the mute alcestis

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The Mute AlcestisAuthor(s): Erna P. TrammellReviewed work(s):Source: The Classical Journal, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Dec., 1941), pp. 144-150Published by: The Classical Association of the Middle West and South

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THE MUTE ALCESTIS

By ERNAP. TRAMMELL

Hendersonville,North Carolina

Though many a scholarhas been perplexedabout the fact that

after a certain point in Euripides' play of the same name Alcestis

ismute,

asyet

no one hassuggested

aconvincing

solutionwhy

she

is so. Certainly it is not because Euripides has to use for other

purposesthe actor who previouslyhad been playing her part. Nor

was her speechlessnessa suddenly conceived device when at the

end of the play he found himself confrontedwith the necessity of

three rather than of two speakers.Her silence, we may be sure,means something. Throughout the play Euripides makes use of

every opportunityto stress the dreadof pollution innate in god as

well as man. As early as verse 22 Apollosuggests leaving the home

of Admetus before he is tainted by death. In Antistrophe I the

elders call our attention to the fact that the cup of clear spring

water, an antidote against death's taint, had not yet been placedin the gateway. WhenAdmetusasks Heracles the reasonfor Alces-

tis' muteness he informshim, not in his usual bantering manner,but in all sincerity, that she must be "unconsecrated"to the

powers below and that she may not speak "until the third daycomes."

Nobody undera ban of pollution could addressothers until he

had been purified. This custom is attested by the three great

tragedians.In the Eumenides'we are told, "It is the law that hewho is defiled by shedding blood is debarredall speech until the

blood of a suckling victim shall purify him from murder." In

OedipusTyrannus2 the soothsayer rebukes Oedipus thus: "Thou

alone did'st do the bloody deed. From this day on speak not to

1Vs.448. 2Vs.350.

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THE MUTE ALCESTIS

these or me. Thou art the accursedpolluter

of this land." The

defiled Orestestells Iphigenia how everyone avoided and shunned

him: "Thither I came, but no guest-friendwould at first welcome

me as one abhorred of heaven. Some pitied me; yet my fare set

they out on a differenttable and by their silence banned me from

all conversation."3Helen absolves herself as well as Electra from

the curse of pollution: "I considermyself unpollutedby thy speechsince I lay all the blame on Phoebus."4The frenzied Hercules is

distressedwhen he findshimself in much the same predicamentas

Orestes: "Should I remain, what temple or religious ceremonywould I attend? For I am guilty of a crimethat forbidsmy being

spoken to."5

Divinity did not seeminglyinvest one with immunity from con-

tamination with death. Even to the eternal gods it was a source

of impurity; so much so, that all the graves were removed from

Delos in order to make it sacred to Apollo,6and the dying were

drivenaway fromthe shrinesof Aesculapius-this, though he him-

self was a healer.7The priestess of Artemis protects herself and

her goddess by warning Orestes in no uncertain terms: "Artemis

bars from her temples and considerspolluted anyone whose handis stained by the blood of man or who has touched a corpse."8In

spite of their omnipotence they could not escape the taint of

death. They would deserta friend n need to avoid it. Just as Apolloforsook Admetus in order not to witness the death of Alcestis, so

Artemisabandonedher devotee in time of great need to insureher

own personal safety: "Farewell I may not watch man's fleetingbreath nor stain my eyes with the effluenceof death."9So fearful

were the ancients of this particularkind of infection that distance

meant nothing. Plutarchtells us that rites of purificationwerecon-ducted for the living at Argos when it was reported that fifteen

hundred men had been lost.'0

By the simpleact of cutting a few hairsfrom the foreheadDeath

had consecratedAlcestis to the gods below. To absolve that con-

secration she must performcertainprescribedrites. Paley imagines

3Iph. T. 947 f. 4Or.75 f. 6Her.Fur. 1282-1284.6 Polybius vIII, 30 and Pausanias I, 43, 3. 7 Pausanias iI, 27, 1.8Iph. T. 381-383. 9Hipp. 1437f. 10Praec.Ger.Reip. xvn, 814 B.

