Michalis Meraklis is considered the Nestor of Modern Greek folkloristic studies. A prolific writer on almost every aspect of Greek traditional civilization and folklore theory, he is also a renowned literary critic and an academic of a solid classical education, who has produced, among other things, an amusing translation of Petronius's Satyricon. In the present book he explores the world of ancient Greek tragedy and traces the abundant materials that the tragic dramatists have drawn from the popular culture of their time. The concept of popular or folk culture (both these epithets are rendered in Greek with the same term, laikos) is taken in the broadest sense, comprising folk literature (folktale motifs and patterns, folk songs, proverbs), popular beliefs and superstitions, traditional customs, and spiritual practices such as herbal medicine, magic, and divination.
The bulk of the book examines one by one the surviving plays of the three major tragic poets (Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides) and discusses elements of plot, ideology, and imagery that bear connections to popular lore. A shorter second part offers an analytical index of important themes, notions, character types, stylistic figures, and aspects of traditional life that are recurrent in the extant tragic corpus and highlight the poets' debt to folk culture. This catalogue raisonné contains some of the author's most original contributions. Meraklis investigates several concepts that have never before been applied to the criticism of Greek tragic mythopoeia in a sustained manner--from automatism, the adynaton, and the mundus inversus to metallization, dragon-slaying, and the miraculous touch. In both parts of the volume Meraklis indulges in extensive surveys of traditional expressive modes or areas of experience (e.g., proverbs, folksong tropes, customs of birth, death, and burial), as they are reflected across the tragic corpus, and adduces rich comparative material from Modern Greek folklore. Such sections reveal the author's vast command of Greek popular civilization and turn the book into a mine of precious information. Even when Motivstudien of this kind are not accompanied by sustained folkloristic associations but pursued in a descriptive manner for their own sake (as, e.g., in the cases of women, oaths, sun imagery, tears, and curses), they furnish useful repositories of tragic commonplaces.
The volume contains stimulating new proposals concerning issues of interpretation and comparative study. Only a few examples can be mentioned here. The emblems on the chieftains' shields in Aeschylus's Seven Against Thebes are viewed as instruments of analogical magic for the fulfilment of the warriors' plans, analogous to the use of effigies in magical rituals. The fights of Ajax and Pentheus against illusionary enemies are compared to Don Quixote's delusional battles (an ancient motif, cf. Lucius's attack on the wineskins in Apuleius's novel). Teiresias, whose blindness is compensated by mantic wisdom, is comparable to certain folktale cripples who also display uncanny knowledge and help the protagonist in his quest. Heracles's catastrophe in the Trachiniae is similar to the fate of Prince Oleg in a Russian legend; both heroes commit hubris and are killed by a byproduct of a dead horse-creature (a snake nesting in the horse's carcass or a Centaur's poisonous blood). The Aristotelian term peripeteia, applied to the reversal of a character's fortunes in the tragic plot, is etymologically connected to the fabulous image of the wheel of fortune and its circular movement. The storyline of Euripides's Ion seems to be reflected in a well-documented Modern Greek folktale, which similarly combines the exposed child with the evil stepmother's attempt to poison the heroes. The myth of Atreus and Thyestes is based on a pattern that is recognizable in another Modern Greek tale; in both stories a valuable item is misappropriated by an enemy who seduces the owner's wife, but is restored after a cosmic disturbance of the sun's course. The discussion of Euripides's dramas in particular reveals this poet's consistent tendency to politicize the folk material and turn fairytales into parables for the burning public issues of his contemporary Athens.
The encyclopedic scope of the work is impressive; yet there is no claim of systematization or fullness. A few noteworthy cases are unexpectedly neglected: Neoptolemus's murder in the Andromache is not discussed in relation to the legend of the pharmakos (the ritual scapegoat); in the section on metamorphosis Dionysus's shape-shifting feats in the Bacchae are not taken into account. No reference is made to fragmentary tragedies, although many of them are sufficiently well known and suitable for folkloristic investigation; consider, e.g., Euripides's Telephus for the theme of Amfortas's incurable wound, or the Andromeda with regard to the dragon-slayer and the damsel in distress. The Modern Greek tradition aside, there is little exploration of international folklore, although in some cases consideration of relevant European legends would have fascinatingly enlarged the perspective. For instance, regarding the limited time dead spirits are allowed to remain in the world of the living (Darius in Persians, verses 688-692); cf. the ghost of Hamlet's father and the Commendatore's statue in Don Giovanni. To Agamemnon's blossoming scepter (Sophocles, Electra, verses 419-423) compare Aaron's rod and the legend of Tannhäuser. The limits of the omniscience of dead souls, which can predict the future but are ignorant of the present (Persians, verses 693 ff.), are interestingly paralleled in Dante's Inferno (e.g., X 97-108).
