ON DELAYS BEFORE drayi^piW IN GREEK TRAGEDY. 



By William P. Dickey. 



Presented by M. H. Morgan, March 11, 1908. Received March 26, 1908. 



The purpose of this paper is to make a comparative study of delays 

 before recognitions in Greek tragedy with a view to determining the 

 justification for the disputed passage (518-544) in the Electra of Eu- 

 ripides. 1 Before proceeding to a direct examination of extant recog- 

 nition scenes, which shall be our chief concern, I deem it advisable 

 to consult Aristotle, whose Poetics cannot be ignored by any student 

 of Greek tragedy; for in that treatise we possess the judgments of 

 a Greek upon Greeks according to certain principles based upon an 

 accurate and scientific study of an extensive literary material most 

 of which is no longer extant. 



No one, so far as I know, has made any improvement on Aristotle's 

 definition of di/ayi/o>p<.o-i? which we find in chapter xi 2 of the Poetics : 



dvayfwpio-is Se, wtr7rep kol tovvo/jlo. (rrjixaLvei, ££ dyvoias eis yvwcriv /j.€Ta.(3o\r), 

 r/ €ts <pi\iav 7/ ets t)(0pav, rdiv 7rpos evrv\Lay r) hvarv^iav wpto-fxevwv — 

 'Recognition, as the name indicates, is a change from ignorance to 

 knowledge, producing love or hate between the persons destined by 

 the poet for good or bad fortune.' In chapter vi, 3 along with 

 irepnreTeiai, the avayvoipio-is is recognized as a part of the plot and 

 one of 'the most powerful elements of emotional interest in Tragedy.' 

 Finally, I am much indebted to Aristotle for his classification of 

 recognitions and examples of each kind, which are to be found in 



1 The subject of this paper was suggested by the arguments advanced by 

 August Mau (Zu Euripides Elektra, Commentationes Philologiae in Honorem 

 Th. Monimseni, 1877, pp. 291-301) to show that verses 518-544 of the Electra are 

 inartistic and inappropriate, and, therefore, an interpolation. On page 297 of 

 this article Man, after remarking that the spectator knows that the recognition 

 is about to take place, says : ' In diesem Augenblick der grossten Spannung, 

 muss nun zunachst dies miissige Gerede eintreten,' seemingly implying thereby 

 that the passage in question unnecessarily delays the recognition; hence the 



^X reason for my consideration of this subject. 



2 I quote Bywater's text, and Butcher's translation. 



3 Poetics VI, 17 : irpbs St tovtois ra /xtyto-ra oh ifux a 7 a, 7 6 ^ V TpayySta, tov fivOov 

 /u^pjj eo~riv, al t« TrtpnreTeiat xa.1 avay VW pi a e is. 



=5 



