ALCESTIS Euripides
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The Conflict of Obligations in Euripides' Alcestis
GOLDFARB, BARRY E., The Conflict of Obligations in Euripides' "Alcestis" , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 33:2 (1992:Summer) p.109 The Conflict of Obligations in Euripides' Alcestis Barry E. Goldfarb 0UT ALCESTIS A. M. Dale has remarked that "Perhaps no f{other play of Euripides except the Bacchae has provoked so much controversy among scholars in search of its 'real meaning'."l I hope to contribute to this controversy by an examination of the philosophical issues underlying the drama. A radical tension between the values of philia and xenia con stitutes, as we shall see, a major issue within the play, with ramifications beyond the Alcestis and, in fact, beyond Greek tragedy in general: for this conflict between two seemingly autonomous value-systems conveys a stronger sense of life's limitations than its possibilities. I The scene that provides perhaps the most critical test for an analysis of Alcestis is the concluding one, the 'happy ending'. One way of reading the play sees this resolution as ironic. According to Wesley Smith, for example, "The spectators at first are led to expect that the restoration of Alcestis is to depend on a show of virtue by Admetus. And by a fine stroke Euripides arranges that the restoration itself is the test. At the crucial moment Admetus fails the test.'2 On this interpretation 1 Euripides, Alcestis (Oxford 1954: hereafter 'Dale') xviii. All citations are from this editon. 2 W. D. Smith, "The Ironic Structure in Alcestis," Phoenix 14 (1960) 127-45 (=]. R. Wisdom, ed., Twentieth Century Interpretations of Euripides' Alcestis: A Collection of Critical Essays [Englewood Cliffs 1968]) 37-56 at 56. -
The Hellenic Saga Gaia (Earth)
The Hellenic Saga Gaia (Earth) Uranus (Heaven) Oceanus = Tethys Iapetus (Titan) = Clymene Themis Atlas Menoetius Prometheus Epimetheus = Pandora Prometheus • “Prometheus made humans out of earth and water, and he also gave them fire…” (Apollodorus Library 1.7.1) • … “and scatter-brained Epimetheus from the first was a mischief to men who eat bread; for it was he who first took of Zeus the woman, the maiden whom he had formed” (Hesiod Theogony ca. 509) Prometheus and Zeus • Zeus concealed the secret of life • Trick of the meat and fat • Zeus concealed fire • Prometheus stole it and gave it to man • Freidrich H. Fuger, 1751 - 1818 • Zeus ordered the creation of Pandora • Zeus chained Prometheus to a mountain • The accounts here are many and confused Maxfield Parish Prometheus 1919 Prometheus Chained Dirck van Baburen 1594 - 1624 Prometheus Nicolas-Sébastien Adam 1705 - 1778 Frankenstein: The Modern Prometheus • Novel by Mary Shelly • First published in 1818. • The first true Science Fiction novel • Victor Frankenstein is Prometheus • As with the story of Prometheus, the novel asks about cause and effect, and about responsibility. • Is man accountable for his creations? • Is God? • Are there moral, ethical constraints on man’s creative urges? Mary Shelly • “I saw the pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and stir with an uneasy, half vital motion. Frightful must it be; for supremely frightful would be the effect of any human endeavour to mock the stupendous mechanism of the Creator of the world” (Introduction to the 1831 edition) Did I request thee, from my clay To mould me man? Did I solicit thee From darkness to promote me? John Milton, Paradise Lost 10. -
Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML Advanced
Document belonging to the Greek Mythology Link, a web site created by Carlos Parada, author of Genealogical Guide to Greek Mythology Characters • Places • Topics • Images • Bibliography • PDF Editions About • Copyright © 1997 Carlos Parada and Maicar Förlag. Summaries of the Trojan Cycle Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page Introduction Trojan Cycle: Cypria Iliad (Synopsis) Aethiopis Little Iliad Sack of Ilium Returns Odyssey (Synopsis) Telegony Other works on the Trojan War Bibliography Introduction and Definition of terms The so called Epic Cycle is sometimes referred to with the term Epic Fragments since just fragments is all that remain of them. Some of these fragments contain details about the Theban wars (the war of the SEVEN and that of the EPIGONI), others about the prowesses of Heracles 1 and Theseus, others about the origin of the gods, and still others about events related to the Trojan War. The latter, called Trojan Cycle, narrate events that occurred before the war (Cypria), during the war (Aethiopis, Little Iliad, and Sack of Ilium ), and after the war (Returns, and Telegony). The term epic (derived from Greek épos = word, song) is generally applied to narrative poems which describe the deeds of heroes in war, an astounding process of mutual destruction that periodically and frequently affects mankind. This kind of poetry was composed in early times, being chanted by minstrels during the 'Dark Ages'—before 800 BC—and later written down during the Archaic period— from c. 700 BC). Greek Epic is the earliest surviving form of Greek (and therefore "Western") literature, and precedes lyric poetry, elegy, drama, history, philosophy, mythography, etc. -
