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Euripides[edit]

Hypsipyle

test. iiia (Hypothesis) [= P. Oxy. 2455 frs. 14–15, 3652 cols. i and ii.1-15]

Hypsipyle, which begins: ‘(Dionysus), who with (thyrsuses) and fawnskins . . . ’; the plot (is as follows) . . . (about fourteen lines largely lost, perhaps including . . . Amphiaraus . . . arriving . . .) . . . (Hypsipyle) showed (them) the spring . . . (torn asunder by?) a [line 20] serpent . . . the sons born . . . arrived (in the) vicinity in search of their mother, and having lodged with Lycurgus’ wife wanted to compete in the boy’s funeral games; and she having received the [line 25] aforesaid youths as guests approved them, but (planned) to kill their mother (as) having killed (her) son on purpose. . But when Amphiaraus . . . (she?) thanked him . . . (several lines lost) . . . [line 30] the(ir?) mother . . . they found . . . (several lines lost) . . .

test. iv [= Greek Anthology 3.10 = Palatine Anthology 3.10]

On the west side (i.e. of the monument at Cyzicus to Apollonis, mother of Attalus and Eumenes of Pergamum), at the beginning of the tenth plaque are carved Eunoos and Thoas, the sons of Hypsipyle, making themselves known to their mother and displaying the golden vine which was their family’s emblem, and rescuing her from the vengeance of Eurydice prompted by the death of Archemorus.

(Inscription:) ‘Reveal, Thoas, this plant of Dionysus; thus you will rescue your mother from death, the slave Hypsipyle, who endured Eurydice’s wrath when the serpent, offspring of the earth, killed helpless Archemorus. And you too go on your way, leaving Asopia’s rich land to bring your mother to holy Lemnos.’¹

¹ Much of the detail here may well be Euripidean, although in the play Eurydice probably forgave Hypsipyle before she and her sons recognized each other (see Introduction above).

test. va

Vatican Mythographer 2.141 (p. 123 Bode); similarly Lactantius Placidus on Statius, 4.740

Amongst the competitors at these games were Hypsipyle’s two sons, whom she had borne to Jason and left in Lemnos when she fled. They too had gone in search of their mother, and now were victorious in the foot-race. The herald proclaimed their names, and that they were the sons of Jason and Hypsipyle, and so their mother recognized them. Once they had recognized her, they obtained the king’s agreement and soon took her back to Lemnos.¹

¹ The recognition process described here may be Euripidean, although the involvement of the king is doubtful.

fr. 752a

. . . Staphylos . . . Peparethos . . . of these . . . seasons . . . Hera(’s?) . . . Dionysus . . . a third . . . ::Dionysus . . . Chios . . .5 (one line) . . . [line 5]

Lemnos . . . and I . . .¹ [line 10]

¹ Hypsipyle probably listed four sons of Dionysus (F 752) and Ariadne (cf. Apollodorus, Epit. 1.9): Staphylos (personification of the grape-bunch), Peparethos (identified with the wine-producing island of that name, now Skopelos), Oenopion (‘Son of Wine-face’, often associated with Chios), and Thoas (Hypsipyle’s father, ruler of Lemnos). Alternatively, Peparethos was named as Staphylos’ island (cf. Diodorus 5.79).

fr. 752c [= fr. 764 Nauck]

<Thoas>

(to Euneos as they enter) Look—run your eyes up towards the sky, and take a look at the painted reliefs on the pediment.¹

¹ The brothers admire the decoration of the temple of Zeus as they arrive in Nemea (cf. Iphigenia in Tauris 67ff., Ion 184ff., Helen 68ff.).

fr. 752d

(to the baby Opheltes as she opens the door to the strangers) . . . will come . . . toys which (will) calm your mind from crying. (to Euneos and Thoas)Was it you, young men, who knocked at the door? (noticing their looks) O happy the mother that bore you, whoever she was!¹ Why have you come to this house, and what do you want from it?

¹ Dramatic irony, as Hypsipyle unknowingly refers to herself.

Thoas

We need to be given shelter in the house, woman, if we may, (to stay) one night. We have what we need and will be (no) trouble to this (household); you for your part will stay just as you are.²

² A less obvious dramatic irony: the twins will in fact rescue Hypsipyle from her servitude.

fr. 752h.1–14

...

