Satyr and Image in Aeschylus' Theoroi Author(s): Patrick O'Sullivan Source: The Classical Quarterly, New Series, Vol.

50, No. 2 (2000), pp. 353-366 Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1558894 . Accessed: 14/04/2011 08:18
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in Great Britain 50.2 353-366(2000)Printed ClassicalQuarterly

353

SATYR AND IMAGE IN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

The enduring fame of Aeschylus as the earliest of the 'three great tragedians' has made him in effect the first dramatist of the Westerntradition, in chronological terms at least. At the same time it is worth noting that among the ancients he also enjoyed a reputation as a master of the satyr play, as Pausanias (2.13.6-7) and Diogenes Laertius (2.133) tell us. It is to this kind of drama, which comprised one-quarter of his output as tragedian, that I would like to turn, with particular focus on his Theoroi or Isthmiastai,' and its treatment of another visual medium, the plastic arts. Our fragments of this play begin with a figure presenting a chorus of satyrs with artfully wrought images made in their likenesses which bring them a startled delight. In the second discernible scene of the fragment the chorus receives vEoxLpd.. .&;oppa-ra ([c] col. ii 50), usually understood as athletic equipment, which the satyrs find rather more unsettling.2 The following piece is primarily concerned with the first scene in which the coryphaeus urges his companions to dedicate the depictions as votives on Poseidon's temple, relishing the prospect of the comical, terrifying effect these images would have on his own mother and travellers,the latter probably on their way to the Isthmian games. At least this much is clear from the papyrus (esp. lines 1-22).3 This part of the fragment has attracted a good deal of attention for the evident 'realism' of the images that excites the satyrs so much in the first place. To many, this feature has suggested a reference by Aeschylus to the rise of realism or portraiture in Greek art in the first half of the fifth century.4Here I wish to emphasize other important features in this part of the fragment. My focus will be on how Aeschylus presents these new-fangled images as potent, efficacious objects; this is clear from the opening gloss on the depictions and in the satyr-leader's response, which culminates in his decision to attach the images to the temple of Poseidon as apotropaic devices. All this, of course, comes with more than a hint of the irony one would expect from a satyr play. Some have claimed that the Theoroitells us something of Aeschylus' own tastes in 3 (G8ttingen,1985).The most recenteditionis J. Diggle,TrGFS Radt TrGF see also frr.78a-82 (Oxford1998),11-15,whichis usedhere. 2 For a usefuloverview, to vol. II of the Loebeditionof see the Appendix by H. Lloyd-Jones 8 (1955),1-13; MA, 1956),541-56.SeealsoJ.C. Kamerbeek, Mnemosyne (Cambridge, Aeschylus in thecontextof satyric discussions of the Theoroi 84(1956), 1-11. Morerecent B. Snell,Hermes to his textand include: R. Seaford, dramagenerally Maia28 (1976),209-21,andtheintroduction Phoenix31 (1977), (Oxford,1984),10-44,esp.33-9; R. Ussher, commentary, Euripides. Cyclops am Glan, 1980),esp.29-33; 287-99,esp.296-9;D. E Sutton,TheGreek SatyrPlay (Meisenheim TAPhA 124(1994),85-93. id. GRBS22 (1981),335-8. Cf.also M. Stieber, ' Lobel's is froma satyrplayhasgainedgeneral view(n. 1), 14,thatthepapyrus currency. 4 So Lloyd-Jones (n. 2), 543;G. Else,CPh53 (1958),77-8; G. Lanata,PoeticaPre-Platonica
(Florence, 1963), 139-40; H. Philipp, TektononDaidala. Der bildendeKiinstlerund sein Werkim Schrifttum(Berlin, 1968), 28; C. Faraone, Talismansand TrojanHorses. Guardian vorplatonischen Statues in Ancient GreekMyth and Ritual (Oxford, 1992), 37-8; Stieber (n. 2), 85-93; F Zeitlin in S. Goldhill and R. Osborne (eds), Art and Text in Ancient Greek Culture (Cambridge, 1994), 138-9. G. S6rbom, Mimesis and Art. Studies in the Originand Early Developmentof an Aesthetic First published by E. Lobel, The Oxyrhynchus PapyriXVIII(London, 1941) as P. Oxy. 2162;

does not testifyto the emergence thatthe fragment 1966),41-53 argued (Stockholm, Vocabulary is to an artthatis 'vividandfull of thatthe satyric of realistic response yet conceded portraiture, life'(p.45).

354

P. O'SULLIVAN

art, with not always convincing results. Apart from an unlikely belief that the Theoroi is a tragedy, Untersteiner claimed that it dealt with an agon between Theseus and Dionysus who each promoted the efficacy of sculpture and dance/poetry respectively, to conclude: 'Eschilo pone decisamente la superioritat della poesia tragica di fronte a arte.'5 Such a forma d' however finding, ogni interesting, lacks textual support and relies on Untersteiner's own conjectures to back up his claims.6 Recently Stieber has emphasized the role of realism in the images, and claims: '. .. the comic element, for the audience, arises from their own familiarity with the "novelty" [sc. of realism in works of art] and the dramatised ignorance of the characters on stage'.' This has something to recommend it and she raises some interesting points in her discussion, but her inference that the Theoroiimplies Aeschylean fondness for the 'realism'of late Archaic art over Early Classical art is not warranted by the evidence.8Nothing in the Theoroi gives an indication of any such preference, and her appeal to Ag. 416-17where we are told that Menelaus, in the absence of Helen, finds the X'dpL of hateful-likewise tells us nothing about Aeschylus' own ... KOAoaacdv EV?Odpowv predilections for one type of art over another. While the KOAooaaol may refer to late Archaic statues as Stieber and others claim,9 her assumption that Aeschylus here is 'speaking in the person of Menelaus'10cannot be demonstrated, nor does it even appear from Menelaus' point of view to be a favourablereferenceto such statuary;it is in fact the chorus who calls the statues E?4LopboL. Similarly unconvincing is Stieber's use of the late testimony of Porphyryin which Aeschylus compares his style of paean to that of Tynnichus through an analogy with sculpture." As if to clarify Aeschylus' position, Porphyry refers to an old belief that JdpXatadydA'paraappear to be more divine than do the Katva. But such a view comes to us in a vaguely worded anecdote (Porph. De Abst. 2.18), and need not be construed as Aeschylus' own:12 a... ata...
e

-al

KaLvad, YrEpLEPYwS ECpYaaLe

(sc. dpXata -ratvra tdy'yAa'a)...K.l.rEp

va Oavt.zEacOaLL te'v, OEcLov 86 8'av

OEa ihvO ,r 7TErTOL7fpLEVa, vopL?EaOaL,

7rov EXEtV.

