Ioanna Karamanou

The myth of Alope in Greek Trajedy

In: L'antiquit classique, Tome 72, 2003. pp. 25-40.

Citer ce document / Cite this document :

Karamanou Ioanna. The myth of Alope in Greek Trajedy. In: L'antiquit classique, Tome 72, 2003. pp. 25-40.
doi : 10.3406/antiq.2003.2505
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/antiq_0770-2817_2003_num_72_1_2505

The Myth of Alope in Greek Tragedy

This paper deals with the dramatic treatments of the myth of Alope based on
the fragments of the Euripidean tragedy and on the sources for the plays of Choerilus
and Carcinus. It aims to examine the development of the myth as reflected in these
three tragedies, each one of which belongs to a different age of dramatic production,
and attempts to explore to what extent each play mirrors its own era1.
The tale of Alope belongs to the tradition of Eleusis. She was daughter of
Cercyon, a famous wrestler2 who ruled in Eleusis and was said to be a son of
Poseidon3 or Hephaestus4 or of Branchus and a Nymph named Argiope5. According
to Hyginus6, Alope was seduced by Poseidon and gave birth to a boy, whom she
wrapped in a piece of her dress and gave to her nurse to expose. The baby was
suckled by a mare and found by a herdsman, who agreed to give it to another
shepherd, but he kept the royal clothing of the baby for himself. However, the second
herdsman did not agree to take the baby without the clothes and the matter came
before the king for judgement. Cercyon recognized his daughter's dress and
threatened the nurse, who revealed that the baby was Alope's. Cercyon then ordered
the baby to be exposed once again and Alope to be enclosed till she died7. The boy
was nursed by a mare for a second time8 and found by shepherds, who named him
Hippothoon for this reason. Theseus killed Cercyon on his way to Athens and gave
Hippothoon his grandfather's kingdom.
At the end of Hyginus' account, it is attested that Alope's corpse was
transformed by Poseidon into a spring in Eleusis, which according to Hesychius, was
also called 9. Judging also by the Amymone of Aeschylus (fr. 13-15 R.), it

1
I am much indebted to Professor P.E. Easterling for her valuable guidance during my
MPhil research at Cambridge and to Professor H. van Looy for his very useful suggestions and
for encouraging me to publish this paper. I am also grateful to the A.S. Onassis Foundation and
the Cambridge European Trust for supporting my research financially.
2
Scholia in Iliad XXIII, 726a Erbse; Plato, Laws VII, 796a.
3
Pausanias, I, 14, 3; scholia in Euripides, Phoenician Women, 150 Schwartz.
4
Hyginus, Fab., 38, 238.
5
Scholia in Plato, Laws VII, 796a Greene; [Apollodorus], Ep. I, 3.
6
Fab., 187.
7
Cf. also Fab., 238.
8
Cf. also Aelian, Historical Miscellany XII, 42; Etymologicum Magnum, s.u.
Gaisford (473, 46-48): ; Hyginus, Fab., 252.
9
Hesychius, s.u. (, 3239 Latte). According to this Lexicon, Alope was also
the name of a town in Argos, which does not seem to be related with this mythical figure; cf.
also Iliad II, 682. There is an ambiguous testimony by Pherecydes (3 F 147 Jacoby) for the
L 'Antiquit Classique 72 (2003),
p. 25-40.

26

I. KARAMANOU

seems that girls seduced by Poseidon were related with the creation of springs10.
Moreover, in mythology, the transformation of people into springs often comes as the
result of unfortunate love-stories, as in the case of Alope11.
Pausanias refers to Alope' s grave in Eleusis, which was possibly the place
where she was enclosed alive12. He attests that her tomb was close to a spot called
, where Cercyon forced the passers-by to wrestle with him
and ended up killing them. He was one of the brigands killed by Theseus on his way
to Athens13. Aeschylus wrote a satyr play named Cercyon (fr. 102-107 R.), where he
must have presented Cercyon' s defeat by Theseus14. Apart from technical terms of
wrestling, the fragments do not provide any information on the plot of the play15.
Hippothoon was worshipped in Eleusis16 and became the hero of the
Athenian tribe Hippothoontis11 . There was another version of the story, told by Istros
naming of a town in Thessaly after Alope, which cannot be trusted, due to the vagueness and
the shortness of the fragment; cf. Jacoby's comment ad loc.
10 According to Ps.-Apollodorus (II, 1, 4), the spring of Lerna gushed out at the spot
where Poseidon guided Amymone to throw his trident and brought to an end the drought that
plagued Argos. Cf. Hyginus, Fab., 169, 169a; Vatican Mythographer, I, 45. Cf. also TrGF
III ad loc. and D.F. Sutton, The Greek Satyr Play, Meisenheim, 1980, p. 14-15.
11 Other typical cases are those of Kleite, Acis, Aura, Pyramus and Thisbe and Selemnos;
cf. P.M.C. Forbes Irving, Metamorphosis in Greek Myths, Oxford, 1989, p. 299-305.
12 I, 39, 3; cf. R. Seaford, "The imprisonment of women in Greek Tragedy", JHS 1 10
(1990), p. 81.
13 Bacchylides, Dithyramb, 4, 26-27 and H. Maehler's comment ad loc. (in Die Lieder
des Bakchylides. Zweiter Teil: Die Dithyramben und Fragmente, Leiden, 1997); Lucan, Zeus
Rants, 21; DiODORUS, IV, 59, 5; Hyginus, Fab., 38; Isocrates, Helen, 29; Ovid,
Transformations VII, 439. Theseus is said to have killed Cercyon by applying a new wrestling
technique. Cf. Pausanias, I, 39, 3; Scholia in Plato, Laws VII, 796a Greene; Scholia in
Lucan, Zeus Rants, 21, 13 Rabe; [Apollodorus] Ep. I, 3. Callimachus in the Hecale
probably presented Cercyon as having killed Hecale's son (fr. 49 Hollis / 350, 294, 368
Pfeiffer); cf. A.S. Hollis' note (in Callimachus' Hecale, Oxford, 1990, p. 200) and
A. Barigazzi, "II dolore materno di Ecale (P.Oxy. 2376 e 2377)", Hermes 86 (1958), p. 462471; F. Vian, "Gnies des passes et des dfils", RA 39 (1952), p. 145-151 observed that
"spirits of passages" such as Cercyon, Sinis and Skiron were sons of Poseidon and fathers of
nymphs of water or woods, who often perished because of these evil spirits. The story of these
brigands was also associated with benign sons of Poseidon, such as Theseus and Hippothoon.
14 This is indicated by the term (fr. 102 R., Hesychius, I, 4171 Latte:
o ). Cf. also F. Lasserre in . Seidensticker (ed.)
Satyrspiel, Darmstadt, 1989, p. 269.
15 Cf. Sutton, o.e. (n. 10), p. 17 and H.J. Mette, Der verlorene Aeschylos, Berlin, 1963,
p. 41-42.
16 IG II2, 1149, 1153; Pausanias, I, 38, 4; Hesychius, s.u. (II, 830
Latte). Hippothoon's connection with the tradition of Eleusis is attested in HESIOD, fr. 227 M.W.
17 Pausanias, I, 5, 1; Harpocration, s.u. (I, 24 Dindorf); Hellanicos (4 F 43
Jacoby) and Jacoby's comment ad loc; Etymologicum Magnum, s.u. (369, 15-22
Gaisford); Demosthenes, 60, 31. On Hippothoon's cult in Eleusis and the Hippothoontis,
U. Krn, Die zehn attischen Phylenheroen, Berlin, 1976, p. 181-182. For archaeological

