Suppliants

Not to be confused with Euripides’ play Suppliants.

Suppliants (Hiketides) is a tragedy by Aeschylus about the fifty daughters of Danaus, who flee from Egypt to Argos to escape marriage with their cousins, the fifty sons of Aegyptus. The king of Argos, Pelasgus, protects them after the people of Argos vote in their favour, and he turns back an Egyptian herald who tries to seize them. The play belonged to a group of connected plays about the Danaids, of which only this one survives, and it ends before the pursuit is resolved (lines 1–1073).

Date and Historical Background

No ancient introduction (hypothesis) to Suppliants survives with a date. A papyrus fragment from Oxyrhynchus preserves part of an ancient record of a tragic contest in which Aeschylus won first prize with a group of plays that included the Danaids and the satyr play Amymone, and Sophocles came second; the archon’s name, and so the year, is lost. According to Plutarch, Sophocles first competed as a young man in the archonship of Apsephion, that is, in 468 BC (Plutarch, Cimon 8.7), so that contest, and with it Suppliants if it belonged to the same group, cannot be earlier. The exact year remains uncertain.

Aeschylus also wrote an Egyptians and a Daughters of Danaus, both lost. The surviving play does not tell us what the other plays of its group contained.

Characters and Setting

Characters

• Danaus, father of the Danaids and brother of Aegyptus
• Pelasgus, king of Argos (called simply the King in the speaker labels)
• Herald of the sons of Aegyptus, with armed followers
• Chorus of the Danaids, the daughters of Danaus
• Handmaidens of the Danaids, who sing in the final scene
• Argive soldiers and attendants, who do not speak

Setting

The scene is the shore near Argos. There is a mound with an altar and images of the gods of the city, among them Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon, whose trident is seen, and Hermes (lines 188–222).

Summary of Suppliants

Parodos (Entrance Song)

The Danaids come in singing. They have sailed from the mouths of the Nile and fled the land of Zeus bordering Syria, “not because of some public decree pronounced against blood crime, but because of our own act to escape the suit of man, since we abhor as impious all marriage with the sons of Aegyptus” (lines 1–10). Their father Danaus advised the flight to Argos, from which their race descends, from Zeus’ touch on the heifer Io (lines 11–19). They hold the wool-wreathed branches of suppliants and pray to the gods of the land and to Zeus the Saviour to receive them, and to drive the sons of Aegyptus and their ship out to sea (lines 20–39). They call on Epaphus, the son of Zeus and Io, as their champion (lines 40–49), compare their lament to that of the nightingale Metis, and pray to Zeus and to the virgin goddess Artemis to deliver them from marriage. If the gods of Olympus will not hear them, they say, “we will hang ourselves” (lines 58–175).

First Episode

Danaus, who has been watching from the shore, sees a cloud of dust and an armed company approaching. He tells his daughters to sit at the altar mound, because “stronger than a castle is an altar,” to take the suppliant branches in their left hands, and to answer the strangers modestly, in the language of the weak, without boldness or hesitation (lines 176–203). He names the gods whose images stand there and reminds them that a second Zeus judges misdeeds among the dead (lines 204–233).

Pelasgus arrives and is astonished at their foreign dress, which is like neither Argive nor Hellenic dress, and he asks who they are (lines 234–245). He says he is the son of Palaechthon, ruler of the Pelasgians and of the lands from the Strymon to Dodona; he tells them that the ground is Apian land, named after the healer Apis, who cleared it of serpents (lines 246–273). The Danaids say they are Argive by descent, and when he doubts it because they look like Libyan or Egyptian women, they tell him the story of Io, whom Hera turned into a cow and set Argus to guard, whom Hermes killed, and who was driven by a gadfly to Egypt, where Zeus touched her and she bore Epaphus. From Epaphus came Libya, then Agenor and Belus, then Danaus and Aegyptus (lines 274–323).

They explain that they are suppliants because they do not want to become slaves of the sons of Aegyptus, and they ask Pelasgus not to surrender them (lines 325–347). He fears a war with Aegyptus’ sons, but also the wrath of Zeus, god of suppliants, and he says that he cannot decide without the people (lines 342–380). The Danaids tell him that he is himself the state (lines 370–375), and he replies that if the Aegyptians have a claim by the law of their own land, they must be answered in that law (lines 387–391); the Danaids answer that they will never submit to the power of these men (lines 392–396). Then they threaten to hang themselves from the images of the gods with their girdles, and this decides him. He says that he is launched on a sea of ruin, but fear of Zeus the guardian of suppliants compels him (lines 455–479). He tells Danaus to take the suppliant branches to the other altars of the city, where the citizens can see them, and gives him an escort. The Danaids wait, leaving their branches at the altar, and he goes to summon the people (lines 480–523).

First Stasimon

The Danaids pray to Zeus to turn the lust of the men into the sea (lines 524–537). They sing the story of Io’s wanderings in detail: her flight from the pasture at Argos through Asia, Phrygia, Mysia, Lydia, Cilicia and Pamphylia to the land of the Nile; her cure by Zeus's gentle touch; and the birth of Epaphus, whom the whole earth acknowledges as the child of Zeus (lines 538–589). They praise Zeus, who sits under no other power: “He speaks, and it is done” (lines 590–599).

