Euripides' Ion 1132–1165: the tent

Abstract

Thirty-three lines in the Ion are devoted to describing the tent in which Ion celebrates his new-found status as heir to Xouthos and the royal line of Athens. The passage may properly be called an ἔκφρασις, a description in language of an artistic object constructed in another medium. An ἔκφρασις in drama differs from those occurring in narrative because material objects in drama retain the potential to be made material, i.e. to appear on the stage, thus dramatically closing the gap between word and world that the ἔκφρασις so patently opens. While this gap remains, the ἔκφρασις makes especially complex demands on the audience's imagination, and in the Ion on their patience too – for the ἔκφρασις must be the antithesis of the action and drama, the progression of the play, a version of which the audience presumably wants and expects from the panting messenger.