PORTER, JOHN R., Tiptoeing through the Corpses: Euripides' "Electra", Apollonius, and the 
"Bouphonia" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 31:3 (1990:Fall) p.255 

Tiptoeing through the Corpses: 
Euripides' Electra, Apollonius, 

and the Bouphonia 

John R. Porter 

For D. ]. Conacher 

EURIPIDES' ELECTRA has become something of a focal point 
in recent disputes regarding the nature and intent of Eurip­
idean drama. The orthodox reading of the play has found 

in it, for good or ill, a clear instance of the poet's hostility to 
received myth and of his aversion to the ethical and religious 
presuppositions contained therein. In Euripides' treatment of 
the Orestes story (as opposed to those of Aeschylus and 
Sophocles) the patina of legend is stripped away and we are 
presented with ordinary people who perform the acts assigned 
to them by tradition, but do so in broad daylight, as it were, 
amid the disconcerting realism, the unglamorous mundaneness 
of the dramatic world that Euripides sets before us-or so the 
standard reading of the play would maintain. The uneasiness 
aroused by this harsh disjunction beween what the characters 
purport to be and what they are is regarded as an essential 
element in the work's dynamic and an important clue to its 
ultimate meaning.t 

1 A good example of this approach is provided by W. G. Arnott, "Double 
the Vision: A Reading of Euripides' Electra," G&R 28 (1981) 179-92. Cf, to 
varying degrees, E. T. England, "The Electra of Euripides," CR 40 (1926) 
97-104; S. M. Adams, "Two Plays of Euripides," CR 49 (1935) 118-22; G. M. 
A. Grube, The Drama of Euripides (London 1941) 297-314; G. Murray, 
Euripides and his Age2 (Oxford 1946) 76-79; M. Pohlenz, Die griechische 
Tragodie 2 (Gottingen 1954) 309-15; F. Stoessl, "Die Elektra des Euripides," 
RhM 99 (1956) 47-92; R. Lattimore, The Poetry of Greek Tragedy (Baltimore 
1958) 109f; J. C. Kamerbeek, "Mythe et n!alite dans !'oeuvre d'Euripide," in A. 
Rivier and 0. Reverdin, edd., Euripide (Geneva 1960) 3--41; M. J. O'BRIEN, 
"Orestes and the Gorgon: Euripides' Electra," A]P 85 (1964: hereafter 
'O'Brien') 13-39; H. D. F. Kitto, Greek Tragedyl (London 1961) 330--41; D. J. 
Conacher, Euripidean Drama (Toronto 1967) 199-212; B. M. W. Knox, 
"'Euripidean Comedy," in Word and Action (Baltimore 1979) 251-56 (=A. 

255 



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256 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

The messenger's description of Aegisthus' murder at lines 
774-858 often is cited in this context.2 In most treatments of the 
Orestes legend Aegisthus is dispatched with relatively little 
fanfare and with few troubling moral or ethical implications. His 
death is presented as well-deserved and long overdue. 3 Such is 
not the case (or at least not evidently the case) in Euripides' 
treatment of the story, where the usurper is cut down from 
behind in the midst of a sacrifice to which he courteously has 
invited the unrecognized Orestes. In this new version 

Cheuse and R. Koffler, edd., The Rarer Action [New Brunswick 1970] 70-75); 
B. Vickers, Towards Greek Tragedy (London 1973) 558-66; G. Freris, 
·E.lectre. L'incarnation d'une enigme," Dodone 6 (1977) 15-39; J. R. MULRYNE, 
•Poetic Structures in the Electra of Euripides," LCM 2 (1977: 'Mulryne') 31-38, 
41-50; G. B. WALSH, •The First Stasimon of Euripides' Electra," YCS 25 (1977: 
'Walsh') 277-89; K. C. King, •The Force of Tradition: The Achilles Ode in 
Euripides' Electra," TAPA 110 (1980) 195-212; J. H. W. Morwood, •The 
Pattern of the Euripides Electra," A]P 102 (1981) 362-70; T. A. Tarkow, •The 
Scar of Orestes: Observations on a Euripidean Innovation," Rh M 124 {1981) 
143-53; J. W. Halpern, •The Skeptical Electra," HSCP 87 (1983) 101-18; N. G. 
L. Hammond, ·spectacle and Parody in Euripides' Electra," GRBS 25 (1984) 
373-87; D. Konstan, • Philia in Euripides' Electra," Philologus 129 (1985) 
176-85; S. Goldhill, Reading Greek Tragedy (Cambridge 1986) 162-65, 228f, 
244-59. The pioneering study is Wilamowitz, ·nie heiden Elektren," Hermes 
18 (1883) 214-63. For the related theory that Euripides attempts a direct 
refutation of Sophocles' treatment of the Orestes myth, see H. Steiger, 
·warum schrieb Euripides seine Elektra ?" Philologus 56 (1897) 561-600; K. 
von Fritz, •Die Orestessage bei den drei groBen griechischen Tragikern," in 
Antike und moderne Tragodie (Berlin 1962) 140-45. Cf A. Rivier, Essai sur le 
tragique d'Euripide 2 (Paris 1975) 119-24, who examines the contrast between 
the characters' actions and the idyllic setting in which the poet locates those 
actions. 

2 Among the studies cited in n.1 see England 103; Adams 121; Grube 308; 
Stoessl 88f; Rivier 120; Kitto 336; O'Brien 27f, 34; Conacher 206f; Knox 252; 
Vickers 560f; Mulryne 33f; Walsh 283-86; Arnott 186-90; Morwood 367; 
Tarkow 144f; Hammond 385f; cf. F. Will, •Remarks on Counterpoint 
Characterization in Euripides," CJ 55 (1960) 342f; U. Albini, • L' Elettra di 
Euripide," Maia 14 (1962) 92f, 101ff; F. Zeitlin, •The Argive Festival of Hera 
and Euripides' Electra," TAPA 101 (1970) 652f, 660; S. A. Barlow, The 
Imagery of Euripides (London 1971) 74f; E. Masaracchia, •Interpretazioni 
euripidee," Helikon 17 (1977) 155-62; H. B. Foley, Ritual Irony (Ithaca 1985) 
43ff. 

3 Cf J. D. Denniston, ed., Euripides, Electra (Oxford 1939) xxv. Note e.g. 
the numerous depictions of Aegisthus' death in Greek art of the archaic and 
early classical period, in contrast to the relative dearth as regards the murder 
of Clytemnestra: see A. J. N. W. Prag, The Oresteia (Warminster 1985), 
particularly 10-32, 42f. 



PORTER, JOHN R., Tiptoeing through the Corpses: Euripides' "Electra", Apollonius, and the 
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JOHN R. PORTER 257 

Aegisthus simply does not appear to be as villainous-nor 
Orestes as heroic-as he should be. 

The description of the death-blow is particularly unsavory in 
its explicitness. Aegisthus is in the act of examining the victim's 
entrails when we read (839-43 ): 

'tou 8£ vEuov'toc; Kchc.o 
ovuxac; E1t' aKpouc; <J'tcl<; Ka<JtyYTl'tO<; a£6Ev 
£c; a<povouA.ouc; E7tataE, vorna'ia o£ 
EPPTl~Ev iip6pa · 1tfxv o£ a&Jl' iivc.o Kci'tro 
ila7tatpEv itMA.t~E ouaOvnaKrov <povcp. 4 

The account of this disconcertingly polite Aegisthus5 being 
butchered from behind has been regarded by the majority of 
critics as confirmation that the Electra is to be read as an expose 
of sorts: in this particular regard, as a study of the true nature of 
vengeance-slaying when seen in the cold light of day, shorn of 
any mythological, heroic, or jingoistic trappings.6 

4"'as [Aegisthus] was leaning down, your brother raised himself on the tips 
of his toes and smote at his spine, smashing the vertebrae; his body was all 
convulsed, heaving, writhing in hard and bloody death . ., The text is that of J. 
Diggle, Euripidis Fabulae II (Oxford 1981 ); the translation is that of M. J. 
CROPP, Euripides, Electra (Warminster 1988: hereafter 'Cropp, Electra'). On 
the text of 842f cf Denniston (supra n.3) ad loc.; J. C. Kamerbeek, "'Some 
Notes on Euripides' Electra," Mnemosyne SER. 4 40 (1987) 282. 

5 The suggestion that Aegisthus invites Orestes to take part in the rite merely 
as an excuse to display his own prosperity (M. S. Mirto, • Il sacrificio tra 
metafora e mechanema nell' Elettre di Euripide," CivCiassChrist 1 [1980] 306£, 
329) does not seem to be borne out by the text of 634-37 or that of 779--839. C. 
H. Keene (The Electra of Euripides [London 1893] vi f) argues that, compelled 
by the rules of hospitality, Aegisthus merely attempts to avoid any diminution 
of his own time; cf J. E. G. Whitehorne, "'The Ending of Euripides' Electra, • 
RBPhil 56 (1978) 8 n. 9. Others would maintain that he is the victim of divine 
ate or simple arrogance (G. Murray, tr., The Electra of Euripides [London 
1913] 93; R. Aelion, Euripide heritier d'Eschyle [Paris 1983] I 132), while W. 
Wuhrmann, Strukturelle Untersuchungen zu den heiden Elektren und zum 
euripideischen Orestes (diss.Ziirich 1940) 74ff, cites the apparent contradictions 
in the presentation of Aegisthus as evidence for the poet's lack of concern for 
consistency of characterization ( cf, most recently, I. J. F. de Jong, "'Three Off­
Stage Characters in Euripides," Mnemosyne SER.4 43 [1990] 14-19). 

