Achilles

Achilleis is the convenient modern designation^[1] of a trilogy of plays written by the Greek tragedian Aeschylus. Its action presumably treated the death of Patroclus, Achilles' revenge on Hector and the subsequent ransoming of the body back to Hector's father, Priam.

Three plays

Given Aeschylus' tendency to write connected trilogies, three plays attested in the catalogue of his work have been supposed to constitute the Achilleis: Myrmidons, Nereids and Phrygians (alternately titled The Ransoming of Hector). A small number of verses from these three of Aeschylus' lost works have been saved: fifty-four from Myrmidons, seven from Nereids and twenty-one from Phrygians. There are other references to the individual plays and their titles. The known fragments are assembled in H.J. Mette, Die Fragmente der Tragoedien des Aischylos (Berlin), 1959.^[2] Despite this paucity, the trilogy has achieved some measure of fame, due to its being satirized in Aristophanes' The Frogs (lines 911-13), wherein the provocative and disruptive silence of the Aeschylean Achilles is one of the focal points. This play, along with the also lost Niobe, are two famous examples cited in antiquity of the often-discussed theme of the Aeschylean silence. The broad outline of the trilogy may be reconstructed with some certainty: Myrmidons concerned Achilles' refusal to fight for the Greeks, which tragically leads to the killing of his companion Patroclus by the Trojan hero, Hector; this death persuades Achilles to rejoin the fight. In Nereids, Thetis and a chorus of sea-nymphs bring Achilles his new armor. The remainder of the action probably would have concerned his revenge killing of Hector and Patroclus' funeral. The action of Phrygians almost certainly corresponded with Book 24 of the Iliad: Achilles' defilement of Hector's corpse and his eventually agreeing to ransom the body back to the grieving father, Priam.^[3]

A sense of the pace at which additions to this corpus are made can be gleaned from the fact that a papyrus fragment containing seven letters on three lines that could be fitted over a two-line quote from Justin Martyr' dialogue Trypho, to show that the quote was in fact from the opening of Myrmidons was worth publishing in a note in Classical Philology, 1971.^[4]

Rediscovery and Reproduction

The trilogy has long been considered lost.^[5] However, "in the last decades archaeologists found mummies in Egypt which were stuffed with papyrus, containing excerpts of the original plays of Aeschylus," according to press releases from Andy Bargilly, director of the National Theatre of Cyprus, in November 2003^[6] The fragments purported to have been discovered have not even yet been reported in the academic press, which would be a remarkable omission.

Pantelis Michelakis' Achilles in Greek Tragedy (Cambridge University Press, 2002) had appeared the previous year, discussing the existing fragments of Myrmidons in chapter 2. Among recently discovered papyrus fragments from Oxyrhyncus a fragment of a scholium on Myrmidons has been published.^[7] Along with extant fragments of the play, these new verses were used to reconstruct a playable version. "We do think it is a faithful adaptation to a large extent, but nobody can say 100 percent," Bargilly was reported as saying.^[8]

A Greek author, Elias Malandris, worked on the project for over a decade, it was reported in 2003.^[9] He characterized his work as based on newly discovered material and a wide array of references to Achilles, found in ancient texts, such as Homer's Iliad, he pointed out, and other Greek plays.

Elias Malandris first translated the remaining material and then – in the first attempt at a reconstruction of this scope – made the recompilation of the three tragedies. In this sense, a trilogy Achilleis was born.^[10]

The reconstructed play was performed by the Cyprus National Theatre (Th.o.C) on August 6 and 7 2004, with Mario Frangoulis as Achilles.

Notes

References

• Gregory, Justina, 2005. A Companion to Greek Tragedy. Wiley-Blackwell ISBN 1405107707, 9781405107709.
• S. Radt, 1985. Tragicorum Graecorum Fragmenta, Vol. 3. Aeschylus (Göttingen) 113. (in Greek)
• Playbill.com News report.
• Manchester Guardian: 14 November 2003. News report.
• Pantelis Michelakis, 1999. "The Spring Before It Is Sprung: visual and non-verbal aspects of power struggle in Aeschylus' Myrmidons" Bibliography, including references to previous reconstructions of the Achilleis.
• Pantelis Michelakis, 2002. Achilles in Greek Tragedy, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press) ISBN 0-521-81843-5.
• Michelakis (2002) reviewed by David Fitzpatrick Bryn Mawr Classical Review 20
• "Aeschylus’ ‘Achilleis’ trilogy to be restored and played " 21 November 2003