Attending Euripides: Philo of Alexandria’s Dramatic Appropriations

Abstract

Philo of Alexandria speaks with fondness of his experience in the audience at ap erformance of Euripides, and throughout his corpus he quotes from this playwright on 21 occasions and from 10 different plays.Asawriter whose driving interest was the exposition of Jewish scriptures in conjunction with Hellenistic philosophy, Philo'sr epeatedr ecourset otragedy is noteworthya nd illustrative of his intellectual milieu.This studyw ill consider whya nd how Philo deploys Euripides.Most often, his quotations are gnomic sayingsand philosophicalproof texts which werecommon currencyamong contemporary writers.With respect to at least one drama, however, the satyr-play Syleus,P hilo engagesi namore extensive discussion of its context, producing astring of five fragments, four of which are unattested elsewhere.By surveying his use of Euripides, Iaim to make evident the extent to which Philo was dependent upon receivedp hilosophical and literary sources, along with moments of his own innovation as he reads Attic drama in connection with his distinctive Jewish religious commitments.At first glance, Philo of Alexandria and Euripides appeart oh avel ittle in common.They wered ivided by four centuries, inhabited separate continents,a nd identified with different religious traditions.Euripides' works wereperformed at Dionysiac festivals;h is plays both celebrate and interrogate the ideals of Greek religion and society;bycontrast,Philo'sprosetreatisesare steeped in Jewish thought and frequently engagei nt he exposition of authoritative scriptural texts.I ns ome other respects, however,the intellectual projects of Philo and Euripides converge.Both inherited established generic and literarym odels -dramatic conventions for Euripides, and accepted modes of biblical exegesis for Philo.Each adopted these, respectively,while at the sametime transformingthem in numerous and, at times, unexpected directions.And while their remarkable literary outputs had profound influences, the trajectory of their innovations werenot directlyrealized: Euripides is the lastofthe celebrated Attic playwrights, and Philo'sd istinctive approach to the Bible would largely not be taken up by his fellow Jews, though manye arlyC hristians would appropriate it.Additional similarities are evident.E uripides and Philo inheritedc orporao fl iterature consistingo fh eroic legends, whose meanings they probed and tested; for both, culturalo rm ythological heroes become, on occasion, vehicles for expressing contemporaryp hilosophical problems.Fori nstance,i nafragmento fE uripides' Chrysippus (fr.839Kannicht), the chorus relatethe cosmological views of the philos-

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