6 Thus e.g. the often cited comment of Vickers (supra n.1) 561: "'The realism 
has its effect, creating a sickening alienation from revenge." Cf G. Norwood, 
Greek Tragedy (London 1920) 256; E. T. Vermeule, tr., Electra, in D. Grene 
and R. Lattimore, edd., Complete Greek Tragedies: Euripides V (Chicago 



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258 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

The last few years have witnessed a reaction against this 
reading of the play, particularly as regards its dependence on 
ironic double entendre and psychological nuance. Recent 
studies emphasize instead the exciting and innovative nature of 
the plot and, while playing down the problematic features of the 
Euripidean account, point to parallels with the story of Odys­
seus' homecoming. 7 Thus Malcolm Heath, for example, who 
presents a general protest against the modern tendency toward 
the abstract "intellectualisation" of these plays, argues that 
Euripides is operating firmly within an ancient tradition of 
"emotive hedonism," in accordance with which "the tragedian 
aims primarily to evoke an emotional response from his 
audience, while the audience for their part value his work 
because of the pleasure that accompanies such emotional 
excitation under the controlled conditions of a theatrical 
fiction."8 The Electra, Heath would claim (59f, 62f), presents a 
moving and exciting treatment of the Orestes story, charac­
terized by a sophistic taste for ingenuity and paradox. On the 
other hand, Michael Lloyd and (most recently) Martin Cropp 
attempt to interpret the play along more traditional lines, 

1959) 5; O'Brien 27f; Walsh 284ff. Mirto (supra n.5: 312f) notes the de­
humanizing force of the description, with Aegisthus suddenly reduced to the 
level of a beast thrashing about in its death-throes: cf. Grube (supra n.1) 308; 
Mulryne 45f; A. N. Michelini, Euripides and the Tragic Tradition (Madison 
1987) 214 n.144. The problematic nature of Orestes' deed further is set off by 
the athletic/heroic terms in which it is portrayed: Adams (supra n.1) 121; 
O'Brien 23; M. Kubo, •The Norm of Myth: Euripides' Electra," HSCP 71 
(1966) 23f; Zeitlin (supra n.2) 655ff, 659f; Mulryne 37; Arnott (supra n.1) 
186-90 and •Red Herrings and Other Baits, A Study in Euripidean 
Techniques," MusPhilLon 3 (1978) 20f; Mirto (supra n.5) 311 with n.33; Foley 
(supra n.2) 43; Michelini 217 n.157. 

7 See, in particular, J. Dingel, •ner 24. Gesang der Odyssee und die Elektra 
des Euripides," Rh M 112 (1969) 1 03-09; Hal porn (supra n.1) 1 07f; M. Cropp, 
• Heracles, Electra and the Odyssey," in M. Cropp, E. Fantham, and S. E. 
Scully, edd., Greek Tragedy and its Legacy (Calgary 1986) 191 with n.17; W. 
Kullmann, •neutung und Bedeutung der Getter bei Euripides," in Mythos, 
Deutung und Bedeutung (Innsbruck 1987) 18; Michelini (supra n.6) 185f, 197f; 
cf. H. Diller, •Erwartung, Enttauschung und Erfiillung in der griechischen 
Tragodie," SerPhilAen 7/8 (1962) 93-115; Knox (supra n.l) 268f; Tarkow (supra 
n.1). 

8 M. Heath, The Poetics of Greek Tragedy (Palo Alto 1987) 11; cf. 35f, 71-80. 



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JOHN R. PORTER 259 

emphasizing its tragic interplay of fate, character, circumstance, 
and confounded expectations. 9 

As regards the murder of Aegisthus, these scholars would 
challenge the notion that the messenger's narrative is as 
problematic as many have alleged. They note (among other 
points10) that Orestes always employs guile, of necessity, in all 
versions of the myth; that Greek ethics never stress 'fair play' in 
dealings with one's enemies in any case; and that (to quote 
Lloyd) "a person in the act of sacrificing, unlike someone who 
had taken refuge at an altar, did not enjoy any special protection 
from the gods. » 11 Thus the modern assumption that there is 

9 M. Lloyd, •Realism and Character in Euripides' Electra," Phoenix 40 
(1986) 1-19; Cropp, Electra xxix-xxxviii, xlvi-xlviii. For similar readings of EL 
(which vary, however, in their estimation of the play's success) see Wuhrmann 
(supra n.5) 45-89; W. Zurcher, Die Darstellung des Menschen im Drama des 
Euripides (Basel 1947) 108-48; A. Vogler, Vergleichende Studien zur 
sophokleischen und euripideischen Elektra (Heidelberg 1967); W. Steidle, 
Studien zum antiken Drama (Munich 1968) 63-91; M. F. Fresco, ·zur Schuld 
des Orestes," in J. M. Bremer, S. L. Radt, and C. J. Ruijgh, edd., Miscellanea 
Tragica (Amsterdam 1976) 101-08; G. Basta Donzelli, Studio sull' Elettra di 
Euripide (Catania 1978); V. J. Rosivach, •The 'Golden Lamb' Ode in 
Euripides' Electra," CP 73 (1978) 192-99; Whitehorne (supra n.5 ); A cHi on 
(supra n.5) 111-44; E. M. Thury, •Euripides' Electra: An Analysis through 
Character Development," R h M 128 (1985) 5-22; D. Kovacs, ·where is 
Aegisthus' Head?" CP 82 ( 1987) 141 with n.6. Michelini, in one of the most 
acute analyses of Electra in recent years, argues (supra n.6: 181-230, esp.227) 
that deliberate confusions of genre in the play produce •a radical discontinuity 
between real and ideal,, which in turn introduces a series of troubling 
ambiguities on a variety of levels, aesthetic, moral, and social; this approach 
allows Michelini to draw upon the best of both schools of thought regarding 
the play while paying due regard to its 'metatextual' features. 

10 See esp. Cropp, Electra xxxi-xxxii and ad 774-858. Cf. Wuhrmann (supra 
n.S) 68ff, 72-76; Steidle (supra n.9) 82-85; Fresco (supra n.9) 106f; Aelion (supra 
n.S) 131f; Michelini (supra n.6) 210f, 213f, 216f; Lloyd (supra n.9) 15f; de Jong 
(supra n.S); and in general see F. Solmsen, •zur Gestaltung des lntriguenmotivs 
in den Tragodien des Sophokles und Euripides,, in E.-R. Schwinge, ed., 
Euripides (Darmstadt 1968) 326-44 (=Philologus 87 [1932] 1-17) esp.336, where 
he maintains that in Euripides' later works the mechanema •in keinerlei 
prinzipiell fremdartige Ideenkomplexe hineingezogen wird, vor allem nirgends 
in einen drama tisch fruchtbaren Konflikt mit sittlichen N ormen eintritt., 
Note, however, the important qualification proposed by G. Zuntz in Rivier 
and Reverdin (supra n.1) 116f. 

11 Lloyd (supra n.9) 16; Cropp, Electra ad 774-858, detects a fitting 
reciprocity in Aegisthus' murder while playing host to Orestes, since, according 
to the tradition reflected in Homer's Odyssey, Aegisthus was Agamemnon's 
host on the occasion of the earlier murder. Zeitlin (supra n.2: 654) notes paral-



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260 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

something inherently unsettling about the manner of Aegisthus' 
death, according to these scholars, is founded on attitudes that 
the Greeks of Euripides' day simply did not share: in their view, 
this exciting and innovative account of the tyrant's demise is 
calculated to serve as a foil to the ensuing matricide, which (as in 
Aeschylus' Choephoroe) is to be regarded as providing the true 
crux of the play and which serves as the focus of its angst-ridden 
concluding scenes. 12 

One might take issue with the above arguments (see Appen­
dix), but my concern here is to propose a somewhat different 
approach to this passage. There is evidence to suggest that for 
Apollonius of Rhodes, at least, the traditional interpretation of 
the Euripidean account is precisely correct, and that he is 
influenced by that account (as well as by other features of 
Electra) in his rortrayal of Jason's assault upon Apsyrtus in the 
fourth book o the Argonautica. 13 The notion that Apollonius 

lels between Aegisthus' situation and that of his father Thyestes as described in 
the second stasimon. 

12 See Wuhrmann (supra n.5) 50f, 72f, 82-86; Pohlenz (supra n.l) 31lf; H. 
Strohm, Euripides (Munich 1957) 82; Diller (supra n.7) 97ff; K. Matthiessen, 
Elektra, Taurische Iphigenie und Helena (Gottingen 1964) 78ff; Vogler (supra 
n.9) 177 with n.120; Steidle (supra n.9) 89; Fresco (supra n.9) 106; Basta 
Donzelli (supra n.9) 143, 156£, 179; Thury (supra n.9) 12, 20; Kullmann (supra 
n.7) 18; Cropp (supra n.7) 195 and Electra xxix-xxxi and ad 959-87; de Jong 
(supra n.S) 20. Masaracchia (supra n.2: 160), noting parallels in the language 
and imagery employed to describe the two murders, argues that Orestes and 
Electra both are portrayed as "sacerdoti di una religione crudele e sanguinaria 
che esige vittime umane." Dingel (supra n.7: 108 n.15) suggests that the death of 
Aegisthus is modeled in a general fashion on the murder of the Suitors in Od. 
21-22: •der fremde Gast unterzieht sich bei festlicher Gelegenheit einer 
Aufgabe (don gegen den Willen, hier auf Wunsch des Opfers) und totet sein 
Opfer dann mit dem Werkzeug, das er zur Ausfiihrung der Aufgabe benutzt 
hat." These parallels are too broad, however, to be compelling: most important, 
the scenario of Od. 21-22 lacks the crucial element that characterizes the 
murder of Aegisthus, the sacral nature of the occasion. For the view that 
Euripides is, in part, merely 'correcting' the improbabilities inherent in 
Aeschylus' account, see e.g. Pohlenz 311; cf Steidle (supra n.9) 69; Masaracchia 
(supra n.2) 156£. 

13 On the various traditions regarding Apsyrtus' death see J. G. Frazer, ed., 
Apollodorus, The Library (London 1921) I 112 n.2; U. von WILAMOWITZ­
MoELLENDORFF, Hellenistische Dichtung in der Zeit des Kallimachos (Berlin 
1924: hereafter 'Wilamowitz') II 191-94; F. VIAN, ed., Apollonios de Rhodes, 
Argonautiques, I-III (Paris 1976-81: 'Vian') at III 7ff, 20-23; C. W. Clairmont 
in LIMCIIs.v. •Apsyrtos"; A. R. Dyck, "On the Way from Colchis to Cor-



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JOHN R. PORTER 261 

here is influenced by tragedy is far from new. In 1924, noting 
the numerous affinities between Apollonius' narrative and con­
ventions of plot and of scene structure associated with the 
Greek stage, Wilamowitz suggested that Apollonius, in 
composing this section of his poem, merely adapted a now-lost 
work by an unknown trasic poet. This theory was developed in 
greater detail by Stoessl, who identified that lost work as 
Sophocles' Scythian Women. Both Wilamowitz and Stoessel 
focused on obscurities and alleged absurdities in Apollonius' 
account, arguing that such defects were the result of the poet's 
failure to assimilate the material provided by his model to its 
new context within the fabric of his epic.14 

Few scholars would accept this thesis today: Herter has 
demonstrated that many of the absurdities detected by Stoessl 
are of his own manufacture, 15 while Handel and Fusillo have 
analyzed the narrative technique of the passage and have found 
there a conscious poetic strategy at work, one that strives for 
variety in its manner of presentation and focuses, not on events, 
but on the principal characters' reactions to those events. 16 Such 
studies have shown that Apollonius, in crafting his account of 
Apsyrtus' death, is not a slave to any particular model but draws 
upon a variety of sources to achieve something of a literary tour 

inth: Medea in Book 4 of the Argonautica," Hermes 117 (1989) 460f; R. L. 
Hunter, ed., Apollonius of Rhodes: Argonautica, Book III (Cambridge 1989) 
ad 3.242-46; and, for a useful general account of Apollonius' predecessors, Vian 
I xxvi-xxxix. 

