Alcestis' children and the character of Admetus
1988; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 108; Linguagem: Inglês
10.2307/632627
ISSN2041-4099
Autores Tópico(s)Educational Research and Analysis
ResumoBy comparison with Aeschylus and Sophocles, Euripides makes remarkable use of young children in his tragedies. There are vocal parts, sung by individual children in Alcestis and Andromache , cries off for the two boys in Medea , and a song for a supplementary chorus of boys in Supplices . Important episodes concern silent children on stage in Heracles and Troades , lesser roles occur in Hecuba and Iphigeneia in Aulis , and suppliant children may be on stage throughout Heracleidae . No children figure in the extant plays of Aeschylus, and Sophocles gives them silent parts only in Ajax and Oedipus Tyrannus . It seems reasonable to suppose that children are proportionally more central to Euripides’ idea of tragedy, and that individual plays might be studied from this angle. Accordingly I propose to analyse the part of the children in Alcestis , not with questions of methods of performance in mind, but for what the presence, action, utterance or absence of children at any point can tell us about the issues and themes of the play.
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