Replacing the Iliad: Euripides’ use of the Epic Cycle in his Trojan plays

Though the plots of many of his tragedies are derived from the Epic Cycle, Euripides is fundamentally more interested in the Iliad, as the Homeric epic provides him with the necessary conceptual framework to create subversive characters and challenge the expectations of the Athenian audiences. This essay will demonstrate how Euripides shows his interest in the epic cycle; first, by analysing the extent to which Euripides engages with the extra-Iliadic material of the epic cycle. Then, the focus will move to understanding why Euripides is more interested in the Iliad, analysing why Euripides chooses to use the text as a model, how choses to subvert the Homeric values of the text, and how Homeric similes and images are used to suit Euripides’ own tragic agenda. Ultimately, it will conclude that Euripides is interested with the Iliad not as a mythographer; but as an author aiming to subvert and challenge the expectations of his Athenian audiences.

Euripides’ interest in extra-Iliadic material

In a scolion on Euripides’ Andromache, an ancient commentator suggests that the texts of the epic cycle are ‘more useful and more trustworthy’ than the Homeric epics (Schol. Eur. ad Andr. 10; cited in Weinritt, 2023: 13). This section aims to evaluate to what extent this is true for Euripides by considering how he uses extra-Iliadic material, and how this emphasises that he is more interested in the Homeric material than the epic cycle.

One of the main reasons that the epic cycle might be seen as a ‘more useful and more trustworthy’ source for later tragic poets, is the attempt made by the authors of the epic cycle to fill in any gaps left by the Homer epics (Schol. Eur. ad Andr. 10; cited in Weinritt, 2023: 13). By creating narratives out of the Homeric epics (both of which focus on one situation in the mythological history of the Trojan war), the authors of the cyclical poets construct an almost historical narrative of Homer’s Troy rather than as epic poetry (Ar. Poet. 1459a17ff., 21f., 31ff.). While this quasi-historical treatment of Trojan myth might appear more useful for Euripides, it is the narrative unity of the Iliad that ultimately proves more influential. Just as the emphasis of the Iliad is on the ‘wrath of Achilles’, the emphasis of Euripides’ Troades is on the enslavement of the Trojan women. Euripides could have chosen to retell the entire fall of Troy in the Troades, but just as Homer chose to emphasise Achilles’ anger in the Iliad, Euripides chooses to only focus on one event in one situation. Thus, although the Epic Cycle may have provided Euripides with a richer mythographic source, his tragic plots are structured primarily along Homeric lines.

Euripides’ treatment of the death of Astyanax in his Andromache at first seems to indicate interest in the wider Trojan myth, yet it can also be understood as furthering the dialogue with Homer. Although the brutal killing of Astyanax is only alluded to in the Homeric text (when Andromache addresses the ‘grim death’ that she fears Astyanax might have), it is significant that Euripides uses Andromache’s fear, first outlined in book 24, as the emotional foundation to his tragic plot (Hom., Il. 24.734f.l; Davidson, 2020: 512). However, the fulfilment of Andromache’s fear is not a Euripidean invention; the author of the Sack of Ilion also deals with the topic of Astyanax’s ‘grim death’ (Davidson, 2020: 512). Euripides and the cyclic author are playing the same game with the Homeric material here – both authors are attempting to fill in gaps left by the Homeric text. Because of this, Euripides’ choice to dramatize Astyanax’s death should not be taken as an indicator of his engagement with the epic cycle (Wienritt, 2023: 14). Rather, this strengthens Euripides’ dialogue with the Homeric text, which suggests that Euripides’ engagement with non-Homeric myth is best understood as a competitive reinterpretation of Homer, instead of being than a turn away from him.

While Euripides is interested in the myth of Troy more generally, which is demonstrated by his engagement with extra-Iliadic material, Euripides’ interest in Troy leans towards an Iliadic Troy. Though the Epic Cycle provides additional mythographic details, Euripides shapes these according to the unity and focus of the Iliad (Wienritt, 2023: 14). This is conveyed through the emphasis on the Trojan women rather than the sack of Troy in Troades, and Astyanax’s death in Andromache. Both examples show that Euripides’ use of non-Homeric material serves to reinterpret (and not to replace) Homeric narrative. Ultimately, though the Epic Cycle is a useful mythographic source, Euripides’ unified tragic plots are structured primarily along Homeric lines.

How Euripides uses the Iliad: The Homeric text as prophetic

Having already established Euripides’ engagement with the Epic Cycle (and how this emphasises his interest in the Iliad), the focus will now shift to analysing how Euripides uses and engages with the Iliad as a text. One of the ways that Euripides does this is by using the Iliad as a prophetic model, transforming Homeric foreshadowing into tragic inevitability (Mossman, 1995: 23; Davidson, 2020: 511-12).

