{{Short description|Play by Aeschylus}}
{{For|the play of the same name by Euripides|The Suppliants (Euripides)}}
{{Infobox play | name = The Suppliants
| image = Ny Carlsberg Glyptothek - Rodin - Danaide.jpg
| caption = ''La Danaide'' by [[Auguste Rodin]]
| writer = [[Aeschylus]]
| genre = [[Tragedy]]
| chorus = The [[Danaïdes]]
| characters = [[Danaus]]<br />[[Pelasgus]]<br />Herald of [[Aegyptus]]<br />Attendants 
| setting = shore of [[Ancient Argos|Argos]]
}}

'''''The Suppliants''''' ({{langx|grc|Ἱκέτιδες}}, ''Hiketides''; [[Latin]]: ''Supplices''),  also called '''''The Suppliant Maidens''''', '''''The Suppliant Women''''', or '''''Supplices'''''<ref>{{Cite book|last=Paley|first=F. A.|title=Aeschylus Translated into English Prose.|publisher=Deighton, Bell, and Co. London : Bell and Daldy.|year=1864|publication-place=Cambridge. Printed by Jonathan Palmer, 58, Sidney Street.|pages=1|id=ark:/13960/t4rj4dx0t}}</ref> is a play by [[Aeschylus]]. It was probably first performed "only a few years previous to the ''[[Oresteia]]'', which was brought out 458 BC."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Paley|first=F. A.|title=The Tragedies of Aeschylus|publisher=London: Whittaker and Co., Ave Maria Lane ; George Bell and Sons, York Street, Covent Garden.|year=1879|editor-last=G. Long and Rev. A. J. Macleane|edition=4th|publication-place=London : Gilbert and Rivington Printers St. John's Square.|pages=1–5|id=ark:/13960/t8gf0q32t}}</ref>  It seems to be the first play in a tetralogy, sometimes referred to as the '''''Danaid Tetralogy''''', which probably included the lost plays ''The Egyptians'' (also called ''Aigyptioi''), and ''The Daughters of Danaus'' (also called ''The Danaïdes'' or ''The Danaids''), and the [[satyr play]] ''Amymone''.<ref>{{cite journal|title=The Danaid Tetralogy of Aeschylus|author=Diamantopoulos, A.|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|year=1957|pages=220–229|volume=77|jstor=629361}}</ref><ref name=trilogy> The 1952 publication of Oxyrhynchus Papyrus 2256 fr. 3 confirmed the existence of a trilogy, probably produced in 463. See Garvie 163-97, Friis Johansen/Whittle 1.23-25 and Sommerstein 141-52 for discussions of the trilogy's date, constituent plays and a hypothetical reconstruction of the plot.</ref> It was long thought to be the earliest surviving play by Aeschylus due to the relatively anachronistic function of the [[Greek chorus|chorus]] as the [[protagonist]] of the [[drama]].  However, evidence discovered in the mid-twentieth century shows it was one of Aeschylus' last plays, definitely written after ''[[The Persians]]'' and possibly after ''[[Seven Against Thebes]]''.<ref>See note 4.</ref> One reason ''The Suppliants'' was thought to be an early play was "its preponderance of choral lyric, . . .  a succession of choral odes that are among the densest, most opulent, most purely lovely things in all Greek poetry."<ref>Peter Burian. Introduction. ''The Suppliants'' by Aeschylus. Translated by Peter Burian. Princeton University Press, 1991. p. xi.</ref>

[[Greek Tragedy|Greek tragedies]]—''The Suppliants'' and Sophocles' ''[[Philoctetes (Sophocles play)|Philoctetes]]'', for example—do not always end with the downfall of the protagonist. Rather, the agony of the [[Danaïdes|Danaids]] in fleeing a forced marriage is essentially tragic. And [[Pelasgus]] is faced with the choice of protecting the suppliants, which would likely involve a war with Egypt; or rejecting their plea for protection, which would mean offending Zeus, who supports suppliants, and who might well punish him and his country in response.<ref>H. D. F. Kitto. ''Greek Tragedy: A Literary Study.'' Routledge, 1939. pp. 1-22.</ref> Furthermore, the suppliants threaten to commit suicide if their plea is rejected, which would bring ritual pollution on the city and its people and draw down the anger of Zeus upon them. The plays ends with the success of the suppliants and the deferral of any war with Egypt. But this is only a temporary reprieve, and the following plays of the tetralogy continue, probably, with a war between Argos and Egypt, followed by other tragic events and dilemmas.

