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Intertextual sparagmos: Euripides, Ovid and Lord of the Flies

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Notes

  1. L. L. Dickson, ‘Lord of the Flies’, in William Golding’s Lord of the Flies, ed. H. Bloom, New York, 2008, pp. 209–20 (209) (Originally published as: L. L. Dickson, The Modern Allegories of William Golding, Tampa, 1990, pp. 12–26, 141–2).

  2. E. R. Dodds, Euripides: Bacchae, Oxford, 1960 (2nd ed.).

  3. B. F. Dick, ‘“The Novelist is a Displaced Person”: An Interview with William Golding’, College English 26, 1965, pp. 480–2 (481).

  4. J. R. Baker, ‘Why it’s no go: A Study of William Golding’s Lord of the Flies’, The Arizona Quarterly 19, 1963, pp. 296–303; R. White, ‘Butterfly and Beast in Lord of the Flies’, Modern Fiction Studies 10, 1964, pp. 163–70 (169–70); B. F. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies and the Bacchae’, Classical World 57, 1964, pp. 145–6; B. F. Dick, William Golding, New York, 1987, pp. 6–29; Dickson, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 1 above), pp. 47–8; L. S. Friedman, ‘Grief, Grief, Grief: Lord of the Flies’, in William Golding’s Lord of the flies, ed. H. Bloom, New York, 2008, pp. 231–41 (238–9) (Originally published as: L.S. Friedman, William Golding, New York, 1993, pp. 19–32, 172); M. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae and Lord of the Flies: A Few Observations with the Help of E. R. Dodds’, Classical and Modern Literature 18, 1997, pp. 37–51; S. Perris, ‘Bacchant Women’, in Brill’s Companion to the Reception of Euripides, eds R. Lauriola and K. N. Demetriou, Leiden, 2015, pp. 507–48 (517–8); S. Perris, The Gentle, Jealous God: Reading Euripides’ Bacchae in English, London/New York, 2016, pp. 44–5.

  5. Perris (‘Bacchant Women’, [n. 4 above], p. 517) notes that Jack’s association with Dionysus is suggested by his last name, Merridew, which alludes to wine (‘merry dew’).

  6. J. Carlevale, ‘The Dionysian Revival in American Fiction of the Sixties’, International Journal of the Classical Tradition, 2006, 12.3, pp. 364–91.

  7. The use of sparagmos as a literary metaphor can be traced back to Horace’s Satires (1.4.62 invenias etiam disiecti membra poetae, ‘you would still find the limbs of the dismembered poet’). For a discussion of the motif of sparagmos in Seneca and Lucan, see G. Most, ‘Disiecti membra poetae: The Rhetoric of Dismemberment in Neronian Poetry’, in Innovations of Antiquity, eds R. Hexter and D. Selden, New York, 1992, pp. 391–419.

  8. J. McConnell, ‘Postcolonial Sparagmos: Toni Morrison’s Sula and Wole Soyinka’s The Bacchae of Euripides: A Communion Rite’, Classical Receptions Journal 8.2, 2016, pp. 133–54.

  9. Cf. E. Oliensis (Freud’s Rome: Psychoanalysis and Latin poetry, Cambridge, 2009, pp. 76–7) who argues that the Homeric epics can be conceived as the Aeneid’s mother-text which Virgil “tears apart” and disperses in his text so as to avoid being “dismembered” and absorbed by her.

  10. The Sophoclean Ajax is evoked by the following figures: Shadrack, a WWI veteran who suffers from combat trauma and hallucinations and institutes the National Suicide Day as a means to deal with his suicidal tendencies; Sula’s lover, Ajax, whose actual name turns out to be A. Jacks and finally, the protagonist Sula herself who assumes the role of the community’s scapegoat (McConnell ‘Postcolonial Sparagmos’ [n. 8 above], pp. 140–4).

