From jbutrica@morgan.ucs.mun.ca Thu Oct 10 11:04:29 2002 Received: from mailscan3.cac.washington.edu (mailscan3.cac.washington.edu [140.142.32.15]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.09) with SMTP id g9AI2xFD143570 for ; Thu, 10 Oct 2002 11:04:20 -0700 Received: FROM mxu2.u.washington.edu BY mailscan3.cac.washington.edu ; Thu Oct 10 11:02:58 2002 -0700 Received: from cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (cerberus.ucs.mun.ca [134.153.2.162]) by mxu2.u.washington.edu (8.12.1+UW01.12/8.12.1+UW02.09) with ESMTP id g9AI2wnf002206 for ; Thu, 10 Oct 2002 11:02:58 -0700 Received: from [134.153.128.98] (drusus.clas.mun.ca [134.153.128.98]) by cerberus.ucs.mun.ca (8.12.3/8.12.3) with ESMTP id g9AI2qHh031226 for ; Thu, 10 Oct 2002 15:32:54 -0230 (NDT) X-Sender: jbutrica@pop.morgan.ucs.mun.ca Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <3DA5A9BB.8030503@methymna.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 15:32:59 +0100 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: James Butrica Subject: Re: Zeugma Mosaic >No, and I am now kicking myself. > >The only problem I can see in JLPB's identification is with the presence >of Icarus. I don't remember if there is evidence that Icarus was a >character in the Cretans (in addition to GLP, there are discussions in >Collard and Webster); if he was, that would certainly lend weight to the >identification. The depicted scene would lie between the two >substantial papyrus fragments we have: one of a discussion between >Pasiphae and the Chorus, I think, and the other the one in GLP that JLPB >is talking about. Page says that Icarus sang a monody in the play (attested in a scholion to *Frogs*); I thought it was one of the best reasons for associating the mosaic with the play, since Icarus doesn't otherwise seem to have much to do in mythology before Ovid. > >The other problem is the identification of the other female figure; a >chorus-leader, perhaps? If the play was Cretes (as opposed to Cressai, another lost play of Euripides), then this couldn't be a chorus-leader. She's the one unidentified character in the mosaic; perhaps she's just an attendant of the sort that royals always have. > >I don't remember enough about the staging of Greek tragedy on Roman >stages; would they ever have been on a curtained stage? The fabric >depicted at the top of the scene is certainly suggestive of a curtain; >but I have all of my stage history books packed away and never really >was strong on Roman stage history. One could also ask if the head is >part of not only Pasiphae's costume, but serving as a metatheatrical >signal, reminding the viewer that the mosaic is a depiction of a play. I'm not up on all the recent discussions of how staged dramas were represented in art (it's not a simple matter), but the curtain need not be part of the drama, only part of the picture. I know that there are South Italian vases that do seem to show comic performances going on on a stage-like platform, but I don't think that the physical environment of the theatre normally forms part of the representation of tragedy. For me, it was a nice coincidence that my very next class in "Women in Greece & Rome" (today) was to deal with, among other things, the papyrus fragment of Cretes where Pasiphae blames it all on her husband and the gods. > >The mosaic is depicted (far too small a scale, but you can see the >details JLPB is talking about) at >http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zeugma/mosa_05.html ; as you can guess, >there is a site for the program at http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/zeugma/ . > >It is worth noting that the page includes a feedback link. > >PTR > > >[Biblio: > >Collard, Christopher, ed. and tr., "Cretans" in/Euripides: Selected >Framgentary Plays, Volume I/, edited with introductions, translations >and commentaries by C. Collard, M.J. Cropp, and K.H. Lee. Warminster, >1995, pp. 53-78. > >Page, D. L., ed. and tr., "Euripides: Cretans" in /Select Papyri, Volume >III: Literary Papyri, Poetry/, texts, translations and notes by D. L. >Page. London and Cambridge, Mass., 1941, pp. 70-75; also known as /Greek >Literary Papyri/. > >Webster, T. B. L., /The Tragedies of Euripides/, London, 1967, pp. 87-92. > James L. P. Butrica Department of Classics The Memorial University of Newfoundland St. John's NL A1C 5S7 (709) 737-7914 / (709) 753-5799 (home) .