14 Wilamowitz II 196f, suggesting the Scythian Women only as a possibility; 
F.SToESSt, Apolwnios Rhodios (Bern 1941: hereafter 'Stoessl') esp.120-26; cf. L. 
Klein, "Die Gottertechnik in dem A rgonautika des Apollonios Rhodios," 
Philologus 86 (1931) 235 n.70. 

15 H. HERTER, •Beitrage zu Apollonios von Rhodos," RhM 91 (1942) 237-44 
and Burs ian, Jahresb. 285 ( 1944-55: hereafter 'Herter') 383-87. At times Stoessl 
reduces Apollonius to the level of an inept copiest: see e.g. his remarks (97) on 
£~avtov'tac; atArgon. 4.318. 

16 P. Handel, Beobachtungen zur epischen Technik des Apollonios Rhodios 
(Munich 1954) 75ff; M. FusrLLO, Il tempo delle Argonautiche (Rome 1985: 
hereafter 'Fusillo') 264f. Many of the observations raised by these scholars are 
presented by Stoessl only to be dismissed: see e.g. Stoessl 99{, 103. Cf. R. 
lbscher, Gestalt der Szene und Form der Rede in den Argonautika des 
Apollonios Rhodios (Berlin 1939) 81ff, 101f, 110f; G. PADUANO, Studi zu 
Apollonio Rodio (Rome 1972: 'Paduano') 222; E. LrvREA, ed., Apollonii Rhodii 
Argonauticon, Liber IV (Florence 1973: 'Livrea') ad 303-521 passim. 



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262 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

de force, in which elements derived from tragedy are blended 
into a predominantly Homeric/epic context to yield a particular­
ly interesting example of the arte allusiva so beloved by the 
Alexandrians.17 The insights of Wilamowitz and Stoessl remain 
valuable, however, for they provide clear evidence of the degree 
to which devices traditionally associated with the tragic stage 
pervade Apollonius' narrative. As one would imagine (given the 
numerous affinities between the two poets), it is to Euripidean 
tragedy that Apollonius turns most often and, in particular, to 
Euripides' Electra. 18 

Apsyrtus' murder takes place in an environment that is rife 
with Euripidean overtones. Jason, Medea, and the Argonauts 
have been run to ground by Apsyrtus and the Colchians in the 
northern Adriatic. There is no question of the fugitives fighting 
their way out: the famed Argonauts, whose martial exploits were 
central to the first two books of the poem, here are conspicuous 
by their absence. The Colchians agree to allow Jason to keep the 
golden fleece, but insist that Medea be placed 'in trust' in a 
nearby temple of Artemis, her fate to be determined by an 
impartial third party. Jason and Medea then fall to plotting some 
means of escape, and we find ourselves in the midst of a 
Euripidean mecha.nema scene: two young people-a man and a 
woman-trapped in a foreign land and forced to rely on guile for 
their deliverance. (One thinks in particular of the Iphigenia 
among the Taurians and its similar associations with a temple of 

17 Cf. Livrea xxii f; Vian III 23, who speaks of the Apsyrtus episode as "'une 
synthese de Ia tragedie et de l'epopee." See also Paduano 229; J. K. Newman, 
The Classical Epic Tradition (Madison 1986) 86f; and in general M. Fantuzzi, 
"'Varianti d'autore nelle Argonautiche di Apollonio Rodio," A&A 29 (1983) 
146-61; Fusillo 209ff. The foreshadowing of Euripides' Medea in this episode 
has received particular attention: see e.g. lbscher (supra n.16) 82f, 168-75; J. F. 
Carspecken, • Apollonius Rhodius and the Homeric Epic," YCS 13 (1952) 1 03f; 
Paduano 201-39, esp.222f; Vian III 22; G. Zanker, Realism in Alexandrian 
Poetry (London 1987) 197-201. 

18 See R. L. Hunter, "'Short on Heroics: Jason in the Argonautica," CQ N.s. 

38 (1988) 449-52, who notes similarities between Apollonius' Jason in this 
scene and the Euripidean Orestes. Stoessl ( 106, 112ff, 121 n.50) notes several 
similarities between Electra and the Apsyrtus episode. The contribution of 
Sophocles' Scythian Women must remain a matter of conjecture, given the 
problematic nature of our evidence, most of which derives from Accius: see 
Stoessl 124ff; Radt, TrGF IV 415-18; D. F. Sutton, The Lost Sophocles (Lan­
ham 1984) 120-24. 



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JOHN R. PORTER 263 

Artemis.)1 9 As usual in Euripides, it is the woman who is the 
moving force in the plot: Medea devises the scheme to lure 
Apsyrtus to a lone meeting where Jason can ambush him. 20 
Apsyrtus is to be won over by means of Medea's magic and the 
gift of a cloak, one given Jason by Hypsipyle in Book One.2t Im­
mediately one recafls the magical cloak of Euripides' Medea, 22 

but the treachery towards blood kin involved in this plot also 
recalls Electra's summoning of Clytemnestra in Electra. 
Messengers are packed off with the cloak, the history of which 
Apollonius recounts in great detail ( 423-34 ). 23 There follows the 

19 Cf. Wilamowitz 196; Stoessl 113 and 101, 103, where he notes echoes of the 
initial meetinl? between Jason and Medea before the temple of Hecate at 
3.975-1145; cj. Fusillo 264 with n.38; G. PADUANO and M. FusiLLO, edd., 
Apollonio Rodio, Le Argonautiche (Milan 1986: hereafter 'Paduano/Fusillo') 
ad 4.393-410. R. L. Hunter, •Medea's Flight: The Fourth Book of the Ar­
gonautica," CQ N.S. 37 (1987) 131 n.17, suggests comparison between the Circe 
episode of Book Four and the Iphigenia Taurica. 

20 As many have noted, Apollonius' Jason is all too ready to join in Medea's 
treacherous plot. In this he resembles not only the Jason of Euripides' Medea 
(cf. Zanker [supra n.17] 204) and the Orestes of Electra, but e.g. the Menelaus 
of Helen. For various interpretations of his problematic words at lines 395-409 
see Ibscher (supra n.16} 82f, 161f; Stoessl105; Herter 386; H. Frankel, Noten zu 
den Argonautika des Apollonios (Munich 1968) 484f, 488; Paduano 212-15, 
223ff; C. R. Beye, Epic and Romance in the Argonautica of Apollonius 
(Carbondale 1982) 162; Livrea ad 404; Paduano/Fusillo ad 393-410; Hunter 
(supra n.19) 130f; cf. F. Vian, ·mrnN AMHXANEQN," in E. Livrea and G. A. 
Privitera, edd., Studi in onore di Anthos Ardizzoni (Rome 1978) II 1033-36. 

21 On the cloak and its implications see Stoessl 1 07f; Frankel (supra n.20) 
490f; Livrea ad loc.; H. A. Shapiro, '"Jason's Cloak," TAPA 110 (1980) 266-71; 
Vian III n.c ad 434; A. Rose, '"Clothing Imagery in Apollonius's Argonautika," 
QUCC N.S. 21 (1985) 39-41; Newman (supra n.17) 74ff; Zanker (supra n.17) 224 
n.156; Hunter (supra n.13) ad 3.997-1004. 

22 Herter 386; Vian III 22 n.4; Beye (supra n.20) 163; Paduanao/Fusillo ad 
421f; Hunter (supra n.19) 131; Dyck (supra n.13) 460. 

23 Although lines 423-34 are based on Homeric models (e.g. ll. 2.101-08: see 
Livrea ad 423), the function of this digression within Apollonius' narrative is 
not unlike that of the colorful, myth-laden odes of Euripides' later works: in 
each, the sudden shift to the timeless world of traditonal mythology provides a 
stark contrast to the bleak action for which it forms a background. The 
sensuous vignette at 430-34 is particularly reminiscent of the manner of 
Euripides' 'dithyrambic' stasima. More specifically, Apollonius' elaborate 
evocation of the perfidious history associated with Hypsipyle's cloak (supra 
n.21) recalls Euripides' account of the golden lamb of Atreus at El. 699-746, the 
ode that directly precedes the execution of the plots against Aegisthus and 
Clytemnestra: cf. n.24 infra. 



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264 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

address to CJXE'tAto~ "Epw~ at 445-49, which has reminded many 
commentators of the choral stasima that commonly separate 
Euripidean mechanema scenes from the report of the success or 
failure of these schemes.24 

Then follows the murder. Apsyrtus is another sympathetic 
character killed by deceit in a sacral context (here, in the pronaos 
of the temple of Artemis) and in a most unheroic fashion. Like 
Euripides, Apollonius apfears to go out of his way to emphasize 
the treacherous nature o the deed and its gory realism, thereby 
generating an atmosphere laden with overtones of miasma, guilt, 
and of heroism turned sour. We pick up the account at line 464: 

au'th:a 0' AiaoviOTl~ 1t'U1CtVOU E1C1t(lA 'tO A.Oxow 
'Y\)J.I.VOV avaax6J.LEVO~ 1tClAclJ.LTI ~i<po~. alwa OE lCO'\JPTl 
EJ.LxaA.tv OJ.LJ.La't' £vetKE, KaA.uwaJ.LEVTl 666vnat, 
J.lll <pOVOV a6pitaete KClCJt"(Vft'tOtO 't'U1tEV'tO~. 
'tOV 0' 0 ye, (3ou'tU1tO~ ro~ 'tE J.LEyav KEpEaAKE(l 'taupov' 
7tA:i\~EV C>1tt1tEUCJ(l~ VllOU axeoov ov 1tO't' E0£tJ.L(lV 
'Ap'tEJ.LtOt B puyol7teptvate'tat avn7tEpll6ev. 25 

24 See Wilamowitz II 196; H. Faerber, Zur dichterischen Kunst in Apollonios 
Rhodios' Argonautica (die Gleichnisse) (diss.Berlin 1932) 105 n.3; StoesslllO, 
123; Vian III 23 n.3, n.c ad 449; Hunter (supra n.19) 131; and in general 
Frankel (supra n.20) 493-96; Paduano 228; Paduano/Fusillo ad 445-51; the 
influence of tragedy here is denied by Herter 386; Livrea ad 445 with 
Addenda; Fusillo 378f with n.37. On Euripides' practice see e.g. Strohm (supra 
n.12) 82, who cites EL 699-746, IT 1089-1152, Hel 1107-64. 

