A Companion to Sophocles, First Edition. Edited by Kirk Ormand. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2012 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd. 37 Tony Harrison’s The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus Hallie Rebecca Marshall 1 Introduction Reception, when it works well, results in bidirectional influence – knowledge of the classi- cal text informing how we interpret the later work, and the later work allowing its audi- ence to see the ancient text through new eyes and from a different perspective. The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus is an example of this bidirectional influence at its most effective. Because of The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus, Tony Harrison became widely perceived as a poet working within the classical tradition. He had made his name as a poet in the 1970s through his verse translations and adaptations for London’s National Theatre, as well as through his collections of poetry. But, even with his translation of Aeschylus’ Oresteia for Peter Hall’s 1981 production, he was not particularly associated with classical drama. And so, while the Oresteia marked his return to classics (he had completed an undergraduate degree in the discipline and had embarked upon doctoral work before putting it aside to focus on his poetry), it was The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus that marked his début as a stage poet in his own right – as opposed to a translator – while also irrevocably associating him with the classical tradition in the public eye. As Harrison put it in an interview with Peter Lennon in The Guardian newspaper: “What I would normally say is ‘look at this version of an ancient play.’ I am now saying ‘this is my play, which has an ancient heart’ ” (Lennon 1990). But The Trackers of Oxyrhynchus not only changed the public perception of Harrison as a poet; it also changed many people’s perception of Sophocles. The tragedian, whose plays had so often over the centuries been held up as exempla of the classical tradition, was now associated with the long forgotten and, to some, somewhat embarrassing tradi- tion of satyr plays. For many audience members this was their first experience of a Sophoclean play, and it introduced them to a very different aspect of Sophocles’ poetry than, for example, the far more canonical Oedipus Tyrannus would have done. But even for those in the audience who were intimately familiar with the works of Sophocles and with the Greek tragic tradition more generally, this play encouraged a reconsideration of the intended function and reception of satyr plays in their original performance context. Ormand_c37.indd 557 Ormand_c37.indd 557 11/19/2011 12:17:22 AM 11/19/2011 12:17:22 AM UNCORRECTED PROOF