  11. McConnell, ‘Postcolonial Sparagmos’ (n. 8 above), p. 145: ‘Sula slices off the top of her own finger to scare off a threatening gang of young, white men and her grandmother Eva is rumoured to have amputated her own leg, either under a train to claim insurance money or to sell to the hospital. These two acts of self-mutilation are carried out in the face of grave threats: threats of violence and of extreme poverty, respectively. If Morrison’s deployment of sparagmos as an approach to the canonical literature of Europe is a response to the historical violence and oppression that colonial Europe enacted upon peoples of ultimately African descent, then we see two microcosms of this in Sula and Eva’s behaviour. Both fictional women go so far as to dismember themselves in order not to be overcome by white, male violence and by the economic desolation ushered in by racial discrimination and segregation.’

  12. McConnell ‘Postcolonial Sparagmos’ (n. 8 above), pp. 146–51.

  13. E. Fischer-Lichte, Dionysus Resurrected: Performances of Euripides’ The Bacchae in a Globalizing World, Blackwell, 2014, pp. 83–9.

  14. On Pentheus’s psychological sparagmos, see J. Euben, The Tragedy of Political Theory: The Road not Taken, Princeton, 1990, p. 132: ‘Pentheus, isolated from those who could sustain and constrain him, is helpless before the god’s machinations. Utterly seduced by what he thinks he despises and would imprison as other, he vacillates between hypermasculinity and coquettish effeminacy, double-sightedness and single-mindedness. In this he is politically and psychologically dismembered long before he is dismembered physically and ritually.’ See also C. Segal (Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides’ Bacchae, Princeton, 1997, pp. 248–9) who argues that the Theban king suffers a metatragic sparagmos: ‘Torn apart emotionally as well as literally, he is also torn apart metatragically, dismembered into a sequence of costumes that end up as the empty mask, the disembodied prosopon.’

  15. On the political conflict in the Bacchae between the Dionysiac communal cult and the ruling family of Thebes, see R. Seaford, Euripides Bacchae, 2001, Warminster, pp. 49–50.

  16. W. Golding & J. R. Baker, ‘An Interview with William Golding’, Twentieth Century Literature 28.2, 1982, pp. 130–70: ‘I think of the shape of a novel, when I do think of a novel as having a shape, as having shape precisely like Greek drama. You have this rise of tension then the sudden fall and all the rest of it. You may even find technical Greek terms tucked away in the book, if you like, and check them off one by one. So the Greek tragedy as a form, a classical form, very much there’ (p. 155).

  17. On Ovid’s reworking of the Bacchae in the Pentheus episode, see A. Keith ‘Sources and Genres in Ovid’s Metamorphoses 1–5’, in Brill’s Companion to Ovid, ed. B. W. Boyd, Leiden, 2002, pp. 235–69 (264–8); S. Paschalis, ‘Tragic Palimpsests: The Reception of Euripides in Ovid’s Metamorphoses’, PhD Diss., Harvard, pp. 45–112.

  18. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. xxxiii. Golding’s acquaintance with Ovid is also supported by documentary evidence. In an interview, the novelist quotes in Latin the words of Ovid’s Medea:‘He (i.e. Sammy Mountjoy in Free Fall) certainly does turn away from God. He sees the better path and chooses the worse. How does Ovid say it in The Metamorphoses? Video meliora, proboque; Deteriora sequor.’ (Golding & Baker, ‘An Interview’ [n. 16 above], p. 145).

  19. Jack also recalls Ovid’s Narcissus who falls in love with himself upon looking at his reflected image on a pool (Met. 3.407–440). Both youths gaze in astonishment at their reflection and are unable to recognize themselves. Jack’s evocation of Narcissus may allude to his egomaniacal tendencies, given that he is obsessed with becoming the boys’ chief.

  20. All quotations of Lord of the Flies are from W. Golding, Lord of the Flies, New York, 1954 (Penguin).

  21. All quotations of the Bacchae are from Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above); all translations of the Bacchae are from D. Kovacs, Euripides: Bacchae, Iphigenia at Aulis, Rhesus, Cambridge, MA, 2003.