A. W. Schlegel and the Nineteenth-Century Damnatio of Euripides Ernst Behler
BEHLER, ERNST, A. W. Schlegel and the Nineteenth-Century "Damnatio" of Euripides , Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies, 27:4 (1986:Winter) p.335 A. W. Schlegel and the Nineteenth-Century Damnatio of Euripides Ernst Behler N HIS 1802-04 Berlin lectures on aesthetics, August Wilhelm Schle I gel claimed that his younger brother Friedrich (in his essay On the Study of Greek Poetry U795]), had been the first in the modern age to discern the "immeasurable gulf" separating Euripides from Aeschylus and Sophocles, thereby reviving an attitude the Greeks themselves had assumed towards the poet. The elder Schlegel noted that certain contemporaries of Euripides felt the "deep decline" both in his tragic art and in the music of the time: Aristophanes, with his unrelenting satire, had been assigned by God as Euripides' "eternal scourge"; 1 Plato, in reproaching the poets for fostering the passionate state of mind through excessive emotionalism, actually pointed to Euripides (SK I 40). Schlegel believed that his younger brother's observation of the profound difference between Euripides and the two other Greek tragedians was an important intuition that required detailed critical and comparative analysis for sufficient development (SK II 359). By appropriating this task as his own, August Wilhelm Schlegel inaugurated a phenomenon that we may describe as the nineteenth-century damnatio of Euripides. The condemnation of Euripides by these early German romantics was no extravagant and isolated moment in their critical activity: it constituted a central event in the progressive formation of a new literary theory. Their pronouncements must be seen in the context of a larger movement, towards the end of the eighteenth century, that transformed the critical scene in Europe: the fall of the classicist doctrine and the rise of the new literary theory of romanticism. -
Prof. Thomas Hubbard Office
Prof. Thomas Hubbard Office: WAG 9 Hours: TTh 1-1:30, F 1-3 Phone: 471-0676 E-mail: [email protected] TAs: Colin MacCormack ([email protected]) & Tim Corcoran ([email protected]) TA office hours by appointment SYLLABUS - CLASSICAL MYTHOLOGY (CC 303 - #32145) The purpose of this course is to familiarize students in depth with the major myths of Ancient Greece, which have proven so influential on art, literature, and popular imagination in Rome, Renaissance and Baroque Europe, and even the contemporary world. We shall examine the various cultural influences that shaped and transformed these stories, as well as the way that gods and heroes were embedded in religious cult and ritual. Students will also be afforded the opportunity to learn about major theories of interpretation. The format of the course will center around daily lectures, but questions and discussion are encouraged. This course carries the Global Cultures flag. Global Cultures courses are designed to increase your familiarity with cultural groups outside the United States. You should therefore expect a substantial portion of your grade to come from assignments covering the practices, beliefs, and histories of at least one non-U.S. cultural group, past or present. PART ONE: THE OLYMPIAN GODS Aug. 27 - "The Nature of Myths and their Interpretation: The Case of the Greeks" Sept. 1 - "Who Were the Greeks?" Reading: Csapo, Theories (pp. 1-36) Sept. 3 - "Myths of Creation and Cosmogony" Reading: Hesiod, Theogony (pp. 61-75); Handbook: Uranus, Ge, Cronus, Rhea, Atlas, Titans, Giants, Cyclopes, Hundred-handed Sept. 8 - "Zeus and the Establishment of Power" Reading: Hesiod, Theogony (pp. -
ABSTRACT a Director's Approach to Euripides' Hecuba Christopher F. Peck, M.F.A. Mentor: Deanna Toten Beard, Ph.D. This Thesi