Other echoes of Euripidean technique can be detected in the aition 
concerning the • Apsyrtean Islands" at the conclusion of the episode (4.480f, 
507-21). Like his contemporaries, Apollonius displays a taste for such aitia that 
is foreign to modern sensibilities: see e.g. Herter 387; Fusillo 116ff; M. Valverde 
Sanchez, El aition en las Argonauticas de Apolonio de Rodas (Murcia 1989), 
was not available to me. In this instance, however, the aition achieves a 
peculiarly Euripidean effect in each of the passages where it is introduced. The 
glancing allusion to the • Apsyrtean people" at 480f rounds off the vignette of 
Apsyrtus' wretched death after the manner of e.g. Hipp. 1423-30, suggesting an 
honorable compensation for the hero's fate while at the same time, by its very 
inadequacy, enhancing the pathos of that fate. In quite another vein, the 
Colchians' abortive attempt to pursue the Argonauts at 507-21 (frustrated by 
Hera's sudden intervention at 509f) and their decision to settle in the islands 
that will bear the name of their murdered leader directly recall not only Od. 
24.528-48 but also the conclusion of IT (1422-89) and the aitia that are integral 
to Athena's final dispensations in that play. 

25 Just as Aegisthus' sacrifice to the nymphs carries ironic overtones (see 
Appendix), so this temple of Artemis-in addition to recalling IT and 
providing an ironic counterpoint to the eros theme so prominent in the 



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JOHN R. PORTER 

-rou o y' £vl1tpo06J.Lq> yvu~ i\pUtE · A.oicr9ux o' ilpro<; 
&uJlov a1to1tVEirov XEpcrlv JlEAav aJ.Lcpo-repncrtv 
alJ.la x:a-r' cinn/...-flv i>1toicrxE-ro · -rfl~ o£ x:a/...{>1t'tPTIV 
aprucp£11v x:al1te1tA.ov a!...E'UoJ.L£v11 ~ tpue11vEv. 26 

265 

Several minor points of detail suggest that Electra is on 
Apollonius's mind in composing this account,27 but the most 
obvious similarities lie in the description of the actual murder. 
The sickeningly vivid description of Aegisthus' corpse flailing 
about in its death agonies at El 842f is matched by the equally 
vivid description of Apsyrtus' death at Argon. 4.471-74. 28 In 
both accounts this vivid use of detail (their "gross specificity,, 
in Helena Foley's phrase 29) serves to heighten the audience's 
aversion to the murder. Each author relies on sacrificial imagery 
to enhance the macabre atmosphere of the scene. Euripides 

scene-might be intended to recall an earlier version of Apsyrtus' story, where 
he, like the Iphigenia of Aeschylus' Agamemnon, was a mere child and 
therefore of concern to Artemis. Cf. Faerber (supra n.24) 43 n.1 on line 460 and 
Paduano/Fusillo ad 460f. 

26 •and straightway Aeson's son leapt forth from the thick ambush, lifting 
his bare sword in his hand; and quickly the maiden turned her eyes aside and 
covered them with her veil that she might not see the blood of her brother 
when he was smitten. And Jason marked him and struck him down, as a 
butcher strikes down a mighty strong-horned bull, hard by the temple which 
the Brygi on the mainland opposite had once built for Artemis. In its vestibule 
he fell on his knees; and at last the hero breathing out his life caught up in 
both his hands the dark blood as it welled from the wound; and he dyed with 
red his sister's silvery veil and robe as she shrank away." (Tr. R. C. Seaton, 
Apollonius Rhodius, The Argonautica [London 1919]; the Greek text here and 
infra is Vian's). 

27 How Medea averts her face from the deed at 465ff recalls the similar act of 
Euripides' Orestes when slaying Clytemnestra (£/. 1221ff), although G. W. 
Mooney (The Argonautica of Apollonius Rhodius [Dublin 1912] ad 466) cites 
Timanthes' famous depiction of the sacrifice of Iphigenia: cf. Livrea ad 466; 
Cropp, Electra ad 1221; Herter 386. The reference to the staining of Medea's 
cloak at 473f might recall the Euripidean Electra's grotesque warning to her 
mother not to soil her gown when entering the herdsman's shack: El. 1139ff; 
cf. Stoessl 113. 

28 As often in Apollonius, the Homeric language used to describe this scene 
adds to the tension between our 'heroic' expectations and the sordid reality of 
the scene being presented; cf. supra 255ff on Euripides' similar strategy in 
Electra. Zanker (supra n.17: 200) suggests that the gruesome depiction of 
Apsyrtus' death foreshadows Medea's later murder of her own children. 

29 Foley (supra n.2) 44; cf. supra n.6. 



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266 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

cleverly presents Orestes' killing of Aegisthus as a perverse 
sacrifice: his hero strikes his victim in the back with a sacrificial 
cleaver while the latter is bending over the entrails of an earlier, 
more conventional victim. Apollonius, on the other hand, not 
only locates the murder in a precinct of Artemis (the inviolate 
nature of which is emphasized at 4.329-35) but expressly 
compares Jason to a sacrificial priest in a simile that recalls, 
among other passages, II. 17.520-23.30 The result, in the case of 
Argon. 4.464-81, is a scene of murderous treachery, of kinship 
outraged and sacred things defiled, that ominously foreshadows 
the later history of Jason and Medea (cf supra nn.17, 22, 28) but 
does so, in part, by evoking the troubled atmosphere that 
pervades the murders of Aegisthus and Clytemnestra in 
Euripides' Electra. 

It may be, however, that there is more significance to 
Apollonius' simile than has been recognized. Unlike the 
Homeric lines to which it often is compared, the Apollonian 
simile is quite specific regarding the identity of this sacrificial 
priest: he is a ~O'U'ttmoc;-not a common word. ~out{moc;, as 
opposed to the generic ~oucp6voc;, ~oo8utTtc;, and the like ( cf 
n.61 infra), would appear to be employed (outside the scholia 
and lexicographers) specifically for the person at the Bouphonia 
charged with striking down the ox in the precinct of Zeus 
Polieus and then fleeing. 31 This official seems to have caught 
Apollonius' imagination, for he refers to him again in a very 
similar context when describing the battle between Amycus and 
Polydeuces at Argon. 2.90ff. There we read of Amycus raising 

3° Cf Od. 4.534f, 11.409ff; Aesch. Ag. 1125-29; also Eur. El. 1139-44. See 
Faerber (supra n.24) 43; Stoessl 113; Livrea ad 468; Vian III 22 n.5; Hunter 
(supra n.19) 131, (supra n.18) 449. 

31 Cf. Livrea ad 468; A. B. CooK, Zeus (Cambridge 1914-40: hereafter 
'Cook') III 585-90. Our most important source is Porph. Abst. 2.30. See also 
JC P 839.8-16 (cf SEC XII 2.1I.A.c.10-17); Ath. 660A=FCrHist 323F5a with 
/C F 843a.7 (cf SEC XXI 94, XXV 38, XXXV 110); IC IJ2 2128.2f, 2129.2, 
2291 a.l f. Exceptions: ~ou'tu7to<; is used as an adjective (modifying J.I.UO>'If) at 
Nonnus Dion. 42.189 and as a term for gadfly at Oppian Hal. 2.529. See 
however Paus. 1.24.4, 28.1 0, where the less specific ~ou<p6vo<; is used of this 
official, and H. voNPRoTI, "Buphonien," RhM 52 (1897: 'von Pratt') 196. The 
entry at Hsch. s.v. Bou'tTl<; probably represents a corruption of ~ou'tu7to<; and not 
a separate tradition associating the rite with the Eteobutadae: on this and on 
problems regarding the clans that provided the different officials for the rite 
see W. BuRKERT, Homo Necans (Berkeley 1983: 'Burkert, HN') 139 n.17. 



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JOHN R. PORTER 267 

himself on tiptoe like a ~OU'tU1tO<; to deliver what he hopes will 
be a decisive blow: 

rvea. o' E1trt't' ''AJ.LUK<><; JlEV E7t' aKpO'tU'tOt<HV aEp8dc; 
~U'tU7toc; ota. 1t00EOCJt 'tO.VUOOO.'tO, KUO oe ~a.pEia.v 

~ • • ' or "~ !.. ~ 32 XEtp E1tt Ot 1tEM::~t~EV .... 

The appearance of this rare term in these two passages is far 
from accidental. Apollonius' fondness for interrelating different 
passages in his text is well known, an extension of his subtle and 
persistent use of arte allusiva. 33 In this instance, the repetition of 
the simile of the ~OU'tU1toc; serves to associate the vicious 
Amycus-the man of force defeated by the noble Poly­
deuces-with Jason, formerly the representative of reason and 
diplomacy34 but here reduced to the level of a cold-blooded 
assassin. As Beye notes: "The second book's victory of light 
over darkness, good over evil is ironically compared to a brutal 
and unheroic murder. What in the second book had seemed to 
be an obvious and instinctive identification of Jason with 
Polydeuces falls away before this new ruthless manslayer Jason 
has become. »Js In each case the simile of the ~OU'tU7toc; conveys 
the savagery of the gesture, as both Amycus and Jason rise to 
their full height in their effort to apply all possible force to their 
respective strokes. Given the similarities between the two 
passages, and the emphasis (at 2.90ff) on the ~OU'tU1toc; as one 
who rises up E1t' aKpO'tU'tOtcrt 7t00£<J<Jt to deliver his crushing 
blow, it seems reasonable to conclude that Jason, like Amycus, 

32 "Next Amycus rising on tiptoe, like one who slays an ox, sprung to his full 
height and swung his heavy hand down upon his rival." The scholiast here 
helpfully informs us that the ~OU'ttl1to~, about to deliver the death-blow with 
his 1tEA.EKU~, "stands on his tiptoes" (t1t' ax:pot~ 'tOt~ OVU~tv t<J't(l't(lt). Cf 
Etym.Magn. s.v. ~· 

33 See e.g. Beye (supra n.20); Newman (supra n.17) 73-103. 
34 See e.g. H. Frankel, "Ein Don Quijote unter den Argonauten des 

Apollonios," M H 17 (1960) 1-20, who details the systematic way in which 
Jason is contrasted with the violent, unthinking Idas. 

