The messenger-boukolos in Euripide’s Iphigenia in Tauris and Bacchae

Abstract

The article aims to present an analysis of the scenes of the messengers-boukoloi in Euripides’ Iphigenia in Tauris (238-339) and Bacchae (660-774), highlighting, in the respective narratives and thanks to the comparison with other literary sources, similarities that could represent peculiar traits of a supposed stock character: 1. Alongside a description of the boukolos as a naive and highly suggestible man, exists an opposite characterization, which depicts the cowherd as a cunning and deceitful individual; 2. The facts narrated appear strange and unusual from the point of view of the narrators; 3. Both narratives report the description of the attack on cattle carried out by human beings, respectively Orestes and the Theban bacchants, made insane by divine possession. In the scene of the herd massacre, particularly, Orestes and the maenads are described as leon (IT 297) and kynes (Ba. 731), two animals traditionally linked to pastoral imaginary; however, their behaviour is unusual, further emphasizing the extraordinary nature of the events that the two boukoloi witnessed.