145







THE CLASSICAL JOURNAL

that Alcestis will satisfy the claims which the nethergods

have

upon her by expiatory and propitiatoryrites; Monk, that she will

performrites opposite in nature to those whereby she was conse-

crated. Woolsey is the only editor, however,who has any definite

idea how Alcestis was to sever her connection with Hades. He sees

its solution in Plutarch's descriptionof the manner in which one

supposed dead rejoins the living. One of two methods he must

pursue,either enter the house throughthe roof or undergoa cere-

mony symbolic of birth:

If the returned is really a ghost or infected with the pollution of death in some

way, his entrance by this route (i.e., roof) will not pave the way for the

entering of death by the door; and if he is alive and well, the process will pre-

sumably do him no harm. At least it will not hurt the family.11

The precautionis prescribednot in the interest of the person re-

turningbut is enforcedby relatives and probablyfor their protec-tion. This may explain why the sick man referredto in Mark ii,

1-4 was let down throughthe roof. Christ could more easily have

performedhis miracleout in the open, for the weather was fair if

the assembledcrowdis any criterion.On the other hand, he could

have accomplishednothingif all the spectatorshad fledout of theirfear of contamination.And so, since neither the superstition nor

the remedyinterferedwith Christ'swork,he passed it by without

comment.

Pollution and contagion of death might also be neutralized by

sufferingrebirth:

When a certain Aristinus realized that those for whom a funeral or burial had

been held were considered unclean and could not mingle with people even in

a temple, he went to Delos to learn from the attendants of Apollo what ritual

he must follow. The Pythian oracle replied: "To reestablish yourself with theeternal gods you must cleanse yourself by the same rites as a woman purifiesherself after childbirth.'l2

Wyttenbach includes in his comment on this passage a similar

story by Hesychius: "When Polemon, who had been regardedas

dead, was ordered not to enter the temple, he darted through the

foldsof a woman'sdress,as this wassymbolicamongtheAthenians

of being bornagain."Wyttenbach comparesthis practicewith the

n Cf. H. J. Rose,Roman Questions.

146

12Plutarch,R. Q. 5.







THE MUTE ALCESTIS

rite ofadoption by

simulatedbirth,

and itis, indeed,apropos.Byjust sucha ceremonyas this did Heracles himself become the foster

son of Hera and Zeus and was thereby elevated to the rank of the

gods:Heracles mounted a couch and pressed close to Hera. She imitated real birth

by letting him fall to the floor from the folds of her robes. This is exactlywhat the barbarians do when they wish to make somebody their son.'3

Simulationof birth is still practisedamongthe Bulgarians,Bosnian

Turks, and Berawans. So in ancient Greecea man supposed er-

roneously to be dead was treated as dead by society until he had

gone throughthe ritual of being born again.In ancient India, under similar circumstances, the supposed dead man had

to pass the first night after his return in a tub filled with a mixture of fat and

water. There he sat with doubled fists and without uttering a syllable, like a

child in the womb, while over him were performed all the sacraments that

were wont to be celebrated over a pregnant woman. The next morning he gotout of the tub and once more went through all the sacraments.14

Any numberof religioussects make use of such a ceremonyto

denote new life. The Orphic tablets allude to a similar practice:

"The initiate of the Orphic religion darts through the loose gar-ment of the goddess of the underworldand is transformed nto a

god."15n the Eleusinianmysterieswe find an attempt at represent-

ing the returnof Persephoneto the upperworldand to her mother.

Even to the initiates of that day the performancemust have ap-

peared a little ludicrous,to judge from the followingexcerpt: "Do

not laughat the mysteries!Demeter is in travail, forPersephone s

beingbornagain."'6The method of regenerationamongthe Hinduswas slightly different, but the fundamental idea is one and the

same.They

observedthe tradition inspiritual

rebirth.Threedaysafter a priest had laid his handupon an initiate, he (i.e. priest) was

supposedto give birth to a Brahmin.'7Througha baptismof bloodthe devotee of Attis receivednew life, and to keep up the fictionofa new birth the initiate lived on milk for some time.l8The ritual

13DiodorusSiculus v, 40, 2. 14Frazer,GoldenBough , 75.

'6 Olivieri,LamellaeAureaeOrphicae: onn(1915),4.16ClemensAlexandrinus, rotr. n, 14.17Dieterich,Mithrasliturgie:erlin(1910),468.18 Frazer,Adonis,Attis,andOsiris:London 1906),172.

147








may undergo changefrom time to time, but the principlewill ever

be the same. The mystic rites, like Christianbaptism, symbolizenot only the death of a past life but the birth of a new one.19

Only two of the many editors of the Alcestis offer a suggestionas to the possible significance of "until the third day comes."

Jerramthinks the numberthree may be used because of its well-

known mystic character,or that it is, perhaps,an allusion to the

sacrificemade to the dead on the third day after the funeral, or

even to the offeringdue the deity on the third day after the death.