Second Episode

Danaus returns with the decision of the Argives. The people have voted, “by raised right hands,” that the Danaids are free settlers in the land, subject to no seizure, and that no one, native or alien, may lead them off; if men turn to violence, any landholder who refuses to rescue them forfeits his rights and is banished (lines 600–614). Pelasgus had spoken for them, warning that the city must not feed the wrath of Zeus, protector of suppliants (lines 615–624).

Second Stasimon

The Danaids pray for the Argives: that Ares, who reaps men in foreign fields, may not burn their land, that neither plague nor civil strife may empty the city, that it may have good crops and good government, and that it may keep honouring the gods and parents (lines 625–709).

Third Episode

Danaus, from his lookout on the mound, sees a ship approaching with a large fleet behind it and the crew’s black limbs showing against their white clothes (lines 710–733). He tells his daughters not to be afraid, and says that he will bring help. He warns them that the landing will take time (lines 734–775).

Third Stasimon

The Danaids, left alone, cry out in terror. They wish they could become black smoke or dust, or be thrown from a high crag, rather than be forced into marriage, and they pray to Zeus again. Death, they say, is better than the bed of a man they hate (lines 776–824).

Fourth Episode

The Herald of the Egyptians arrives with armed men and orders the Danaids to go to the ship at once, threatening to drag them by the hair and cut off their heads if they do not (lines 825–842). They call him a crocodile and a viper, and cry out for help to Earth and to Zeus as he drags them toward the sea (lines 843–908). Pelasgus comes in and rebukes the Herald for his arrogance toward a land of Hellenes and for despising the gods of the land (lines 911–923). When the Herald says he will take the women unless someone stops him, Pelasgus answers: “If you so much as touch them, you will regret it, and right soon” (lines 924–925). He says that the Argives have decreed, not on tablets but by free voice, never to surrender the women under compulsion; they may go with the Herald only if they consent (lines 940–947). The Herald, leaving, says: “I think we are about to involve ourselves in a new war” (line 950).

Exodos (Exit Song)

Pelasgus invites the Danaids and their handmaidens to lodge inside the walls, in public houses or in his own (lines 952–965). The Danaids thank him and ask that Danaus be sent to advise them (lines 966–979). Danaus tells them to give thanks to the Argives as to Olympian gods, that the king has given him an escort of spearmen, and to bring no shame on him: their beauty attracts men’s eyes, and they should count chastity more precious than life (lines 980–1013). They promise to follow him (lines 1014–1017).

The Danaids sing a hymn to the gods of Argos and to the rivers of the land, and pray that Artemis look on them and that marriage may never come through the compulsion of Aphrodite (lines 1018–1033). Their handmaidens answer that Aphrodite is honoured beside Hera and Zeus, that Desire and Persuasion attend her, and that marriage has been the lot of many women before them. They fear for the fugitives, because Zeus’ will cannot be overstepped (lines 1034–1051). A Danaid prays, “May mighty Zeus defend me from marriage with Aegyptus’ race,” and a handmaiden answers, “That would indeed be best,” but warns her not to ask too much of the gods and that she does not know what the future holds (lines 1052–1061). The two groups join in a prayer that Zeus, who freed Io from pain, may spare them from marriage with the men they hate, and may award victory to the women (lines 1062–1073).

A Brief Analysis

Suppliants is built around the rule that suppliants who have reached an altar must be protected, and around Zeus as the god who guards them. The Danaids call on him repeatedly (lines 1, 347, 385, 478, 616–617), and Pelasgus’ decision is a choice between his fear of Zeus and his fear of war (lines 438–479).

Pelasgus is a king who will not decide the question alone. He says that the pollution of the city must be dealt with by the people in common (lines 365–369), and the decision is taken by a show of hands in the assembly (lines 600–624). Pelasgus later describes the decree as one that was not written on tablets but spoken by free lips (lines 942–949).

The play does not name the Danaids’ reason for refusing marriage beyond their statement that they abhor it as impious and their fear of the violence of their cousins (lines 8–9, 30–39, 817–821). They do not say that they are rejecting marriage altogether; in the last scene they pray not to be given to these men, and their handmaidens answer that marriage is a common lot (lines 1034–1061). The play ends without an outcome. Later writers tell of the murder of the bridegrooms by all the daughters but Hypermnestra, who spared Lynceus (Apollodorus, Library 2.1.5), and of her trial at Argos (Pausanias 2.19.6), but these versions do not come from the surviving play.

Suppliants Sources

Aeschylus, Suppliants, lines 1–1073: the entrance song of the Danaids (1–175), the meeting with Pelasgus (234–523), the vote of the Argives (600–624), the Egyptian Herald (825–953) and the final song (1018–1073). Plutarch, Cimon 8.7 (Sophocles’ first contest); Apollodorus, Library 2.1.4–5 (the murder of the bridegrooms); Pausanias 2.19.6 (the trial of Hypermnestra).

See Also: The Danaids, Io, Epaphus, Danaus, Oresteia, Seven Against Thebes, Prometheus Bound