  22. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. 131. Dodds and R. Winnington-Ingram (Euripides and Dionysus: An Interpretation of the Bacchae, Cambridge, 1948, pp. 126–7) take γελῶν to mean ‘smile’, but in fact the verb γελάω is defined as ‘laugh’ or ‘deride’ in LSJ.

  23. For analysis of the theme of laughter in the Bacchae, see J. Morwood, ‘“A Big Laugh”: Horrid Laughter in Euripides’ Bacchae’, in Looking at Bacchae, ed. D. Stuttard, 2016, pp. 91–6.

  24. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. xx.

  25. Οn the Dionysiac ritual of ὁρειβασία, see Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), pp. xiii–xvi.

  26. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. xx.

  27. Perris, ‘Bacchant Women’ (n. 4 above), p. 518.

  28. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 4 above), p. 145.

  29. All quotations of the Metamorphoses are from R. J. Tarrant, P. Ovidi Nasonis Metamorphoses, Oxford, 2004. All translations of the Metamorphoses are from F. J. Miller, Ovid: Metamorphoses (Vol. 1) (Rev. by G. P. Goold), Cambridge, MA, 1977–1984.

  30. F. Kermode & W. Golding, ‘The Meaning of it All’, Books and Bookmen 5, 1959, pp. 9–10 (9).

  31. White, ‘Butterfly and Beast’ (n. 4 above), p. 168, n. 4.

  32. Dickson, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 1 above), p. 212: ‘Simon’s fasting, helping the little boys, meditating in the wilderness, going up on the mountain-—all these actions solidify the Christ parallel.’

  33. Dick (William Golding, [n. 4 above], p. 26) associates the clairvoyant Simon with Cassandra whose prophecies were never heeded, but Tiresias is a much more apt literary model for the boy given that he is a character in the Bacchae.

  34. Seaford, Bacchae (n. 15 above), p. 197.

  35. For an analysis of the theme of hunting in the Bacchae, see Segal, Dionysiac Poetics (n. 14 above), pp. 27–54; Ch. Thumiger, ‘Animal World, Animal Representation, and the “Hunting-Model”: Between Literal and Figurative in Euripides’ Bacchae’, Phoenix 60, 2006, pp. 191–201.

  36. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 4 above), p. 146; Dick, William Golding (n. 4 above), p. 11; Dickson, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 1 above), pp. 48–9.

  37. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 4 above), p. 146; Dick, William Golding (n. 4 above), p. 11.

  38. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 48.

  39. Friedman, ‘Grief, Grief, Grief’ (n. 4 above), p. 235.

  40. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), pp. xliv–xlv.

  41. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 46.

  42. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 51.

  43. Time Magazine, ‘Lord of the Campus’, June 22, 1962, p. 66.

  44. J. Fitzgerald & J. Kayser ‘Golding’s Lord of the Flies: Pride as Original Sin’, in William Golding’s Lord of the flies, ed. H. Bloom, New York, pp. 221–9 (222) (Originally published as: J. Fitzgerald & J. Kayser ‘Golding’s Lord of the Flies: Pride as Original Sin’, Studies In The Novel 24, 1992, pp. 78–88).

  45. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 4 above), p. 145; White ‘Butterfly and Beast’ (n. 4 above), pp. 69–70; Dick, William Golding (n. 4 above), p. 11; Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 45; Dickson, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 1 above), pp. 47–8.

  46. Roncase (‘The Bacchae’ [n. 4 above], p. 45) notes that Golding’ reference to thunder alludes to Dionysus’s cult title Bromius (‘noisy, boisterous’).

  47. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. xx.

  48. Ralph, however, later regrets his decision, when he confronts Jack’s tribe and notices that they are more comfortable than him by binding their hair back (Lotf 158).

  49. Cf. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 45: ‘Later in the story Ralph takes part in the slaughter of Simon, who is mistaken for the beast. Shortly after the incident, Ralph declares, “I was– I don’t know what I was”. This clearly illustrates the point that Ralph is at times overcome by his Dionysian side. He had become momentarily, but yet fully, a savage Dionysian hunter.’