(Amphiaraus approaches by a side-entrance)

O Zeus, possessor of this Nemean grove, what business brings these newcomers I see close by, distinctively dressed in Dorian clothing, and coming towards this house through the lonely grove?

...

fr. 752h.26–32

Hypsipyle

These are known as the wealthy halls of Lycurgus, who was chosen from all of Asopia to be the temple-keeper of our local Zeus.

Amphiaraus

(I would like to ask) to take some running water in pitchers, so we may pour a (proper) libation to the gods. The30 trickles of stagnant water are not clear, and are being all churned up by our numerous host.

fr. 753

I’ll show the Argives Achelous’ stream.¹

¹ The great river Achelous could be regarded as the source or parent of minor rivers and springs throughout Greece.

fr. 753d

Part of a lyric exchange between Hypsipyle (returning from the spring without the baby) and the Chorus, vv. 1–9 very damaged but including 4 O me! from Hypsipyle, then:

fr. 754

Probably from the same sung dialogue:

. . . †picking† one quarry of flowers after another with joyful spirit, his child’s mind unsatisfied.

fr. 754a

Spoken dialogue later in the same scene:

<Hypsipyle?>

. . . a spring (is shaded?) . . . a serpent living by it . . . staring fiercely . . . shaking its helm, (in fear?) of which . . . shepherds . . . (text uncertain)¹ . . . . . . to do . . . and . . .

¹ Wilamowitz noted that the text might yield either ‘when silently’ or ‘(it) approaches)’, either presumably referring to the serpent.

fr. 757

...

Why do you seize on words so cleverly (and) . . . spin them out at length (when you have killed) Opheltes, (the joy) of my eyes? . . . and do not remind me (of my troubles?)1 . . . for me and my son whom (you have killed).

Do you (then) mean to kill me thus in anger, mistress, before you have properly learned the truth of this matter? You are silent, and give me no reply? O, how I suffer! I do not greatly complain that I must die, but if I wrongly seem to have killed the child, my nursling, whom I fed and cherished in my arms in every way except that I did not bear him—and he was a great blessing to me. O prow †and water whitening from the brine† of Argo! O my two sons, I face a terrible death! O seer, son of Oicles, I am about to die: defend me, come, don’t see me die so shamefully accused, for I die because of you! Come—you know what I have done, and she would accept you as the truest witness of my misfortune. (to Eurydice’s servants, despairing)

Take me, then; I see no friend nearby to save me. My deference, it seems, was wasted.

(Amphiaraus re-enters from the direction of the spring)

Amphiaraus

Wait, you who are sending this woman to be slaughtered, mistress of this house—for your dignified bearing shows me you are of free birth.

Hypsipyle

(kneeling before him)

O, by your knees—I fall as your suppliant, Amphiaraus—and by your chin and the skill you have from Apollo; for you have come just in time for me in my troubles. Save me, for I am to die because of my service to you. I am facing death, you see me bound at your knees, who went with you strangers then and assisted you. You will act righteously since you are righteous; but if you forsake me, you will bring reproach on the people of Argos and of Greece. Come, you who perceive events for the Danaans through (pure) burnt offerings, (tell) her what happened to her son. You (know) since you were there, yet she claims I plotted against her family and killed her boy on purpose.

Amphiaraus

I have come well acquainted with and had guessed your situation and what you would suffer because of the child’s death. I am here now to defend you in your misfortune, relying not on force but on piety. ...

...

Amphiaraus

...

But it is our inevitable lot to harvest life like a fruitful crop, for one of us to live, one not: why should we lament these things, which by our very nature we must endure? ... For he will be famous . . . and . . . a contest for him . . . giv(ing?) crowns . . . he will be envied . . . in this . . . will be remembered . . . was given the name . . . in the grove of Nemea . . . For she is blameless . . . For with good . . . (for you?) . . . will make you and your son . . .

Eurydice

My son, the . . . for you . . . less than . . . We should look at the natures of the good and the bad, and at their actions and their ways of life, putting much trust in those who are temperate, and not consorting at all with the unrighteous.

fr. 759a

58–110 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 310–317)

... then from the reunion celebration of Hypsipyle, Euneos, Thoas (mute) and Amphiaraus:

(singing joyfully) . . . (our fortune?) has driven (me) and my sons along a single path, this way and that, swerving us now towards fear, now towards gladness, but in time has shone out bright and fair.

