DICKEY. — ON DELAYS BEFORE RECOGNITIONS. 463 



about the bed, etc. ; this man has the knowledge, therefore he is Odys- 

 seus — a clear case of drayvajpio-is e« o-vAAoyio-fioi!, which Aristotle 21 

 recognizes as second best. 



Thus stand the Homeric recognition scenes that have come to my 

 knowledge 22 — scenes comparatively simple, and yet such, I think, as 

 show some development from the simple to the complex. In view of 

 the foregoing study I conclude that the poet had full control over his 

 recognitions, and did not insert them in a haphazard way, but with due 

 regard for the purpose for which they were intended, in consequence of 

 which his skill and ingenuity in the matter of ' primary ' delays had 

 free play ; and that there is just reason for postulating 'secondary' 

 (or shall I say prefatory ?) delays which in the case of the epic are, in 

 effect, announcements to the reader or hearer that recognitions are 

 about to take place. Now, that ' primary ' delays before recognitions 

 in Greek tragedy are evident is likely to be conceded by all. The im- 

 portance of recognition scenes in Greek tragedy must be obvious to 

 every student of Greek literature, regardless of his knowledge of Aris- 

 totle's Poetics. That the Greek tragic poets show much variety and 

 skill in handling such scenes, particularly in the matter of delaying 

 them to the point where they considered them most effective in their 

 particular plots, must be patent to any one who has read the plays in 

 which recognition scenes occur. Therefore, in the following study of 

 recognition scenes in Greek tragedy, what I have chosen to call ' pri- 

 mary ' delays I shall consider only incidentally, and shall give most of 

 my attention to the special delays which I assume usually appear be- 

 fore the final act of recognition, and which, for the want of a better 

 name, I have denominated ' secondary.' 



With deep regret that I am unable to determine the nature of the 

 many recognition scenes, which we know existed in intervening litera- 

 - ture, 23 I must take a long step from the Odyssey to the Choephori of 

 Aeschylus ; and, having passed from epic to tragic poetry, I am sorely 

 disappointed in finding extant so few of the many tragedies 24 that 

 had recognition scenes — Aeschylus furnishes us a single recognition 

 scene ; Sophocles, two ; Euripides, five, if we count two for the Iphigenia 

 in Tauris. 



21 Poetics, XVI, 12. 



22 It does not seem worth while to record my private consideration of that 

 excellent recognition scene (XVII, 292 ff.) in which "Apyos was irpanayuvtcrr^s. 



23 The nJ(tto« of the Trojan Cycle, the source of the Choephori, the Electras, 

 Helen ; the Ol5nr65ua of the Thehan Cycle ; the 'Op<?<rreta of Stesichorus, etc. 



24 Our knowledge of lost tragedies in which recognitions existed is too meagre 

 to he of any value for this report. 



