Hypsipyle (play)

The heroine of Euripides' play is Hypsipyle, the former queen of Lemnos, and lover of Jason. When the women of Lemnos killed all the men on the island, Hypsipyle had refused to kill her father Thoas, the king, and instead secretly helped him flee the island. She ruled Lemnos when Jason and the Argonauts visited the island, and she had, by Jason, twin sons Thoas and Euneus. Later, when the Lemnian women discovered Hypsipyle's deception, she fled the island, but was captured by pirates, and sold as a slave to Lycurgus, the priest of Zeus at Nemea. Hypsipyle has come to be the nursemaid of Opheltes, the infant son of Lycurgus, and his wife Eurydice.Gantz, p. 511; Collard and Cropp, [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.251.xml p. 251]; Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.311.xml fr. 759a.72–74], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.313.xml 79–87] (Hypsipyle's flight, capture by pirates, slavery), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.275.xml fr. 752h.26–28] (Lycurgus as priest of Zeus), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.293.xml fr. 757] (Eurydice as mother), [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.293.xml fr. 757.41–44] (Hypsipyle as nurse). Although Lycurgus is a king in later accounts, there is no indication of that here, see Bravo,

[https://books.google.com/books?id=6mdQDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA107 p. 107].

As the action of the play begins, Hypsipyle's twin sons by Jason, Euneus and Thoas, arrive seeking shelter for the night.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.263.xml fr. 752c] [= fr. 764 Nauck], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.263.xml fr. 752d]. The sons have been separated from Hypsipyle since infancy, so neither recognizes the other. When Jason left Lemnos he had taken his sons to Colchis. After he died, Jason's fellow argonaut Orpheus took the boys to Thrace, where he raised them. They eventually met Hypsipyles' father Thoas, who took them back to Lemnos. From there they embarked on a search for their mother.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.315.xml fr. 759a.93–105 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 314–315)].

The Seven against Thebes have also just arrived and encounter Hypsipyle. Amphiaraus tells Hypsipyle that they need water for a sacrifice, and she leads the Seven to a spring.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.273.xml fr. 752h], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.283.xml fr. 753]. Hypsipyle brings Opheltes with her, and somehow, in a moment of neglect, Opheltes is killed by a serpent.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.285.xml fr. 753d], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.287.xml fr. 754], [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.287.xml fr. 754a]. The child's mother Eurydice is about to have Hypsipyle put to death, when Amphiaraus arrives and Hypsipyle pleads with him to speak in her defense.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.295.xml fr. 757.37–68 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 294–297)]. Amphiaraus tells Eurydice that the child's death was destined, proposes that funeral games be held in Opheltes' honor, and is able to convince Eurydice to spare Hypsipyle's life.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.297.xml fr. 757.69–144 (Collard and Cropp, pp. 297–303]. The seer Amphiaraus describing his defense of Hypsipyle as relying "on piety", ([https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.297.xml fr. 757.73]) is suggestive of the child's death having been ordained by the gods. Funeral games are held, and Hypsypyle's sons participate, as a result of which, a recognition and reunion between Hypsipyle and her sons is effected, who then manage to free Hypsipyle from her servitude.Euripides, Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.311.xml fr. 759a.58–110].

The surviving fragments of Euripides' play do not make it clear how the recognition between Hypsipyle and her sons was brought about, but two later accounts may have been based on the play.Collard and Cropp, pp. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.253.xml 253] [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml 259, tests. iv, va with notes]. According to the Second Vatican Mythographer, after the sons won the foot-race, at the funeral games, their names and parents were announced, and in this way their identities were revealed.Second Vatican Mythographer 141 Bode [= Euripides Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml test. va] = 164 Pepin, pp. 166–167]. The Cyzicene epigrams, the third book of the Palatine Anthology, describes a depiction, on a temple in Cyzicus, of Euneus and Thoas showing Hypsipyle a gold ornament ("the golden vine") as proof of their identities.Greek Anthology [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/greek_anthology_3/2014/pb_LCL067.159.xml 3.10] [= Palatine Anthology 3.10 = Euripides Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.259.xml test. iv]]. Compare with Euripides Hypsipyle [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/euripides-dramatic_fragments/2008/pb_LCL506.317.xml fr. 759a.110], where Euneus mentions a "wine-dark grape-bunch".

{{reflist}}

• Bravo, Jorge J., III, Excavations at Nemea IV: The Shrine of Opheltes, Univ of California Press, 2018. {{ISBN|9780520967878}}.
• Collard, Christopher and Martin Cropp, Euripides Fragments: Oedipus-Chrysippus: Other Fragments, Loeb Classical Library No. 506. Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99631-1}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL506/2009/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
• Gantz, Timothy, Early Greek Myth: A Guide to Literary and Artistic Sources, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996, Two volumes: {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5360-9}} (Vol. 1), {{ISBN|978-0-8018-5362-3}} (Vol. 2).
• Grenfell, B. P.. and Hunt, A. S., P. Oxy VI 852, London, 1908.
• Paton, W. R. (ed.), Greek Anthology, Volume I: Book 1: Christian Epigrams, Book 2: Description of the Statues in the Gymnasium of Zeuxippus, Book 3: Epigrams in the Temple of Apollonis at Cyzicus, Book 4: Prefaces to the Various Anthologies, Book 5: Erotic Epigrams, translated by W. R. Paton. Revised by Michael A. Tueller, Loeb Classical Library No. 67, Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University Press, 2014. {{ISBN|978-0-674-99688-5}}. [https://www.loebclassics.com/view/LCL067/2014/volume.xml Online version at Harvard University Press].
• Pepin, Ronald E., The Vatican Mythographers, Fordham University Press, 2008. {{ISBN|9780823228928}}.

{{Euripides Plays}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hypsipyle}}

Category:Plays by Euripides

Category:Plays set in ancient Greece

Category:Lost plays

Category:Nemea

Category:Plays based on classical mythology