パイドラーの恥(アイドース)と名誉(エウクレイア) : 『ヒッポリュトス』373-430

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According to E. R. Dodds, the two kinds of αιδω&b.sigmav; which Phaedra describes(lines 385-6)as good and bad are referred respectively to the αιδω&b.sigmav; in 244 and that in 335. The former αιδω&b.sigmav; saves her and the latter destroys her(CR., XXXIX, pp. 102-4). The present writer accepts this interpretation as fundamentally right, though this is nowadays generally rejected. Confronted with the nurse's appeal to reveal her secret, Phaedra found a fit excuse, in the nurse's posture of supplication, to disclose her love of Hippolytus, since αιδω&b.sigmav; forbids a suppliant to be rejected. This is the αιδω&b.sigmav; of 335, and Phaedra's tragedy hangs on her decision to give up silence and to reveal her secret. Nevertheless Phaedra was not simply overcome by her passion. The real cause of her decision lay in the very principle of life by which she was restricted as a typical Greek woman of the aristocracy, the ethics of ευκλεια which regards honour as the supreme virtue. She had endeavoured to keep silence in order to preserve her honour.(The αιδω&b.sigmav; of 244 is considered good in the sense that it had worked, though only negatively, so as to make her avoid a dishonourable disclosure.) According to the ethics of ευκλεια, her love of Hippolytus was not yet a sin, unless it was openly recognized as such. Thus, Phaedra had made up her mind to commit suicide as a last resort to maintain silence. But how was her honour to be preserved, if she should die without the significance of her noble resistance being recognized? (Honour, just as sin, is gained only by recognition.) Ironically enough, she found herself ready to disclose her secret love only when she had decided to die. Lines 388-90 pose great problems. How is the present tense(τυγχανω)of 388 related to the imperfect tense (εμελλον) of 390? ταυτα in 388 is referred to Phaedra's "idea of man" expressed in the whole of the preceding passage(375-87)of this great speech. This "idea of man" was a product of sweet idleness in the palace, an abstract idea which presumed the impossibility of behaving at the dictate of prudence, ουκ……διαφθερειν εμελλον (389-90) should be understood grammatically as a so-called "past un fulfilled expectation". 389-90 is interpreted, therefore, to mean that Phaedra was not likely to abandon her "idea of man", but in fact she did abandon it, when she had fallen in love with Hippolytus, i.e. when the whole problem of honour had become personal and critical to her. This change of mind made it possible for her to start the noble endeavour to overcome her love in silence. But the endeavour ended in a failure, which was to force her to make an existential confirmation of her "idea of man". The present tense of 388 signifies this present situation in which she finds herself. The discrepancy between prudence and behaviour confirmed by Phaedra is not relevant to her forbidden love itself, but to her disclosure of that love, which should have been kept hidden(cf. 391 ff.). All that is expressed in this great speech is, therefore, related to her disclosure of love. The αιδω&b.sigmav; of 335 gives a direct clue to her disclosure, but the nature of an ethic based upon ευκλεια is the real cause of it.
1978-03-23

著者

川島重成
大妻女子大学比較文化学部

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