Amphiaraus

(speaking) Lady, you now have the favour that I owed you. As you were generous to me when I made my request, so I have repaid you generously concerning your two sons. Keep yourself safe, now—and you two protect your mother; and prosper, while we, as we set out to do, will lead our army on and come to Thebes.

(Amphiaraus departs)

Hypsipyle

(speaking)

Good fortune to you, for you are worthy of it, stranger.

Euneos

(speaking)

Good fortune indeed—but as for you, poor mother, how greedily some god has fed on your misfortunes!

Hypsipyle

(singing her replies)

Alas, the flight that I fled, my son—if you only knew it—from sea-girt Lemnos, because I did not cut off my father’s grey head!¹

¹ See Introduction above on the Lemnian massacre and Hypsipyle’s role in it.

Euneos

Did they really order you to kill your father?

Hypsipyle

I am gripped by fear of those evil events—O my son, like Gorgons they slew their husbands in their beds!

Euneos

And you—how did you steal away and so escape death?

Hypsipyle

I came to the deep-resounding shore and the swelling sea, the lonely refuge of birds.

Euneos

And how did you come here from there, what transport did you use?

Hypsipyle

Seafarers, rowing, took me on a foreign voyage to Nauplion harbour and sold me into slavery—O my son—in this land, ship-borne, a pitiful piece of merchandise.

Euneos

Alas for your hardships—

Hypsipyle

Don’t grieve at what turned out well! But how were you and your brother raised, my son, and in whose care? Tell, tell this to your mother, O my son!

Euneos

Argo took us to the Colchians’ city.

Hypsipyle

Yes, just lately weaned as you were from my breast!

Euneos

And when my father Jason died, mother . . .

Hypsipyle

Alas, you tell me of evils and bring tears to my eyes, my son.

Euneos

. . . Orpheus took us to the region of Thrace.

Hypsipyle

What service was he doing for your hapless father? Tell me, my son!

Euneos

He taught me the music of the Asian lyre, and trained my brother in Ares’ martial arms.³

³ The politically fundamental functions of music and warfare are divided between the twins, as between Amphion and Zethus in Antiope (especially F 223.86–95). For Euneos’ connection with music at Athens see Introduction above.

Hypsipyle

And how did you travel across the Aegean to Lemnos’ shore?

Euneos

Thoas your father conveyed †the children of two†.⁴

⁴ Restoration uncertain: ‘the twin sons’ or ‘his son’s sons’, Wecklein; ‘your two sons’, Collard.

Hypsipyle

Is he really safe, then?

Euneos

Yes, through Bacchus’ contriving.

Hypsipyle

. . . (of/from?) hardships . . . expectation of life . . . brought (his?) son for your mother . . . (to/for?) me.

Euneos

. . . Thoas’(?) wine-dark grape-bunch.⁵

⁵ Possibly a gold ornament used as a recognition token (see Introduction above).

Modern[edit]

Collard and Cropp[edit]

p. 251

Hypsipyle was one of Euripides’ latest and most elaborate tragedies. Its heroine was the daughter of Thoas, a son of the god Dionysus and king of the island of Lemnos. As a young woman she had borne twin sons to Jason during the Argonauts’ visit to Lemnos, but Jason took these sons with him to Colchis and Hypsipyle later had to flee the island after refusing to kill her father when the other women of Lemnos massacred their menfolk. Seized by marauders, she was sold as a slave to Lycurgus, priest at the rural sanctuary of Zeus at Nemea, and later became nurse to Opheltes, son of Lycurgus and his wife Eurydice. Meanwhile Jason died, probably at Colchis, and left his sons to be raised by his comrade Orpheus in Thrace. They were eventually reunited there with their grandfather, returned with him to Lemnos, and set out to find their mother. In the play, they reach Nemea just as the army of the Seven is passing by on its march to Thebes, and Hypsipyle admits them to the house without recognizing them. She also agrees to guide the Argive seer Amphiaraus to a spring where he can find fresh water for a sacrifice, but at the spring she negligently allows the infant Opheltes to be killed by a serpent. His mother wishes to punish Hypsipyle with death, but Amphiaraus persuades Eurydice to accept the boy’s fate, interpreting it as a portent for the Seven and advising that a funeral should be celebrated with games; these will be perpetuated as the Nemean Games and the boy remembered in cult as Archemorus, ‘First to die’ (see F 757.908–18 with note 4). Hypsipyle’s sons compete in the games, a recognition is effected, and thus redeemed she returns with them to Lemnos at the end of the play.

