Her words aim predominantly at Eteocles. option. Enter your name and email to receive TransConflict's monthly newsletter! Literally, it reads as if, using the two warring brothers as fitting examples, Euripides wrote a succinct treaty on dediscoursification. Journals The second major aspect is as follows: at the end of his speech, marking the move toward the conflict of armed force, Polynices states that he must flee his home again, like a slave, though he is a son of the same father as his brother (lines 627-8). However, the dialogue is not over yet. In the sequel to the battle between Eteocles and Polynices, the successors of the fallen Argives, known as the Epigoni, win control of Thebes. Taney v. others (“Dred Scott” and American Civil War), Chamberlain, Izetbegović, and Arab-Israeli post-242 negotiators – dediscoursifier’s special figures, Stop Rape and Gender Violence in Conflict, Recognition of Every Casualty of Armed Violence, Understanding and combating extremism in Serbia, Institute for Social and Political Research (IDPI), Global Coalition for Conflict Transformation. Additionally, Creon issues a decree to his subjects that anyone who gives Polynices with a proper burial would face death (Scene1.104). Eteocles announces which Theban commanders he will send against each soldier. [1] The tragedy is a story of conflict and war between Polynices and Eteocles, the two Oedipus’ sons cursed by their own father. Antigone. Purchase this issue for $44.00 USD. 14 Feeney has argued that when Polynices nearly yields to the exhortations of Pietas and Fides not to fight, he reveals an essential superiority to Eteocles, who shows no such susceptibility. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. He can only mean some kind of “absolute kingly power that does not embrace or unify the multitude; a power that remains private and unrelated to those over whom it rules.”. The rule passed to his sons Eteocles and Polynices. Download Image of Gevecht tussen Eteocles en Polynices. Thereby the process of dediscoursification is already hinted at; our positive expectations vis-à-vis the use of discourse and the process of communication are drastically reduced when we encounter the very vacuous name of “Eteocles.”. In other words, this tells us that the brothers have made a promise to one another, and also sanctioned the promise by official taking of solemn oaths. Dražen is also part of the Institute for Social and Political Research (IDPI), a member of the Global Coalition for Conflict Transformation.  Her critique of Polynices, on the other hand, concerns only his taking of the army against Thebes, the city in which he grew up and to which he was emotionally much attached; it is probably uttered only to save the appearance of Jocasta’s neutrality. Outside the city doors, Antigone reveals to Ismene that Creon has requested that Eteocles, who kicked the bucket guarding the city, is to be covered with full respects, while the group of Polynices, the trespasser, is left to rot. One of the largest publishers in the United States, the Johns Hopkins University Press combines traditional books and journals publishing units with cutting-edge service divisions that sustain diversity and independence among nonprofit, scholarly publishers, societies, and associations. His twin sons, Eteocles and Polynices, set out to fight over who should be king. Dated: 1743. These connotations are based in Roman notions of how improper modes of commodity and reciprocal exchange can disrupt society and lead to violence. His response begins with the following words: “Should the same matter be beautiful or wise to all, a two-tongued quarrel [amphilektos eris – a quarrel marked by “both” discourses, reminding directly of amphibola – ambiguity] would not take place. Analysis of Antigone. Posts about polynices and eteocles written by davidrobinsoncreative. Before Eteocles, just like before those who held power at Mycenae at the time of Polynices’ exile, Polynices must go silent; he must understand that he is now in a situation in which discourse cannot be of any use, in which he either has to yield to a force or try to neutralize it by a counter-force. Jocasta replies to it as follows: “You refer to the slave who dares not say what he means.” Polynices to this briefly replies as follows: “One needs to bear the ignorance (incompetence) of those who hold power,” and adds that he himself had to endure such hardship for some short-term gain. Though it is a relatively short episode (approximately lines 446 to 640), it is rich in contents and presented in a masterful style. For terms and use, please refer to our Terms and Conditions The two brothers decided to rule in an alternating fashion every year; but when it was time for Eteocles to step down, instead he expelled Polynices and kept the throne for himself. The reader should also have