Democracy and the Earth in Aeschylus’ Suppliants

In offering asylum to the Danaid chorus in Aeschylus’ Suppliants, the Argives exercise their shared decision-making power, a cornerstone of democratic ideology. But democracy requires more than the will of the people. In this talk I explore both the form of this tragedy, with its extended parodos, and the autochthony myths that are reactivated around the Danaids’ appeal for protection, and I argue that the grant of metic status to the these women speaks to the interdependence, vital to democracy both ancient and modern, between the land and the polis. The Danaids’ arrival in Argos and their movements on and around the tragedy’s prominently featured “hill” (pagos) reminds us that staging carries political resonance. In this play, the earth (“hilly Argos”) is a vital presence, not only offering sanctuary to these suppliant women but also archiving memories of their bovine ancestor, Io, and summoning the Argive citizens to collective action.