Guilt by Descent: Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Tragedy by N. J. Sewell-Rutter

Abstract

BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS Guilt by Descent: Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Tragedy. By N. J. Sewell-Rutter. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 2007. Pp. xiv, 202. Students of Greek tragedy are well acquainted with the phenomenon of multiple determination: characters such as Agamemnon or Oedipus, caught in the grip of some inexorable power—fate, a curse, or a capricious god—simultaneously contribute to their own catastrophe by choices that interlock with those external supernatural forces. This volume, a revision of the author's Oxford dissertation, addresses the intersection of divine and human causation in tragedy. Guilt by Descent is a clear-headed discussion that organizes a significant constellation of ideas typical of tragic drama. With a focus on the house of Atreus and the Labdacids (although other tragedies are examined), the author demonstrates the fallacy of attributing the catastrophic histories of these blighted families to a single cause, such as a curse or inherited guilt. These are not earth shattering revelations, and at times the author seems to be ignoring valuable scholarship on the topic, but overall this is a persuasive and sensible study of an important topic. Tragedy does not have exclusive rights to the phenomenon of multiple determination. The first chapter is devoted to Herodotus, with special attention to Book One, which the author sees as programmatic for the entire Histories. Croesus exemplifies the individual whose stoiy is shaped by a combination of fate, the guilt inherited from his ancestor Gyges (as the Pythia reveals), and his own greed and bad judgment. Although Sewell-Rutter concedes that Herodotus was obviously influenced by Sophoclean drama, he successfully demonstrates that this intersection of causal forces can occur in genres other than tragedy. Problematic, however, is his assertion that the Histories feature a narrative voice that can provide more explanation for the collocations of supernatural forces and human decision than "fully mimetic" tragedy does. Most of the Herodotean examples do not actually feature an external narrator's explanation, but rather rely on the assessments of characters within the narrative. In this and following chapters Sewell-Rutter repeatedly describes tragedy as purely mimetic, an analysis that ignores the role of the Chorus as an authorial voice. While Choruses can be as obtuse as any character in tragedy, they frequently provide an ethical context for events with gnomic statements and other remarks. As the author himself notes, the early choral odes of Agamemnon comment on the inexorable sequence of reciprocal killings. In its final ode, the chorus of Aeschylus' Septem gives the historical background, including the curse of Oedipus, that led to Eteocles' decision to meet his brother at the seventh gate. In other words, the claim that tragedy does not feature any external explanatory voice is not quite accurate. The second chapter, "Inherited Guilt," builds on M. L. West's critique of the emphasis on curses as motivators of tragic reversals. Furthermore, Sewell-Rutter demonstrates that tragedy has moved beyond a Solonian idea that explains human suffering as the consequence of some ancestral crime whose consequences are visited upon innocent descendants of the perpetrator. Instead, tragedy evinces a cosmos in which each successive member of a family inherits a tendency towards error. Chapter Three, "Curses," offers an important distinction between the concepts of curses and inherited guilt. The latter is more a function of inborn characteristics or phusis and PHOENIX, VOL. 64 (2010) 1-2. 170 BOOK REVIEWS/COMPTES RENDUS 171 is perpetuated by a predisposition towards disastrous choice rather than by some external force. A curse, which the author describes as a performative utterance usually made in public by an authoritative figure, can extend across generations, but it is a distinct causal force that should be understood separately from this innate propensity to folly. The curse on the house of Atreus has often been identified as the impetus that propels the plot of the Oresteia, a conclusion substantiated by textual references to the curse of Thyestes on his brother Atreus. The author suggests that mention of the inherited curse is deployed at strategic moments of the drama, a tendency that he describes as an "irruption"; it is a crucial element of the tragedy but not the keystone. There is, suggests...