From the enumerationof funeral ceremoniesgiven by Pollux20we

do not know whether the "trita" was held on the same day as theburial or three days thereafter. Stengel is of the opinion that it

took place on the same day as the burial and was preceded bythree days of fasting, duringwhich period the mournerswere re-

garded as unclean.2'The Roman rite of purificationlasted three

days and was followed by a banquet in honor of the dead.22The

"trita" was every dead man's due and an obligation which an ex-

pectant heir had better not leave undone, for a corpse has been

known to complainbecausehe thought he was being cheated of it.

Lysistrata, for example, in talking to the magistrate whom thewomen have dressed up like a corpse, remarks: "You complainbecause we are not laying you out? Don't worry! On the third

day the funeral feast, preparedby our own hands, shall be readyfor you."23This passage implies two things: first, the importanceof the "trita"; and second, that Aristophanessets it on the third

day after death. Non-fulfilmentof such a rite might mean the for-

feiture of an inheritance.The expectant heir, you will remember,in proofof this contention that he was the adopted son and recog-

nized successor of a certain Menecles, testifies: "I myself buriedhim and performedthe 'trita' and the 'enata' i.e. the ninth-daysacrifice."24

It is my opinionthat behind the belief in the presenceof the dead

at the "trita"25ies the assurance that not until that day did the

19Eitrem, Offeritusund Voropferder Griechenund Rdmer: Cristiania (1915), 99.

20 I, 8, 146. 21 Die GriechischenKultusaltertiimer:Miinchen (1898), 146.22Aulus Gellius xvi, 4. 23Lysistrata 611. 24Isaeus, Menecles 27, 46.

25 Aulus Gellius xvI, 4; Cicero, De Leg. ii, 25, 63; Stengel, Die GriechischenKultus-

altertiimer,156.

148







THE MUTE ALCESTIS

bodyand soul

actually part company,and that for this reasonthe

third day has become the traditional day of resurrection.Hamp-ered as he was by the three unities, Euripideshad to content him-

self as well as his readersby stating that regenerationwould re-

quire three days, or what Woolsey terms "the day but one after."

Innumerableexamplesprove such to have been the popularbelief.

This is exactly the periodof time that elapses in the sixth book of

the Aeneid, in which Vergil illustrates concretely the doctrine of

rebirthby the "katabasis"of his hero,Aeneas.Though this may be

a merecoincidence,yet investigation might prove that the same is

true of other "katabases." OurLord, too, descendedinto hell and

on the third dayroseagain from the dead. Man,too, has been seem-

ingly dead for the same period; for an Athenian, Cleonimusby

name, was so grief stricken and despondent upon witnessing the

death of an intimate friend that he swooned. After he had been

seemingly dead for three days, he was laid out according to the

law. As his wife was removingthe raiment to anoint his corpse,she

detected a heavy breathing. Needless to say, the funeral, alreadyunder way, was halted. Still another such incident is recordedby

Proclus:26 Rufus came back to life yesterday after he had beendead three days. He says that he has been sent back by the godsof the lowerworldto hold the games which had been promisedhis

people. After the fulfilment of his promise he must die again."The popularbelief that the soul of a man remainswith his bodyfor a period of three days may be hinted at in the legend of the

raising of Lazarus: "Lord, by this time he stinketh; for he hath

been dead four days." We see that the possibility of restoringlife

to the dead was accounted hopeless after the lapse of three days

because by that time corruptionhad set in. It is easy enough tosee how this belief won credenceafter the divine resurrection.

This idea is still made use of in ceremonies of regeneration.At

puberty the boys of the Javanese raceare admitted to their native

association.The initiates are blindfoldedand taken to a hut in the

thick of the forest to remain from five to nine days. With the

disappearanceof each boy within the enclosure "a dull choppingsoundis heard;terriblecriesringout and a swordor speardripping

26In RemPublicamPlatonis614,2 ff.

149








with bloodis thrust throughthe roof.This is a token that the boy'shead has been cut off and that the devil has carriedhim away to

the lower world, there to regenerate and transform him."27Al-

though the rites themselves last from five to nine days, the men

who act as sponsorsreturn to the village on the third day to an-

nounce that the devil has restoredthe youths to life. "The faint-

ness and muddy attire of the messengers convey the assurance

that they have just returnedfrom the lower world."

The above evidencesubstantiatesmy convictionthat the phrase"until the third day comes"does not specify the time required or

the ceremonyor purification,but designatesthe traditionalperiod

duringwhich the soul itself knows not whetherit is to abide by or

desert the body. This three-day muteness of Alcestis was not a

"clumsydevice" to overcome the lack of a thirdactor, but a clever

and ingenious invention to glorify her resurrection amidst the

stillness of the tomb.

27 Frazer, GoldenBough, I 696 f.

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