== Plot ==
The [[Danaïdes|Danaids]] form the chorus and serve as the protagonists.  They flee a forced marriage to their [[Ancient Egypt|Egyptian]] cousins.  When the Danaids reach [[Ancient Argos|Argos]] from Egypt, they take refuge in a sanctuary of several gods, outside the city, and they entreat King [[Pelasgus]] to protect them. The girls are descended several generations back from [[Zeus]] and [[Io (mythology)|Io]], an Argive princess seduced by Zeus and then driven by [[Hera]] to Egypt, so they claim Argos as their ancestral homeland, and they recognize and supplicate the Greek gods. The Danaids tell King Pelasgus that if he refuses their plea, they will commit suicide by hanging themselves on the statues of the gods at the sanctuary. Pelasgus wants to help them, but he doesn't want to start a war with Egypt. He gives the decision to the Argive people, who unanimously decide in the favour of the Danaids. [[Danaus]] rejoices at the outcome, and the Danaids praise the Greek deities.  Almost immediately, a herald of the Egyptians comes to attempt to force the Danaids to return to their cousins for marriage.  Pelasgus arrives, threatens the herald, and urges the Danaids to remain within the walls of Argos.  The play ends with the Danaids retreating into the Argive walls, protected.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Suppliants - Aeschylus - Ancient Greece - Classical Literature |url=https://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_aeschylus_suppliants.html |website=Ancient Literature |access-date=5 January 2021}}</ref>

== Themes ==
[[George Derwent Thomson|George Thomson]], expanding on D. S. Robertson, interpreted the tetralogy as a defence of the Athenian law requiring widows to marry a brother or cousin of their deceased husband in some circumstances in order to keep his property within the family.<ref name="thomson">{{cite book|author=Thomson, G.|author-link=George Derwent Thomson|title=Aeschylus and Athens|publisher=Lawrence & Wishart|year=1973|edition=4th|pages=285–295}}</ref>  According to this interpretation, the Danaids' predicament of being forced into a marriage with their cousins would not have generated so much sympathy with the initial audience, which was accustomed to such marriages, as it might today.<ref name="thomson" />  This is reflected in the question Pelasgus asks of the Danaids' in ''The Suppliants'' that echoes Athenian law on the subject: "If the sons of Aigyptos are your masters by the law of the land, claiming to be your next-of-kin, who would wish to oppose them?"<ref name="thomson" />  Thomson speculates that as ''Oresteia'' ends by validating the contemporary Athenian law regarding trial for murder by the court of [[Areopagus]], the Danaid plays may have ended by validating the contemporary Athenian law regarding marriage of next-of-kin when the husband dies without an heir.<ref name="thomson" />  Thomson further suggests the possibility that as ''Oresteia's'' ending dramatizes the establishment of the court of Areopagus, the Danaid plays may have ended by dramatizing the establishment of the festival of the [[Thesmophoria]], a festival reserved for women that was based on the cult of [[Demeter]] which, according to [[Herodotus]], was brought to Greece from Egypt by the Danaids.<ref name="thomson" />

Ridgeway, on the other hand, interpreted the plays as a dramatization of the conflict between [[matrilineal]] and [[patrilineal]] inheritance.<ref name="thomson" /> The French scholars [[Jean-Pierre Vernant]] and [[Pierre Vidal-Naquet]] argued that the Danaïds objected to cousin marriage because they saw it as incest; this theory has, however, been discredited.<ref name="Olive 2021 pp. 1–29">{{cite journal | last=Olive | first=Peter | title=Red Herrings and Perceptual Filters: Problems and Opportunities for Aeschylus’s Supplices | journal=Arethusa | publisher=Project Muse | volume=54 | issue=1 | year=2021 | issn=1080-6504 | doi=10.1353/are.2021.0000 | pages=1–29}}</ref>

[[Edith Hall]] writes,

<blockquote> Aeschylus' ''Suppliants'' concerns the shared history of the Argive Greeks and the Egyptians, but at its psychological heart lies the dramatization of violent ethnic confrontation. In its discussion of physical appearance, skin colour, and clothing, as well as in its comparisons of religion, behavioural codes, and political culture, the dialogue richly reflects the interest that mid-fifth-century Greeks had in the different peoples with whom they shared the Mediterranean litoral.<ref>Edith Hall. ''Greek Tragedy: Suffering Under the Sun.'' Oxford University Press, 2010. p. 207. </ref> </blockquote>

== Lost plays of the tetralogy ==
The remaining plays of the tetralogy have been mostly lost.  However, one significant passage from ''The Danaids'' has been preserved.  This is a speech by the goddess of love [[Aphrodite]] praising the marriage between the sky (the groom) and the earth (the bride) from which rain comes, nourishing cattle, corn, and fruits.<ref name=thomson/>

