Writing and self-conscious mythopoiēsis in Euripides

Abstract

Euripides uses a variety of strategies to draw attention to the novelties in his dramatic myth-creation ormythopoiēsis. He does so, for example, through multiple allusions to earlier poets, distinguishing himself from predecessors by acknowledging their influence while simultaneously producing something distinctive. Euripidean novelties are legitimized in several instances through cultic aetiologies. These aspects of Euripidean drama have long been acknowledged. More recently, Matthew Wright has shown how the characters in several Euripidean plays discuss their own myths in a self-conscious manner, a process he terms ‘metamythology’. A technique which has been less studied, however, is Euripides' exploration of the motif of writing and its connection to the act ofmythopoiēsiswithin his work. Scholars who discuss writing in Euripides have done so either within the general context of inherent tensions between oral and written communication in Greek tragedy (or Greek literature), or have focused on the use of letters as dramatic devices. This paper argues that Euripides exploits the motif of writing in a way which is entirely different from the other tragedians, and puts forward the central thesis that writing in Euripides is associated self-consciously and metapoetically with plot construction and authorial control.