Metapoetry in Euripides

Abstract

This book is the first detailed study of self-conscious aspects of Euripidean drama. This book argues that Euripides employed a complex system of metapoetic devices in order to draw the audience's attention to the novelty of his compositions, and that these are interwoven with issues of thematic importance, whether social, theological or political. The metapoetic strategies discussed include intertextual allusions to earlier poetic texts, especially to Homer, Aeschylus and Sophocles, often developed around unusual and memorable language or imagery, deployment of recognizable trigger words referring to plot construction, novelties, or secondary status, and self-conscious references to fiction implied through allusion to writing. Metapoetic techniques in tragedy, satyr-drama and old comedy are compared in the final chapter in order to demonstrate first that the Greek tragedians commonly exploited metapoetic strategies, second that metapoetry is far more pervasive in Euripides than in the other tragedians, and third that, while Euripides shares some metapoetic techniques with old comedy, these remain implicit in his tragedies (but not in his satyr-dramas) as the tragic genre requires. Acknowledging the extensive metapoetic games in the plays of Euripides helps us to understand the nature of Euripidean drama.

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