Abstract

This study investigates the question of how intertextuality is used as a dramaturgical device in Euripides’ Hecuba and Troades. The intertexts considered here are the Homeric epics and Aeschylus’ Agamemnon. After a presentation of the problems raised by the use of the notion of “intertextuality” in the field of ancient Greek literature, and more specifically Greek theatre, the two dramas are each studied in depth. Chapters I to IV are concerned with the stasima of these plays and raise the question of the specific manner in which intertextuality is inscribed in the lyrical language of the chorus. The stasima are considered from a global perspective in order to highlight their function as a guiding thread running through each drama. The following chapters deal with extended portions of Hecuba and Troades. The use of intertextuality in the representation of the sacrifice of Polyxena is studied in Chapter V, whereas Chapter VI deals with the double intertextual allusion (both to the Odyssey and to the Agamemnon) engaged in by Euripides in his representation of Hecuba’s revenge (in Hecuba). Chapters VII and VIII are about the Troades, focusing firstly on the Cassandra scene, which is compared with the Cassandra scene in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, reworked here by Euripides. Secondly there is the scene involving Helen, where Euripides builds up the tensions of the agôn by basing it on a precise passage of Iliad III – which, in the light of the positions taken by the two characters, he purposely renders even more problematic than it is in Homer. The conclusion presents the results of this inquiry into the functioning and possible purposes of intertextuality in Greek tragedy.