What is a king?
Chorus: You are the state, you are the people.Rule unquestioned, you controlThe altar that is your country’s hearth;You fear no vote; by your mere nodYou, monarch on one throne, decide all issues:Therefore, guard against guilt.
Aeschylus’ The Suppliants. Chorus of the Danaids addressing King Pelasgus, ruler of Argos.
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January 27th, 2006 at 3:27 am
Holy hierodules, Tololy! I don’t know exactly how the two are related, but Sophocles has more or less the same lines (leaving some room for bad translation) in Antigone. Scene III, I think, has a massive row between King Creon and his son, Haimon. Talk about political sedition….you reckon there’s a direct link between the writers/plays, or that it’s just a matter of similar ideas in ancient Greece?
January 27th, 2006 at 11:45 am
I have not read Antigone, as yet, but I take your word for the similarity between the two texts.
For all I know, Aeschylus wrote a trilogy about King Oedipus. “Seven against Thebes” is the third play of this nexus, the popularity of Sophocles’ “Antigone” overshadowed Aeschylus’ play on the same subject, and caused its disappearance. This is one side of the relationship between the two masters’ works.
I feel obliged to think that, since most plays were based on popular myth and sprang forth with great emphasis on current political and social situations, it should be quite normal to witness this kind of resemblance. But then again, I am not exactly an expert, that is but an opinion.
January 27th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
Fedaykin,
I was so intrigued by your remark, that I looked this matter up. Sophocles was thirty years younger than Aeschylus, and doubtlessly have made use of Aeschylus’ tragic tools, and possibly of the speeches delivered by his characters.