philomela uses what were considered to be her "best and most 'Athenian' side," rather than needing to use her tongue, which was considered a woman's most dangerous part. By taking revenge on her husband, Prone effectively sides with her Athenian father, which Fitzpatrick interprets as supporting Athens over foreign entities and affirming Athenian imperialism and its patriarchal society.
One of the extant fragments (fragment 590) appears to include the final lines of the play, given to the chorus
Chorus
-Musical:* Choir, a vocal ensemble* Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound; signal processors design to simulate the effect* Refrain or chorus of a song, pre-chorus may refer to bridge...
. The chorus here remarks that humans cannot know what the future will bring; that is known only to Zeus
Zeus
In the ancient Greek religion, Zeus was the "Father of Gods and men" who ruled the Olympians of Mount Olympus as a father ruled the family. He was the god of sky and thunder in Greek mythology. His Roman counterpart is Jupiter and his Etruscan counterpart is Tinia.Zeus was the child of Cronus...
. The sentiments expressed are similar to those in the final chorus of Sophocles' Ajax and Euripides' Medea
Medea (play)
Medea is an ancient Greek tragedy written by Euripides, based upon the myth of Jason and Medea and first produced in 431 BC. The plot centers on the barbarian protagonist as she finds her position in the Greek world threatened, and the revenge she takes against her husband Jason who has betrayed...
. The similarities to Medea also extend to the plot turning on a mother killing her child in order to take revenge on her husband.
Influences
In Aristophanes The Birds, presented in 414 BCE, a Tereus appears in the form of a hoopoe. Two other characters mock Tereus' beak, and Tereus responds "That's outrageous the way Sophocles treats me – Tereus! – in his tragedies." A second hoopoe appears onstage and Tereus claims that this second hoopoe is the son of Phiocles' hoopoe, and that Tereus is the grandfather of this second hoopoe. Since Tereus has claimed to be Sophocles' character, the implication is that Philocles' character derived from Sophocles' Tereus.The story of Tereus, Procne and Philomela was retold in several later versions, most movingly in Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
's Metamorphoses, but these versions are believed to be based on Sophocles' play. Although Philomela had lost her tongue and Procne presumably would have lamented her deceased son, Ovid reversed which birds the women were changed into: in Ovid, Philomela was turned into a nightingale and Procne into a swallow.