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3 The Prologos (Verses 1–134) The Function of the Prologos The prologos in ancient Greek tragedy is the part “spoken before” the entrance of the chorus into the theater. In its origins tragedy was a choral performance, that is, a dance with music and words centered on the pathos of some great legendary or mythical hero.1 At some point a speaker was separated out from the chorus who was to become in time the first actor. Hypokrit¯es, the Greek word for the actor (later to become our “hypocrite”), meaning “interpreter,” points to the original role of this individual, as the person who “interpreted” the events of the performance to the audience.2 In time this individual moved from being the interpreter to become the protagonist of the tragedy; later a second actor was added, and tragedy moved away from being a purely choral performance to become a conflict enacted between two characters with the chorus progressively diminishing in importance. Later still, a prologos was added to serve as an introduction to the play, in which a character could step out of the drama, or in some cases a god would appear, to specify the myth on which the drama was based and to indicate the direction of the plot. For the prologos of this play, Sophocles uses a dialogue between two of the three characters in the play, Odysseus and Neoptolemus, to give us the necessary information not only in reference to the myth but also about the strategy to be employed in this play itself. Odysseus here has two personas. He is first the informant who tells the young Neoptolemus , who has newly arrived at Troy, the information that he needs in 40 order for him to play his part in the plot and alerts us to elements that Sophocles has added to the traditional myth. But he also has a second function, as the character who will precipitate the plot. Once he has set that plot in motion by giving Neoptolemus his orders, Odysseus retires from the stage to watch the action unfold from the wings, much like the god in certain other tragedies, for instance, Athena in Sophocles’ Ajax, who makes an appearance in the prologos to inform us that we are about to witness the tragedy that issues from her own divine machinations. This prologos opens with Odysseus and Neoptolemus arriving at the island of Lemnos, a short distance by ship from Troy. Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles, has been brought from Greece to join the Greeks at Troy and has been assigned to Odysseus as his assistant to bring the wounded warrior Philoctetes back from Lemnos to Troy. The two men have just arrived from Troy, where the Trojan War is still in progress; they have moored their ship in the harbor and are now walking up the path from the harbor to the cave that has been Philoctetes’ only home for the past ten years. When the prologos is completed, Odysseus will exit, and the sailors who have been left at the harbor will enter the theater to join Neoptolemus and function as his chorus. Philoctetes has not yet made his appearance; his absence gives Odysseus the time required for him to brief Neoptolemus. As Odysseus explains the situation, Philoctetes is so consumed by his hatred of the Greek commanders, and especially of Odysseus, that Odysseus dare not be seen; hence he must remain out of sight and the whole burden of the mission must fall on Neoptolemus’s shoulders. Using force against Philoctetes is out of the question as long as Philoctetes holds the bow of Heracles, and persuasion would be equally futile. To carry out his orders and accomplish the mission, Neoptolemus is told he has no alternative but to trick Philoctetes into compliance with their wishes. Neoptolemus is an ephebe, a youth just entering into manhood, with the innocence and naïveté of youth, and at the same time assumed to be endowed by nature with the heroic virtues of his father, Achilles. Odysseus explains the trick: Neoptolemus is to create a bond between Philoctetes and himself by feigning a hatred as intense as the hatred of Philoctetes for the two sons of Atreus and for Odysseus. He is to claim that he became so enraged when the armor of his father, Achilles, which should have been his rightful inheritance, was awarded to Odysseus, and has been so abused personally by Odysseus that he has withdrawn from the...

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