Hypsipyle’s involvement in the events at Nemea seems to have been invented by Euripides, for earlier sources connect her only with events on Lemnos (especially Homer, [cont.]

p. 252

Iliad 7.468–9; Pindar Olympians 4.19–23, cf. Pythians 4.252–8), while early accounts of the origin of the Nemean Games feature only the death of Opheltes/Archemorus and Amphiaraus’ settlement (Bacchylides 9.10–17, Simonides F 553 PMG, Pindar, Nemeans 8.51, 10.28); in these accounts the woman responsible for the boy’s death is either his own mother or an anonymous nurse. Euripides’ adaptation of the story may have been intended in part to associate Athens indirectly with the institution of the Nemean Games, for Lemnos was an Athenian dependency and Hypsipyle’s son Euneos was regarded as the founder of the Athenian priestly family of the Euneidae: cf. Robert (1909), Burkert (1994), Cropp (2003).

P. Oxy. 852 (see Note on the text below) provides substantial parts of the first half of the play, which begins with Hypsipyle telling her personal history in a prologue speech (F 752, 752a–b). As she re-enters the house Euneos and Thoas arrive seeking a night’s shelter (F 752c); she responds to their knock, bringing the baby with her, and persuades them to accept the house's hospitality even though the priest is away from home (F 752d–e). They presumably enter the house, and Hypsipyle remains singing to the baby as the Chorus of friendly local women arrives with news that the Seven and their army have reached Nemea (F 752f); the parodos sequence is a lyric exchange, the women trying to interest Hypsipyle in these current events, she dwelling on her unhappiness (F 752g, 752h.1–9; cf. Electra 167-212). Episode 1 sees the arrival of Amphiaraus requesting help in finding a spring (F 752h); he explains the expedition and his own connection with it (F 752k: cf. our introduction to Alcmeon in Psophis), and Hypsipyle agrees to help him (F 753), taking the baby with her and [cont.]

p. 253

probably spurning warnings about this from the Chorus (F 753a). The Chorus sings a stasimon about the origin of the expedition (F 753c), then Hysipyle returns in distress saying that the baby has been seized by the serpent when she incautiously left him playing on the ground (F 753d, 754, F 754a). Her thoughts of escape (F 754b) are forestalled by the entrance of Eurydice from the house (F 754c), and so she must explain what has happened and seek forgiveness (F 755a, 757.800–830). Eurydice is bent on putting Hypsipyle to death until Amphiaraus intervenes with his explanations and advice (F 757.831–949).

The remainder of the play is more obscure. F 758a–b represent a second or possibly third stasimon celebrating the power and blessings of Dionysus. Nearly 300 lines later F 758c–d seem to be from a speech of Hypsipyle concerned with her servitude and yearning for her sons, and a further hundred-line interval brings us to the reunion scene (F 759a col. ii). Nothing survives after this except an indication that Dionysus himself appeared, no doubt validating Hypsipyle's release and directing the family’s future. How the recognition between mother and sons came about is unclear; some later accounts mention a continuing threat to Hypsipyle from Eurydice or from Lycurgus on his return, or even from her own unrecognized sons, but this is difficult to accommodate in the play after Amphiaraus' seemingly decisive intervention, nor is there any hint of it in Amphiaraus’ parting words (F 759a.1584–6). Probably the focus was on the games, the recognition process, and the redemption of Hypsipyle from slavery. The games will have been reported by a messenger, and the twins' identity may have been revealed when they were proclaimed by name as sons of Jason and Hypsipyle after winning the [cont.]

p. 254

foot-race (see test. va below with note). A gold ornament in the shape of a vine or grape-bunch probably served as a proof of their identity (see test. iv below with note).

Brief fragments: F 753b, 756a, 759b are scraps of P. Oxy. 852 (for F 753e and F 755a see under F 753d and F 754c respectively); F 766 ‘burgeonings’, F 767 'bears' (girls serving Artemis at Brauron), F 769 'her who played the castanets' (cf. F 752f.8). Other ascriptions: F 856 (= Aristophanes, Frogs 1309–12), TrGF adesp. F 37a (‘Aeetes’ golden fleece’: not to be identified with F 752f.22–3), adesp. F 634 (someone threatened for causing a child’s death).