35 Beye (supra n.20) 150; cf. 153, 164; Newman (supra n.17) 76. The 
problematic nature of Jason's deed is further set off by the ironic ilpm; at 4.477: 
see A. Kohnken, Apollonios Rhodios und Theokrit (Gottingen 1965) 45 n.2, 
who compares Argon. 2.967. Not everyone would agree, however, that Jason's 
actions in this scene are portrayed in so dark a light: see e.g. Herter 386f; 
Livrea ad 468; and in general Vian (supra n.20). 



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268 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

is to be envisioned as raising himself on tiptoe, in the manner of 
the Euripidean Orestes. 

Why all this fuss about tiptoes? The stance is natural for 
anyone delivering a strong blow, 36 and may be said to emphasize 
the "dehumanizing violence" of the act (as claimed by Michelini 
[supra n.6: 214 n.144] regarding Orestes). Still, if one accepts the 
identification of the l3outu1toc; with the officiating priest of the 
Bouphonia, some interesting possibilities arise. Natural as stand­
ing on tiptoe may seem, the portrayal of individuals in such a 
posture is extremely rare in artistic depictions of sacrifices. This 
fact is not surprising in itself. As Jean-Louis Durand notes, 
depictions of sacrifice in Greek art display a curious reticence 
regarding the death-blow: "La pudeur des vases n'est jamais 
bafouee, mort et sacrifice sont disjoints sans exception. Le geste 
qui ouvre le passage de la mort dans la gorge des betes n'est 
jamais represente. La lame s'approche, parfois tres pres, mais 
l'acte qui proprement ensanglante la lame et l'autel n'est jamais 
represente. " 37 Such reticence is revealing, suggesting a denial of 

36 The image of the ox-slaughterer with axe lifted above his head, poised to 
strike, was familiar enough for Porphyry to infer it from the mere occurrence 
of the term jXronA;ijyt at /l. 6.135 (Quaest. Hom., ad fl. 6.129: £vapyroc; Be 1ea'i 
i:v oA.tyOl.<; lC<Xt 1CUpt~ 'tft u;El. XPOOJ.l£VO<; xopdav cutftyyEtA.l: BaKXOOV. 0 )ltV yap 
A'UKoilpyoc; 'tOV ntA.l:lCUv ava'tE'taKroc; opa'tat-ot'toc; yap i:anv o ~O'U1tATt~ ). 
Precisely this image is found at Od. 14.425 (cf. Jl. 3.362), where (pace e.g. the 
commentaries of W. B. Stanford [London 1965] and A. Hoekstra [Oxford 
1989] ad loc.) aV<X<JXO)!EVO<; refers to raising the hands above the head, not to 
Eumaeus rising up with his body: see Dion. Hal. Comp. 5 (i:1tava'tEtvaa9at; 
similarly i:1tava'tEtV<X).1tVO'U at Porphyry loc. cit.); cf. Il. 22.34; 23.660, 686; Od. 
18.95; Verg. Aen. 5.478f. Note also the transitive use of ava<JXO)!EVO<; at e.g. Od. 
18.100; Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.465. In none of these passages is there direct 
reference to rising up on tiptoe. The same is true of Ov. Met. 12.248££, cited by 
Cook III 587 n.3. Tiptoes are employed e.g. in light, rapid running (Longus 
2.37: of Daphnis imitating the amorous Pan), when treading with caution 
(Eur. IT 266; Machon fr.11.126 Gow; cf. Pl. Lach. 183B), in a proud strut (Soph. 
Aj. 1230 with Jebb ad. loc.; Eur. Ion 1166; cf. Hymn. Hom. Ap. 516), or by 
boxers warily circling one another (Quin. Smyrn. 4.346; cf. Verg. Aen. 5.426£); 
but direct reference to rising on tiptoe in preparation for a blow is found (to 
my knowledge) only at Eur. El. 840 and Ap. Rhod. Argon. 2.90f. See further 
Cook III 587 n.2. 

37 J.-L. Durand, •Betes grecques," in M. Detienne and J.-P. Vernant, edd., 
La cuisine du sacrifice en pays grec (Paris 1979) 138; cf. N. Marinates, •The 
Imagery of Sacrifice: Minoan and Greek," in R. Hagg, N. Marinates, and G. 
C. Nordquist, edd., Early Greek Cult Practice (Stockholm 1988) 15 (where a 
similar reticence is noted in Minoan and Egyptian depictions of sacrifice), 17 
(where a contrast is drawn with scenes of hunting and of war: in the typical 



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JOHN R. PORTER 269 

the violence inherent in the sacrifical act, a purposeful attempt 
to cloak the rite in an air of stately calm. 38 Thus even those 
(relatively few) depictions in which the death-blow is imminent 
portray a serene tranquillity on the part of the participants, 
sacrificers and victims alike. 39 The violent exertion suggested by 
the image of the j3ou'tu7toc; standing on tiptoe, axe uplifted, 

sacrifice the victim is a domestic animal and therefore in some sense 'related' 
to its killers; cf J.-L. DuRAND, Sacrifice et labour en Grece ancienne [Paris 
1986: hereafter 'Durand, Sacrifice'] 13f and Durand/Schapp [n.39 infra]). 
While Durand's study treats only the evidence of vase fainting, his comments 
hold true for artistic depictions of sacrifice in genera . F. van Straten, •The 
God's Portion in Greek Sacrificial Representations: Is the Tail Doing Nicely?" 
in Hagg et al. 55f, provides statistics: of 136 depictions of sacrifice on Attic 
black- and red-figure vases, only six suggest the actual moment of killing; of 
194 classical Greek votive reliefs, only one (doubtful) instance is cited. Van 
Straten's figures do not include scenes drawn from myth; Durand notes that 
the principal exceptions are to be found in precisely such scenes, those 
portraying human sacrifice. Cf J.-P. Vernant, "'Theorie general du sacrifice et 
mise a mort dans Ia 8YI:IA grecque," in J. Rudhardt and 0. Reverdin, edd., Le 
sacrifice dans l'antiquite (Geneva 1980) 6ff. 

38 Hence the marked preference for procession scenes in artistic depictions of 
sacrifice, in addition to those motives posited by van Straten (supra n.37: 56). 
See, however, B. C. Dietrich, •The Instrument of Sacrifice," in Hagg et al. 
(supra n.37) 36, and van Straten (supra n.37: 56f), who challenge the notion 
that the moment of killing comprised the angst-ridden '"emotional climax" of 
the rite, at least for Greeks of the fifth and fourth centuries. 

39 See e.g. Durand (supra n.37) fig. 2; van Straten, "'Greek Sacrificial Rep­
resentations: Livestock Prices and Religious Mentality," in T. Linders and G. 
Nordquist, edd., Gifts to the Gods (Stockholm 1987) fig. 6; and note the 
general concern in Greek sacrificial rituals that the victim appear to be a 
willing participant in the rite: W. Burkert, "'Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial 
Ritual," GRBS 7 (1966) 106f; P. Videl-Naquet, •Hunting and Sacrifice in 
Aeschylus' Oresteia," in J.-P. Vernant and P. Vidal-Naquet, Tragedy and 
Myth in Ancient Greece (New York 1988) 152 with n.80; cf van Straten 170. 
Useful discussions of sacrifice in art are also to be found in T. B. L. Webstser, 
Potter and Patron in Classical Athens (London 1 972) 126-45; Durand, 
Sacrifice 89-143; van Straten and (supra n.37); A. Verbanck-Pierard, "Images 
et piete en Grece classique: Ia contribution de l'iconographie ceramique a 
l'etude de Ia religion grecque," Kernos 1 (1988) 223-33; J.-L. Durand and A. 
Schapp, ·sacrificial Slaughter and Initiatory Hunt," in C. Berard et al., edd., A 
City of Images (Princeton 1989) 53-70. The Bouphonia has been associated 
with a series of vases discussed by Cook III 581ff; G. Bakalakis, "'Das Zeusfest 
der Dipolieia auf einer Oinoche in Saloniki," AntK 12 (1969) 56-60; E. Simon, 
Festivals of Attica (Madison 1983) 8ff. 



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270 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

would shatter this illusion through its vivid anticipation of the 
actual death stroke. 

The one representation of such a stance that I have found (ex­
cluding martial contexts) is the well-known portrayal of the 
birth of Helen from the egg on an Apulian phlyax vase in Bari, 
dated to ca 380-370 B.C. (PLATE 1). 40 An elderly phlyax is shown 
to the left of the egg, which rests in a basket. He stands on 
tiptoe, a double-axe raised above his head, poised to strike. 
Clearly he intends to aid in the cbirth' by shattering the egg with 
his axe-a comic reprise of Hephaestus' role in the birth of 

40 Bari 3899; LIMC IV.2 291, pl. 5. See A. D. Trendal~ Phlyax Vases2 (Lon­
don 1967) no. 18, for date and bibliography; also L. D. Caskey and J. D. 
Beazley, Attic Vase-Paintings in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston III (Oxford 
1963) 71££; A. D. TRENDALL and T. B. L. WEBSTER, Illustrations of Greek Drama 
(London 1971: hereafter 'Trendall!Webster') 138. J.D. Beazley (Etruscan Vase 
Painting [Oxford 1947] 39-42) discusses a series of vases depicting Leda and 
the egg, but notes ( 41) that the Bari vase is sui generis; cf. L. Kahil in LIM C 
IV.1 498, 503££; J. Moreau, Das Trierer Kornmarktmosaik (Cologne 1960) esp. 
15f. Trendall suggests that a second phlyax vase (no. 16-a shard from a 
Corinthian bell-cratrer dated to the second quarter of the fourth century: see 
BICS 9 [1962] 22 and pl. 1.1) might be associated with Leda's egg or with the 
binh of Athena. The shard portrays the head, neck, and (nude) right arm and 
shoulder of a bearded male figure in profile facing down and to the left. With 
his right hand the man holds an axe poised above his head, obviously ready to 
strike. Given the fragmentary nature of the shard Trendall's suggested 
identification must remain but one possibility among many. The use of only 
one hand suggests a martial rather than a sacrificial context. The ~ou1tl.:ft~ or 
dA.tlCU~ employed as a weapon is commonly associated with mythical figures 
of a particularly archaic and/or barbarous nature: e.g. Lycurgus (IL 6.135; 
Apollod. Bibl. 3.5.1; cf. Ath. 445E), Ancaeus (Eur. fr.530.5f SnelP; Ap. Rhod. 
Argon. 1.168f, 429££; 2.118f; Paus. 8.45.7; H. Lloyd-Jones and P. Parsons, edd., 
Supplementum Hellenisticum [Berlin 1983] 970 col. 1, lines 22£), Tereus 
(Apollod. Bibl. 3.14.8), Erysichthon (Callirn. Cer. 35, 53), the centaurs (Diod. 
4.12.5). In any case, the scene lacks the comic verve of the Bari vase, nor is 
there any reason to assume that the figure is on tiptoe. A stance similar to that 
in the Bari vase, with axe but without tiptoes, is portrayed on an early 
Corinthian alabastron (van Straten [supra n.37] 53 n.10; Durand, Sacrifice 104 
fig. 24) and in a dedicatory relief to Zeus Olbios (first century B.c./ A.D.: van 
Straten [supra n.39] 160 with n.9). Cf. the hammer-wielding figure in the well­
known Attic pelike featuring Heracles' battle against the minions of Busiris 
(discussed by Durand, Sacrifice 107ff) and see further nn.36, 42. Copenhagen 
NM 13567, cited by Durand, Sacrifice 106, as "'une presentation simultanee des 
divers moments successifs de la mise a mort" (cf van Straten [supra n.37] 53 
n.1 0), is too fraught with difficulties of interpretation to be cited with 
confidence as a scene of sacrificial slaughter. 