... they say .. . that these(ancientstatues),.. . althoughsimplymade,areconsidered divine, whilethe newones,althoughadmired fortheirskilfulworkmanship, havelessof an appearance of the divine. Even if we do ascribe such a view to Aeschylus, major uncertainties remain about his preferences in styles of art, chiefly concerning the sheer vagueness of the terms The former could well refer to statues that pre-date the manuapXaLaand KaLvd. facturing of late Archaic statues, while the latter might even include them, especially if Aeschylus were a young man at the time of making this supposed pronouncement. We have no indication anyway of when Aeschylus, whose life is reckoned from c. 525-456 (TrGF 3, T B 3-5), may have expressed such an opinion. But if we cannot infer Aeschylus' personal tastes in art from the Theoroi (or elsewhere), we can still consider how the piece presents visual imagery at a time of great artistic innovation and interest in this medium. Whatever their findings, Untersteiner and Stieber are at least right in seeing that ideas about art are important in the Theoroi. It will be argued here that the satyrs' actions entail a comically Dioniso14(1951),33. 5 M. Untersteiner, 6 Ibid., 31. B Ibid.,94-9. (n. 2), 91. 7 Stieber Agamemnon Aeschylus. 9 Stieber(n. 2), 104-6, herefollowsE. Fraenkel, (Oxford,1950),ad fromhimby seeingthe statuesas portraits of Helen. loc., butdiffers " Ibid.,97-9. Stieber (n. 2), 105. to 12 As evidentin theuse of thepassive infinitive as Stieber (n. 2), 98 concedes. vodtEeOaL,

SATYRAND IMAGEIN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

355

and invokea numberof ideas overdetermined responseto theirpainteddepictions, whichimputesomeefficacyto visualimagesand artworks. foundin Greekliterature I will suggest that such use of widespread ideas makes this scene typical of satyric in particular has emphasized, drama-a mediumwhich,as Seaford involvesfrequent
comic encounters between satyrs and aspects of civilized culture.'3Indeed, the antics of Aeschylus' satyrs can be understood, as Lissarague has said of satyr plays in general, as 'a means to explore human culture through a fun-house mirror' and the Theoroican be seen to contain an element that 'plays with culture first by distancing it and then reconstructingit through its anti-types, the satyrs'.14 This playing with culture and ideas, I intend to show, is felt in the different aspects of the image that come to the fore in its reception as an object of pleasure and terror, as a toy and as a quasi-apotropaic device. Significantly more than the rise of realism in art is thus at issue in our fragments of the Theoroi.

I The early fifth century, during which the Theoroi was produced, ushers in not only major naturalistic innovations in the plastic arts, but also witnesses increased interest in the nature and effects of vision and visual imagery.15Indeed, Aeschylus himself was associated with such trends in antiquity. Aristophanes' Frogs and the Vita .'16 Vitruvius Aeschyli,for instance,link the tragedian's stage effectswith E'K7TAhrqS (Arch. 7 praef. 11-12) and Pliny (indices to books 34-5 of his HN) tell us of a number of painters, sculptors, and architects from the sixth to fourth centuries who wrote about their own works and media; and notable here is the painter Agatharchus who, Vitruvius tells us, designed a scaena for Aeschylus' dramas, and left a commentary as essentially seeSeaford to the Cyclops rustic, (n. 2), 212-13,andhisintroduction 13 Forsatyrs in J. Winklerand F Zeitlin(eds), Nothingto Do with (n. 2), 18, 21, 30-2, and F Lissarague in Its SocialContext Athenian Drama (Princeton, 1990),228-36,esp.235. Dionysos? Od.6.305-7,7.44-5;cf. Od. 19.226-31, whenglossedas a OaiCpt3 (1. 5.725,18.377,18.549; etc.). in visionand/orvisualartworks is attested Interest onwards widelyfromthelatesixthcentury (all referencesto Presocraticsand Sophists are from the sixth edition of Die Fragmente der edd. H. Diels andW.Kranz[Berlin,1951-2]), Vorsokratiker, B101a;Empedocles e.g. Heraclitus A86, A92, B23, B84, B86,B87,B89;Anaxagoras B21a;Polyclitus Bl, B2;GorgiasB3.86-8,B4, 1-980b21; B5, B26,B28,Hel. 15-19,MXG979all A29, 30, 31;Democritus A135,B5h, Leucippus on the scaenahe designedfor Aeschylus is said to 28a; HippiasA2. Agatharchus' commentary and Democritus haveinfluenced visual (Vitr.7 praef. 11). Euripides Anaxagoras incorporated artworks into some plays,e.g. the ecphrases in Ion (184-218, 1141-80),Electra(452-75), and Phoenissae thislastis a suspected butsee D. Mastronarde, Phoenix 32(1978), (1104-40); passage, of it. For 105-28 and id., Euripides. Phoenissae 1994),456-9 for detaileddefences (Cambridge, in Euripides' the prominence dramasof imageryand termsdrawnfrom artisticsources,see TheImagery S. Barlow, (London,1971),57-60withnn. of Euripides 16 See VitaAeschyli,332, 333 OCT (ed. D. L. Page). At Frogs 962-3 the K7Ar'tLS of himselfto the olderplaywright, in saying: contrasts Aeschylean styleis impliedwhenEuripides o08' '6rA"r rov ai'rois (sc. the audience).The referencehere is probablyto Aeschylean ratherthan his poetry;see 0. Taplin,TheStagecraft (Oxford,1977), of Aeschylus dramaturgy 76-7, 422-3, and A. Sommerstein, 1996), on Frogs 963. Frogs (Warminster, Aristophanes. andGorgias' rhetorical VS1.9.1parallels Philostratus, Aeschylus' theatricality style,also notedin and foritscapacity to induce Al, A4).BoththeSuda(s.v. (Gorgias antiquity 4K7E~ ~A7S Alax,Aos) visual to the dramatist's 6.11 (= TrGF Philostratus' 3, T 106)drawattention Life of Apollonius innovations onstage.
14 Lissarrague(n. 13), 235. with the powersof visualphenomena is evidentin Homericepic, especially 15 Fascination

356

P. O'SULLIVAN

about it.17 Evidence from Aeschylus' own writings similarly suggests his interest in ideas on the efficacy of visual artifice. The pivotal scene of the Septem Contra Thebas (375-719), for instance, is largely taken up with descriptions of warriors and their armour whose shield images are given special prominence. While many have dwelt on the symbolic meaning of these images for the Septem,'8 Aeschylus continually stresses their status as wrought artworks. We may note, for instance, the comment on the style of the making of Eteoclus' shield (465), or the referenceto the aurtzaroupyo's who wrought Hippomedon's shield-image (491-2), and the occurrence of terms such Parthenopaeus (559). The opening of our Theoroi fragment, then, may be taken as another example of Aeschylean interest in visual imagery and artifice, borne out clearly in the extensive number of terms invoked for the images the satyrs receive:
ELKWV, Ef3OAOV, KOpULOS, t0opq

and as KOdU/iOS

ElKWV

to describe the apparel of Tydeus (397) and shield image of

(bis), ipti7/La.