As the plot of the remaining plays has been generally reconstructed, following a war with the Aegyptids in which Pelasgus has been killed, Danaus becomes tyrant of Argos. The marriage is forced upon his daughters, but Danaus instructs them to murder their husbands on their wedding night. All do except for [[Hypermnestra]], whose husband, Lynceus, flees. Danaus imprisons or threatens to kill Hypermnestra for her disobedience, but Lynceus reappears and kills Danaus; Lynceus becomes the new king of Argos, with Hypermnestra as his queen. Opinions differ as to the ending, although certainly [[Aphrodite]] was involved in the denouement.  One opinion is that Lynceus now must decide how to punish the forty-nine homicidal Danaids, when [[Aphrodite]] appears in ''[[deus ex machina]]'' fashion and absolves them of the murders, as they were obeying their father; she then persuades them to abandon their celibate ways, and the trilogy closes with their marriages to forty-nine local Argive men. An alternative opinion is that Hypermnestra is put on trial for disobeying her father and Aphrodite successfully defends her similarly to [[Apollo]]'s defense of [[Orestes]] in ''[[Oresteia]]''.  The trilogy was followed by the [[satyr play]] ''Amymone'', which comically portrayed a seduction of one of the Danaids by Poseidon.<ref name=trilogy/>

== Notes ==
{{Reflist}}

== Sources ==
* F. A. Paley, ''Aeschylus Translated into English Prose.'', Cambridge, 1864
*F. A. Paley, ''The Tragedies of Aeschylus.'', London, 1879
*Friis Johansen, H. and Whittle, E.W. ''Aeschylus:'' ''The Suppliants.'' 3 vols. Copenhagen, 1980.
* Garvie, A.F. ''Aeschylus''' Supplices'', Play and Trilogy''. Cambridge, 1969.
* [[Alan Sommerstein|Sommerstein, Alan]]. ''Aeschylean Tragedy''. Bari, 1996.

== Translations & Adaptations ==
* [[Robert Potter (translator)|Robert Potter]], 1777 - verse: [[iarchive:bim_eighteenth-century_the-tragedies-of-schylu_aeschylus_1777/page/71|full text]]
* [[Theodore Alois Buckley]], 1849 - prose: [https://archive.org/stream/tragediesschylu00aescgoog/tragediesschylu00aescgoog_djvu.txt full text]
* [[Frederick Apthorp Paley|F. A. Paley]], 1855 - prose: [https://archive.org/stream/tragedies01palegoog/tragedies01palegoog_djvu.txt full text]
* [[Frederick Apthorp Paley|F. A. Paley]], 1864 - prose: [https://archive.org/stream/aeschylus00aescuoft/aeschylus00aescuoft_djvu.txt full text]
* [[E. D. A. Morshead]], 1883 - verse: ([[s:Suppliant Maidens (Morshead) 1883|full text available at Wikisource]])
* [[Anna Swanwick]], 1886 - verse: ([[s:Dramas of Aeschylus (Swanwick)/Suppliants|full text available at Wikisource]])
* [[E. D. A. Morshead]], 1908, 2nd ed. - verse: ([[s:Four Plays of Aeschylus (1908) Morshead/Suppliant Maidens|full text available at Wikisource]])
* [[Walter Headlam|Walter George Headlam]] and C. E. S. Headlam, 1909 - prose
* G. M. Cookson, 1922 - verse: ([[s:Four Plays of Aeschylus (Cookson)/The Suppliant Maidens|full text available at Wikisource]])
* [[Herbert Weir Smyth]], 1922 - prose: ([[s:Aeschylus (Smyth 1927) v1/The Suppliant Maidens|full text available at Wikisource]])
* [[Gilbert Murray]], 1930 - verse: [https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/murrayaeschylus-suppliantwomen/murrayaeschylus-suppliantwomen-00-h.html full text]
* [[Seth Benardete|S. G. Benardete]], 1956 - verse
* [[Philip Vellacott]], 1961 - verse
* Peter Burian, 1991 - verse
* Charles L. Mee, [[Big Love (play)|''Big Love'']], 2000 (modern adaptation)
* [[Christopher Collard]], 2008
* George Theodoridis, 2009 - prose: [http://bacchicstage.wordpress.com/aeschylus-2/suppliant-maidens-%CE%B9%CE%BA%CE%B5%CF%84%CE%B9%CE%B4%CE%B5%CF%83/ full text]
* [[Ian C. Johnston]], 2013, verse: [http://johnstoniatexts.x10host.com/aeschylus/suppliantwomenhtml.html full text]

== External links ==
* {{wikisource-inline|The Suppliants (Aeschylus)|''The Suppliants''|single=true}} (multiple English translations)
* {{wikisourcelang-inline|el|Ικέτιδες}}
* {{librivox book | title=The Suppliant Maidens | author=AESCHYLUS}}

{{Aeschylus Plays}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Suppliants}}
[[Category:Plays by Aeschylus]]
[[Category:Mythology of Argos, Peloponnese]]
[[Category:Plays set in ancient Greece]]
[[Category:Plays based on classical mythology]]