One of the key moments of prophecy that Euripides uses is Hector’s speech to Andromache in Iliad 6, when Hector tells Andromache what he imagines her future to be like once he has died and Troy falls. Hector tells Andromache that ‘a day will come when sacred Ilion will perish’, and that he fears most for the grief of Andromache when she is taken away by a Greek chieftain lamenting for her ‘day of freedom’ (Hom., Il. 6.447ff). Hector’s words are significant here as they allude to a future that Homer never actualises, that being the sack of Troy. Because of the narrow scope of the epic and the overarching focus being the ‘wrath of Achilles’ rather than the history of the Trojan war, Hector’s musings about the fate of Andromache and Astyanax are left open to be interpreted by other authors, including Euripides.

Significantly, it is the actualisation of the fall of Troy that provides the plot lines for not just Andromache, but for Hecuba and Troades too. The beginning of Troades explicitly establishes the drama as happening directly after the fall of Troy, the city is still smouldering, having just been ‘sacked and destroyed by the Argive spear’ (Eur. Tro. 8f.). Here, Euripides alludes back to a moment of foreshadowing in Il. 22, during which the smouldering remains of Troy are described along the same lines (Hom. Il. 22. 410f). The repeated idea of Troy’s destruction by fire could be read as Euripides making a direct intertextual reference to the Iliad, thus turning Homer’s allusion to the fall of Troy into the setting of a tragedy (Mossman, 1995: 23; Davidson, 2020: 511).  By using the same imagery, especially when the imagery of destruction lends itself so well to the plot of Troades, Euripides’ account of the fall of Troy becomes assimilated with the foreshadowed destruction of Troy in the Iliad, almost framing the Homeric text (Poole, 1976: 278; cited in Davidson, 2020, 511). This mirroring of Homeric language and Euripides’ use of Homeric foresight to create drama emphasises that it is not just the myth of Troy that Euripides is interested in, but the language and imagery used by Homer.

Additionally, Euripides uses Homeric speeches to illustrate how the fears articulated in the Iliad are realised in the Trojan plays. In particular, the fear of loss of status and wealth are emphasised. In Hecuba, Polyxena’s reflections on her former life closely mirror Hector’s imagined future for Andromache in Iliad 6 (Eur. Hec. 349ff.; Hom. Il. 6.546ff.). Polyxena recalls how she once anticipated a life of wealth and honour but is now reduced to slavery, which is a fate she must learn to endure (Davidson, 2010: 511). This fall from power gives dramatic form to the 'grief’ that Hector foreshadows for Andromache. Like Polyxena, Andromache too will lose her status when Troy falls, and this is something that Hector worries about. In both speeches, the emphasis is not on the loss of the city itself (as the fall of Troy is only alluded to), but on the loss of the life and status that once defined these women. Through using Hector’s speech as a model to reflect the anxiety of the Trojan women in the Iliad, Euripides dramatizes Iliadic foreshadowing into tragic action, which reinforces the idea that the Iliad can be seen as a prophetic framework for his dramas.

Though framing Euripides’ engagement with the Iliad as being prophetic, it is evident that Euripides’ interest in the Homeric epic is more than just using it as a mythographic source. Euripides does this by making the implicit explicit through the gaps created by Homeric moments of foreshadowing (i.e., Il, 6.447ff) and actualising these moments to create narrative plot (Mastronarde, 2010: 247). These moments, deliberately left open by Homer, create the emotional and dramatic core of Euripides’ tragedies, thus encouraging readers to see the gaps of the Homeric texts as being fulfilled on stage. Overall, the use of the Iliad as a poetic framework for Euripides emphasises not only his interest in the Iliad, but that this interest is so strong that it is almost inseparable to the plot lines of his tragedies.

How does Euripides use the Iliad: Subverting the epic

Another way in which Euripides demonstrates a greater interest in the Iliad than in the broader Trojan myth is through his use of Homeric material. One of the key functions of the tragic genre is to challenge expectations held by an audience, thus challenging the audience as to where their sympathies may lie (Mastronarde, 2010: 246).  This idea of tragedy’s function as subversive highlights the notion that tragedy functioned in Athenian society to make the implicitly held values of the audience explicit.