The text of the scene which concerns us runs:

ELKO[LS] OpWVTESf o
at 8' 07T77L

7rT aT veIj)]7LSqt3,

Ka-'

[ aVOpC07roV
OrE (YOL7'

fVU

7.

as, iya8El J.o. ooEAE i arpepaov eos.j..[ EawoAov evat TOUT'el77l LOPql 7 iTAfov
aKOE n'
rO dala8aAou TSL[El~f v[).'t1qa" 8ELt .Odvov. w.v.l~

4
8

] XCPEL 1.dAa. op.][.].()p.[

KOU/LOv TWoL OEWL TavT[a] of"P EVKTaia KaAAtlypa7rTrov evXaV. ++ T7l fl77pl TrfT.79L rpayfLaT' dv 7rapaaxeOoL" {-I} i8oaa ydp vw rvaabcJs a av TpVETOIT 0aOLT058cog ' q'.L'EtvaL, TOV7V 8OKOVa e CEOPEiEV OTWS q4EP77S9 gO'S'eTV.
-

12

16

877 Eta 7rOVTLou '1O)LtXOo[vOS ' 8cLza (KO7riETe

Xatp'

KI TL7TaUaaev' aaTOST77SgK[a]A77S3 [ opo?s ayyeAov, [ii]vauSov, KWAvTrop[a,

TOVS~ 4.,rrdpwv KEAEVOO .[.. r-oXiL'4L efvo[VS] H" avae,

K'1pVK'

20

Xaip'

176aUL8ov O.[ e7TL`TpoO7O[sgj[

... seeingthe likenesses not of human[making].20 And whatever you maydo, all youractions arepious. thechronology of Agatharchus, with questioned givenhisconnections "7Somehaveneedlessly Alcibiades C Alcib.17;Dem. C Meidias147;Plut.Alc. 16.4)as wellas Aeschylus; see: ([Andoc.]
A. Rumpf, JHS 67 (1947), 13; J. J. Pollitt, Art and Experience in Classical Greece (Cambridge,

PCPhS30 (1984), 1972),56, n. 15;cf. Taplin(n. 16),457,n. 4; A. Brown, passim,esp. 1-2. There is no evidence thatthepainter couldnot havebeenactivefrombefore 456to the420s,whichis all thatis required to bearout the literary testimonies.
tragddieen Grice ancienne II [Paris, 1986]). Both W. Thalmann, Dramatic Art in Aeschylus'Seven Against Thebes (New Haven and London, 1978), esp. ch. 5, and F Zeitlin, Underthe Sign of the Shield. Semiotics and Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes (Rome, 1982), passim, esp. 45, see how
'9 This is Page's emendation of the corrupt &ldc~doro, CR 7 (1957), 191. The translations of Lloyd-Jones (n. 2), 553 '.. . wrought by superhuman skill', and that of

e StoriaAnticaI (1979),95-118 (repr.as 'Les boucliersdes h6ros',in Mytheet Archeologica

18 For instance, P. Vidal-Naquet in Annali del Seminario di Studi del Mondo Classico:

the shield-sceneallegorizesthe main conflict, althoughapproaching it from quite different perspectives.

20

SATYRAND IMAGEIN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

357

be -I am greatlyindebtedto you for thesethings;for you areverykind. Listennow,everyone it my ownform,thisDaedalicrepresentation, silent... look, say [?]... this imageis more[like] lacksonly a voice.These... look [?]... Comeon!!I'mbringing thesevotives,an ornament, to dedication. It wouldgivemy mothera hardtime.One look at the god as a beautifully-painted this and she'dturnawayand screamfor sure,thinkingit'sme, the one she raised;so like me is Rulerof the Sea!Let eachof you nail this image!Hey!Look at the houseof the Earth-Shaker, a voicelessherald,a warder-off of yourown beautifulformas a messenger, of up [theimage?] on the road... Hail, lord,hail,o Poseidon,protector. travellers, .... it will halt wayfarers The view that the images in the Theoroiare satyr-maskscontinues to gain ground.21 Green sees here a play on dramatic illusion whereby actors wearing satyr-masks respond as satyrs to reproductions of those masks.22Fraenkel's suggestion that the images are made to function as painted antefixes on temple roofs is also plausible, notwithstanding Lloyd-Jones's objection that antefixes are not nailed to temples.23 Satyr faces, corresponding at least in appearance to masks, could function as antefixes in cities Aeschylus is known to have visited.24 These possibilities suggest that the Theoroiinvolves play on the use of artefacts in more ways than one. Beyond this, I wish to draw attention to how his fragment comically reworks rdTroLconcerning the responses which artworks are perceived to elicit: pleasure, deceit through illusion, and terror.All these play a role in how the satyrs exploit the efficacy of visual imagery,and are found in Homer, elsewhere in Aeschylus, and in other authors of the Classical period. The idea of painting as deceptive is found in Empedocles (B23.9), in the Dissoi The ability of painting and Logoi (3.10), and in Plato in Republic 10 and the Sophist.25

is mentionedby sculptureto bring pleasureto the onlooker,with eroticovertones,

Gorgias (Hel. 18) and Euripides (Alc 348-55; cf. Ion 231, 245-6); Xenophon (Mem. 3.10.5, 8), and Alcidamas (Soph. 27) are among many others who reiterate the pleasure-inducing aspects of visual art.26The ability of visual artifice to induce fear recurs in Aeschylus' ecphrases in the Septem (489-90; cf. 397-9) and Euripides'Electra

(469-70). Moreover,other fifth-centurytexts, such as Cratinus(fr. 75 K-A), Euripides' likethe Theoroi, comic (fr.204 K-A)involve, Eurystheus (fr.372N) andPlatoComicus
confrontations with artworks so deceptively realistic that they seem to walk and talk.27 In chronological terms these referencesand the Theoroiundermine Ernst Gombrich's
the image as T' AlaL6iAovpJ[1tvtpa. See section II below for fuller explication of my reading of

confirmed Stieber (n. 2), 88:'. .. not madeby humanhands'seemto me tenable, by the gloss on the firstline.
21

in AncientGreek (Berlin,1963),165;Ussher(n. 2), 297; Sutton(n. 2), 29; J. R. Green,Theatre

Society (London, 1994), 45. P. E. Easterling in The CambridgeCompanionto Greek Tragedy,ed.
22 Green (n. 21), 45-6.

See: E. Fraenkel, PBA 28 (1942), 245; Snell (n. 2), 6; H. Mette, Der vorloreneAischylos

use of masksin stage forthe self-referential 1997),49. As a parallel (Cambridge, P E. Easterling fr.205 K (= Fr.218 K-A). action,Metteand Usshercite Cratinus' Seriphioi to the earlyfifth modelfromGela,datable LIMCVIII.2,s.v.'Silenoi' fig. 167for a satyric cf. also figs 166, 168,170. century; 25 One of Plato's R. 10.598cl-599a4, in his criticisms of painting: Soph. bugbears 602c10-d4; 234b5-10, 235d5-236c7.In the SophistPlato consignsvisualarts to the realmof misleading
24

23 Fraenkel (n. 2), 543. (n. 21), 245;cf. Lloyd-Jones

for discussion see J. Pollitt, The Ancient Viewof GreekArt (New appearances, or faVaaUTLUKq; Haven and London, 1974), 46-7. See A. Rouveret, Histoire et imaginairede la peinture ancienne (Paris, 1989), 115-27 for fuller accounts of Plato's views of aKLayptaa. 26 Cf. also Democritus B194.