in mind that Classical Greek drama is generally considered as a rich and inspiring source of social/political advice and theorizing, for which see, for example, Woodruff (2005). RT @TransConflict: #Polynices v. #Eteocles (Phoenician women by Euripides): @TransConflict is pleased to present… https://t.co/tduDWaG1f6, Polynices v. Eteocles (Phoenician women by Euripides) https://t.co/qvYKEMb3NM #Nonprofit, RT @Aktivizmo: Polynices v. Eteocles (Phoenician women by Euripides) https://t.co/qvYKEMb3NM #Nonprofit. Secondly, her speech is an attempt at “re-discoursification.” She aims to rebuild Eteocles’ reasoning and discoursing capacity. Interestingly, the Chorus of Phoenician women, who inspired the title to the tragedy and who were interrupted on their trip to Delphi by the conflict between the two brothers, commented approvingly on Polynices’ demands (lines 497-8). Just before the brothers begin their final duel, the narrator describes the crime that Polynices is about to commit as more just (cui fortior ira nefasque / iustius, 11.541-42). In that instant Eteocles brings his father's curse to mind and agrees to meet and fight his brother in person before the seventh gate and exits the stage. In Seven Against Thebes. That Eteocles refuses to honor Polyneices' legitimate claim to the Theban throne is the reason why the twin brothers fight in "Antigone" by Sophocles (495 B.C.E. In all of these versions, Polynices gathered the support of the Argives and attacked Thebes, in the war of Seven against Thebes, the subject of Aeschylus' tragedy Seven Against Thebes. In other words, she is trying to scare him somewhat by presenting to him his own preferences that include his inclination to an empty/illusory value: “To the Thebans, the wealth (ho ploytos) you intend to possess will bring pain in order to satisfy but your own vainglory.” (566-7) Thus she tells him frankly that the wealth he would retain will be of no value; he will be stripped down to his own vanity. This is the first step of her argument–a step addressing equality as universal, not only a human, value. Eteocles and Polynieces are Oedipus' only sons, the last surviving male members of the cursed family (excluding Creon, not related to Oedipus by blood). Why are Polynices and Eteocles important to the topic of dediscoursification? Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus and enemies, fight for possession of the throne in a terrible struggle that proves fatal for both brothers. JSTOR is part of ITHAKA, a not-for-profit organization helping the academic community use digital technologies to preserve the scholarly record and to advance research and teaching in sustainable ways. This means that Eteocles’ “argument” is of a self-referential nature: the two brothers have a dispute, and since the dispute indicates that there is no shared idea of justice and equality, brothers shall remain caught in the state of dispute. Battle ensued, and deaths mounted amongst the Argive and Theban armies. In the period between 411 and 408 BC, Euripides, one of the three greatest classical Greek dramatists, published and directed the tragedy Phoenician Women. Hence, what Eteocles means by it, according to his own reasoning, cannot be of any general worth or significance. Although Eteocles's forces were victorious, the brothers killed each other. brother of eteocles on of Oedipus and Jocasta banished from thebes. The American Journal of Philology The reader will also experience an acceleration of discourse, which connotes the brothers’ excitement and rush, their feeling that the war is around the corner; at the same time, the accelerated speech also connotes a process that is less controllable, or predictable, and which thus becomes a pertinent symbol of the fortune or accident that in all wars plays a major, sometimes even decisive, role. Yet are we really sure that we would fight at Antigone’s side? Access supplemental materials and multimedia. Finally, the commander of the troops before the seventh gate is revealed to be Polynices, the brother of the king. King Creon while allowing Eteocles to be buried immediately forbids any funeral rites or burial for Polynices who he considers to be a traitor. Finally, Eteocles concludes that he would never be a slave to Polynices, and would openly commit injustice, because “should one do injustice, doing injustice for the sake of Tyranny is the most beautiful” (lines 524-5). For instance, Eteocles orders Polynices to leave the city, to which Polynices replies that he has been evicted from his own home, to which then Eteocles replies by saying “as you came here to evict!” Or, Polynices asks Eteocles to allow him to see his father, which Eteocles swiftly declined. This theme was used earlier in Greek tragedy, most famously in the Seven against Thebes by Aeschylus.