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

27

and later by Plutarch18, according to which Hippothoon's father was not Poseidon but
Theseus. This was probably invented for political reasons, in order to demonstrate the
Athenian control over Eleusis, considering that this significantly decreased at the end
of fourth and the first half of the third century BC19.
Despite the lack of evidence for dramatic treatments after the fourth century
BC, references from sources such as Hyginus, Pausanias, Plutarch and Hesychius
indicate that the myth of Alope was known in later Antiquity.
Three playwrights are known to have dealt with the tale of Alope, focusing on
different aspects of the myth, in accordance, no doubt, with their particular dramatic
goals and the social, political and cultural conditions of their age.
The Alope is the sole surviving title from Choerilus' plays (TrGF I 2 F 1). If
we accept the statement in the Suda that female characters were introduced by
Phrynichus, whose first attested performance was in 511/08, then the Alope of
Choerilus must have been produced after that date20. Moreover, it seems to me that
the historical fact of the establishment by Cleisthenes of ten Athenian tribes in the
place of four in 508/7 (in the archonship of Isagoras)21 could have urged Choerilus to
deal with the story of Hippothoon's birth. Consequently, this date may tentatively be
regarded as a terminus post quern for the production of the play. It has been suggested
that it could be a satyr play, though there is no indication pointing in this direction22.
evidence regarding Hippothoon as tribe-hero, cf. U. Kron in LIMC V, i (1990), s.u.
'Hippothoon', p. 472.
18 Istros, 334 F 10 Jacoby; cf. Jacoby's note ad loc. and Plutarch, Theseus, 29.
19 Cf. U. KRON in LIMC I, i (1 98 1), s.u. 'Alope', p. 572; G.E. Mylonas (Eleusis and the
Eleusinian Mysteries, Princeton, 1961, p. 152) mentions that in the Hellenistic period
Macedonian garrisons were installed in Athens and Eleusis, while the rules of the Mysteries
were adjusted to the new status quo. Eleusis' bonds with Athens were restored by Antigonus
Gonatas in ca. 255 BC; cf. H. Lohmann, Der neue Pauly III (1997), s.u. 'Eleusis', col. 985
with further bibliographical references.
20 Suda, s.u. (IV, 762 Adler), TrGF I 3 1. However,
may simply mean feminine masks; cf. A. Pickard-Cambridge, Dithyramb,
Tragedy and Comedy, Oxford, 19622, p. 64 and The Dramatic Festivals of Athens, Oxford,
19682,p. 190.
21 Herodotus, V, 66, 69; cf. G. Nenci, Erodoto, le Storie, Vol. V, Milan, 1994 and
W.W. How, J.A. Wells, A Commentary on Herodotus, Vol. I, Oxford, 1912, ad loc. Cf. also
Aristotle, Athenian Constitution, 21, 1-2.
22 W. Steffen (Satyrographorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Poznan, 1952) tends to
classify as satyr plays dramas which are not demonstrably satyric. D.F. Sutton ("A handlist of
satyr plays", HSCP 78 [1974], p. 1 14), as well as N. Pechstein (in Seidensticker, o.e. [n. 14],
p. 416) doubt the satyric character of the play. On the features of satyr plays, Sutton I.e.
(n. 22), p. 109-110. Moreover, one should not deduce from Pausanias' vague description of it
as a (I, 14, 3) that it was a satyr play, as he uses this term for plays which were actually
tragedies, e.g. the Pleuroniae of Phrynichus (X, 31, 4). He only uses the term "tragedy" in
more specific contexts (I, 21, 1: , , 21, 2:
, , 3, 3: ). On the use of the term ,
W.M. Calder, "The dramaturgy of Sophocles' Inachus" GRBS 1 (1958), p. 139 and
H. Richards, "On the word ' CR 14 (1900), p. 393.

28

I. KARAMANOU

The sole source of information on the play is Pausanias (I, 14, 3), who attests
that Choerilus presented Cercyon as son of Poseidon and brother of Triptolemus from
the same mother. We are not in a position to know if and in what way Cercyon' s
blood relationship with the famous Eleusinian hero may have affected the plot of the
play or if Triptolemus himself did play a role in the tragedy23. Anyhow, Triptolemus'
role in the rituals of Demeter associated with Hippothoon's attested relation to the cult
of Eleusis24 may have given a religious dimension to the play compatible with the
strong bonds of earlier tragedy with cult25. Although the Mysteries belonged to the
Athenian sacred rites even from Solon's time26, the foundation of Hippothoontis apart from serving political purposes - would have reinforced the religious ties
between Athens and Eleusis, especially since the assignment of the ten tribes to ten
heroes aimed to foster Attic cult27. As far as our evidence goes, the figure of
does not seem to appear in the /ope-tragedies of Euripides and Carcinus,
which suggests that Choerilus could have offered a distinctive version of the myth by
writing a play possibly with religious overtones.
Moreover, it is worth noting that the Alope of Choerilus is the only tragedy
where it is clearly attested that Cercyon was Poseidon's son. The contact of Alope
with Poseidon would have thus been incest, since he was also her grandfather, but one
cannot know whether Choerilus focused on this theme and perhaps it is unlikely that
he did, considering that criticism towards gods was not - so far as we know - a
feature of earlier tragedy28.