Similarly, although a few biblical parallels are cited, the background of many fabulous themes in the age-old traditions of the Greeks' Near-Eastern neighbors is generally ignored. It would have been worthwhile pointing out, for example, that the motifs of the childless couple and the miraculous birth (Ion) first appear in a Hittite narrative (Appu) and an Egyptian magical tale (Setne Khaemwaset). Similarly, the "sun of justice" that views and judges everything from above (Choephori, verses 984-989, Prometheus Bound, verse 91) goes back to the Mesopotamian Shamash, god of the sun and of righteousness, traceable also in biblical passages (Malachi 3:20). The sacrifice of a young person for ensuring military victory (Iphigenia, Menoeceus in the Phoenissae, Macaria in the Heraclidae) finds interesting parallels in North Semitic legends (Jephthah, King Mesha of Moab). The "Malthusian" use of war as a means of reducing population, which Euripides (Orestes, verses 1639-1642; Helen verses 38-40) inherits from Hesiod and the Cypria epic, has analogues in Mesopotamian (Gilgamesh, Erra) and Sanskrit epic poetry (Mahabharata). Meraklis compares Zeus's or Ares's scales, in which the warriors' souls are weighed during a crucial battle (psychostasia), with a modern folk song about the Archangel Michael; but the latter is said to weigh the souls of the dead so as to estimate their sins and posthumous fate, an idea closer to Osiris's scales of judgment in the Egyptian conception of the afterlife.
In the preface Meraklis states that he has not burdened his text with too many bibliographical references, so as not to intimidate the educated general reader. Nonetheless, he does cite specialized scholarly works in various languages (e.g., entries in the Enzyklopädie des Märchens, essays by Lüthi, Röhrich, and Georgios Megas), both for the purposes of documentation and as indicators of further reading. It seems therefore legitimate to point out that on many occasions he fails to mention fundamental studies of motifs, narrative themes, and other aspects under examination, which would have enriched his discussion and provided interested readers with expert guidance. Glaring omissions with regard to the general scope of the book are William Hansen's magnum opus on international tales in ancient literature (2002) and Adrienne Mayor's bibliography of classical folklore (2000). I select a few more examples concerning particular topics: on Prometheus and the fettered giants of Caucasian legend see Hansen 2007; on the folk background of Oedipus's myth see the ample collection of Edmunds and Dundes 1995; Stephanopoulos 1980, 42-57, is essential for understanding how Euripides reworked the folktale plot in the Alcestis; Zimmerman 2000, 417-432, is the best survey of the theme of Potiphar's wife in Graeco-Roman antiquity; on the exposed child see Redford 1967 and Huys 1995; on the dragon-slayer see Hierse 1969 and Ogden 2013; on the mundus inversus see Kenner 1970 and Cocchiara 1981; regarding the Cyclops, Sutton 1980 has amply demonstrated the roots of satyr-play in märchen.
If the author had provided more bibliographical suggestions of this kind, the book would have become, in addition to its other merits, a valuable research tool for future scholarship. Even as it is, it contains plentiful hints of underexplored comparative topics, which may motivate fruitful research. As in so many of his publications, Meraklis emerges as an inspiring teacher who generously transmits ideas to his students--not only the direct ones, but also those taught by his writings.
Works Cited
Cocchiara, Giuseppe. Il Mondo alla Rovescia. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 1981.
Edmunds, Lowell, and Alan Dundes. Oedipus: A Folklore Casebook. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1995.
Hansen, William. Ariadne's Thread. A Guide to International Tales Found in Classical Literature. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2002.
----. "Prometheus and Loki. The Myth of the Fettered God and His Kin." Classica et Mediaevalia 58 (2007): 65-118.
Hierse, Wolfgang. Das Ausschneiden der Drachenzunge und der Roman von Tristan. Hannover: Böttger, 1969.
Huys, Marc. The Tale of the Hero Who Was Exposed at Birth in Euripidean Tragedy: A Study of Motifs. Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1995.
Kenner, Hedwig. Das Phänomen der verkehrten Welt in der griechisch-römischen Antike. Klagenfurt: Geschichtsverein für Kärnten, 1970.
Mayor, Adrienne. "Bibliography of Classical Folklore Scholarship: Myths, Legends, and Popular Beliefs of Ancient Greece and Rome." Folklore 111 (2000): 123-138.
Ogden, Daniel. Drakon: Dragon Myth and Serpent Cult in the Greek and Roman Worlds. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013.
Redford, Donald B. "The Literary Motif of the Exposed Child." Numen: International Review for the History of Religions 14 (1967): 209-228.
Stephanopoulos, Theodoros. Umgestaltung des Mythos durch Euripides. Athens: Privately printed, 1980.
Sutton, Dana F. The Greek Satyr Play. Meisenheim am Glan: Anton Hain, 1980.
Zimmerman, Maaike. Apuleius Madaurensis: Metamorphoses Book X. Text, Introduction and Commentary. Groningen: Egbert Forsten, 2000.
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[Review length: 1636 words • Review posted on March 1, 2018]