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9. Hippolytos: An Exceptional Play
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9 Hippolytos: An Exceptional Play The negative critical response to Euripides' work has produced the alternating postures of defense, apology, and attack that ran in a repetitive pattern through the first chapter of this book. But most critics have been willing to exempt a select minority of plays that seemed to lack the faults of the rest. The list has fluctuated. H. Patin, representing the orthodox French critical position for the nineteenth century, favored Jphigeneia at Aulis, evidently largely because of its associations with the Racinian version.1 The prominent and fascinating personality of the heroine of the Medeia has often caused that play to be seen as a heroic drama of character and has thus prompted its inclusion in the canon of select Euripidean plays.2 And those who study tragic form sometimes include Herakles among the plays answering the essential demands of the genre as established by Euripides' predecessors.3 But time and again two plays, Hippolytos and Bakchai, are chosen as the I. See Patin ([1841-43] 1873, 1:42): Jphigeneia at Aulis and Hippolytos are, unlike other Euripidean plays, "parfaitement conformes II I'esprit de la tragedie antique," i.e., that of Sophokles and Aischylos. 2. See Kitto ([1939]1961): Medeia and Hippolytos are contrasted with "war plays and social tragedies" (250) and both are later put into a group with Bakchai (372-73). Rivier ([1944] 1975, 30) selects five plays as "Ies plus acheves sous Ie rapport de I'unite dramatique," Alkestis, Medeia, Hippolytos, Jphigeneia at Aulis, and Bakchai. This selection is cited by Lesky (1956, 156). 3. Dawe (1968, 94) includes Herakles in a group of plays that match the formula of a noble person going to his doom; the other two are Hippolytos and Bakchai. See also Conacher (1967, 13 -14), who places Herakles third, after the exceptional Hippolytos and Bakchai, but recognizes its differing approach to myth. 277 278 Part II: Four Plays exemplars. Once installed in this special category they are separated from the other fifteen plays, while at the same time they are rather paradoxically allowed to represent Euripidean work as a whole.4 Some critics have been frank about the basis for their selection: of all the Euripidean plays, these two seem to fit the general rule of tragedy best, to be, as Kitto puts it, "more regular . "5 It will be the purpose of this chapter to determine what in Hippolytos creates the impression of "regularity" and what this work's relation is to the general artistic stance that I have already established for Euripides. In taking this approach, I do not intend to diminish the artistic stature of what some feel to be the best Euripidean play. But understanding of the other plays and of Hippolytos has often been impeded by the imposition on this play of the role of archetype: an archetype that is also an exception is a dangerous critical tool.6 The result has often been merely another attempt to fit Euripidean drama to the Sophoclean model. Although Hippolytos and Bakchai do seem to belong together in their ability to "satisfy" some demands that we are accustomed to make of serious dramas, the plays are quite dissimilar, in structure and in technique.7 Bakchai, it has often been pointed out, makes an archaic impression, first, because it features a very dominant chorus whose lyrics are closely connected with stage events,8 and second, because the plot develops in a spare 4. See Conacher (1967,14); Kitto ([1939]1961, 370-71) lists the two along with Medeia as being "best constructed"; Lesky (1956, 201), on Bakchai; Pohlenz ([1930]1954,269) on Hip· polytos. Verrall (1905, 167 n.2) suggests that these two plays may fonn an exception to his ironic rule, in that the appearances of the gods may not be intended to be shams; cf. Norwood (1908, 157). For parallels between the two plays, see Bellinger (1939, 26); Dodds (1944, xli); Merklin (1964, 12). A. W. Schlegel (1846, 171) praised Hippolytos and Bakchai for their unity and judged them the best of the plays. 5. (1939) 1961,203, on Hippolytos. See Spranger (1927.1,19): in contrastto other plays, in Hippolytos events follow "in correct dramatic order." Martin (1958, 276): Hippolytos is more perfect than the other plays and is "un tout acheve." Hooker (1960, 45): of all the Euripidean plays this play confonns most closely to Aristoteles' ideal of drama. Pohlenz ([1930] 1954, 269) remarks that "der aussere Aufbau" of Hippolytos resembles Sophoclean...