23 It seems likely that Triptolemus played a certain role, otherwise Pausanias would have
no reason to mention Choerilus' play in a context focusing on Triptolemus. On the figure of
Triptolemus, cf. G. Schwarz in LIMC VIII, i (1997), s.u. "Triptolemos", p. 56-68.
24 Hippothoon was chosen by Cleisthenes as eponymous hero, because he was deeply
rooted in the cult of Eleusis; see U. Kron in LIMC V, i. p. 468. G. Schwarz (Triptolemos.
Ikonographie einer Agrar- und Mysteriengottheit, Graz, 1987, p. 109-110, 391) describes a
crater in Palermo (ca. 470 BC) presenting Triptolemus, Demeter, Persephone, Keleus and
Hippothoon as participating in libations in Eleusis. Although Hippothoon's participation in the
Mysteries is attested by fourth-century evidence (IG II , 1672), his early involvement in
Eleusinian cult is clear from the illustration already mentioned and from further vase-paintings
(fig. 93, 94, 99, 100 and 108 in LIMC VIII s.u. "Triptolemos") dating from 470 BC; cf. also
U. Kron, LIMC V, i, p. 470-471.
2
The close connection of earlier tragedy with religion and cult is clear from plays such
as Aeschylus' Edonoi (fr. 57-67 R.), Bassarae (fr. 23-25 R.), Hiereiae (fr. 86-88 R.),
Toxotides (fr. 241-246 R.) and certainly Eumenides. Moreover, Sophocles' Triptolemus
(fr. 596-6 17a R., possibly his earliest play, ca. 468 BC) evidently had close connection with
Eleusinian cult.
26 Andocides, On the Mysteries, 111.
27 Cf. . Kearns, The heroes of Attica, London, 1989, p. 80, 82-83. Although the new
tribes served primarily political and military purposes, they received religious expression
through the institution of the eponymous heroes; cf. R. Parker, Athenian Religion. A History,
Oxford, 1996, p. 102-104, 118-121.
28 Parallels of conscious incest appear in Sophocles' Thyestes in Sicyon (fr. 248-252 R.,
cf. H. Lloyd- Jones, Sophocles' Fragments, Cambridge Mass., 1996, p. 106-107) between
Thyestes and his daughter Pelopia and in Euripides' Aeolus (fr. 13a-41 Kannicht / 1-33 Jouan-

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

29

Bearing in mind that the Alope is the only title known from Choerilus' plays,
Pausanias'
testimony may indicate that a rough outline of the tragedy was known in
the age of the Second Sophistic, though it may not tell us anything about the survival
of the play by that time.
While the evidence for Choerilus' play is too scanty, the fragments and the
other sources of information on Euripides' tragedy give more scope for exploration of
its character and objectives.
Dating the Euripidean Alope (or Cercyon29) may turn out to be very difficult, as
the small sample of fragments is inadequate to enable the dating of the play on the
basis of resolution-rates30. A clue to its date may be provided by the reference in
Aristophanes' Birds (produced in 414 BC), if it actually concerned the Alope of
Euripides and not the myth of Alope in general31.
Due to the limited preserved fragments and the meagre evidence on the tragedy
itself, the reconstruction of the play proves to be hard and to a certain extent based on
speculations. Moreover, one has to be quite cautious in terms of the sources, as many
of the fragments come from later lexicographical works and Stobaeus' compilation
and thus entail problems of location in the play. Nevertheless, the fragments of the
Alope seem to fit the account of Hyginus {Fab., 187), who was very likely to have had
the Euripidean plot in mind, considering the popularity of Euripides in later antiquity.
On the other hand, the plot of Choerilus' play is unlikely to have been so popular in
the era of Hyginus, as to be reflected in his narrative, whereas the tragedy of Carcinus
presents crucial differences from Hyginus' account in terms of the treatment of the
story32. However, the mythographer cannot be completely trusted for the
of Euripides' play, as he may well have been influenced to a certain extent by
later, unknown versions of the myth33.

Van Looy) between Macareus and his sister Canace. Both cases are criticized in R.ATO, Laws
VIII, 838c; cf. Scholium (Greene) ad loc.
29 This title is attested by Eustathius in Iliad VI, 474 (fr. 106 Kn. / 2 Jouan-Van Looy)
and Eustathius in Od. XXI, 79 (fr. 107 Kn. / 3 Jouan-Van Looy).
30 Cf. M. Cropp, G. Fick, Resolutions and Chronology in Euripides. The Fragmentary
Tragedies, London, 1985, p. 73 and F. Jouan, H. Van Looy, Euripide. Les Fragments de
Aigeus Autolycos, Vol. I, Paris, 1998, p. 139; T.B.L. Webster {The Tragedies of Euripides,
London, 1967, p. 4) classified the Alope among the metrically "severe" plays of the early
period of Euripides (455-428 BC). Cf. also T.B.L. Webster, "Chronological notes on
Euripides", WS 79 (1966), p. 1 19.
31 V. 558-559: /
. . Dunbar {Aristophanes' Birds, Oxford, 1995, p. 376) assumes
that Aristophanes' audience was likely to have known Euripides' Alope.
32 Cf. W. Schmid, O. Sthlin, Geschichte der griechischen Literatur III, Munich, 196 12,
p. 592-593.
33 For the sources of the myth, cf. above, p. 25-27.

30

I. KARAMANOU

The prologue-scene was possibly spoken by the Nurse, who would have
referred to the , according to the tradition of Euripidean prologues34.
The poet uses his gift of imagery35 to describe through the Nurse's words Poseidon's
union with Alope (fr. 106 Kn. / 2 J.-V. L.36: ). Her
abandonment by the god is described in strong language (fr. 107 Kn. / 3 J.-V. L.:
' ' / )37.
the Nurse would have gone on to say how she exposed the new-born and
would have probably finished her speech by introducing - as often in Euripides38 the chorus, consisting of athletes (fr. 105 Kn. / 1 J.-V. L.:
/ ), a choice explained
by the fact that Cercyon was a famous wrestler39.
The arbitration-scene on the infant's garments, which may have followed,
could have had the form of an between the two shepherds in front of the
king as judge. However, unlike the fragments of Cercyon' s subsequent confrontation
with his daughter, which are probably the remnants of a formal debate, there is no
further textual indication that the arbitration-scene had actually the form of a
rhetorical contest. Anyhow, the significance of the scene in the lay-out of the play is
evident, as it would have provided a peripeteia and a potential recognition. The rare
verb 40 (fr. 113 Kn. / 10 J.-V. L.) may have come from one of the herdsmen in
terms of the exchange of the baby. Fr. 105a Kn./ 4 J.-V. L. ( )
could have belonged to this scene expressing Cercyon' s admonition "do not be
gloomy", addressed to the herdsman who was reluctant to give up the baby's
34 For the function of the prologue in Euripides, cf. indicatively W. Jens, Die Bauformen
der griechischen Tragdie, Munich, 1971, p. 34-38 and H. Erbse, Studien zum Prolog der
Euripideischen Tragdie, Berlin, 1984, p. 291.
35 On metaphor as an element of Euripidean imagery, S. Barlow, The Imagery of
Euripides, London 1971, ch. 6.
36 For the sake of brevity, I shall be referring to the edition of Euripides' fragments by
F. Jouan and H. Van Looy as J.-V. L.
37 In terms of content, these words could have been spoken by Alope, as it is difficult to
imagine her being silent throughout the course of the play and not even once complaining to
Poseidon at being deserted. However, it seems to me that her outburst would have possibly had
the form of a monody, like Creusa's in Ion 859-922 (cf. below, p. 34-35) rather than be spoken
in iambic trimeters, as in this fragment.
3
The chorus is introduced by the speaker of the narrative prologue in Hippolytus, 54-57;
Suppliants, 8; Iphigenia in Tauris, 63; Orestes, 136-139; Bacchae, 55-63; Cyclops, 36-40.
39 The chorus of athletes seems bizarre in a tragedy that focused on a suffering female
figure. Instead, one might expect to find a chorus perhaps consisting of young women
sympathetic to Alope' s situation. Hence, the chorus of athletes may have functioned in my
view as a secondary chorus, as in the Hippolytus, where the sub-chorus consists of the
attendants of Hippolytus and its entrance is announced by the prologue-speaker {Hipp. 54-57).
Cf. also W.S. Barrett, Euripides' Hippolytos, Oxford, 1964, p. 167-168.
40 LSf: 'to sell, to be carried away and sold'; Hesychius, s.u. (, 79 Latte):
, , . This verb is used in Euripides' Cyclops, 12 to describe
Dionysus' being sold by pirates; cf. the notes of R. Seaford, Euripides ' Cyclops, Oxford, 1984
and R. Uscher, Euripides ' Cyclops, Rome, 1978 ad loc.