27 See J. C. Kamerbeek Pindar,0. 7.52 with Plato Comicus,fr. 204 (n. 2), 4, who compares fr. 372, whichhe takes to be a satyrplay and the K-A; and Sutton (n. 2), 62 for Euripides, to be Silenus. addressee

358

P. O'SULLIVAN

views, famously put in his 'Reflections on the Greek Revolution', that 'the thrill and shock which the first illusionist images must have caused ... did not happen before Plato's lifetime' and that Plato's 'outburst against the trickeries of painting was an outburst against "modem art" '.28 Yet, although Gombrich does acknowledge that the 'Greek revolution' in depicting illusionistic images begins around the middle of the sixth century, he neglects the Theoroi altogether.29 In any event, these other dramatic texts all mention (cognates of) Daedalus, whose handicraft is invoked to explain the statue's abilities to move and speak or at least its startlingly lifelike qualities.30Such parallels cast some light on Aeschylus'mentioning of r6 AdaLt8Aov [L[tlrp a (7) which underscores the 'realism' of the images that so excites the satyrs. But it is worth going further to focus on how Aeschylus presents the perceived effects of such realism, and how these are evident in the response of the satyrs in the Theoroi. Typical features of satyrs onstage, as scholars have noted,31 are their comic or marvel (rE'pas) that becomes encounters with a (semi-)divine invention (Eoipr~ta) incorporated into human civilization, as is attested elsewhere in the Theoroi([c] col. ii 49-52). In another Aeschylean satyr play, PrometheusPyrkaeus (fr. 207), one satyr is about to have his beard burnt when trying to embrace fire, on seeing it for the first time.32In the Sophoclean Dionysiskos (frr. 171-2) satyrs become acquainted with wine, Dionysus' invention, with no doubt predictably disastrous results. Satyrs are also present at the making of Pandora in Sophocles' Sphyrokopoi(or Pandora= frr.482-6), the model from which the race of women is sprung, according to Hesiod (Th. 590).33 The Ichneutae (frr. 314-18) involves a comic response to lyre-music played by its inventor, the infant Hermes. Here the satyrs experience K7TA1r6tr (fr. 314.142-4), and Silenus runs off in terror when he hears it (205-9). But, through the god's nurse, Cyllene, Sophocles stresses the charm and pleasure that Hermes derives from the music (325-7):
KaL rovto A6tr4[s] EoT' cLKEUrTPOV KaL lTapabVK[T]77p[Lo+v KELVWL POVOV, xa[LIPELS' &OVpwv KaL TL 7Ppoawv[cv3'Aos etqowvov C'a[LIpELyadp at'?r0v a'o'ALua iqs' A[t]Pas-.

And thisis his onlyremedy himselfand forgriefandcomfortto his soul,andhe enjoysamusing him in harmony with it. voicingsome song. For the shiftingtone of the lyresimplytransports This is consistent with the pleasure-giving effects of music found in Homer (esp. II. 9.189, 18.526; Od. 1.347, 8.44-5, 8.536-43, etc.) and, appropriately enough, the Homeric Hymn to Hermes (esp. 420-6, 455, 480-6).35 Indeed, the qualities ascribed to music in the Ichneutae recur in the Classical period in views on the effects of poetry
28 See E. Gombrich, Art and Illusion (London, 19722),ch. 4, 127. 29 Ibid., 127; cf. 128-39.

of theseand otherpassages wherereference is madeto the apparent 30 For usefuldiscussion ability of Daedalus'sstatuesto move, see S. Morris,Daidalosand the Originsof GreekArt Hecuba(Warminster, (Princeton,1992),ch. 8, esp. 221-37. As C. Collard,Euripides. 1991),on 836-40 suggests,Hecubaapparently refersto Daedalus'speaking whichrecallthose automata, madeby Hephaestus (I1.18.376). see Snell(n. 2), 8-9; Seaford to E. (n. 2), 212-13,216-17,andhis introduction 3' Forinstance,
Cyclops (n. 2), esp. 36-7; cf. Ussher (n. 2), esp. 291-3, and 297-8; E Lissarrague (n. 13), 235, whose views are accepted by Easterling (n. 21), 41. Sutton (n. 2), 157, n. 455 is unduly skeptical of this as a feature of satyr plays, but is well countered by Stieber (n. 2), 91, n. 12. 32 As the context of Plutarch'squotation makes clear (Mor. 2.86e). 33 As Faraone (n. 4), 102 notes. 3 I print here Diggle's OCT text. 5 For more on the pleasurable, beguiling, and deceitful effects of music and song in Homer and early epic, see W Schadewaldt, VonHomers Weltund Werk(Stuttgart, 19593),81-5; Lanata

SATYR AND IMAGE IN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

359

and /vXaywyla.36 Sophocles' comic treatment of the and rhetoric, such as EK7TA7rtLS effects of this new-fangled music is perhaps the most telling parallel afforded by other satyric dramas to the Theoroi, where a similar confrontation takes place, this time involving the effects of painted, skilfully wrought images of satyrs themselves.

1I The fragment opens with an interlocutor addressing the satyrs and referring to the likenesses as o' KaT' dvOpoTrrov9. .. (1). Straightaway this puts the depictions on a divine or superhuman level, like the other attributes of civilization traceable to various gods in satyiic drama, and some parodic overtones may be detected as well. Similar language on the divine provenance of great artworks was used, for instance, by Achilles who, on seeing and handling his newly made armour, delights in the gifts of the god (II. 19.18-19):
GOv dyAad 'Scpa. reprrTro ' EV XcLp'aPLv EXWOV avrdp ITEL~ bpfavLVJLaL rTEardpiro SaaSaAa Ae~aawov,

