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Restless Dead

Page 44

by Sarah Iles Johnston


  74. E. IT 1448-57•

  75. Euripides gives the story a certain newness, however, by incorporating details that look like his own innovations. Most obviously, the addition of a living Iphigenia to be rescued is probably either Euripides' invention or an invention of some other fifth-century sources (before Euripides, she either dies or is made immortal). On the story of Orestes and the statue of Artemis, another puzzling element, see Graf 1979.

  76. Pl. Lg. 64zd4-643ai. Plato gets his dates wrong, placing Epimenides' visit in the late sixth century, in contradiction of all other ancient sources; for discussion of this, see Diels.

  77. Hymnos desmios phrenon: Eu. 306-96 (the phrase is in lines 331-32 = 345-46). Other pertinent words that make it clear that Orestes' wits are the target of the spell are parakopa, paraphora, and phrenodales (329-31 = 342-45). On its relationship to the curse tablets, see Faraone 1985.

  78. Athena's words as meiligma: Eu. 886. Clytemnestra's offerings to the Erinyes as meiligmata: Eu. 107. Clytemnestra's offerings to appease the ghost of Agamemnon (delivered by Electra) as meiligmata: Ch. 15.

  79. Cf. E. IT 166, where Iphigenia calls her meiligmata to the supposedly dead Orestes thelkterion nekrois.

  35• Stream of Ocean: Od. 10.508, 511; 11.21, 639; 1z.1, zo. Meadow of Asphodel: 11.538-39. Rock: 10.515.

 

 

 


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