Federico Ingretolli (University of Oxford)
My presentation explores the tragic intertextuality of Plutarch’s Life of Coriolanus, a Life whose ‘tragic colouring’ has not hitherto been probed. The first part makes the case that the ‘apolitical’ nature of Coriolanus has two tragic models, Sophocles’ Ajax and Adrastus’ funeral oration in Euripides’ Supplices. The second investigates the dramatic structure of the second half of the Life and the different way in which Dionysius and Plutarch use tragedy in their portrayal of Volumnia.
Both Plutarch’s Life and Sophocles’ drama thematise the struggle of a hero to comply with public/popular decisions. Ajax defies the verdict to assign Achilles’ arms to Odysseus and embarks on a violent revenge against the Atridae. Along similar lines, Coriolanus is unable to restrain his anger at not having been assigned the consulship (15.4) and later wages war against Rome. Coriolanus’ ὁργή, αὐθάδεια, and θυμός are emotions typical of tragic heroes, and his concealing of his true anger at 21.1 echoes Ajax’s or Medea’s fake reconciliations. More specifically, the qualities that Plutarch attributes to him recall those that Adrastus attributes to the Argive warriors. Both the Argive warriors and Coriolanus are driven to disastrous military expeditions by the same set of ‘apolitical’ virtues (cf. 15.3). For example, just as Adrastus emphasises Capaneus’ moderation (865) and Eteoclus’ rejection of wealth (872-77), Plutarch repeatedly characterises Coriolanus as indifferent to pleasure and riches (1.3-4). Hippomedon’s rejection of the Muses’ allurements (881-87) and Tydeus’ lack of eloquence (901-9) is matched by Coriolanus’ preference of physical exercise over intellectual virtues and by his idea that logos and paideia soften one’s nature (Cor. 1.4; Comp. 3,4).
The Life shares further elements with drama. The Roman matronae act as a tragic chorus with Volumnia acting as its coryphaeus (34.3), and their subsequent journey to the military camp calls to mind the chorus of IA. The exchange between Valeria and Volumnia (33.5) in the presence of the matronae conjures up the interaction between Aethra and the Argive mothers in Euripides’ Suppliant Women and is similar in content to tragic women’s gendered conversations; in particular, their aspiration to good fame (33.5-6) is reminiscent of Electra’s words to Chrysotemis at Soph. El. 973-80. I round off my discussion by illustrating how tragic motherhood plays a key role in the shaping of both Dionysius’ and Plutarch’s Volumnias. Dionysius’ Volumnia (Veturia) shows interesting affinities with Aethra: like Theseus’ mother, Veturia refers to the mutability of fortune (Ant. Rom. 48; cf. Supp. 331) and to Nomos (50; cf. Supp. 311). Aethra is an important presence in Plutarch, too (cf. Cor. 36.2-3 and Supp. 360-3), but the rhetorical organization of Volumnia’s speech can be compared more closely to Jocasta’s rhesis to Polynices in Phoenissae. Like Jocasta (Phoen. 568-84), Volumnia confronts her son with the disastrous consequences of his military action against Rome regardless of its outcome. The comparison with Jocasta also helps illustrate how the different relationship of Polynices and Coriolanus with their mothers results in Coriolanus heeding his mother’s plea as opposed to Polynices’ rejection of it.