Valtadorou_Abstract_Greek Drama V Conference.doc

Eros in Pieces (?): Redefining Tragic Eros With Particular References To
Euripides' Fragmentary Andromeda and Antigone

Accounts of love and marriage in Euripidean tragedy have formed a
consensus that eros is never meant to have positive effects, but leads only
to misfortune. Thus, for example, Rabinowitz (1993) in Anxiety Veiled, Rehm
(1994) in Marriage to Death, Thumiger (2013) in "Mad Eros and Eroticized
Madness in Greek tragedy" or Sanders (2013) in "Sexual jealousy and Eros in
Euripides' Medea". These views give the impression that heterosexual love
is presented in the majority of Attic tragedies as a condition for trauma,
an amplification of trauma or a trauma in itself. Therefore, treatment of
eros in tragedy has thus far been one-sided and partial. This construction
of Greek sexuality has begun to be challenged, albeit from the perspective
of homosexuality (Davidson 2008), and the time is ripe for a re-evaluation
of male-female eros in Greek tragedy (Kaimio 2002; Wright 2016). I shall
argue for a more complex picture of eros in Greek tragedy, and in Euripides
in particular, where it is possible to observe both positive and negative
constructions. I shall focus on two fragmentary Euripidean plays, Antigone
and Andromeda, which present marital love in a much more positive light
than other, more frequently discussed Euripidean plays, where erotic love
has devastating effects on characters' lives (e.g. Medea). Thus, in this
paper I will address the following questions: do the dramas in question
reflect or contradict our knowledge of the Greeks' approach towards marital
love and how are they related to other, more frequently discussed
Euripidean plays? Is the noticeable emphasis on reciprocal eros due to a
chronological evolution of the genre or is it an integral aspect of the
tragic genre per se? Finally, can the study of fragmentary plays allow us
to redefine our standard views on the nature of Euripidean marriage and
tragic marriage in general?

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