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JOHN R. PORTER 271 

Athena. 41 At this crucial juncture42 Helen emerges from the egg 
and holds out her right hand in greeting. To the right of the egg a 
second phlyax stands facing the first, his right arm raised in a 
desperate warning gesture as he calls out in an attempt to 
prevent the stroke, 43 while on the far left of the scene a female 
figure looks on curiously from behind a half-opened door. 

There is disagreement regarding the identity of these char­
acters and the comic scenario that forms the background to the 
scene. The axe-wielding phlyax has been variously identified as 
Hephaestus, Tyndareus, or a slave; the phlyax to the right as 
Zeus, Tyndareus, or a slave; the female figure as Leda or an 
elderly 'nurse'. 44 In support of his view that the figures 
represent (from left to right) Leda, Tyndareus, and a nameless 

41 E. RoMAGNOLI (Nel regno di Dioniso [Bologna 1918: hereafter 'Ro­
magnoli, Regno'] 24), C. RoBERT (Archaeologische Hermeneutik [Berlin 1919] 
286) and M. BIEBER (Die Denkmiiler zum Theaterwesen im Altertum [Berlin 
1920] 145) identify the phlyax's implement as a hammer, an interpretation that 
can be supported e.g. by reference to depictions of Sophocles' Pandora or 
Hammerers (see n.42 infra). The element of mythological/literary parody that, 
as we shall see, is integral to the humor of the Bari vase supports, however, the 
identification of the implement as a 1ttAtKu~. 

42 According to several studies the phlyax already has dealt the egg one blow 
and is preparing for a second: see e.g. Bieber, Denkmiiler 145; Tren­
dall/W ebster 138. This notion is supported by the very similar portrayal of 
Pandora's birth on a series of vases based on Sophocles' Pandora or 
Hammerers: see R. Kekule, •Die Geburt der Helena aus dem Ei," SBBerl 22 
( 1908) 696f; cf Trendell!W ebster 33-36, esp. ill. II.1 0; Cook III 202-05; further 
bibliography in Durand, Sacrifice 107 n.44. We shall find, however, that there 
is good reason, apart from subjective theatrical considerations, to suspect that 
in our scene the first blow has yet to be struck. 

43 The eye-contact between the second phlyax and the axe-wielding phlyax 
clearly shows a warning and not mere surprise: cf E. RoMAGNOLI, ·vasi del 
museo di Bari," Ausonia 2 (1907: hereafter 'Romagnoli, •vasi"') 251ff and 
Regno 25; Robert 286; Bieber, Denkmiiler 145 and The History of the Greek 
and Roman Theater 2 (Princeton 1961: hereafter 'Bieber, Theater') 135, all of 
whom seem to be influenced by the serene wonderment displayed by 
Tyndareus in more serious depictions of Helen's birth. Cf n.53 infra. 

44 Hephaestus: Romagnoli, ·vasi" 257; Bieber, Denkmiiler 145, Theater 135; 
Cook III 738f; Tyndareus: Robert 286; Trendall/Webster 138; slave: 
Romagnoli, Regno 24; T. B. L. Webster, Greek Theatre Production2 (London 
1970) 61: identification as Hephaestus, but noting that he wears a slave's mask; 
Zeus: Romagnoli, •vasi" 257f; Tyndareus: Romagnoli, Regno 24; Bieber, 
Denkmiiler 145 and Theatre 135; Cook III 738f; phlyax to right as slave: 
Robert 286; Trendall!Webster 138; Leda: Robert 286; Bieber, Denkmiiler 145, 
Theater 135; Cook III 738f; Trendall/Webster 138; nurse: Romagnoli, •vasi" 
258{, Regno 25. The identification of Helen is not beyond dispute, given her 
curiously androgynous features: see Romagnoli, •vasi" 253f. 



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272 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

slave, Robert puts forward an attractive hypothesis regarding 
the comic plot underlying the scene: having produced the egg, 
Leda has secreted it in her work basket only to have it dis­
covered by one of the household servants and revealed to 
Tyndareus. In our scene, the latter is in the midst of attempting 
to open this mysterious 'tEpa.c;, while Leda looks on guiltily from 
behind a doorway.45 Although such a reconstruction must 
remain hypothetical, Robert's conjecture has the virtue of 
explaining several features of the scene: the presence of the 
basket, as opposed to the altar common in serious portrayals of 
Helen's birth (LIMC in n.40); the garment loosely folded about 
the base of the egg, which gives the impression of having been 
removed as part of an unveiling scene; the elderly features of the 
axe-wielding phlyax, which suit the aged cuckold Tyndareus; the 
stealthy glance of the female figure on the left. 46 

As regards the stance of the axe-wielding phlyax, the fact that 
this is a comic vase is indicative: questions of artistic propriety 
and decorum do not come into play as they do in depictions of 
sacrificial ritual. The artist presents a humorous vignette that 
captures, with a good deal of verve, the climax of what appears 
to have been a rather elaborate mythological spoof. 47 Viewed in 
this light, the stance of the phlyax is sufficiently explained by the 
internal logic of the scene: the painter strives to convey the 
tension of the moment, the imminence and force of the 
threatened stroke. 

The humor of this vignette, however, is more complex than 
might appear at first glance. On the one hand, the scene satirizes 
the absurdities latent in the myth of Helen's birth by conflating 
it with the equally improbable tale of Athena's miraculous 
emergence from the head of Zeus, thereby spoofing two myths 
at once. 48 On an altogether different level, the scene suggests a 

45 Robert 286f, modifying the interpretation of Romagnoli, Regno 24f. 
46 The possibility remains that, as in the traditional telling of the tale, the egg 

has been delivered by a shepherd (A poll. Bibl. 3.1 0.7) or by the god Hermes 
(Hyg. Poet. Astr. 2.8; Beazley [supra n.40]). The general outlines of Robert's 
reconstruction are, however, still valid. 

47 T. B. L. Webster, •south Italian Vases and Attic Drama," CQ 42 (1948) 
22, suggests the Leda of Eubulus and the Helen and/or Tyndareus of Alexis as 
possible candidates. 

48 For evidence of skepticism regarding the myth of Helen's birth see e.g. 
Eur. HeL 17-21, /A 793-800. For Athena's birth it is probably no accident that 
the theme becomes less and less popular in art of the fifth century, only to dis-



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JOHN R. PORTER 273 

parody of the melodramatic tendencies of Euripidean and post­
Euripidean tragedy in its mock-reminiscence of the famous 
scene from Euripides' Cresphontes where Merope, on the 
verge of killing her unrecognized son, is prevented at the last 
moment by the intervention of an elderly retainer. 49 Here we 
find the elderly Tyndareus humorously cast in the role of a 
phallus-bearing Merope, while the phlyax to the right clearly is 
intended to recall the Euripidean retainer. It is likely that the 
latter, whose mouth is open in a desperate outcry, is to be 
imagined as shouting out the line employed by the elderly slave 
in Euripides' famous scene. 50 The vase painter has caught the 
spirit of this curious mixture of tragedy and farce by employing 
the style of Classical red-figure in his depiction of Helen while 
portraying the other figures in the broad, comic style typical of 
the phlyax vases: such a mixture of styles is not unusual, but 
here is employed to particular effect. 51 

Considered as a parody of the birth of Athena the vase reveals 
still another dimension to its humor. Hephaestus' blow is never 
presented directly in depictions of Athena's birth, for obvious 
reasons: the sight of the smithy-god preparing to bash Zeus on 
the head with an axe would scarcely do. Instead, the focus is on 
the aftermath, with Athena partially or fully emerged from the 
head of Zeus while Hephaestus flees and the assembled gods 

appear altogether in the fourth except for works inspired by the east pediment 
of the Parthenon: see H. Cassimatis in LI MC ILl 985. Even as early as the late 
sixth century one can detect an attempt to soften the absurdity of the myth by 
focusing on the aftermath of the birth rather than on the moment of birth: see 
F. Brommer, "Die Geburt der Athena," ]RGZM 8 (1961) 81f; K. Schefold, 
Cotter- und Heldensagen der Griechen in der spatarchaischen Kunst (Munich 
1978) 18ff. 

49 See Arist. Poet. 1454a4-7; Plut. Mor. 998E; and the discussion in A. Harder, 
ed., Euripides' Kresphontes and Archelaos (Leiden 1985) 114-18. Merope, like 
Hephaestus, employs a rtO .. eKuc; in Plutarch; also see n.55 infra. On the 
relation between such phlyax vases and Athenian tragedy see the recent 
discussion by E. Csapo, • A Note on the Wiirzburg Bell-Crater H5697 
('Telephus Travestitus')," Phoenix 40 (1986) 379-92 with references. 

50 If correct, this hypothesis would tend to confirm Robert's identification of 
the figures (supra 272) and would suggest that the axe-wielding phlyax has yet 
to strike the first blow (supra n.42). 

