id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentence	flesch	summary	cache	txt
grbs-1581	Widzisz, Marcel	The Duration of Darkness and the Light of Eleusis in the Prologue of Agamemnon and the Third Stasimon of Choephoroi	2010	29	.pdf	application/pdf	11118	418	59	Widzisz ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 50 (2010) 461–489 © 2010 Marcel Widzisz The Duration of Darkness and the Light of Eleusis in the Prologue of Agamemnon and the Third Stasimon of Choephoroi Marcel Widzisz VER A CENTURY AGO Walter Headlam noticed that certain phrases and images in the Oresteia seem to allude to the Eleusinian mysteries.1 His life cut short, George Thomson edited and published Headlam’s notes2 (later developed into a full-length commentary on the Oresteia)3 in which he sought to buttress the case for allusion to the Mysteries. The possibility of the watchman, in the prologue of Agamemnon, uttering phrases reminiscent of the Mysteries is acknowledged neither by E. Fraenkel, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon I–III (Oxford 1950), nor by J. Denniston and D. Page, Aeschylus’ Agamemnon (Oxford 1957); J. Bollack and P. Judet de la O 462 THE DURATION OF DARKNESS ————— Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 50 (2010) 461–489 Headlam-Thomson suggest with little comment6 (with one early exception),7 it is little wonder that there is some hedging and head-scratching about the purported allusions.8 ___ Combe, L’Agamemnon d’Eschyle: le texte et ses interpretations I–II (Lille 1981) ad Ag. 38, consider only the last line of the prologue in this regard, “puisant ailleurs dans l’arsenal de la sagesse populaire, le veilleur est ainsi subitement initié au langage des mystères.	cache/grbs-1581.pdf	txt/grbs-1581.txt