[3]. However, by the end of the stage, the reader/spectator will have realized that this was to be a tragedy in the classical sense, and that the conflict was not going to be resolved peacefully. He was fully aware that, following dediscoursification he experienced while communicating with his own brother, he had to remain a slave, that is, one who would not be able to express the potential of his discursive human nature even after he takes an otherwise praiseworthy role of the warrior, or the fighter, for justice. Eteocles announces which Theban commanders he will send against each soldier. Polynices spent his year of absence living a kind of refugee life in Mycenae, hosted by king Adrastus who even gave him his own daughter for a wife. Eteocles in fact here poses an advanced claim that an agreement cannot be reached because there is no shared definition of key moral-political terms. The Press is home to the largest journal publication program of any U.S.-based university press. brother of eteocles on of Oedipus and Jocasta banished from thebes. To begin with, negotiations are opened by mother Jocasta: she advises Eteocles in person to be self-controlled, to speak in slow words (bradeis mythoi) that suit wise persons; she also suggests to the two to look one another into the eye and forget for a while about their past; they should look forward to the future and attend primarily to their own current verbal expression. Who the kingdom should fall to, after Oedipus' death, is unclear. Upon his death, Eteocles was succeeded by his uncle, Creon. After Oedipus dies, Eteocles and Polynices agreed to share their father's kingship in Thebes, but greed got the best of Eteocles. A sixth stage takes place, which is a running tirade from lines 595 to 625; the verses are swiftly exchanged, Polynices delivers one immediately followed by one by Eteocles. HFS clients enjoy state-of-the-art warehousing, real-time access to critical business data, accounts receivable management and collection, and unparalleled customer service. The story is a part of the Theban epic cycle which, like Homer’s epic oeuvre, generated many themes of classical Greek literature. Creon, the king of Thebes, ruled that Eteocles should have a proper burial with honors and Polynices… This item is part of a JSTOR Collection. Polynices and his sibling Eteocles, notwithstanding, are both dead, slaughtered by each other, as indicated by the scourge of Oedipus, their father. ©2000-2021 ITHAKA. MUSE delivers outstanding results to the scholarly community by maximizing revenues for publishers, providing value to libraries, and enabling access for scholars worldwide. We need to return to his dialogue with Jocasta which immediately precedes the negotiating episode. They are goaded on by Furies on each side, each one carrying a burning torch, as if presaging the imminent death of the young princes. In my presentation of, and citation from, the drama, I follow Euripides (1913) and (1938); I often modify the latter in accordance with the former. Eteocles and Polynices, sons of Oedipus and enemies, fight for possession of the throne in a terrible struggle that proves fatal for both brothers. Why do Eteocles and Polynices fight? Dražen is a DiploFoundation Associate, and previously served as Chief of Staff to the BiH Federation President (1996) and as a media analyst to the OHR (1999/2000). Polynices’ army is used by Eteocles as another “argument”–the latter points out that the word should be able to accomplish the same as the sword, and one who attempts to make peace fully armed commits a wrong. Then comes the third element–she aims to recover Eteocles’ reasoning capacity: try to imagine, she tells him, that you are faced with the choice between two things: the tyranny/absolute rule over Thebes, on the one hand, and the rescue of Thebes, on the other. Request Permissions. this is the battle between the two brothers Polyneices and Eteocles Following a choral ode, a messenger enters, announcing that the attackers have been repelled but that Eteocles and Polynices have killed each other in battle. Thebes was invaded by Oedipus’ son, Polynices, and his followers. Eteocles delivers a speech that may be taken as a perfect example of a dediscoursifying discourse. There is no alternative to this”–this is his key message to Polinices. daughter of oedipus and jocasta married to haemon niece of Creon. To access this article, please, Access everything in the JPASS collection, Download up to 10 article PDFs to save and keep, Download up to 120 article PDFs to save and keep. policies but fearing someone, keeps his lips locked tight, he’s utterly worthless. Read your article online and download the PDF from your email or your account. However, what does he mean by “slave”? In the "Thebaid", Statius follows Vergilian epic precedent in using economic language, including prosaic financial terms, for its ethical connotations. Learn how your comment data is processed. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of TransConflict. However, in light of the etymology, we need to emphasize that the etymology of “Eteocles” is “one to whom the truth is glory,” or “one who is famous by his truthfulness.” Of course, this is an impossible etymology in this case, and I believe that Euripides deliberately abstains from putting it into Polynices’ mouth to enable the readers themselves to give thought to it. For instance, in his work we often find some theses, or views, that we know were presented by Classical Greek sophists, and also by politicians. As the things stand with Eteocles, this part by Jocasta is a solo performance as in Eteocles she could not find a partner to the process of the recovery of discourse and its values. 14 Feeney has argued that when Polynices nearly yields to the exhortations of Pietas and Fides not to fight, he reveals an essential superiority to Eteocles, who shows no such susceptibility. “The Phoenician Women” (Gr: “Phoinissai” ; Lat: “Phoenissae” ) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides.It was written between 411 and 409 BCE, and is a variant of the story Aeschylus treated in his play “Seven Against Thebes” in which Oedipus‘ sons Polynices and Eteocles fight for the crown of Thebes, ultimately killing each other. Eteocles was a king of Thebes in Greek mythology, son of Oedipus and Jocasta, and brother of Polynices, Antigone and Ismene.. Their father, Oedipus, had previously murdered his father Laius and married his mother Jocasta without anyone knowing the relationship between them. Just before the brothers begin their final duel, the narrator describes the crime that Polynices is about to commit as more just (cui fortior ira nefasque / iustius, 11.541-42). Finally, Polynices issues a threat of the use of force, of commanding the army he brought along, unless he gets his just due. Go to Table “The Phoenician Women” (Gr: “Phoinissai” ; Lat: “Phoenissae” ) is a tragedy by the ancient Greek playwright Euripides.It was written between 411 and 409 BCE, and is a variant of the story Aeschylus treated in his play “Seven Against Thebes” in which Oedipus‘ sons Polynices and Eteocles fight for the crown of Thebes, ultimately killing each other. They are goaded on by Furies on each side, each one carrying a burning torch, as if presaging the imminent death of the young princes. Free for commercial use, no attribution required. brother of polynices son of Oedipus and Jocasta breaks promise to joint rule thebes and banishes polynices. It's difficult to see polynices in a sentence . Her speech is much longer than either Polynices’ or Eteocles’, which could mean that Euripides placed some special value in the speech, and perhaps tried to propose his own credo in social or political philosophy. The conflict between the two first arises when two brothers of Antigone, Eteocles and Polynices turn rivals and are killed in a fight for supremacy. The fourth stage: Jocasta is trying to intervene, and mediate to the dispute. For an accessible introductory overview of the key sophistic doctrines, see Taylor, Lee (2014), Euripides, of course, draws on Aeschylus, but he also uses the duel between Menelaus and Paris from, This contradicts the claim by Papadopoulou (2008, 78) that “the truth is that nowhere in the play do the Chorus openly oppose Eteocles.”. Polynices starts a sentence, but Eteocles completes the very same sentence in his own way, reversing and disrupting its intended meaning. The master’s discourse may be irrational, lacking, flawed, in need of a correction, but, the slave is one who has to bear such a discourse, one who must not try to correct it; in the public dimension, the slave is one who has to treat a very imperfect discourse as perfect one. The conflict between the two first arises when two brothers of Antigone, Eteocles and Polynices turn rivals and are killed in a fight for supremacy. By discoursing Eteocles violates every single value that a discourse between benevolent persons ought to uphold: he states contradictions; denies the thesis that essential moral-political attributes could carry a shared meaning; furthermore, he denies the validity of common criteria and values; openly admits that he intends to continue with violating his own solemn oath; and, as the only argument, he offers his own sense of “a private beauty” (at the very start of his speech he claimed that the term “beautiful” has no common meaning that several individuals could share) that quasi-justifies his “doing of injustice for the sake of Tyranny.” Predictably, the Chorus of the Phoenician women comments on his speech with the following words: “This is not beautiful, but is contrary to justice.”