He took delightas he heldin his handsthe gloriousgiftsof the god. Butwhenhe haddelighted works... himselfin his heartlookingat the cunningly wrought Here Sat~aAa indicates the images on the shield, recalling what Hephaestus put on it It is true that Achilles experiences (Ii. 18.479, 482), and which give Achilles rmpSr. turn from it in fear (Ii. his armour and the Myrmidones when seeing XdAos 19.14-17); more will be said on these features below, but for the moment it is worth considering the aspect of pleasure in his response and how it might relate to the satyric reaction in the Theoroi. Apart from experiencing pleasure, Achilles expresses his appreciation of the divine artistry behind the new armour (19.21-2): OT TLELKES' oV' '/Lr7ep E/177, rdv/t OvirAaEs ITdpv %poroV py' E/ItEV d&avdrwov, ~vSpa reAaaaL.' Lpvq 'Motherof mine,a god has givenme theseweaponssuchas are fittingto be the worksof the gods,whichno mortalmancouldproduce.' In the Theoroi the satyr certainly responds enthusiastically to his gift, and, like Achilles, rejoices on seeing the artwork by expressing his gratitude to the interTp' opdpOwv ydp Et (3)-and seeing the gift as a 7i-VvCO'ao kE0AW locutor-KprT' beautifully painted offering: KaAAtypa7rrrov EvXV (12). We see, then, another form of rS here. As well, both Achilles' mentioning of the skill of Hephaestus and rEp Homer's reference to the god's works as SatSaAa are echoed in Aeschylus' phrase -r
(n. 4), 6-13, 16-17, who also rightly links music's effects in the Ichneutae(325-7) to what Gorgias attributes to Ad'yo-(Hel. 8), apropos of its joy-giving and grief-banishingcapacities (p. 154); W J. Verdenius in G. B. Kerferd (ed.), The Sophists and their Legacy (Wiesbaden, 1981), 121-3; G. B. Walsh, The Varieties of Enchantment (Chapel Hill and London, 1984), ch. 1; Z. Rito6k, Mnemosyne 42 (1989), 333-42. C. Segal, in R. Lamberton and J. Kenney (edd.), Homer's Ancient Readers (Princeton, 1992), 3-9, 22-3, 29. Critias B25.28; cf. Gorgias Pal. 4 36 For IKTArlLS, see Thucydides on Pericles' rhetoric (2.65.9); (bis). For Ivxaywyla, see Plato, Phdr.261a8, 271c10;Isocrates,Evag.(9.10). Interestingly, Xenophon, Mem. 3.10.6 sees /vXaywyla as a feature of sculpture; and Aristotle applies it to or 50LS,of tragedy to the visualdimension, (Po. 1450a33-bl, and, rathergrudgingly, tragedy,

b16-17).

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P. O'SULLIVAN

AaLsdAovp[t'lp-Tpawhich the satyr uses to describe his gift (7).37 The meaning 'an

imagemade by (someonelike) Daedalus'(or 'the CunningOne') seemsmost likely in Greekdrama,noted above,for to Daedalicartworks here,due to otherreferences instance:Cratinus (fr.75 K-A), Euripides' (fr. 372 N) and Plato Comicus Eurystheus In see 'Daedalus' as anothernameby whichHeph204 some fact, K-A). plausibly (fr. If this is correct,then this wouldstrengthen the implication of aestuswas known.38
the divine provenance of the depictions in the phrase ot' KaT' -

of thedepiction as a wrought awareness it from The satyric objectdoesnot preclude The he is so lifelike that it an illusionistic charm. lacks image, says, only a exercising
voice:
SE^tovov

vOp7Trrov

.. . (1).

(7). Formalist and illusionistic aspects of the image come to

his pleasure on viewingthe image.This, the fore.wv? here,and can be seen to underscore which Homer associateswith the depictionof farmers too, is akin to the Oaiv~3a of ploughingon Achilles'shield.Therewe see that the tensionbetweenthe liveliness the images on the shield and the knowledgethat they are made of gold makes worka Oat4zain the firstplace.Homermakesthisclearin the description Hephaestus' blackafterbeingploughed of a fieldbecoming (1. 18.548-9):
LKEL, Qprlpo0LEVrlUL EW 7qfLeAalvEr0' rrTLa8v, IrTp, tat/a It becameblackbehind[theplough],andseemedlikea ploughedfield,eventhoughit wasgold. In sucha waythe wonderwaswrought.
1qTEP XpuVerL EotoVa. T iUTETVKTO.

of theimage theillusionism is stressed, attention is drawn to its At thepointwhere the fact that it is a and to as some have attributes: formal likeness, secondly, firstly
noted, to the medium of its depiction.39Although Oav~tais not explicitly mentioned

in the satyricresponseto the of the Theoroi, the elementof pleasure in our remnants in Homericepic, especially whenthe poet depictionscan be seen to haveprecedents implies a certain pleasure that goes along with the wonder inspiredby artfully prediction wroughtimages.Wemaynote Hephaestus' (11.18.466-7)of the Oa4lbato
mentioned above, in be experienced by anyone gazing on the shield, and the rpE'psr,

of this Oa4lpa whichseemsto be one manifestation Achilles'response, (II. 19.18-19). as pleasurable, As well, the idea of amazement impliedby Homer,is attestedmore in Greekliterature. In the Homeric elsewhere Hymnto Hermes Apollofreely explicitly
admits his wonder at his younger brother's enchanting music making: 'Oavldaw ... which is both KLOapl'Elt' (455). Pindar speaks of Amphitryon's Oa44l0os )9pa-rv ds on witnessing his infant son's strength (N. 1.55-6), and on a 8vaoopos and rEprv6ds numberof occasions Aristotletells us of the effectsof 1460a

17; pleasant (Po. Oa6~ta The response Rh. 1371a21-2,1371b5,1404b11-12). of Aeschylus' satyrsis consistent with these notions; their pleasureand amazementat the life-like qualitiesof the images is accompaniedby their recognitionof them as worksof artifice,as they with representations of themselves for the firsttime. literallycome face-to-face Afterthisinitialdelight,the satyrgoes on to focuson the 'apotropaic' powersin the Here features. a the well realistic comic as as their whereby paradoxemerges images,
It cf. Morris(n. 30), 218 for otherpossiblerenderings. "3 AaitdAov is most likelysubjective; hereto read8aLsdAov as 'artwork' and henceas an objective even seemsless plausible genitive, can be an Homeric wordforart-images 482,etc). (1. 18.479, though8aLs8Aov see R. Kassel, (n. 2), 547-8. For Daedalusas Hephaestus' 38 So Lloyd-Jones Doppelgdinger, 4 (Cambridge, TheIliad.A Commentary A. Becker, AJPh111 1991),on 18.548; 3 M. Edwards, (1990),145.

ZPE 51 (1983), 1-5.