  50. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. xvi. The term recurs in other scenes of the novel: Jack’s hunters laugh hysterically as their leader mocks Piggy (Lotf 61) or while they participate in a pig-hunting ritual (Lotf 50) and Ralph and his companions build a fire with ‘hysterical cheerfulness’ fearing the advent of darkness (Lotf 116).

  51. Carlevale, ‘The Dionysian Revival’ (n. 6 above), p. 368. Just as Nietzsche’s Apollonian/Dionysian duality does not seem to have influenced Lord of the Flies, similarly, Golding has rejected the idea that Freud had an impact on his novel: ‘Under questioning by undergraduates, he cheerfully admitted he has read “absolutely no Freud” (he prefers Greek plays in the original) and said there are no girls on the island because he does not believe that “sex has anything to do with humanity at this level”’ (Time, ‘Lord’ [n. 43 above], p. 66).

  52. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 38.

  53. Cf. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), p. 47: ‘Ralph is continually drawn to Jack’s tribe, where there is meat to eat and security against the mysterious darkness. He hates his isolation. Ralph knows that, despite his outward animosity towards Jack and what he represents, he cannot escape his longing to be part of the group.’

  54. J. March (‘Euripides’ Bakchai: A Reconstruction in the Light of Vase-paintings’, Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies 36, 1989, pp. 33–65) has suggested that Ovid may be drawing on a pre-Euripidean version of the Pentheus story which is attested both in vase-paintings and in Aeschylus’s Eumenides (25–6) and according to which the Theban king marched against the Bacchants in male attire and armed and his death was the result of a military conflict with them (pp. 36–7).

  55. On the metatheatrical aspects of the Bacchae, see H. Foley, ‘The Masque of Dionysus’, in Oxford Readings in Classical Studies: Euripides, ed. J. Mossman, Oxford, 2003, pp. 342–68.

  56. Dodds, Bacchae (n. 2 above), p. 200.

  57. The duel between the two boys has no parallel in the Euripidean or Ovidian intertexts, where Pentheus does not engage in armed conflict with either Dionysus or his Bacchants. Golding’s divergence from his literary models can either be explained as a product of his creative imagination or possibly as an allusion to the pre-Euripidean version of the myth which is attested by vase-paintings depicting the Theban king armed and fighting with the maenads. The iconographic evidence might have been known to the novelist, given that it is cited by Dodds in his commentary (Bacchae [n. 2 above], p. xxxv).

  58. Roncase, ‘The Bacchae’ (n. 4 above), pp. 47–8.

  59. I have adopted Wecklein’s supplement of the lacuna in Ba. 1174 (R. Prinz & N. Wecklein, Euripidis Fabulae, Leipzig, 1878–1902).

  60. Golding & Baker, ‘An Interview’ (n. 16 above), p. 155.

  61. Dick, ‘The Novelist’ (n. 3 above), p. 481.

  62. Dick, ‘Lord of the Flies’ (n. 4 above), p. 145.

  63. R. Gordon, ‘Classical Themes in Lord of the Flies’, Modern Fiction Studies 11, 1965, pp. 424–7 (426–7).

  64. Friedman, ‘Grief, Grief, Grief’ (n. 4 above), p. 239–40.

  65. Dick, ‘The Novelist’ (n. 3 above), p. 481.

  66. My analysis differs from Dickson’s observation (‘Lord of the Flies’ [n. 1 above], p. 48) that Ralph is reminiscent of Agave in the novel’s conclusion, since, as argued above, Roger and Jack are the ones who assume the part of Pentheus’s mother.

  67. E.L. Epstein, ‘Notes on Lord of the Flies’, Lord of the Flies, New York, 1959, pp. 191–2.

  68. Gordon (‘Classical Themes’ [n. 63 above], p. 424) notes that the conch evokes the Homeric sceptre given to the speaker in turn in Book 2 of the Odyssey and in Books 2 and 18 of the Iliad.

  69. Seaford, Bacchae (n. 15 above), p. 49–50.

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Paschalis, S. Intertextual sparagmos: Euripides, Ovid and Lord of the Flies. Int class trad 28, 183–215 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12138-019-00537-z

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