[4]. Eteocles was buried honorably, but the traitor Polynices was not, leading to their sister Antigone's own tragedy. In that instant Eteocles brings his father’s curse to mind and agrees to meet and fight his brother in person before the seventh gate and exits the stage. Since its founding in 1880 by Basil Lanneau Gildersleeve, The American Journal of Philology has helped to shape American classical scholarship. Eteocles. He claims that his speech will be simple as pertains to the word of truth (haploys ho mythos tes aletheias ephy, line 469), and he expresses hope that “an unjust logos may be cured by wisdom.” He then briefly recounts the history of the conflict, emphasizing that Eteocles has sworn to gods when he accepted the arrangement of a one year-rotating mandate. that Eteocles and Polynices fight in vain to differentiate themselves, since each remains victor and vanquished, identical while embodying a principle of difference.5 In his reading of the Thebaid, Henderson com- mends Zeitlin's analysis as well as the contention of Roland Barthes that Euripides thus manages to simulate most vividly the human words that resemble animal cries and roars more than a human discourse (see also Papadopoulou 2008, 96-97). Eteocles would rule Thebes in the first year, but at then of that year, Eteocles refused to yield the throne to Polynices, breaking the promise made between the brothers. Eteocles simply calls off negotiations and states that time has run out. Finally, one should also emphasize that Eteocles has described the whole process of negotiating as an “agon logon,” i.e. Polynices fled to Argos and raised an Argive army led by himself and other heroes. Published By: The Johns Hopkins University Press, Read Online (Free) relies on page scans, which are not currently available to screen readers. Could the Kosovo story end in Greater Albania? Jocasta, their misfortunate mother, also both mother and spouse of Oedipus, organized a meeting between the two within the city of Thebes to try to find a mediated, a peaceful solution to the conflict. Hence, the figure of a slave is primarily defined as one of a repeatedly dediscoursified person, one whose will to discourse is, due to his status, blocked or discouraged; and it is exactly for such a reason that the slave has been traditionally marked as something “less than human.” For instance, Aristotle describes them as a “living tool.”. In Oedipus at Colonus, Polynices represents the son who wishes to reconcile with his father for self-serving reasons.Wily and somewhat shameless, Polynices dares to compare himself with his father, Oedipus, as a fellow outcast — this, despite the fact that Polynices is … From: "Tydeus and Polynices from BL Royal 20 D I, f. 6", to "The Oath Of The Seven Chiefs - Project Gutenberg eText 14994". This means that, in the second step/element, Jocasta insists on a fully private character of Eteocles’ values, values that one should not take too seriously because they are too indeterminate for us to draw prudently on them. Download Images of Polynices - Free for commercial use, no attribution required. He told Jocasta that those who are evicted from their homeland, and then hosted by a foreign ruler as he was, suffer primarily from a single evil, “ouk echei parrhesian” (line 391): “they do not enjoy the freedom of speech.” They do not use discourse as a free man, according to the values of discourse, but need to remain on guard and measure every single word even when they aim to tell the truth, or be sincere, or help one by a word. Hence, we may conclude that Eteocles made Polynices again slave-like not as much by refusing to yield to the demand of “one-year rotating rule” as by reviving in Polynices the view that the use of discourse must remain unproductive, that moral or political problems cannot be resolved with a reasonable exchange of arguments, or by a joint assessment of reasons. Hopkins Fulfillment Services (HFS) Books But, Eteocles with this claim again commits a contradiction because, to him, the name “Polynices” becomes a counterexample to his thesis that the common names are vacuous and a subject to individual both interpretation and variation. Amphion. When battle commenced forces on both sides were decimated, and eventually it was decided that the war should be brought to a close after a single-combat fight between Eteocles and Polynices. Polynices responds by taking a whole army from Mycenae and moving towards, and against, Thebes. As she emphasizes, “the possession of wealth” is simply a matter of fortune; what we have and enjoy is given to us by gods who, after some period of our enjoyment or sometimes suffering, deprive us of all property as and when they wish. Etruscan Terracotta cinerary urn with a fight scene between Eteocles and Polynices, 26 x 43 cm 3rd century BC In this urn we see the power struggle between two brothers called Eteocles and Polynices, who on their father's death inherited the kingdom with the …