Manipulative supplication : violence and aggression in Aeschylus' Suppliant women

In this thesis I examine the supplication within Aeschylus’ Suppliant Women through the lens of the expectations a tragic audience would have of the scene. By looking at all examples of supplication and all uses of ἱκετ- language in tragedy, expectations of the suppliant and the supplicandus become evident. The suppliant is expected to show reverence to the supplicandus, the receiver of the supplication. The suppliant typically does this in three main ways: the use of gesture, the presentation of objects, and the use of appeals. The supplicandus is expected to provide a response to the suppliant, by either rejecting the supplication if they are threatening the suppliant or accepting the supplication if they are saving the suppliant from external harm. Rather than present the Danaids as reverent, Aeschylus alters these three common means of showing respect and further adds threats and expressions of anger, thus presenting the women as aggressive. Pelasgus, unlike the Danaids, meets his expectation and accepts the women’s supplication due to the fear incited by the women. By presenting the supplication scene in this way Aeschylus highlights the manipulative potential of the practice; Pelasgus is compelled to accept the Danaids despite the fact that they do not fulfill the expectation the audience would have of them.Arts, Faculty ofClassical, Near Eastern and Religious Studies, Department ofGraduat