Sophocles' Philoctetes and the Great Soul Robbery

8. The First Kommos (Verses 827–864)

8 The First Kommos (Verses 827–864) T he second episode comes to an end as Philoctetes sinks down into sleep. We are now given the next choral ode, but instead of a second stasimon the chorus sings this ode in the form known as a kommos. Jebb defines kommos as “properly a lyric lamentation (qrh`noı [thr¯enos]) in which one of the actors took part with the Chorus. But the name can be used in a larger sense to describe any lyric dialogue between actor and Chorus, even when the character of lamentation is not present.”1 An ode jointly sung by the actor and the chorus takes us back to that earlier time when tragedy was all choral song and its nature was all, or almost all, pure lamentation.2 This kommos, sung by the chorus and Neoptolemus, is composed of four parts: first, the strophe (vv. 827–38) and antistrophe (vv. 843–54). But between strophe and antistrophe is inserted the mesodos (the song in-between), the four verses in which Neoptolemus responds to the chorus (vv. 839–42). The kommos is then brought to a close with what was known in choral lyric as the epode (vv. 855–64). In this kommos, Neoptolemus is given only four verses, but the focus of the whole ode is to be found in those four verses. The Strophe (Verses 827–838) ”Upn∆ ojduvnaı ajdahvı, ”Upne d∆ ajlgevwn, eujah;ı hJmi`n e[lqoiı, eujaivwn, eujaivwn, w\nax: o[mmasi d∆ ajntivscoiı tavnd∆ ai[glan, a} tevtatai tanu`n. 125 i[qi i[qi moi, Paiwvn. w\ tevknon, o{ra pou` stavsh/, poi` de; bavsh/, pw`ı dev soi tajnteu`qen frontivdoı. oJra/`ı h[dh. pro;ı tiv mevnomen pravssein; kairovı toi pavntwn gnwvman i[scwn ãpoluv tià polu; para; povda kravtoı a[rnutai. The chorus opens the strophe with an ode to sleep, here personified as Hypnos and credited with the attributes of a divinity. We think of Sophocles the physician as we listen to his chorus sing this gentle song to the healing powers of Hypnos: O Hypnos, thou that knowest nothing of pain, nothing of grief, with gentle breath, be now among us, O Lord, our blessed Lord. Keep now this radiance stretched before his eyes. Come, oh come, our Healer. (vv. 827–32) “Radiance” is the word that calls for our attention. Sleep as darkness or night is a commonplace, but here we are to think of sleep as radiant light. The word used here is aigl¯e, an uncommon word in ancient Greek, rarely used after Homer and sparingly even in Homer. It is the ethereal light, the luminosity in the highest ether, where the gods abide. What has this light to do with sleep and especially with the sleep of this sick man? The lexicon, in searching for the appropriate meaning of aigl¯e in this passage, gives us “dream light as in sleep.” The lexicon’s authority might lead us to suppose that it was a commonplace of Greek thought that our dreams are lit by some kind of inner light. But we do not find this word used in such a way to refer to dreams elsewhere in Greek. This is Sophocles’ own trope. This is the light where the gods dwell, the light of healing and wholeness.3 Healing now is our theme. The metaphor suggests that sleep is a state not of unconsciousness but of a different kind of consciousness, one more in touch with heaven, since it connects us to the good, the healthy, and the beautiful. With his eyes closed in sleep, so the chorus prays, may Philoctetes behold the inner light whence healing comes. Here the chorus speaks in a new role. 126 The First Kommos While still supporting the conspiracy, unwittingly, we might say, it has changed its theme and sings now not of deceit but of healing. For the moment , like Neoptolemus himself, the chorus is forced to wear two masks, the political and the spiritual. As the play progresses, once the deception has been exposed and therefore rendered useless, healing emerges as the real agon of the play, and the chorus will have to drop its conspiratorial role entirely to become, as best it can, the sick man’s therapist. Now, however, having in its persona as nurse sung the patient to sleep, the chorus turns to the more serious business at hand, which...