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

31

clothing41. The baby's garment, torn from Alope's dress, would have raised the
suspicions of Cercyon, who must have found out the truth possibly by interrogating
the Nurse; the latter may have tried to justify herself with the excuse of the alliance
between women (fr. 108 Kn. / 5 J.-V. L: )42.
Nevertheless, it seems to me that this fragment could also fit into the prologue-speech
of the Nurse, where she could have given her reason for helping Alope in the form of
a gnome.
The confrontation of Alope with her father must have been the climactic scene
of the play and seems to have had the form of a second , particularly a trialdebate43. Cercyon's words (fr. 1 10 Kn. /6 J.-V. L.: ', ,
/ / ' '
) constitute, in my view, a formal proem with an aggressive tone44. He
must have strongly reproached Alope (fr. 109 Kn. / 7 J.-V. L.: '
) and possibly finished his rhesis with a gnome45 on well
brought-up girls who yet dishonour their families (fr. Ill Kn. / 8 J.-V. L.:
/ ; /
)46. If Hyginus can be trusted, Cercyon
must have immured her and ordered a second exposure of the baby. The hapax
legomenon adjective 47 (fr. 1 12a Kn. / 9 J.-V. L.) may refer to Alope's
prison48. In view of the meaning of the word, it could be assumed that she was
enclosed alive in her tomb, like Antigone49.
According to Hyginus, the baby was twice exposed, twice nursed by a mare
and twice found by herdsmen, who named him Hippothoon. It seems rather
Hippothoon'
implausible sthat
vindication
this motif
by appeared
Theseus would
twice presuppose
in the plot his
of the
growing
play50.up Particularly,
first, which
41 Cf. Webster, o.e. (n. 30), p. 94.
42 Cf. Webster o.e. (n. 30), p. 94 and I.A. Hrtung, Euripides restitutus sive scriptorum
Euripidis ingeniique censura II, Hamburg, 1844, p. 177; J.G. Welcker {Die griechischen
Tragdien mit RcLicht auf den epischen Cyclus II, Bonn, 1839, p. 714), on the other hand,
attributed these words to Cercyon, but the does not seem to match his expected harsh tone.
43 Cf. C. Collard, "Formal Debates in Euripides' Drama", G&R 22 (1975), p. 62-64. On
the agon-scenes of the Alope, J. Duchemin, L'Agon dans a tragdie grecque, Paris, 1968,
p. 83.
44 On the formality of proems in Euripidean debates, M. Lloyd, The Agon in Euripides,
Oxford, 1992, p. 26.
45 On Euripides' habit of ending the speech with a gnome, Lloyd, o.e. (n. 44), p. 28.
46 For the social dimension of this concept, see below, p. 32-34.
47 LSf: 'unsunned'. According to Hesychius, s.u. (, 1285 Latte):
.
48 Cf. Jouan-Van Looy, o.e. (n. 30), p. 146.
49 G. Guidorizzi (Igino, Miti, Milan, 2000, p. 468) points out that this kind of death was
imposed on women who had gone against the rules of the oikos or the regime, like Alope and
Antigone respectively.
50 Cf. . BORECKY, "La tragdie Alop d'Euripide", in Studia Antiqua (in honour of A.S.
Salac), Prague, 1955, p. 84-85.

32

I. KARAMANOU

could not have happened in the course of one play51. It has been suggested that a deus
ex machina, perhaps Poseidon52, may have appeared, foretelling Alope's
into a spring, Cercyon's just punishment by Theseus and the baby's future (his
second nursing by the mare, his being named Hippothoon and his succeeding Cercyon
in the kingdom of Eleusis, on the basis of Hyginus' narrative). Apart from being
Alope's seducer and Hippothoon's father, Poseidon seems to me to have been the
most appropriate deus ex machina also because he was closely related to Athens53.
The god's rhesis may have provided two kinds of aetiologies54; a local for the
spring in Eleusis named after Alope, as well as Hippothoon's becoming an
hero of Attica. Moreover, it is worth wondering whom the deus ex machina would
Theseus' killing Cercyon may have been announced in a
have addressed. In my view,
messenger-speech preceding the appearance of the god. This would have satisfied the
audience's feeling of justice55 and accords with the traditional image of Theseus as
the benevolent hero rescuing the powerless from cruelty56. Theseus himself may have
then appeared on stage, been addressed by the deus ex machina and been induced to
accomplish the god's will concerning Hippothoon. An eloquent parallel is provided at
the end of Euripides' Suppliant Women51 .
As noticed above, Aristophanes in the Birds5* refers to the seduction of royal
daughters by gods, mentioning Alope and Semele. Alope, just like Creusa, Danae,
Melanippe and Antiope were main figures of Euripidean tragedies, who gave birth to
children of divine paternity and suffered for their conduct. Euripides handles the plot
of such plays mainly in two different ways: he either focuses on the conflict between
the young woman and her father (Alope, Danae, Wise Melanippe, as well as Auge,
though Auge' s baby was not of divine origin) or on the later recognition between the
mother and the grown-up children, which happens at a crucial point of the play
(Captive Melanippe, Ion, Antiope and Hypsipyle, although Hypsipyle's twins are not
divine offspring)59.
Cf. L. SCHAN, tudes sur la tragdie grecque dans ses rapports avec la cramique,
Paris, 1926, p. 250.
52 Cf. Welcker, o.e. (n. 42), II, p. 717; SCHAN, o.e. (n. 51), p. 250; Borecky, Le.
(n. 50), p. 84-85; Webster, o.e. (n. 30), p. 94; Jouan-Van Looy, o.e. (n. 30), p. 141-142.
53 Poseidon was worshipped in Athens as Hippios and Poseidon Erechtheus; cf.
W. Burkert, Greek Religion (translated by J. Raffan), Oxford, 1998, p. 136, 138, 221.
54 On Euripides' predilection for aetiologies in the epilogues of his plays, J. Wilson,
"The etymology in Euripides' Troades", AJPh 89 (1968), p. 69-71.
55 Cf. Aristotle, Poetics XIII, 1453a. 1-2 and G.F. Else, Aristotle's Poetics: The
Argument, Cambridge (Mass.), 1957, p. 369-371.
56 Cf. below, p. 36.
57 V. 1 183-1226: , , ' ' , /
' . V. 1227: ' , .
58 V. 558-559; cf. Scholium (Holwerda) ad loe. and Dunbar, o.e. (n. 3 1), ad loe.
59 This distinction was made by Borecky, I.e. (n. 50), p. 86-89 and more systematically
by M. HUYS, The tale of the hero who was exposed at birth in Euripidean tragedy: a study of
motifs, Leuven, 1995, p. 40-41. Euripides managed to provide both directions of the plot in the
Melanippe-tragedies, which also occurs in the Tyro-plays of Sophocles (fr. 648-669a R.).

