Aeschylus: ‘The Suppliant Maidens’

 We have only the first play in a trilogy by Aeschylus. Scholars still debate what the playwright was up to.

In myth, Zeus seduced or raped Io, daughter of a river god of Argos. Zeus turned Io into a heifer to protect her from his jealous wife, Hera. It didn’t work. Hera sent a gadfly, which pursued the heifer all the way to Egypt. Io regained human form and gave birth to Epaphus. In later generations, there were two brothers: Egyptus had 50 sons, and Danaus had 50 daughters. The 50 daughters, the Danaids, were pursued as unwilling brides by their cousins. The women fled to Argos, seeking protection. When Pelasgus, the Argive king, found the women in the sacred grove, he asked:

 

Who claims to be the calf of Zeus?

 

As yesterday’s note suggested, the dramatic question is whether Pelasgus and the Argives would protect the women. It was a sacred duty to protect suppliants. But if the Argives protected the women, it would mean war.

A favorite part in the play is when Pelasgus, horrified by the dilemma, seeks an easy way out. He suggests that marriage might not be a bad thing, keeping the money in the family and all. The women, speaking as the chorus, tell him that they’d rather die.

They point out the clasps and belts of their Egyptian dress and gradually make it clear that they’ll hang themselves from the statues of the gods if Pelasgus doesn’t act.

 

Chorus: Here, you know, are fine devices.

King: Tell me.

Chorus: Unless you promise —

King: What would your bands accomplish?

Chorus: Statues with new tablets to adorn.

King: Speak simply.

Chorus: From the gods to hang.

King: A whip to the heart.

Chorus: Now you understand, for eyes we gave you.

 

It’s an ancient story told well.

There are many items in this collection of notes about “one-night reads,” stories that can be read in a night. If you like those kinds of stories, these plays are hard to beat.

• Source and notes: “The Suppliant Maidens,” translated by Seth G. Benardete, is in Aeschylus II in The Complete Greek Tragedies, edited by David Grene and Richmond Lattimore; Chicago & London: The University of Chicago Press, 1956. The quotations are on pp. 16 and 22-3. Almost everything about this play has been argued, including whether it was indeed the first in the trilogy, whether the series included a satyr play (making it a tetralogy), whether the lost plays The Egyptians and The Daughters of Danaus were the second and third parts.