ORESTES THE MANTIS : AESCHYLUS, CHOEPHOROE 928–30

Abstract

This article challenges the speaker-distribution currently accepted at Aeschylus, Choephoroe 928–30. All recent editors, following Scaliger, give 928–9 to Clytemnestra and 930 to Orestes, but 929 is better assigned to Orestes on formal, linguistic, drama-internal and intertextual grounds: the reattribution contributes to the description of Orestes as prophet and executor of Clytemnestra’s death. The first proponent of this arrangement, it is shown, was Franciscus Portus (1511–81).