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

33

Apart from the motif of seduction and exposure, there are similarities in the
structure of the tragedies of each group. The child is either exposed (in the Alope) or
hidden by its mother (in the Wise Melanippe and the Auge and perhaps also in the
Danae60) and when the truth comes out, it is either persecuted by its grandfather (Wise
Melanippe) or exposed by him alone (Alope) or with his mother (Danae, Auge61). The
baby survives, in some cases nursed by a friendly animal, after which it is named62.
Nevertheless, unlike Melanippe, who escapes death thanks to the intervention of her
mother Hippo ex machina, and Danae and Auge, whose survival may have been
foretold at the end of each tragedy63, Alope is left to die. Her death-sentence by her
own father constitutes a deliberate act of murder of a blood- kin and thus a 64,
known from early plays of Euripides, such as the Medea65.
U. VON Wilamovitz-Moellendorff (Kleine Schriften I, Amsterdam, 1962, p. 455) suggested
that Tyro could have been the model of the Captive Melanippe. The plays were possibly
produced some time between 416-412 BC, but one cannot know which one was earlier; cf. also
Webster, o.e. (n. 30) p. 150. On the Melanippe-tragedies, H. Van Looy, Zes verloren
tragedies van Euripides, Brssel, 1964, p. 185-304; C. Collard, M.J. Cropp, K.H. Lee,
Euripides. Selected Fragmentary Plays I, Warminster, 1995, p. 240-280; F. Jouan, H. Van
Looy, Euripide. Les fragments de Bellrophon Protsilas Vol. VIII, 2e partie, Paris, 2000,
p. 347-395. For the recognition-scene in the Hypsipyle, cf. G.W. Bond, Euripides' Hypsipyle,
Oxford, 1963, p. 18-19.
60 There is no evidence on how the Euripidean Danae kept the existence of her baby as a
secret. Early mythography (Pherecydes 3 F 10 Jacoby) attests that Perseus was hidden from
his grandfather until the latter heard the child's shouts, while the other basic source for this
legend, the account of Ps.-Apollodorus (II, 4, 1), does not explain how Acrisius discovered
the infant Perseus.
61 According to Strabo (XIII, 615), Euripides presented Aleos as putting Auge and
Telephus in a chest, which he cast adrift.
62 Hippothoon < (Etymologicum Magnum, 473, 46-48
Gaisford); one of Melanippe' s twins was named Boetus (< ' ; fr. 489 . / 12 J.-V. L.), because it was suckled by a cow, when their mother hid
them in the cowshed. On Euripides' , . Van Looy, "
", in Zetesis, Album Amicorum (in honour of Prof. Dr . de Strycker), Antwerp,
1973, p. 348-366 and U. VON Wilamowitz-Moellendorff, Analecta Euripidea, Berlin, 1875,
p. 190. On the protection of the exposed child by Nature, CG. Jung, C. Kerenyi, Introduction
to a science of Mythology. The myth of the divine child and the Mysteries of Eleusis, London,
1951, p. 120-121. The miraculous suckling of infants by animals is often said to occur in
Founders' Myths. Cf. E.S. Me Cartney, "Greek and Roman lore of animal-nursed infants",
Papers of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters 4 (1924), p. 38-39. Typical
instances are those of Hippothoon, Romulus and Remus and Cyrus (Herodotus, I, 122). Cf.
How-Wells, o.e. (n. 21), p. 108.
63 For the end of the Wise Melanippe, the Danae and the Auge, cf. Webster, o.e. (n. 30)
p. 149-150, p. 95 and p. 240 respectively. For the Danae cf. also R. ALION, Quelques grands
mythes hroques dans l'uvre d'Euripide, Paris, 1986, p. 154 and Jouan-Van Looy, o.e.
(n. 59), p. 47-71.
64 Aristotle, Poetics XIV, 1453b, 38-39.
65 Aristotle, Poetics XIV, 1453b, 27-29: o
,
.