The play is one of Euripides' late 'romantic' and sentimental dramas in which heroines survive perils and escape servitude or other misery through reunion with lost sons or brothers: cf. Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion, Melanippe Captive, Antiope. Also notable are its mythic expansiveness (cf. especially Phoenician Women, Iphigenia at Aulis), its concern with Attic cult and genealogy (Erechtheus, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ion), and Dionysiac elements (Antiope, Bacchae). A scholion on Aristophanes, Frogs 53 (= test. ii) dates it later than 412 along with Phoenissae and Antiope (but not necessarily as a trilogy, although Webster and Zeitlin have noted some interesting thematic similarities); this dating is supported by the play’s metrical features as well as its dramatic style and content.

The impact of Hypsipyle can be seen in several parodies and allusions in Aristophanes' Frogs (cf. F 752, 763, 765, 765a–b; also F 752f.8ff. with Frogs 1304ff.), in the influence of Euripides' plot on the mythographic tradition, and in iconography, especially the Darius Painter's fine mid- 4th c. vase focused on Amphiaraus' intervention (= test. vi, [cont.]

p. 255

cf. Trendall-Webster III.3.26, Todisco Ap 179, Taplin no. 79) and the lost Hellenistic relief featuring the recognition which is described in Palatine Anthology 3.10 (= test. iv below). But the only major literary descendant is Statius' reworking of the story in Books 4–6 of his Thebaid; Hypsipyle’s affair with Jason remained a much more popular subject, as for example in Apollonius Rhodius' Argonautica, Ovid's Heroides and Valerius Flaccus' Argonautica, as well as much later European poetry and music (cf. OGCMA I.617–8); it was probably the subject also of Aeschylus' Hypsipyle (his Nemea may have been about the death of Archemorus but is unlikely to have involved the Lemnian princess).

Note on the text: This is the best preserved of all the fragmentary tragedies, thanks to the discovery of P. Oxy. 852 (with P. Oxy. 985, the document on whose reverse side the play text was written) in 1905. Its content and physical features have allowed the fairly precise reconstruction of the papyrus roll presented by Cockle in his 1987 edition. The ancient line numbering (shown by the survival of some of the ancient notations marking every hundredth line of the play) is given here, where possible, either exactly (e.g. 375) or approximately (e.g. ~135). References such as P. Oxy. 852 col. 3 are to the columns of the whole papyrus roll (thirty in all).

Gantz[edit]

p. 511

The loss of Aischylos' play is the greater because Euripides in his patially preserved Hypsipyle offers us quite a different mother for the same child, one Eurydike, wife of Lykourgos, a priest of Nemean Zeus; Hypsipyle, the former paramour of Iason, is involved because she has become the childs nurse, after being exiled from Lemnos and captured by pirates. The child here has as his given name Opheltes, to be changed to Archemoros in the course of the story. As the action of the play opens Amphiaros and his companions are on their way north to Thebes, and encounter Hypsipyle while searching for water with which to perform a sacrifice.⁴⁴ She takes the seer to a spring quarded by a serpent, and there the serpent somehow manages to kill the child. Eurydike is naturally bent on revenge, but Amphiaros persuades her that what has happened was destined: the child will be called Archemoros, as signalling the begining of the expedition's doom, and games will be established. Eurydike yields to this explanation, and for the remainder of the play—Hypsipyle's recognition of her sons, who have come to find her– need not concern us here. Apollodorus (ApB 3.6.4), Hyginus (Fab 74, with a prophecy that the child is not to be put down until he can walk), and the Nemean Odes hypothesis all provide a similar account of Archemoros' parentage and death. The hypothesis' one other significant variation lies in the presenting a third set of parents, Euphetes and Kreousa. That Aischylos told this same story of Lemnian nurse and snake in his Nemea with merely a different name for the mother (and the father) is possible, but I doubt it: surely neither Aischylos nor anyone else would have named such a play after the child's mother if the plot focused on the misfortunes of the nurse who failed to guard her charge. We must allow, I think, that Aischylos' version may well not have included Hypsipyle at all.

⁴⁴ (p. 834) The bulk of our information about this play derives from the text of a papyrus first published in 1908 and hence not included in Nauk. See Bonds's edition of all this material, with commentary (Oxford 1963).