caa a22 4500 386376654 CHVBK 20180307112021.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198911 xx s 000 0 eng 10.2307/632034 doi S0075426900012623 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.2307/632034 Mikalson Jon D. University of Virginia Unanswered prayers in Greek Tragedy [Elektronische Daten] [Jon D. Mikalson] Moments before Euripides' Polyneices and Eteocles square off for their final, fatal battle in the Phoenissae, each prays for divine assistance (1359-76). Their prayers, though very brief, are by the standards of Greek drama rather formal. Polyneices, as Theban as his brother Eteocles, is leading a force of Argives against Thebes to recover the kingship he claims is rightfully his. As he prays he looks toward distant Argos and invokes ‘Lady Hera', for, he says, ‘I am now yours, because I married Adrastus' daughter and dwell in his land' (1364-6). He has left his homeland, married into an Argive family, and now lives in Argos, and he must therefore appeal to an Argive deity. Hera is here made a doubly appropriate recipient of his prayer—by locality as patroness of the Argolid and by function as protectress of marriage, her two major roles in the religion of Greek life and tragedy. Eteocles, commanding the home forces against invaders, looks to the nearby temple of ‘Pallas of the golden shield'. He invokes her as the ‘daughter of Zeus' and, like Polyneices but less explicitly, explains why he appeals specifically to her. He wishes to kill ‘the man who has come to sack my fatherland' (1372-6). This Athena ‘of the golden shield' is patroness of Thebes and, in more general terms, a goddess who aids the city in defence against foreign invaders. Like Hera she is doubly appropriate, in terms of locale and function, to her worshipper's needs. Copyright © The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies 1989 The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 109(1989-11), 81-98 0075-4269 109<81 1989 109 JHS https://doi.org/10.2307/632034 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.2307/632034 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Mikalson Jon D. University of Virginia NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- The Journal of Hellenic Studies Cambridge University Press 109(1989-11), 81-98 0075-4269 109<81 1989 109 JHS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge