Once More a Weasel

Abstract

At the premiere of Euripides’ Orestes in 408 BCE, the actor Hegelochos, playing the part of Orestes, made a small but destructive error in his performance: while attempting to deliver the line ‘after the storm I see once more a calm’, he said instead, ‘after the storm I see once more a weasel’. The comic poets Strattis, Sannyrion, and Aristophanes each present versions of this error in their plays; this paper contextualizes their treatment of Hegelochos within the portrayal of tragic actors in comedy generally, and argues that they portray Hegelochos’ mistake as an act of instantaneous tragic parody.