"The Argument of "Septem Contra Thebas

Bibliographic Data

ID3938246
AuthorsEsther Jackson (corresponding author)
Year1988
Volume42
Issue4
Pages287
Publication date1988-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePhoenix (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0031-8299 • E-ISSN: 1929-4883
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1088655
OpenAlexW2326997573
LanguageEN
Citations received8

ON FIRST ACQUAINTANCE, the Septem is a thoroughly unsatisfying play. Not on account of its immediate texture-its diction and the form of individual scenes: it is full of fine speeches and dramatic exchanges, and contains a splendid symbolic construction in the shield scene. But instead of an overall movement of the drama, with each successive element building upon the last, the play in the first half at least seems to fall apart into a series of episodes: the initial statement of the Argive attack and Eteocles' preparations to meet it, the hysterical inrush of the chorus of Theban women, leading to their argument with Eteocles, and the shield scene. The shield scene itself creates a powerful momentum towards the climax of Eteocles' decision to meet his brother in battle. Dramatic continuity is maintained in the succeeding choral ode, which places that decision in the context of its history, broadening out the perspective in which the climax is seen. That choral ode, however, seems to anticipate a climax of action, to follow the climax of decision: the actual battle which decides the fate of the city. But when the next scene opens, the action is all over. There is nothing more but the final lament.1 The most intractable element here is the scene of Eteocles and the panicstricken chorus of women. There is no obvious motivation for it in the opening section which precedes it, nor in the shield scene which follows. The shield scene by itself could be seen to follow thematically from the opening section-continuing to elaborate Eteocles' manner of meeting the Argive attack. But this isolates the chorus' scene still further, and makes it appear all the more dispensable.2

Argument (complex analysis · Classical Antiquity Studies · Internal Medicine · Medicine · Organic Chemistry Synthesis Methods · Philosophy

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