51 Cf E. Pfuhl, Male rei und Zeichnung der Griechen (Munich 1923) II 718. 



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274 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

gaze on in wonder. 52 A good deal of the humor in the Bari vase 
derives, then, from the manner in which it intentionally 
highlights the absurdity of a story elsewhere celebrated in all 
seriousness as one of the most solemn in Greek (and particularly 
Athenian) mythology.s3 

A further level of irony might well be at work. Cook has 
demonstrated that the conventions governing the artistic 
depiction of Athena's birth derive directly from the curious 
ritual of the Bouphonia, with Hephaestus cast in the role of 
~O'U'tU7t0<;. 54 Thus Hephaestus invariably employs a double axe, 
the archaic weapon that characterizes the ~OU'tU7to<; and that 
provides the focus for the elaborate denouement of the Bou-

52 Cf Lucian's comic treatment of the myth at Dial.D. 13; and see e.g. K. 
Bogen, Gesten in Begruflungsszenen auf attischen Vasen (Bonn 1969) 38 with 
n.132; for a general account with additional bibliography see H. Cassimatis in 
LIMC ILl 985-88. Cf also F. Brommer, Hephaistos (Mainz 1978) 18, 36ff; K. 
Schefold (supra n.48) 12-20, Fruhgriechische Sagenbilder (Munich 1964) 62f, 
and Die Gottersage in der klassischen und hellenistischen Kunst (Munich 
1981) 19-23; E. Berger, Die Geburt der Athena im Ostgiebel des Parthenon 
(Basel 1974); E. Simon, Die Cotter der Griechen 2 (Munich 1980) 216ff; W. 
BuRKERT, Greek Religion, tr. J. Raffan (Cambridge [Mass.] 1985: 'Burkert, 
GR') 142f and HN 156f; Dietrich (supra n.38) 37. 

53 On yet another level the Bari vase parodies the iconographic tradition 
regarding Helen's birth as reflected e.g. in Ll MC (supra n.40) nos. 7-9; cf. 
supra n.43. One thinks of the parodies of Da Vinci's Last Supper in Bui'iuel's 
Viridiana and Altman's M.A.S.H. Cf Bieber, Denkmaler 145; see also 0. 
Taplin, "Phallology, Phlyakes, Iconography and Aristophanes," PCPS N.S. 33 
(1987) 96f, 1 oaf, regarding iconographic parody in the phlyax vases. 

54 Cook III 656-739, esp. 669f, 733. Indeed, Hephaestus' role here is most 
curious: see e.g. Brommer (supra n.52), who notes the lack of Hephaestus' 
usual iconographic tokens (pi los, tongs) in artistic representations of the scene. 
Other traditions cast Hermes or Palamaon in the role of Zeus' 'midwife': see 
Cook III 660f. There is reason to suspect that the variant involving Prometheus 
(Apollod. Bibl. 1.3.6; l: Pind. Ol. 7.66a) stems from Eur. Ion 452-57 and does 
not represent an older Attic tradition, pace Wilamowitz, ed., Euripides, Ion 
(Berlin 1926) ad 452: note the pun with I on 448 and the polarity thus 
established in the play between the prudent, virginal Athena and the 
thoughtless lust of Afollo. Cf Simon (supra n.52) 215f. These facts, along with 
the curious nature o the birth, suggest a non-Greek origin for the myth and 
for Hephaestus' role therein (Simon 217). This impression is reinforced by an 
unusual relief pithos from Tenos: see Brommer n.52) 31f; M. L. West, ed., 
Hesiod, Theogony (Oxford 1966) ad 886-900; Dietrich (supra n.38) 37f with 
n.46. 



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JOHN R. PORTER 275 

phonia (see infra).ss And, like the (3ou'ttmoc;, Hephaestus im­
mediately flees upon the completion of his act ( cf. Burkert, HN 
139 n.13 ). In parodying the birth of Athena, then, the scene 
portrayed on the Bari vase also parodies the role of the 
(3ou't{moc;. The humor of the scene extends beyond mythologi­
cal farce to include -within its scope an outdated ritual that can 
only have struck many a fourth-century Greek as bizarre in the 
extreme. The composition is presented in the same spirit as is 
Aristophanes, Nub. 984f, where the Lesser Argument, wishing 
to deride the Greater Argumenes values as tediously old­
fashioned and not a little ridiculous, characterizes them as 
apxa'ia YE Kat ~UtOAtcOOTt Kat 'tE't'ttyrov cXVUJlEO'ta Kat KTtKdOou 
Kat Boucpovirov (cf. Burkert, HN 137). In portraying his mock­
Hephaestus in action the artist (or rather his source 56) could not 
rely on artistic representations of Athena's birth (where, as we 
have seen, the axe-blow never is portrayed), but he did have the 
rite of the Bouphonia upon which to draw. It might well be that 
the axe-wielding phlyax is portrayed on his tiptoes here, not 
solely due to the internal logic of the scene, hut because the 
playwright, as part of this elaborate mythological parody, has 
chosen to present a comic portrait of a ~ou't{moc; performing his 
distinctive function. 57 

The sacrificer at the Bouphonia operated under a set of cir­
cumstances quite different from those of any other sacrifice, for 
the victim in this ceremony (an ox) was not held in position but 

55 Cf. Pind. Ol. 7.35ff, fr.15 Bowra; Callim. fr.37 Pfeiffer. See Simon (supra 
n.39) 9, who argues that the double axe is a Bronze-Age survival and therefore 
an indication of the rite's extreme antiquity: cf. Cook II 505-704, III 200, 
601-05; Dietrich (supra n.38) 37ff and supra n.40; contrast L. DEUBNER, Attische 
Feste (Berlin 1932: hereafter 'Deubner') 172f; J.-L. Durand, •Le rituel du 
meurtre du boeuf laboureur et les mythes du premier sacrifice animal en 
Attique," in B. Gentili and G. Paioni, edd., Il mito greco (Rome 1977) 131f. For 
the importance of the axe see Paus. 1.24.4, 28.10; Porph. Abst. 2.30; I Ar. Nub. 
985; l: Ap. Rhod. Argon. 4.91; Suda s.'V'V. 8auA.rov, ~outu1toc;; Etym.Magn. s.v. 
~outu1toc;; and its prominence on the calendar-frieze in the Little Metropolis in 
Athens: Deubner 253; Cook III 588f; Simon 6ff, pl. 2.2. Cf. P. STENGEL, 
Opfergebrauche der Griechen (Leipzig 1910: 'Stengel') 114 with the 
qualification on 218; Durand, Sacrifice 103-09. 

56 The artist responsible for the Bari vase need not have had a personal 
familiarity with the Attic rite here under discussion; he need only present a 
faithful reproduction of the scene as it appeared on stage. Cf. n.49 supra. 

57 The argument that the image of the ~outu1toc; rising on tiptoe was 
distinctive of the Bouphonia is also put forward by Cook III 587 with n.2. 



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276 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

roamed freely. The rite of the Bouphonia was thought to be are­
enactment of the first blood sacrifice, performed in anger when 
a farmer caught one of his herd feeding on a vegetable offering at 
an altar. 58 As the prelude to an elaborate example of what 
Burkert has called "the comedy of innocence, "59 the pou·dmoc; 
would re-enact this event by stealthily coming up behind his 
victim and killing it with an axe in much the same manner as 
Orestes kills Aegisthus and Jason Apsyrtus. Immediately 
thereafter, the pou't{moc; would flee and an elaborate investiga­
tion would follow, with the axe ultimately being found guilty 
and condemned. 60 The image of the Pou't{moc; rising on tiptoe 
may well have been a striking one (c{. Cook III 586£): on the 
one hand, a person given the task ot felling an ox under such 

58 On the Bouphonia see in particular von Prott (supra n.31); Stengel 114, 
203-21; Deubner 158-74; Cook III 570-655; K. Meuli, "Griechische 
Opferbdiuche," in Phyllobolia fur Peter Von der Muhll (Basel 1946) 264, 
275-81; J.-P. Guepin, The Tragic Paradox (Amsterdam 1968); Durand (supra 
n.55), Sacrifice, and "Le corps du delit," Communications 26 (1977) 46-61; H. 
W. Parke, Festivals of the Athenians (London 1977) 162-67; Burkert, H N 
136-43, 146f, and GR 230f; Simon (supra n.39) 8-12; Vernant (supra n.37) 
14-18, 22-39, esp. 3lf (Kirk's comments). Further bibliography in Burkert, 
HN 136 n.2. 

59 Burkert, HN 1-82, GR 231. The term "Unschuldskomodie" derives from 
Meuli (supra n.58). 

60 The sources disagree on this point. According to Pausanias 1.28.1 0 (pos­
sibly from Androtion: Jacoby, FGrHist 324F16; cf Deubner 162) the axe was 
placed on trial, only to be acquitted (o OE 1t0 .. £KU<; 1t<lp<lU'ttlC<l acp£i8TI Kpt8£i<; : 
see Durand, Sacrifice 85f, following Stengel 205f, that acpd8TI must refer to 
banishment; contra, von Prott 194 n.1; Deubner 159f; Cook III 583 n.S; Jacoby 
suggests 1tapau'tiKa {t<; 8i1Cllv) ax8£lc; hpi8TI ). On the other hand, Porphyry 
(Abst. 2.30; cf Ael. V H 8.3) asserts that it was the sacrificial knife (J.L<XX<Xtpa) 
that was judged and condemned. Pace Durand (Sacrifice 4 with n.18), ['t]l)v 
,.uxx[atpav of Hesperia 37 (1968) 267f lacks sufficient context to be invoked. 
Many would attach greater weight to Porphyry's account, which derives from 
Theophrastus' De pietate and agrees more with the artistic and epigraphical 
evidence: Burkert HN 137 nn.6f; Simon (supra n.39) 9f; see, however, Parke 
(supra n.58) 166f, who notes the tendentious nature of Theophrastus' account; 
cf von Prott 192-97; Stengel 207ff; Deubner 162-70; Cook III 591-95 with 578 
n.2; M. P. Nilsson, GGR 3 I 152. The transference of guilt from the 'murder 
weapon' to the J.Lnxatpa in Porphyry's account is curious in that it diverts 
attention away from the rite's climactic event and makes the flight of the 
~Ot>'Ctl1to<; superfluous: cf Deubner 165f. The attempts of von Prott and Durand 
to account for this discrepancy are unconvincing: von Prott 1 99-204; Durand 
(supra n.55) 127, 129, (supra n.58) 54f, 57ff, Sacrifice 49f, 57, 60-66; cf Vernant 
(supra n.37) 16f. For other views see Stengel 216f; Cook III 583ff, 604f; Guepin 
(supra n.58) 317; Burkert, HN 140; Dietrich (supra n.38) 38. 



PO
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H
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JOHN R. PORTER 277 

Circumstances would require all the force he could muster; 
more important, the ~out{moc;, even more than most sacri­
ficers, was playing a role, re-enacting the first ritualized murder. 
Burkert and others might be correct to emphasize the centrality 
of the moment of killing in any sacrificial ritual, but that moment 
carried a special tension in this particular rite where the sacrifice 
was portrayed overtly as a sacred murder (an 'ox-murder', if we 
take the implications of the term Bouphonia literally61), 

unattended by the usual rites of preparation and aftermath that 
Burkert and others have studied in such detail. It is thus fair to 
assume that a fair amount of drama and actio came into play at 
the crucial moment of the rite. 

