Greek 114: Honors Seminar in Greek Drama The House of Atreus in Greek Tragedy: Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Electra, Eurpides’ Orestes Grace Ledbetter

This seminar is a close reading of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon, Sophocles’ Electra, and Eurpides’ Orestes. We will also read the entire Oresteia, Eurpides’ Electra and Iphigeneia plays in English. Copies of these Greek and English texts are available in the bookstore, in addition to Aristotle’s Poetics and Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy, which we will also consider in the course of our discussions.

Required texts: 1) J. D. Denniston and D. L. Page, Aeschylus Agamemnon, Clarendon. 2) J. H. Kells, Sophocles Electra, Cambridge. 3) T. M. Falkner, Euripdes’ Orestes, Bryn Mawr Commentaries. 4) Fagles, trans, Oresteia 5) Eur. Electra, Iphegeneia in Aulis, Iphigeneia in Tauris in English 6) Aristotle, Poetics. 7) Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy.

Work for the Course: 1) weekly translation and reading assignments 2) approximately bi-weekly oral presentations on specific passages or other readings. 3) three 8-10 page papers, integrating secondary literature, which will be due during weeks when there is no Greek reading assignment. 4) final exam: translation only.

Syllabus: Week 1 background readings and video of Tony Harrison’s and Peter Hall’s Agamemnon (National Theater of Great Britain).

P. Wilson, “Powers of horror and laughter: the great age of drama” in O. Taplin, ed. Literature in the Greek World, Oxford, 2000 Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Greek Literature. tragedy chapters Gantz, Early Greek Myth. (The Line of Tantalos; Agamemnon; Orestes; Iphigeneia). Aeschylus’ Oresteia in English. Fagles translation Agamemnon 1-39 in Greek

Week 2 Agamemnon 1-354 (with Denniston-Page; Fraenkel)

R. P. Winnington-Ingram (1983) “Agamemnon and the Trojan War” in Studies in Aeschylus. V. Wohl (1998) “The Commodity Fetish and the Agalmatization of the Virgin Daughter” in Intimate Commerce. optional: D. M. Leahy (1974) “The Representation of the Trojan War in Aeschylus’ Agamemnon” AJP 95: 1-23. D. Rosenbloom (1995) “Myth, History, and Hegemony in Aeschylus” in B. Goff ed. History, Tragedy, Theory: Dialogues on Athenian Drama.

Week 3 Agamemnon 355-809

Athanassaki, “choral and prophetic discourse in the first stasimon” CJ 89 (1994) Fletcher, “choral voice and narrative in the first stasimon” Phoenix 53 (1999) optional: Skutsch, “Helen, her name and her nature” JHS 107 (1987)

Week 4 Agamemnon 810-1201

K. Dover, “The Red Fabric in the Agamemnon” in Greek and the Greeks. G. Crane, “The politics of consumption and generosity in the carpet scene of Aeschylus’ Agamemnon.” CP 88 (1993) 117-36. Optional: L. McClure, “Logos Gynaikos: speech and gender in the Oresteia.” in Spoken Like a Woman: Speech and gender in Athenian Drama. K. Morell, “The Fabric of Persuasion: Clytemnestra, Agamemnon and the Sea of Garments” CJ 92 (1997) 189-96. A. Lebeck, The Oresteia: a study in language and structure, 1971, 74-91

Week 5 Agamemnon 1202-End

B. Knox, Word and Action, Essays on the ancient theatre, Baltimore and London, 1979, pp. 42- 55. S. Schein, “The Cassandra Scene in Aescylus’ Agamemnon” Greece & Rome 29 (1982) pp. 11- 16. Lebeck, The Oresteia: a study in language and structure (Washington D. C., 1971, pp. 52-8.

F. Zeitlin, “The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus’ Oresteia.” TAPA 96 91965), 463- 508.

Week 6 Oresteia in English; Paper due Rosenmyer, “Trilogy, Trial, Resolution” in The Art of Aeschylus. F. Zeitlin, “The Dynamics of Misogyny: myth and mythmaking in the Oresteia.” In Playing the Other: Gender and Society in Classical Greek Literature. C. Macleod, “Politics in the Oresteia” JHS 102: 124-44.

Week 7 Sophocles, Electra 1-471 (with Kells and Jebb) B. Knox, “The Sophoclean Hero 1, 2” in The Heroic Temper.

Week 8 Electra 472-1057 C. Segal, “Electra” in Tragedy and Civilization.

Week 9 Electra 1057-8-end V. Woolf, “On not knowing Greek”, in The Common Reader. H. Foley, “Sacrificial virgins: the ethics of lamentation in Sophocles’ Electra” in Female Acts in Greek Tragedy.

Week 10 Aristotle’s Poetics in English; Euripides, Electra, Paper due

Week 11 Orestes 1-455

A. M. Verall, Essays on Four Plays of Euripides, pp. 199-264 K. Reinhardt, “The Intellectual Crisis in Euripides” in Euripides, ed. Judith Mossman.

Week 12 Orestes 456-1012

N. Greenberg, “Euripides’ Orestes: an Interpretation” HSCP 66 (1962) 157-92. C. Wolff, “Orestes” in E. Segal, ed. Euripides.

Week 13 Orestes 1013-end.

R. P. Winnington-Ingram, “Euripides: poietes sophos” Arethusa 2.2 (1969) 127-42. C. F. Fuqua, “The world of myth in Euripides’ Orestes” Traditio 34 (1978) 1-28.

Week 14 Iph. in Aulis, Iph in Taurus in English; Nietzsche, Birth of Tragedy, Paper due.