34

I. KARAMANOU

The conflict between father and daughter in Euripidean drama deriving from
the father's effort to guard his daughter's chastity is explicitly reflected in the Alope
(fr. Ill Kn. / 8 J.-V. L.: ), the Danae (fr.
320 Kn. / 7 J.-V. L.: ) and the Wise Melanippe (fr. 485
Kn. / 7 J.-V. L.:
, ;). The seclusion of women depended on the belief that
female honour involved sexual purity, and male honour assumed the responsibility of
defending the purity of the female members of his family66. Social and moral norms
thus imposed the seclusion of women as well as infant exposure. Illegitimate
offspring were abandoned with tokens of their birth, in hopes of rescue by a childless
person67. Such instances, indicative of the low social state of women, prompted
Euripides to criticize repeatedly in his drama the "relative situation of men and
women"68.
The motif of gods seducing and abandoning women as expressed in the Alope
(fr. 107 Kn. / 3 J.-V. L.) shows remarkable similarities with Creusa' s impassioned
monody in the Ion (859-922). Both Alope and Creusa are paying the price of their
conduct with a god, by whom they have been deserted69 (Alope:
'
' , Ion 880:
. 912: < > )70. The appearance of a beloved
66 Cf. D. Cohen, Law, Sexuality and Society, Cambridge, 1994, p. 140-142; S. Des
Bouvrie, Women in Greek Tragedy. An Anthropological Approach, Oslo, 1990, p. 44-59 and
P. Walcot, "Greek attitudes towards women: the mythological evidence", in I. McAuslan
and P. Walcot (eds), Women in Antiquity, Oxford, 1996, p. 91-93. For the requirement of
feminine chastity in the Attic polis, cf. G. Clark, Women in the ancient world, Oxford, 1989,
p. 17-19. The dignity of the oikos was considered to concern the community as a whole, since
any male child born by a married Athenian woman would receive the rights of Athenian
citizenship; cf. S. Blundell, Women in ancient Greece, London, 1995, p. 125-126. According
to Plutarch (Solon, 23, 2), Solon introduced a law allowing fathers to sell into slavery their
unmarried daughters who had lost their virginity. However, this law seems unlikely to have
applied in the fifth and fourth centuries; cf. D.M. Macdowell, The Law in Classical Athens,
London, 1978, p. 80; Aeschines (i 182) mentions how a father imprisoned his seduced
daughter in a deserted house together with a horse; cf. Scholium (Dilts) ad loc. On imprisoned
women in tragedy, Seaford, I.e. (n. 12), p. 76-81.
67 Cf. Clark, o.e. (n. 66) p. 24 and F. Kudlien, "Kindesaussetzung im antiken Roman",
Groningen Colloquia on the Novel 2 (1989), p. 30-35. An interesting discussion of the terms
and denoting infant exposure has been made by M. Huys, " and
: The terminology of infant exposure in Greek Antiquity", AC 58 (1989), p. 190197.
68 See P. Vellacott, Ironic Drama: a Study of Euripides ' Method and Meaning,
Cambridge, 1975, ch. 4 and R. Seaford, "The structural problems of marriage in Euripides", in
A. Powell (ed.), Euripides, Women and Sexuality, London, 1990, p. 159-163.
69 Cf. above, p. 30 and n. 37.
70 On Creusa's monody, K.H. Lee, Euripides' Ion, Warminster, 1997, p. 256-264;
A.P. Burnett, "Human Resistance and Divine Persuasion in Euripides' Ion", CPh 57 (1962),
p. 95-96; N.S. Rabinowitz, Anxiety veiled: Euripides and the Traffic in Women, Ithaca, 1993,
p. 197-201; J. Larue, "Creusa's Monody", TAPhA 94 (1963), p. 128-136; W. Schadewaldt,
Monolog und Selbstgesprch, Berlin, 1966, p. 217-218.

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

35

person even in a dream, though insubstantial on its own, can provide help and
to deserted women, as expressed in this particular fragment of the Alope and
in Megara's appeal to Heracles (HF v. 495: )71.
In terms of reception, the motif of the seduction and of the exposed child
occurs in New Comedy transformed from the divine to the human level72. In his Vita
Euripidis73 Satyros attests that the rape of virgins, the exposure of children and the
recognition through rings and necklaces74, which constituted the main elements of
New Comedy, were formulated by Euripides. Menander's Epitrepontes presents
thematic similarities with both Euripides' Auge (rape in a festival, exposure of the
baby and final recognition75) and the Alope; the arbitration-scene of this tragedy
seems to have inspired a similar scene in Menander's play76. The argument between a
shepherd and a slave for some trinkets found with an exposed child in the presence of
an arbitrator, who is coincidentally the baby's grandfather, strikingly resembles the
Euripidean play. Webster pointed out that Menander may have borrowed this scene
from Euripides, but managed "to remodel the tragic original in the idiom of
comedy"77. The arbitration-scene, after which Menander's play is named, must have
engaged the audience's interest, since Smicrines, just like Cercyon, is unknowingly
deciding the fate of his own grandson. Moreover, it serves, as in the Alope, the
reversal of action and a potential recognition78, which yet occurs gradually in the
course of the comic play.

71 Cf. S. Barlow, Euripides ' Heracles, Warminster, 1996, ad loc. and M.R. Halleran,
Stagecraft in Euripides, London, 1985, p. 85. 1 owe this parallel to Professor J. Diggle.
On Menander's realism, N. Zagagi, The Comedy of Menander. Convention, Variation
and Originality, London, 1994, ch. 5 and T.B.L. Webster, Studies in Later Greek Comedy,
London, 1970 , p. 196. However, according to the Suda, Anaxandrides was the first comic poet
to present rape of virgins in plays with non-mythological subject (s.u. , ,
1982 Adler). Elements like rape, intrigue and recognition occur in Middle Comedy in the form
of mythological parody. Some typical examples are the Aeolus of Antiphanes (cf. H.G.
Nesselrath, Die attische mittlere Komdie, Berlin, 1990, p. 205-209), the Helen of
and the Auge, the Ion and the Danae of Eubulus. On these plays of Eubulus, cf. Hunter
(1983) ad loe. (R.L. Hunter, Eubulus. The Fragments, Cambridge, 1983).
73 P.Oxy. IX, 1 176, fr. 39, col. vii.
74 On the (the recognition tokens) in Euripidean plays, Huys, o.e. (n. 59),
p. 198-238.
75 Cf. W.S. Anderson, "Euripides' Auge and Menander's Epitrepontes", GRBS 23
(1982), p. 171-177 and L. Bodin, "Notes sur YArbitrage de Mnandre", RPh 32 (1908), p. 74.
76 V. 218-375; cf. A.W. Gomme, F.H. Sandbach, Menander. A Commentary, Oxford,
1973, p. 302-317. U. VON Wilamowitz-Moellendorff (Menander. Das Schiedsgericht,
Berlin, 1925, p. 132), on the other hand, suggested that the arbitration-scene may have been
Menander's own inspiration and that a mythographer aware of Menander's play may have
integrated this scene into the story of Alope; this seems quite daring and not convincing
enough.
77 See T.B.L. WEBSTER, Studies in Menander, Manchester, 1950, p. 169.
78 On Menander's dramatic technique, J.M. Walton, P.D. Arnott, Menander and the
Making of Comedy, London, 1996, p. 120.