SATYR AND IMAGE IN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

361

depiction of himself that the satyr finds so handsome (KaAALypa7rrovElXdCV [12] and also as even so his own that mother would emerges terrifying [19]) K[a]A7G pop'jsg Vrg

on seeingit, thinking it herson (13-17): runoff in horror

{-}

9Wo TpErOLT'acLoTor

v iapacXEfOoL rqL trpL T?7/71L lTpady/Lar' aa WS, yap LSo3aa QV v. .v 0'

he urgesthe others(19-22): And so, proudlyflauntinghis own ugliness,

ayyEAov, K-'pVK' [a]vavSov,4tvrrdpwv KoWAwrop[a,

J[]. EITLUQ)0eL KeAfV'OOV 7-ot; C'VO[VS]0.[ .]..[ fITL'TPrPoIT Xaip' ava6, XaLp'W1I7UCLSOV

hereto the severed headsdisplayed Snellcomparedthe functionof the satyr-images to his suitors of the as a Oenomaus (or threat!) priceof failure, warning daughter's by and Faraone,who also mentions this possibility,suggests that the mother'sfear This may havesome would resultfrombelievingher son to havebeendecapitated.40 truthin it, and we maysee in this gestureanothersatyricparodyof heroicmyth.For instance,ScholiaBD on PindarJsthm.4.92a (= Sophocles,fr. 473a) say Oenomaus headson Poseidon's temple.The samesourcetells us that Pindarand put the severed and Evenus do the same to their victims.If have Antaeus respectively Bacchylides with Oenomaus' decorative touch holds,we Snell'sand Faraone's suggestedparallel would see importantfeaturesof visual imageryat work-deceit and fear-inducing If she sees it as the severed response. powers-when the satyrimagineshis mother's
head of her son whom, moreover, she reared (Trv 4'OpE~JEv), she will have been

drivento flight.Hermisguided reaction into thinkinghe is deadandthereby deceived at leastas the satyrseesit. wouldbe the butt of the humour, but no less plausible, Green,however, parallel: Aristophanes suggestsa different, masks actors' are 130 where K-A), hungin the templeof Dionysusaftera perfor(fr. Other comic mance; such votives are unlikelyto be mistakenfor severedheads.41 mistaken ratherthana joke on a mother's reaction, elements, maythus be at workin We should note, firstly,that the satyr imagineshis mother'sreaction the Theoroi. simplywhenhe is lookingat the imagefor the firsttime,beforehe decidesto attachit betweenrepresentation and prototypeis all to the temple.Some perceived similarity weresheto see the imageas the to elicitthemother's terrified thatis required reaction, with an illusionistic 'deceit' combined face of her son. In thisprocessthereis assumed of an the abilitiesof the portraitto inducefear throughthe accurate depiction ugly here.At Knights 230-2 we us withanothertellingparallel face.Aristophanes provides
are told that the are too aKE07TOLOL' terrified to make a mask of the Paphlagon. We

fromthis,or eventhat masksin OldComedy neednot inferthe useof accurate portrait Cleon himself had ugly facial features,which may be impliedby Cratinus (fr. 228 in hominem Old ad abuse to the of true But, Aristophanes' jibe Comedy, K-A).42 spirit
see Faraone (n. 4), 37-8. 40Snell(n. 2), 7-8; Page(n. 19), 191makesthe sameinference; 4' Green (n. 21), 182,n. 60. 42 D. Welsh,CQ 29 (1979),214-15, saw references here to Cleon'sugly eyebrows; however, refersto Cleon's comment claimsthatCratinus' S. D. Olson,CQ49 (1999),320-1, most recently use of his eyebrows. menacing

362

P. O'SULLIVAN

thatcould is thatCleon is so uglythatanything himis going to beso hideous represent it willterrify evenits makers. overtones to themaskDover, rightly rejecting political thatthejokecouldmeanthatevena completely makers' fear,plausibly suggested fallshort of depicting mask would Cleon because heis sougly.43 revolting accurately In is predicated theAristophanic barb on theperceived abilities of depictions anyevent, of 'ugly'facesto induce be seenin the fear,andmuchthe sameideacan already of his mother's A neatjokeon the satyr's Aeschylean satyr's anticipation response. thuscomes andbuffoonery intoplay here: conventional hehasa facenoteven ugliness couldlove,yethe blithely continues to seehisdepiction a mother as beautiful, even whenhe decidesto use it as an apotropaic deviceon Poseidon's temple (18-21). mother is to see the image-as herson'ssevered Whatever heador waythe satyr's would notseeit asa work of artifice, it is true. otherwise-she Butthesatyr doesseeit in theseterms, andAeschylus haspresented it to the audience as such.Thesatyr's of mother how his would on the of anticipation respond plays deceptive potentialities theartwork anditscapacity to induce fearonmore thanonecomic level. Inimagining hismother's thesatyr transfers hisownexperience reaction, implicitly of its powers onto others, butwitha twist.He is struck by the closeresemblance
him on illusionistic betweenthe depictionand himself,but whatdelighted he grounds his but who on not to look it: mother, anyone might expects only terrify -roVs 'vo[vs]

haveno familial tieswiththe satyr, so theiranticipated (21).These6EvoL obviously

powersof the imageper se, even if it is responseassumesthe sheer fear-inducing not taken as a severedhead of a real satyr;if it is, deceit will again be involved.

the6EvoL butIsthmiasts to the maynot bejustanypassers-by Interestingly, coming

havebeentraining as athletes fortheIsthmian games.Thatthesatyrsthemselves games is evidentin the interlocutor's words,especially ([a]col. i 30-1, 34-5):
gfETptfesg cos
KO1K !L

hlAqaag

IaO/LtaaULK'V [....]V ' fyvU-tva[ou dAA

Ka]Aatg.

8' laO0ltcLres KatTprrouVS Kat[vo g 4]aOZc. 9paxi'O"v' a]UKE9s, xp zraLra OEt'pWv4Ldt

aL

for the Isthmian So, you havebeen training contest,not wastingtime,but havebeenexercising spendidly.... You're playingthe Isthmiancompetitorand, now that you'velearntnew ways, you'retraining yourarm,wastingmymoney...

Thiscensure comesfroma figure identified as Dionysus, whoseeshimself plausibly

The comic notion of satyrs' engaging in slighted by the satyrs' new interests.44 athletics seems confirmed if the second novelty presentedto them is correctly as athleticequipment interpreted ([c]col. ii 50-3).45 --

KaI[OVq rpvo v]o'K4t-a. @ovos [aK]o l 7aot -+]+ 7raty[vL'CW]v fr%] roU[TL 7prjnovp v
eLOt /LeV

[]....] ,otu ,;, [OEpW veOXoxd ,opLaa

0U(xt L- TWYtAcWV
VEiLLOV Lv L.

andNew York,1987),273. " Lloyd-Jones (n. 2), 545; Seaford(n. 2), 34, 35. More than one interlocutorhas been in the Theoroi, identified butthe actualidentity doesnot affectmy approach. 45 As suggested by Snell(n. 2), 8.

