The Ambiguities of Voluntary Self-Sacrifice: The Case of Macaria in Euripides’ 'Heracleidae'. A Dramaturgic Study

Abstract

Since the 1970s, the Euripidean motif of voluntary self-sacrifice is no longer envisaged as unambiguously eliciting the audience’s admiration, but as a potentially subversive force, which extols the bravery of one individual to expose the villainy of the community demanding bloodshed. This paper re-examines the validity and relevance of this ironic approach in the case of Euripides’ Heracleidae. First, it shows why the sudden withdrawal of Athens at the beginning of the second episode is not to be understood as denoting the corruption of the city and its king. Second, it deals with the peculiarity of the self-sacrifice scene, in which a nameless daughter of Heracles (traditionally called ‘Macaria’) willingly surrenders her life in order that Athens may obtain victory over Eurystheus: while she is purposely made on the pattern of Attic virginal heroines and objectively dies for the city, she claims to do so for her sole γένος. This apparent inconsistency has been resolved by scholars in terms of abstract political or gender analysis; this study envisages it in terms of dramaturgy and shows how Euripides exploits the still-dormant tension between γένος and πόλις in the rest of the play, down to the exodos, where it is made clear that the family of Heracles and the city of Athens will be in open conflict one day – i.e. in the present time of the spectators, for the play was probably staged in 430. In this drama, as in Erechtheus, patriotic feelings which seemed unproblematic and one-dimensional at first sight are submitted to a properly tragic reversal.

Julien Bocholier is a former student of the École normale supérieure of Paris. A fourth-year doctoral candidate at Sorbonne Université and scholarship student at the Fondation Thiers (Institut de France), he is currently engaged into the edition, translation into French and commentary of Euripides’ Heracleidae under the supervision of Prof. Christine Mauduit (ENS Paris).

Wekwords: Tragedy, Euripides, Macaria, self-sacrifice, polis, genos.