36

I. KARAMANOU

The social issue of the state of women in Euripides' age seems thus to have
been reflected in his Alope. Nevertheless, the figures of Theseus and Hippothoon
suggest that the dramatist may have also given political overtones to his play, in
accordance with the political concerns of fifth-century tragedy.
Hippothoon was son of a god strongly related to Athens and survived
miraculously, twice nursed by a , Poseidon's animal79. His vindication is
attained with the help of Theseus, another son of Poseidon, who is regularly presented
in tragedy as symbol of Athenian virtue and fighter against cruel and unjust forces80.
In the Suppliants of Euripides, the so-called ' 81, and even before
then, in the Eleusinians of Aeschylus (fr. 53a, 54 R.), his and persuasion
serve justice for the benefit of the weak82.
However, the political significance of Theseus' role in the A lope must be
further explored. One may wish to refer here to the parallel between Theseus and
Cleisthenes, as drawn by Kearns83. Theseus had unified Attica by establishing the
84,
Hippothoon'
s role
justinastheCleisthenes
tradition of
didAthens
later through
is defined
his by
tribal
Theseus
reform.
in Moreover,
myth and
tragedy and by Cleisthenes in historical reality. It seems thus quite tempting to
suppose that the figure of Theseus in the Alope may have mirrored Cleisthenes.
Though the tribal reform had taken place much earlier than Euripides' time, it is not
unlikely that this dramatist may have wished to praise such a significant event for the
history and the institutions of Athens.
If Hippothoon' s future as one of the heroes of Attica was foretold in the exodus
of the tragedy, it could have possibly been expressed, as suggested above85, in the
form of an aetiology, which is quite common in Euripidean drama and seems to have
been appreciated by the audience86. An aetiology also appears at the end of the /on87,
where Athena foretells the hero's destiny as king of Athens and father of the founders
79 On Poseidon's epithet Hippios, Pausanias, VII, 21, 7. Cf. Burkert, o.e. (n. 53),
p. 138-139 and 221, and F. Schachermeyer, Poseidon und die Entstehung des griechischen
Gtterglaubens, Bern, 1950, p. 15-18, 26-29, 35-36, 156-157, 162.
80 Cf. Euripides' Theseus; Webster, o.e. (n. 30), p. 105-109 and Jouan-Van Looy, o.e.
(n. 59), p. 145-165.
81 On the political dimension of Euripides' Suppliants, G. Zuntz, The Political Plays of
Euripides, Manchester, 1955, p. 3-6, 16-20, 71-78.
82 On Theseus' figure in the Suppliants, C. Collard, Euripidis Supplices, Groningen,
1975, I p. 30, II, p. 207-212. For the of Theseus in the Heracles as well as in the
Oedipus at Colonus, cf. S. Mills, Theseus, Tragedy and the Athenian Empire, Oxford, 1997,
p. 140-159 and p. 164-185 respectively.
83 Cf. Kearns, o.e. (n. 27), p. 1 19.
84 Thucydides, II, 15. Cf. A.W. Gomme, A Historical Commentary on Thucydides II,
Oxford, 1956 and S. Hornblower, A Commentary on Thucydides I, Oxford, 1991, ad loc. and
also R.S. SIMMS, "Eumolpos and the Wars of Athens", GRBS 24 (1983), p. 197, 206-208 and
R.A. PADOUG, "Eleusis and the union of Attica", GRBS 13 (1972), p. 140-143.
85 Cf. above, p. 32.
86 Cf. G.M. . Grube, The Drama of Euripides, London, 1 96 1 , p. 78-79.
87 V. 1571-1594.

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

37

of the four early Athenian tribes88. Similarly, the epilogue of the Alope, which could
have been spoken by Poseidon, might have aimed to glorify the unity of the polis
within the framework of the ten tribes. Hence, the exodus of the Alope, as that of the
Ion, may have illustrated the prominence of Athens based on the traditions that
defined the profile of the city itself.
In the next era, the Alope of Carcinus (TrGF I 70 F Ib) evidently differs in
action and character-drawing from the earlier treatments of the story, pointing to a
change in taste and sentiment.
The sole source for this tragedy is the Nicomachean Ethics*9, in a context
where Aristotle points out that suicide is pardonable only when it comes as the result
of a struggle against excessive sorrow or pain. He then presents two similar cases of
humans succumbing to extremely painful situations, which is described in the Poetics
as 90: Philoctetes in Theodectes' tragedy of the same title, who yields to the
physical pain caused by the snakebite on his hand and Cercyon in Carcinus' Alope,
whose mental suffering leads him to renounce life. According to one of the scholiasts
of the EN91, Cercyon asked Alope to name her seducer, reassuring her that she would
not be harmed. After finding out that it was Poseidon, he struggled with his grief, but
could not live with it and committed suicide.
This piece of information, however brief it may be, raises some interesting
questions on the plot of the tragedy. First and foremost, the figure of Cercyon appears
here to be diametrically opposite to that in the Euripidean play. As far as our evidence
goes, not only is Alope not sentenced to death by her father, but she does not even
seem to stand trial for her seduction. Instead, Cercyon insists on finding out the name
of her seducer, perhaps in order to avenge the offence. The notion of that
appears repeatedly in the text of the Scholia signifies unauthorized sex with a citizen's
wife, widowed mother, unmarried daughter or sister, and the seducer could be
prosecuted either for seduction or for rape92. On discovering who the seducer was, it
seems to me that Cercyon committed suicide possibly because he may have realized
that he could not avenge such a disgraceful act, since it was impossible for him to
oppose a god. Moreover, it is worth wondering whether Cercyon was presented in the

88 Cf. Lee, o.e. (. 70), p. 317 and A.S. Owen, Euripides'Ion, Oxford, 1939, p. 179-180.
89 VII, 7 (1150b 6-10); cf. F. Dirlmeier, Aristoteles Nikomachische Ethik, Darmstadt,
1979, ad loe.
90 XI, 1452b 1-2: . Cf. also Metaphysics IV, 21 (1022b 1521).
91 Anonymus in Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Heylbut).
92 Cf. K.J. Dover, Greek Popular Morality in the Time of Plato and Aristotle, Oxford,
1974, p. 209 and Blundell, o.e. (n. 66), p. 125. If a citizen caught a seducer in flagrante with a
female member of his family, he had the legal right to kill him on the spot; Demosthenes, 23,
53-55; Lysias, 1; Plutarch, Solon, 23, 1. Cf. D.M. Macdowell, Athenian Homicide Law in
the Age of the Orators, Manchester, 1963, p. 72, 77, 80 and Macdowell, o.e. (n. 66), p. 124125.

38

I. KARAMANOU

play as Poseidon's son, as in this case the god's contact with Alope would have been
incest, making Cercyon' s suffering even more unbearable93.
One cannot judge Carcinus' tragedy regardless of the moral beliefs of his era.
Taking one's own life due to disgrace or extreme grief cannot be characterized as
softness () in Aristotle's view94. Similarly, Plato in the Laws95 accepts
suicide under the pressure of an unavoidable misfortune or of an irremediable
that one cannot live with. In fifth-century tragedy, especially in Sophocles and
Euripides, suicide is usually committed due to fear of humiliation and 96.
Carcinus' deviation from the Euripidean play is quite clear; the cruel and
tyrannical figure of Cercyon in Euripides who violently kills his own daughter is
substituted for a human and dignified person struggling against his misfortune and
finally succumbing to it. Similarly, Medea appears in Carcinus' tragedy of the same
title (TrGF I 70 Fie) as having hidden her children possibly to protect them, instead
of killing them. By smoothing away the shocking aspects of the Euripidean versions,
Carcinus possibly criticized deliberate murders committed between blood-relatives97,
and this may be indicative of the sensitivity and refinement that characterized the
tragedy of his era. As noticed, in the fourth century the decline in political power,
followed by quietism, and the various social, political and economic changes seem to
have made people reluctant to face harsh and inhuman dramatic situations98.
Cercyon' s struggle for self-mastery must in my view have been theatrically
effective, as it would have probably given scope for histrionic virtuosity, to judge by
the prominence of actors during the fourth century99. While in Euripides' play Alope