43 K. J. Dover, Greekand the Greeks.CollectedPapers,vol. I: Language,Poetry,Drama (Oxford

SATYR AND IMAGE IN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

363

made -I'm bringing from theanvil andadze. Thisis the younewly playthings, freshly wrought firstof your toys. -No, notforme.Giveit to oneof myfriends. The idea that satyrsmight be athletesis just the sort of incongruoushumourwe would expectof this kind of drama(to say nothingof exactlyhow they havebeen and is not refutedby the naiveandhesitantreactionshownby trainingtheirarms!46), the chorushere;indeed,such a responsewould be typicalof satyrs.If, then, these satyrsview the evoL as potentialrivalsat the Isthmiangames,theirplan to frighten of the imagesby makingtheirsupposedapothem would heightenthe importance action. tropaicpowersa featureof the dramatic as a beautifully Fromdelighting its owner/subject craftedand illusionistic artwork, to functionas a balefulomento others,consistent with the depictionis now expected themselves. Green,for instance, manycraftedimages,such as satyr-masks pointsout wereused in the fifth centuryfor apotropaic that satyr-masks purposes,much like witha satyr-mask.47 Thetreatment of thesatyr-images in the or at leasttauntsanother
therefore suggests they are the sort of things that would Theoroi as PopLoAvUKELfa shows, on which one child terrifies rtoptoAvKEia, as a chous from Eleusis (c. 420 B.C.)

suchas Xenophon(HG4.4.17)and Lucian(Philops. Writers 2) also frightenchildren. to the effectsof the cognateterm So the bringout the childishdimension /oplc.48 In in of become this the hands these addition, satyrs, frighteningtoys. images, apotropaicelement read into the satyrs'depictionsextends the play on dramatic aretoying thatactorswearing illusionsuggested satyr-masks by Green.Now it appears of forthepurposes withthe samekindof masks(in the formof the satyric depictions) least or at others playing terrifying, jokeson,

III Put to apotropaic use on Poseidon's temple,the satyrbelieveshis depictionwill spell in theirtracks.The languageto out a visualmessageclearenoughto stop travellers denote this is particularly interesting,as it drawson lyric and tragic poetry,and suggestssome overlapbetweenvisual and aural media in terms of their intended
efficacy. The satyr calls his image: yyEAov, KpVUK'[5]vavSov E'PTrrdpwv KWAI-rop[a, and goes on to say that it:... E2ITLax7aEL KEAE OU (20-1). That E'Vo[vu] vroUS to a messenger andvoicelessherald earlier reference he calls his 'portrait' picksup the0.[... silence is not as a its lacking only a voice: But this (7). perceived 8EgL tdvov the satyr is confidentthat it will send out a visual hindranceto its efficacy,since w.v.-gs which Sophocleansatyrsexperience on message of terrormuch like the WK1TArA-qLS

the artwork as (fr. 314.142-3).In describing hearingHermes'musicin the Ichneutae of sorts,Aeschylusinvokesanalogousauralterminology-a technique a messenger found in anotherof his dramaswherethe talismanicforceof visualdepictionsis a Zeus on the shieldof dominantissue.In the Septemthe triumphant outa depicting the Theban defenderHyperbiushas no words on it, as do some shield uo-/a-ra all the same (519). Even when (Septem434, 468-9, 646-8), yet is called a Ad'yos the silenceof the satyr's it as sharingsome depiction, Aeschylus presents emphasizing
46

Cf. dO?P poupa Kca -paa

in Aeschyleansatyrplays (esp. eintendre 145-58, for a study of sexual innuendoand double

7d a[q[aAAgla (29). See W. Slenders, Mnemosyne 44 (1992),

146-51).
47

Green(n. 21), 79, fig. 3.16.

48 LSJ s.v. t optoAvKECov 2; and s.v. poptuo.

364

P. O'SULLIVAN

of the powersof auralmediain its abilityto instilfearinto others,and,as the parallel with the Septemsuggests,implicitly status. givesit mock-heroic We may see further parodic nuances in Aeschylus'use of dtyyEov, KpVUK" here, as it echoes various Theognisspeaksof a fire-beaconas an [&]vav8ov rroi7o. which (549).The chorusmembers dyyEAos 00oyyos E'yE'pEt TodA'pov rroAU8aKpVv in Euripides' Orestesregistertheir terrorat the sight of smoke billowingfrom the murderous intentions palace which they say 'announces'-rrpoK ptaaELt-Orestes' himselfprovides More tellingly, to the Aeschylus specificverbalparallels (1541-2).49 in in on the the Theoroi his where the of the dust raised gloss images Septem (82) sight by the Argivearmyinducesfear in the chorusas avav8os aaNg)s yyEAos. &uorvos Danaus in Aeschylus' (180) sees the dust churnedup by the armyon the Supplices move in similarterms: pWjKIVLV, avavSovclyyEAov These haveled arparoi. irdrrol to be traditional,50 but Aeschylus' handone commentator to considersuchlanguage more comment. For there are further close of the idea deserves verbal connections ling in the Theoroi, as appositional betweenexpressions Septem,and Supplices phrases.51 in theSeptem in factusessuchphraseology elsewhere forcertainapotropaic Aeschylus shields.For instance,the moon on Tydeus'shieldis glossed imageson the warriors' ItN as rrpTaUltarov VVKT0~ OaAtO's (390);so too the depictionof Typhonon uarpwv, shieldwhichbreathes out blacksmoke,presented as:ALyvtbv Hippomedon's d'Aawvav, We in the opening can see another to the (494). parallel Septem wTVPrS KaaLV o'AArv gloss on the satyr portraits as o dvOpd7ro . . . (1) which matchesthe Ka7' in the Septem:oi Kar' cvOpwITrov threats Thebes of against description Capaneus' (425). The warriorseemsto be morethan mortalin his raging,ratherlike Homeric warriors who aresometimes called8alcfLOVL warlike fury losr in momentsof particular of the Theoroi (II. 5.438, 16.705,786, etc.). It was noted how the openingexpression echoesan Homericideaon the divineprovenance of Achilles' but the parallel armour, fromthe Septemsuggeststhat the satyrplayhereis comicallyinvokingtragicdiction for the recipients themselves. and implying thatthe imagesaresomewhat alarming By incorporatingsuch grandioselanguage,paralleledespeciallyin his own tragedies, heregetsmorecomicmileagefromthe 'dramatized of the satyrs Aeschylus ignorance' elevates the satyric to a quasi-heroic andironically level.Ourignorance of the portraits from it date of the Theoroi us that these saying prevents directly parodies Aeschylean be seento illustrate Demetrius' tragedies, yet muchin it can clearly glosson oft-quoted
satyric drama as rpaywLtS'a 7ratiovaa (Eloc. 169).

somecomicreworking in the Theoroi. Further Oneconsequence epicmotifsreceive of the mock-apotropaic elementin thesesatyrs' is that like images they, ptopptoAvKE'a, are now cast in the role of an epic Gorgoneion, such as on Agamemnon's shield(II. 11.36-7):
8 rt ZV fopyo fl Aoaupj7rrS SL8' Ef'aTreq~VwTo SeAeEtzos 8ELVOv 8EpKo/tLv7), Trept re 0/flosg re. And grim-faced Gorgonwas embossedon it, glaringterror; by her too wereboth Horrorand
Fear.

49 Professor C. Collard draws my attention to Euripides, Hec. 1215 where the smoke of Troy signifies its destruction. 50 G. O. Hutchinson, Aeschylus.Seven Against Thebes(Oxford, 1985) on Septem 81-2.

and E. Whittle, TheSuppliants 1980,3 vols)on Aeschylus. (Copenhagen, 5' H. FriisJohansen between thesethreepassages butneglectthe significance of Suppl.180note the verbalsimilarity Theoroi (20)as an appositional phrase.