This notion of the implicit being made explicit is established through understanding the binary oppositions established by Euripides in his staging of extreme scenarios, which is evident in Iphigenia at Aulis (Mastronarde, 2010: 246, 262). This play dramatizes the sacrifice of Agamemnon’s virgin daughter to allow the Achaeans a fair wind to Troy. Euripides’ dialogue with the Homeric ideas of kleos and heroic death are explored in Iphigenia’s speech – like Hector, Iphigenia expects ‘blessed fame’ because of her death (Eur. IA., 1383f). This reference to fame in death is reminiscent of the language of Homeric heroism from the Iliad. Iphigenia’s desire for glory mirrors Hector’s willingness to die in Iliad 22, during which Hector claims that he is willing to die as he has done ‘great deeds’ which those ‘unborn will hear of’ (Hom., Il. 22.304ff; Lorenzo & Garcia, 2020: 167-8). Euripides’ Iphigenia appears to share the same values as the Homeric Hector does, thus suggesting Euripides consciously chose to model his protagonist alongside Homeric lines. The repurposing of Homeric language here emphasises Euripides’ interest in the Iliad as the characterisation of Iphigenia reinforces the idea that Euripides uses the Iliad as a scaffold for characterisation rather than just as a source for myth.

It is significant that this episode is never mentioned in the Iliad, yet (as the following will demonstrate) is integral for showing Euripides’ interest in the Homeric text. For it is not Euripides’ engagement with the mythic plot of Iphigenia at Aulis that emphasises Euripides’ interest in the Iliad, but how Euripides re-interprets the Homeric language of heroism, particularly the language of kleos and heroic death.

How Euripides uses the Iliad: Homeric Similes

One of the most poignant ways that Euripides’ interest in the Iliad is shown is through his use of direct intertextual references with the Homeric text, such as the reuse of Homeric similes. This re-purposing of Homeric material emphasises that Euripides is not interested in the Iliad purely for mythographical reasons, but because of his interest in the structure and language of the epic.

Euripides’ use of Homeric similes is evident through his characterisation of Neoptolemus in Andromache (Davidson, 2020: 510). The simile of snowfall (Il. 12.154-161) is repurposed to emphasise Neoptolemus’ strength as he fights alone through a volley of missiles (Eur., Andr., 1130ff.). Both similes indicate the thick flurry of missiles sent towards the soldiers, but Euripides’ use of the simile highlights Neoptolemus as being alone when facing the missiles, emphasising not only that he is as strong as the great Homeric heroes (such as his father), but that he is also a tragic hero (Burnett, 1971: 151; cited in Davidson, 2020: 510). Unlike the plural ‘Achaeans and Trojans’ of the Homeric account, Neoptolemus is pushed forwards into the fight without support: he must face it alone. By re-imagining the Homeric ideology of heroism in a tragic context, Euripides emphasises that his idea of heroism is still drawn on Homeric lines, thus emphasising that it is the Iliad that he is more interested in as it provides a framework of heroic ideology.

The iliadisation of Neoptolemus is important in considering Euripides’ interest in the Iliad rather than in the myths of Troy more generally.  Euripides’ central antagonistic figure is framed using the Homeric conventions of heroism expected in the Iliad rather than in tragedy. Euripides’ use of the Homeric material here differs slightly to how he has used it previously as he invokes Homeric language to cohere with the expectations of his Athenian audience rather than to subvert them. By using direct intertextual references from the Homeric epic, Euripides demonstrates to his audience that he is not subverting the Homeric standards of heroism (as he did with Iphigenia) in his presentation of Neoptolemus. This use of Homeric simile to selectively preserve Iliadic heroism suggests that Euripides’ interest in the Iliad is more than just an interest in the mythographic material of the text: his emphasis lies in the use of Homeric imagery and language to construct tragic character identity.

Conclusion

In his Poetics, Aristotle states that the Homeric epics are ‘superior’ to the texts of the Epic Cycle, namely because of the unity that they have in plot (Ar. Poet. 1459a30f). Though this may be true for a mythographer’s use of the myth of Troy, Aristotle’s comment on the Homeric epics and how they generate plot for tragedy misrepresents Euripides’ interest in the Iliad. Aristotle’s view of the Homeric texts and the epic cycle focus on a mythographic use of Homer and the Epic cycle authors, but Euripides’ engagement with the Homeric text goes beyond that of a mythographer. Throughout his sixteen Trojan plays, Euripides masterfully re-purposes Iliadic material to suit his own agenda, that being, to subvert the expectations of heroism understood from Homer by his Athenian audience (Davidson, 2020: 495). Euripides does this by using the Iliad as a “prophetic” text to scaffold his creation of subversive characters, as well as by re-purposing similes to create tensions with his version of the myth