93 As observed above (p. 28), the only play where it is clearly attested that Cercyon was
Poseidon's son is the Alope of Choerilus.
94 Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics VII, 7 (1150b 6-10); cf. the Scholia of Aspasius and
Heliodorus (Heylbut) ad loc.
95 IX, 873c 2-7.
96 Cf. indicatively Sophocles' Ajax, 854-865, Euripides' Hippolytus, 392-430, 716-721,
767-775. However, in Heracles, 1351 suicide is opposed to . On the suicidemotif in Sophocles, J.C. Opstellten, Sophocles and Greek Pessimism (translated by
A.J. Ross), Amsterdam, 1952, p. 120-121, 195 and in tragedy in general, A.G. Catsouris,
"The suicide-motif in ancient drama", Dioniso 47 (1976), p. 5-36. On disgrace leading to
suicide, Dover, o.e. (n. 92), p. 18, 168, 236-237. For views on suicide from classical to modern
times, cf. G. Noon, "On suicide", JHI 39 (1978), p. 371-386. On the attitude towards suicide
from Plato to the Stoics, R. Hirzel, "Der Selbstmord", ARW 1 1 (1908), p. 417-476.
97 Aristotle in the Poetics (XIV, 1454a 2) does not think highly of wilful murders of
close relatives, as treated in fifth-century tragedy. Cf. above, p. 34 and n. 65. On fourth-century
deviations from classical treatments, G. Xanthakis-Karamanos, Studies in Fourth-century
Tragedy, Athens, 1980, p. 35-46 and T.B.L. Webster, "Fourth-century Tragedy and the
Poetics", Hermes 82 (1954), p. 300-301.
98 Cf. P.E. Easterling, "The end of an era? Tragedy in the early fourth century", in
A.H. Sommerstein, S. Halliwel, J. Henderson, B. Zimmerman (eds), Tragedy, Comedy and
the Polis, Bari, 1993, p. 562 and Xanthakis-Karamanos, o.e. (n. 97), p. 41.
99 Cf. Aristotle, Art of Rhetoric III, 1, 33 (1403b 33). Cf. also P. Ghiron-Bistagne,
Recherches sur les acteurs dans la Grce antique, Paris, 1976, p. 154-171; E. Csapo,

THE MYTH OF ALOPE IN GREEK TRAGEDY

39

is the suffering and thus the sympathetic figure, in Carcinus it is Cercyon's that
appears to be in the kernel of the tragedy.
It is also noteworthy that there is no hint of Alope's pregnancy, as far as our
evidence goes. It is thus worth wondering whether Hippothoon had a role in Carcinus'
tragedy or if the scholiast did not refer to Alope's pregnancy due to ignorance of
details of the play, which seems more likely to have happened. Nevertheless, judging
by the decrease in the political engagement of postclassical tragedy100, it is possible
that Carcinus was not concerned to involve an Attic hero in his story. Instead, he
seems to have concentrated on the moral issue of a girl's seduction and its
for her social environment, by writing a play characterized by sensitivity and
pathetic scenes.
The discussion made so far has focused on the character and objectives of the
three known dramatic treatments of the Alope story.
Apart from Hyginus, who provides a main source for the action most probably
of Euripides' tragedy, the references by later sources to the spring in Eleusis named
after Alope and the place where she was immured indicate that certain aspects of the
myth survived in later Antiquity.
As regards the play of Choerilus, its date may be connected with the
establishment of the ten Athenian tribes by Cleisthenes (508/7 BC). The sole piece of
information provided by Pausanias that Cercyon was here presented as Triptolemus'
brother, in association with Hippothoon' s primary religious role as the eponymous
hero of the tribe Hippothoontis, may suggest a religious dimension of the play. The
remark accords with the traditionally religious character of earlier tragedy.
Hyginus'
narrative, probably referring to Euripides' version of the story, may
give the outline of the tragedy in connection with the preserved fragments. The
arbitration-scene between the two shepherds in front of Cercyon seems to have been
the key to the anagnorisis. The rare verb (fr. 113 Kn. / 4 J.-V.L.), denoting
"to sell", may have referred to the baby's exchange between the two herdsmen.
Alope's confrontation with her father is expected to have been the climactic scene of
the play. Theseus' killing Cercyon may have been announced in a messenger-speech
preceding the former's possible appearance on stage. In view of the similar epilogue
in Euripides' Suppliant Women, the deus ex machina may have addressed Theseus,
prompting him to fulfill his plans concerning Hippothoon.
As regards the development of the myth, while cult appeared to have a role in
Choerilus' play, Euripides seems to have drawn attention to the important social issue
of the state of woman and her relation to man in fifth-century Athens, as depicted in
the motifs of seduction and child-exposure. The same social environment that obliged
the seclusion of an unmarried woman to preserve her chastity {Alope, fr. 8 and Danae,
W. Slater, The Context of Ancient Drama, Michigan, 1995, p. 223-224 and J.R. Green,
Theatre in Ancient Greek Society. London, 1994, p. 62.
100 Cf. Xanthakis-Karamanos, o.e. (n. 97) p. 3-5 and H. Kuch, "Continuity and change
in Greek Tragedy under postclassical conditions", in Sommerstein, et al., o.e. (n. 98), p. 548,
551-552.

40

I. KARAMANOU

fr. 7 J.-V. L.) forced her to expose an illegitimate child (Wise Melanippe, fr. 7
J.-V. L.).
Besides the social aspect of the play, the role of Theseus may point to possible
political allusions, in accordance with the commitment of fifth-century tragedy to the
polis. Theseus may have not been merely presented as symbol of Athenian virtue and
fighter against cruelty and injustice, as generally in tragedy. It seems tempting to
suggest that his figure may have mirrored Cleisthenes, illustrating thus the unity of
Attica within the framework of the historical institution of the ten tribes. The epilogue
of the Alope, possibly spoken by an Athenian god as Poseidon, could have aimed to
glorify the traditions of Athens, as in the Ion.
As far as our evidence goes, one cannot find in Carcinus' play the political
implications traced in the tragedy of Euripides. The dramatist seems to have focused
on the moral issue of a maiden's seduction, presenting Cercyon's suicide possibly as
the result of his not being able to avenge this offence and disgrace. This conscious
deviation from Euripides' treatment may have been a criticism of the involved
in the deliberate murder of a blood-kin and at the same time possibly shifted the
dramatic interest from Alope to the suffering figure of Cercyon, providing pathetic
and theatrically effective scenes compatible with the taste of Carcinus' audience and
the sensitivity of his age.
On the basis of this study, it can be deduced that the development of the myth
of Alope, as reflected in these three dramatic versions, seems to illustrate the dramatic
trends of each era within the framework of society, polis and culture.
University College London

Ioanna KARAMANOU