SATYR AND IMAGE IN AESCHYLUS' THEOROI

365

Similar to these figures are the monsters on Heracles' shield in the pseudo-Hesiodic Scutum, whose terrifying glares are emphasised (Sc. 144-5):

ev ticaawcot v 06foo oi n qatE toSj, 8' d&S&Lavrog~

qLaAwvaaowoawrvptrrohaTvowta 8E Aaa OpKC0" In the middle,made of adamant,was Fear,utterlyunspeakable, glaringback with fire in his blazingeyes. Noteworthy also is Heracles' baldric (Odyssey 11.609-14.) whose violent, bloody images can be seen as projections of the hero's own aggressive power, and even terrify Odysseus when he is describing it to the Phaeacians (esp. Od. 11.613-14). These specific images clearly function as statements of heroic ferocity, which is often evident in the baleful glare of heroes themselves, both in Homeric epic (II. 3.342; Od. 11.608, etc.),52 and Aeschylean tragedy, where the dramatist uses d3flov 3AE'rTwvto describe the terrifying glare of Hippomedon in the Septem (498; cf. 537). It is also worth noting that Achilles' own Myrmidones were too terrified even to look at his divinely crafted weaponry (Il. 19.14-15), although their fear seems to result from the overall aspect of Achilles' armour, rather than any specific depiction on the shield. This brings out an apotropaic element of that warrior's armour which can be seen to embody his own powers, as it fills him with heroic XdAos,while he also delights in the divine imagery on his shield (II. 19.15-19). Parallels with apotropaic images from Homer and the Scutum would be almost certainly strengthened if the final part of line 21 of the Theoroi survived, since it very likely specifies the role of 'dflosr, thus extending the nature of the power which the satyr reads into his portrait.53In fact, certain late Archaic amphorae show satyrs on the shields of heroes, notably in Exekias' celebrated depiction of Achilles and Ajax playing a board game, and Euthymides' portrayal of Hector arming watched by Priam.54Such visual parallels strengthen the idea that a satyric depiction might be apotropaic, and in the Theoroi this is further borne out in its imagined effect on the satyr's mother and intended on the SevoL(13-17, 20-21). As far as the latter effect is concerned, Aeschylus adds a mock heroic twist to the satyrs' belief in the efficacy of their depictions; for they now gloss the images in the style sometimes used by epic, lyric, and tragedy to describe portents of war or a hero's apotropaic armour. It has been observed that satyric drama is a 'comedy of incongruity', involving a ludicrous juxtaposition of the heroic and comic, and the action even within the opening scene of our Theoroi fragments bears this out.55 The Aeschylean satyrs are comically, rather than terrifyingly,ugly, yet they still somehow see their portraits as beautiful. There is also something definitely misplaced about the satyr's belief in the powers of his depiction. Satyrs are hardly the most terrifying monsters to roam the earth-unless you happen to be a nymph or maenad trying to escape their amorous advances. Even then they seem pretty easy to fend off, as certain red-figure vase as paintings suggest.56Satyrs onstage are often in a state of fear and/or subjugation,57
52

the samelines. 54 LIMC vol. VIII.2, s.v. 'Silenoi', figs 187, 188; see also the catalogueof shield devices
compiled by G. Chase, HSCPh 13 (1902), 121. s5 Sutton (n. 2), 159. 56 See T. H. Carpenter,Dionysian Imageryin Fifth CenturyAthens (Oxford, 1977), pl. 45b. (n. 2), 33-36.
57 On this as a

As noted by Faraone (n. 4), 38, and 48, n. 13. and others along 3 See Diggle's and Radt's apparatusfor such conjectures as b'dfovflAMowv

themein satyricdrama,see Sutton(n. 2), 147-8;Seaford,Euripides. Cyclops

366

P. O'SULLIVAN

rebuke from earnsthema stinging cowardice andtheirperennial in Euripides' Cyclops, whenhe hearsHermes' Silenusin the Ichneutae (145ff.),whoseown terrified response In the Theoroi, musiccomes as no surprise. too, satyricfear is more than hintedat draws add a comic nuanceto the parallels These features col. Aeschylus ii, 50-5). ([c] as and warlike betweenthe satyrs'portraits imagesin heroicmyththat are presented genuinelyterrifying.The innate cowardiceand buffooneryof satyrs make their likePopPoAvKEda. rather heroicimagery, depictionsmorelike parodiesof apotropaic on Lamachus' shield in the to the of use Gorgon Aristophanes' poppwU parody terror at his here.Feigning Acharnians cf. Peace473-4) is a noteworthy parallel (582ff.; to be a psychowhatis supposed armourand shieldapCa,Dicaeopolisreduces rival's it any pretensions logical weaponof war to a comical,childishimage,undercutting a more to fear. Lamachus to have buffoon, appears blustering instilling genuine might the satyrs'games the buffonery whichunderlies be laughedat than feared.Similarly, with their portraits puts the images on a mock-heroiclevel. Fifth-centuryvase paintings provide corroborativeevidence of satyrs in mock-heroicpose; in this mediumsatyrswill sometimes guise,at othertimestheyparodyno appearin warrior less a figurethanHeracles himself.58 is destined to takethefun out of humour saidthatanalysis Althoughit is sometimes features of Aeschylus' some significant of its subject,I hope at least to haveclarified dramatic,indeed comic, techniquesin the Theoroi. Aeschylushere invokes -roVro in earlyepicandtragedies-notablyhis ownthe powersof visualartifice concerning mirror' a fun-house to his audience whichhe thenpresents 'through by incorporating them into the satyric antics onstage. This scene, then, producedwhen there is andvisualartifice in Greek of perception, focuson optics,the psychology widespread in art significantly interest testifiesto Aeschylus' intellectual culture,59 beyondthe rise of realism.The reactionof the Aeschylean satyrsto the effect of theirportraitsis in contemporary for howit is grounded more is all the but interesting silly, predictably deceivethe onlooker,and ideas on the abilitiesof visualimagesto providepleasure, Theseconceptsaredeftlywoveninto inducefearin heroicand not-so heroiccontexts. in the powerof not onlyknownforhis interests this 'playful by the playwright tragedy' in antiquity as the finestexponentof satyric but reckoned visualartifice,60 drama.61
New Zealand Universityof Canterbury, PATRICK O'SULLIVAN

p.osullivan@clas.canterbury.ac.nz
Vase Silensin AtticBlack-figure see G. M. Hedreen, "5 Forthe satyr-as-warrior, PaintingMyth andPerformance s.v.'Silenoi' MI, 1992), (AnnArbor, pl. 36a;seealsoLIMCVIII.2, figs 132,133, Greece see T. Carpenter, ArtandMythin Ancient 138.Forthe Heracles (London,1991), parody, fig. 212. forthisclaim. '9 See aboven. 15 foran outlineof theevidence
60 See above n. 16.
6' I am grateful to CQ's anonymous Associate-Professor Graham Zanker and referee, forcomments onearlier versions of thispaper. Professor C.Collard especially