I would like to suggest that Apollonius has merely made 
explicit what Euripides left implicit, that the Euripidean 
description of Orestes' murder of Aegisthus is intended to 
suggest to its audience the distinctive image of the ~out{moc; 
rising on tiptoe to administer the death-blow at the Bouphonia, 
with Aegisthus assuming the role of the ox whose fate is sealed 
when it approaches the altar and touches the offerings. Such a 
submerged reference to an archaic and rather obscure cult 
would be in character for Euripides and fits in nicely with the 
sacrificial context in which Aegisthus is cut down.62 It also 
serves to clarify a puzzling feature of the Euripidean account: 
the repeated focus on the particular sacrificial implements to be 

61 The terms ~oucp<)vo~ and ~O'\Hpovux also are associated with ox sacrifices of a 
more traditional nature: see Stengel 213f, 220 (contra, von Prott 201-04); also 
note e.g. Il. 7.466; Callim. fr. 67.6 Pfeiffer; and the month of Bou<povtwv re­
corded on Delos and Tenos as the equivalent of the Athenian Boedromion: 
Stengel 204f (•Monat der groBen Opfer"); cf. Cook III 576 n.3. 

62 The original audience might well have been more sensitive than the 
modern reader to such a submerged reference, given the influence of the 
Bouphonia on depictions of Athena's birth (see supra), most notably on the 
east pediment of the Parthenon: cf. Cook III 656f; Burkert, HN 156f. Burkert 
([supra n.39] 119ff, cf. HN 164ff) has postulated similar echoes of a 
hypothetical Argive Bouphonia underlying Aeschylus' treatment of 
Agamemnon's death in Agamemnon; cf Guepin (supra n.58) 39 and passim; 
Mirto (supra n.S) 317 n.45; M. Davies, • Aeschylus' Clytemnestra: Sword or 
Axe?" CQ N.s. 37 (1987) 66 n.17, 73; contra, Vidal-Naquet (supra n.39) 448 
n.80. For other discussions of reflections of ritual in Euripides' Electra see 
Zeitlin (supra n.2; cf Kubo [supra n.6] 22-25); Masaracchia (supra n.2); Mirto; 
Foley (supra n.2); cf. C. Segal, Interpreting Greek Tragedy (Ithaca 1986) 34-38. 



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278 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

employed. 63 This focus might reflect, in a general way, the 
central role played by the axe and/or knife in the elaborate 
"comedy of innocence" that followed the sacrifice proper. 64 

Most importantly, the rite of the Bouphonia, with its excessive 
concern for the justification of ritual bloodshed and its 
emotionally charged atmosphere, provides a suitable backdrop 
against which to play out Orestes' felling of Aegisthus. While I 
would not place too great a critical burden on this (admittedly) 
rather obscure allusion, such a cleverly submerged reminis­
cence of the Bouphonia would weigh against those readings that 
flatly deny the existence of disturbing features in the Euripidean 
account. 

APPENDIX: Murder at a Sacrifice/Festival 

While it is true that the Athenians sang the praises of Harmodius 
and Aristogiton for their slaying of Hipparchus at the Panathenaea, 
there is ample suggestion that, as a rule, murder committed at a 
religious festival-and certainly in the midst of a sacrifice-clearly was 
regarded as a desecration and as an offense against the divinity 
concerned: note e.g. the lengths to which Orestes goes in order to 
avoid purifying his hands and thus binding himself as a participant in 
Aegisthus' sacrifice.65 Parker notes that • An observer who disapproved 
politically was likely also to experience revulsion at the impiety 
[citing Xen. Hell. 4.4.2££], but murder at a festival is not explicitly 
identified as agos in our sources. '" 66 Closer examination of the passages 
cited by Parker suggests, however, that this formulation should be 

63 Lines 811 ( op()i} acpay{~ ), 819 ( dncpOtTt'tO~ ~rop{~ ), 836f ( <l>~ha~ l(O'Jtt~ ). N 0 

reference is made, it is true, to the xO • .tKt>~, the characteristic implement of the 
pounmo~ (supra n.55), which would be unsuitable for the tasks Orestes is 
invited to perform. On the KO'Itt~ see Cropp, Electra ad 837 with reference to A. 
F. Garvie (Oxford 1986) ad Aesch. Cho. 859-62. The account at EL 774-843 as 
a whole is marked by its careful attention to detail: cf Denniston (supra n.3) 
ad 791ff; Mirto (supra n.5) 308; Aelion (supra n.5) I 131; Lloyd (supra n.9) 15; 
and see Durand (supra n.37) 146ff. 

64 Arnott ([supra n.6] 3f and •Euripides and the Unexpected," G & R 20 
[1973] 54ff) instead emphasizes the way in which the audience's expectations 
are heightened at each new mention of a weapon, only to be repeatedly 
disappointed. 

65 Eur. El. 790-94; cf Murray (supra n.5); Denniston (supra n.3) ad 791ff; 
Mirto (supra n.5) 308f. 

66 R. Parker, Miasma (Oxford 1983) 159f, cited by Lloyd (supra n. 9) 16. 



PORTER, JOHN R., Tiptoeing through the Corpses: Euripides' "Electra", Apollonius, and the 
"Bouphonia" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 31:3 (1990:Fall) p.255 

JOHN R. PORTER 279 

inverted. Of those passages, Eur. Andr. 1085-1165, Nic. Dam. 
FGrHist 90F52, Diod. 14.12.3, and Plut. Dion 56.6 concern the deeds 
of thoroughgoing villains whose acts are shown (either directly or by 
inference) to render them subject to the gods' anger. (The same 
moralizing tendency can be seen to underlie Ephorus FGr H ist 70F 
216. It is scarcely surprising that little moral reflection is presented in 
Aen. Tact. 17.3, 22.17, and Polyaenus Strat. 1.23.2, given the authors' 
quite limited interests; note, however, that in Polyaenus the 
instigator of the deed is another ruthless tyrannos, Polycrates). Plut. 
Tim. 16.5-12 tells of an assassin killed by the son of a former victim 
when on the point of murdering Timoleon-arguably another 
instance of divine justice. (A similar argument can be made, in 
political terms, for the case of Harmodius and Aristogiton: Athena, it 
is implied, sanctions the deed for the good of her city.)67 Finally, 
Diod. 13.104.5 tells of an oligarchic revolt and mass slaughter in 
Miletus in terms that recall Thucydides' damning account of the 
similar revolt in Corcyra. While these passages will not answer to any 
one lexical test, they suggest that moral condemnation (and/or the 
assumption of divine anger) was indeed the norm in regard to crimes 
of this sort, but that an author's religious sensibilities were more 
likely to be blunted (and underlying justifications more likely to be 
detected) in cases where the murderer's motives engaged his 
sympathies (political or other). Arnott clearly exaggerates in 
comparing Aegisthus' murder to that of Becket in Canterbury 
Cathedral;68 in most instances, however, such a deed in the context of 
a religious rite can be seen to reaffirm the heinous nature of the crime. 

The evaluation of Orestes' deed remains a subjective matter, then, to 
the degree that it must be based on a determination of the audience's 
sympathies. Aegisthus' sacrificing to the nymphs (El. 625££, 785f), 
however, might well be cited in this regard: there is a fitting irony 
(and perhaps a sign of divine influence?) in Aegisthus' murder at the 
hands of the rightful heir to the throne at the moment of his 
sacrifices to ensure the continued prosperity of his own family and, 
thereby, the continuation of his illegitimate rule over Argos.69 

67 See e.g. PMG 893, 895f; cf Lloyd (supra n.9) 16. 
68 Arnott (supra n.6) 20 and (supra n.1) 187. 
69 Cf Lloyd's comments (supra n.9: 16) regarding the murder of Hipparchus, 

and see O'Brien 26; Zeitlin (supra n.2) 664f; Masaracchia (supra n.2) 157, 159; 
Walsh 284; Mirto (supra n.5) 307f, 313; Segal (supra n.62) 35f; de Jong (supra 
n.5) 17. 



PORTER, JOHN R., Tiptoeing through the Corpses: Euripides' "Electra", Apollonius, and the 
"Bouphonia" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 31:3 (1990:Fall) p.255 

280 TIPTOEING THROUGH THE CORPSES 

One play that might shed a particularly helpful light on this 
question, did we possess it, is Euripides' Cresphontes, where it 
would appear that the wicked Polyphontes is killed by Cresphontes 
under circumstances very like those found in Electra ( cf. Basta 
Donzelli [supra n.9] 58 n.129). Hyginus' summary of the myth relates 
that "while the king (i.e. Polyphontes) was happily performing a 
sacrifice, his guest pretended to have smitten the sacrificial victim and 
killed him• (Fab. 184ex.: rex laetus cum rem divinam faceret, hospes 
falso simulavit se hostiam percussisse, eumque interfecit). Moreover, 
another source says that Cresphontes, in killing Polyphontes, 
"planted his spear in Polyphontes' back• (Anth.Pal. 3.5.8: oopu 1tll~E 
llE'ta<ppivq> ). Both accounts are thought to be based on the popular 
Euripidean play.70 Note, however, that Cresphontes' weapon is a 
spear, not a sacrificial axe. This fact, the role of Merope in the murder 
(Anth.Pal. 3.5.8f), and the evident confusion in the text of Hyginus 
(the perfect percussisse is difficult to explain) suggest the need for 
caution in drawing comparisons between the two accounts.71 

UNIVERSITY OF SASKATCHEWAN 

September, 1990 

70 See Harder (supra n.49) test. 5, 7 with 16, 53, 56 for comments; Michelini 
(supra n.6) 335f; further references in Cropp, Electra xxxix n.40 

71 See further Harder (supra n.49) 48f; for other relevant passages from 
tragedy see Burkert (supra n.39) 116 with n.66; V. Langholf, Die Gebete bei 
Euripides und die zeitliche Folge der Tragodien (Gottingen 1971) 104f; Harder 
(supra n.49) 53. 

An abbreviated version of this paper was presented at a meeting of the 
Classical Association of the Canadian West in Vancouver, British Columbia, 
on 17 February 1989. I would like to thank Donald Baranowski, James 
Clauss, Eric Csapo, Ann DeVito, Margaret Miller, and Emmet Robbins for 
their assistance and advice.