ϵὔνους καὶ πóλϵι σωτήριος / μϵ́τοικος: Metics, Tragedy, and Civic Ideology

e e e eu u u u[[[[n n n no o o ou u u u" " " " k k k ka a a ai i i i;;;; p p p po o o ovvvvl l l le e e ei i i i s s s sw w w wt t t th h h hvvvvr r r ri i i io o o o" " " " / m m m me e e evvvvt t t to o o oi i i ik k k ko o o o" " " ": Metics, Tragedy, and Civic Ideology Geoff Bakewell I. Introduction: Heraclidae 1030–07 Towards the end of Euripides’ play The Children of Heracles (Heraclidae ), the Argive ruler Eurystheus, once persecutor of Heracles’ children and now himself a captive, is led on stage. After defending his conduct in an exchange with the vengeful Alcmene, he expresses his willingness to die. He will not entreat Athens to block his impending execution, but rather accepts his fate and makes a promise to the chorus of Athenian citizens (The Children of Heracles 1030–37):1 qanovnta gavr me qavyeqæ ou| to; movrsimon, diva" pavroiqe parqevnou Pallhnivdo": kai; soi; me;n eu[nou" kai; povlei swthvrio" mevtoiko" aijei; keivsomai kata; cqonov", Preliminary versions of this paper were presented at the University of Iowa, Gustavus Adolphus College, and the Crossing the Stages conference on ancient drama in Saskatoon. I thank Martha Habash, Brian Hook, Robert Ketterer, and the anonymous referees at Syllecta Classica for their invaluable assistance. 1 Textual references to the Heraclidae are based on J. Wilkins, Euripides Heraclidae (Oxford 1993). All translations are my own. 44 Syllecta Classica 10 (1999) toi'" tw'nde dæ ejkgovnoisi polemiwvtato", o{tan movlwsi deu'ro su;n pollh'/ ceri; cavrin prodovnte" thvnde. toiouvtwn xevnwn prouvsthte. Once I have died, you will bury me where it is fated, in front of the divine virgin at Pallene; and I will always lie beneath the ground, a city-saving metic kind towards you, but most warlike to the descendants of these ones [the Heraclidae], whenever they come here with great force, betraying the favor you did them. Of such a sort are the foreigners you sponsored. In his recent commentary on the play, Wilkins devotes little space to the term ‘metic’ (mevtoiko") at line 1033. He does not consider its use here to have any particular connection with the resident aliens of fifth-century Athens. On the contrary, he cites with approval a claim of Friis Johansen and Whittle: “the term mevtoiko" is not uncommon in tragedy, but there the context nowhere requires the meaning ‘metic ’, and as a rule excludes it.”2 Yet this apolitical understanding of the term seems too limited, as the findings of other scholars suggest. Whitehead, for instance, comes to a different conclusion, holding that “all three major tragedians were drawing upon the characteristics and implications of a contemporary institution when they illustrated their ideas by reference to the metoikos and the metoikia.”3 This article argues for a political interpretation of the term mevtoiko" in the passage above. Audience demographics and lexical 2 Aeschylus: The Suppliants, vol. 2 (Copenhagen 1980) 490, cited in Wilkins (above, note 1) 190. In this regard Wilkins, Friis Johansen, and Whittle are intellectual heirs of Sir Richard Jebb, who claimed that “in poetry metoikos is simply one who comes to dwell with others: it has not the full technical sense which belonged to it in Athens : a resident alien” (Oedipus Tyrannus [Cambridge 1893] 70). 3 D. Whitehead, The Ideology of the Athenian Metic (Cambridge 1977) 34–35. See also P. Gauthier, Symbola: Les étrangers et la justice dans les cités grecques (Nancy 1972) 111: “il faut bien que les comparaisons des poètes aient été immédiatement compréhensibles aux auditeurs. La réserve sera donc celle-ci: moins que sur la situation réelle des métèques, les poètes nous renseignent sur les opinions, les voeux, les craintes des Athéniens à l’égard des métèques.” (“The comparisons of the poets must have been immediately comprehensible to their listeners. The qualification will be this: the poets inform us about the opinions, wishes, and fears of the Athenians with...