ABSTRACT A Director’s Approach to Euripides’ Hecuba Christopher F. Peck, M.F.A. Mentor: DeAnna Toten Beard, Ph.D. This thesis explores a production of Euripides’ Hecuba as it was directed by Christopher Peck. Chapter One articulates a unique Euripidean dramatic structure to demonstrate the contemporary viability of Euripides’ play. Chapter Two utilizes this dramatic structure as the basis for an aggressive analysis of themes inherent in the production. Chapter Three is devoted to the conceptualization of this particular production and the relationship between the director and the designers in pursuit of this concept. Chapter Four catalogs the rehearsal process and how the director and actors worked together to realize the dramatic needs of the production. Finally Chapter Five is a postmortem of the production emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of the final product of Baylor University’s Hecuba. A Director's Approach to Euripides' Hecuba by Christopher F. Peck, B.F.A A Thesis Approved by the Department of Theatre Arts Stan C. Denman, Ph.D., Chairperson Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Baylor University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Fine Arts Approved by the Thesis Committee DeAnna Toten Beard, Ph.D., Chairperson David J. Jortner, Ph.D. Marion D. Castleberry, Ph.D. Steven C. Pounders, M.F.A. Christopher J. Hansen, M.F.A. Accepted by the Graduate School May 2013 J. Larry Lyon, Ph.D., Dean Page bearing signatures is kept on file in the Graduate School. Copyright © 2013 by Christopher F. Peck -
Alcmaeon in Psophis
Alcmaeon in Psophis Psophis was said to have been originally called Erymanthus, and its territory to have been ravaged by the Erymanthian Boar.Pausanias, "Description of Greece" viii. 24. § 2-10] [Hecat. "on Stephanus of Byzantium s.v." polytonic|Ψωφίς] [Apollodorus, ii. Alcmaeon (mythology) â” In Greek mythology, Alcmaeon, or Alkmáon, was the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. As one of the Epigoni, he was a leader of the Argives who attacked Thebes, taking the city in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes ⦠Alcmaeon in Psophis. Year: between 180 and 200 AD. Scripts: Alcmaeon in Psophis by Euripides. Genres: Tragedy. Psophis. How to cite this ancient performance. Alcmaeon in Psophis, accessed at http://www.apgrd.ox.ac.uk/ancient- performance/performance/98 <16 September 2018>. Alcmaeon in Psophis (Ancient Greek: Ἀλκμαίων ὠδιὰ Ψωφῖδος, AlkmaiÅn ho dia Psophidos) is a play by Athenian playwright Euripides. The play has been lost except for a few surviving fragments. It was first produced in 438 BCE in a tetralogy that also included the extant Alcestis and the lost Cretan Women and Telephus. The story is believed to have incorporated the death of Argive hero Alcmaeon.[1]. Alcmaeon in Psophis. Alcmaeon (mythology)'s wiki: In Greek mythology, Alcmaeon (Greek: Ἀλκμαίων), was the son of Amphiaraus and Eriphyle. As one of the Epigoni, he was a leader of the Argives who attacked Thebes, taking the city in retaliation for the deaths of their fathers, the Seven Against Thebes, wh. -
Sidney's 'Defence of Poetry', Written in 1581, and the First Important Piece of Literary Criticism in English
Trojan Suffering, Tragic Gods and Transhistorical Metaphysics The Greek, decisive confrontation with the daemonic world-order gives to tragic poetry its historico-philosophical signature. Walter Benjamin1 The Reasons for Suffering When Philip Sidney defended theatre in the first substantial example of literary criticism in the English language, his Defence of Poetry (1581), he used a story from ancient Greece to illustrate tragedy's emotive power: Plutarch yielded a notable testimony of the abominable tyrant Alexander Pheraeus; from whose eyes a tragedy, well made and represented, drew abundance of tears, who without all pity had murdered infinite numbers, and some of his own blood; so as he that was not ashamed to make matters for tragedies, yet could not resist the sweet violence of a tragedy. And if it wrought no farther good in him, it was that he, in despite of himself, withdrew himself from hearkening to that which might mollify his hardened heart.2 Sidney was struck that Alexander of Pherae, a wicked Greek tyrant of the 4th century BCE, was induced to weep by 'the sweet violence of a tragedy'. Indeed, the emotion so overpowered Alexander that he had to absent himself, for fear that his hardened heart could be made capable of pity. The tragedy which upset the tyrant was Euripides' Trojan Women, as we know from the passage in Plutarch where Sidney had found it (see below). The sufferings that Alexander could not bear to watch were those of Hecuba and 1 Andromache, women who lost their families at Troy. Trojan Women constitutes an extended lament and searing statement of the philosophical incomprehensibility of human suffering. -
Euripides and Gender: the Difference the Fragments Make
Euripides and Gender: The Difference the Fragments Make Melissa Karen Anne Funke A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2013 Reading Committee: Ruby Blondell, Chair Deborah Kamen Olga Levaniouk Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Classics © Copyright 2013 Melissa Karen Anne Funke University of Washington Abstract Euripides and Gender: The Difference the Fragments Make Melissa Karen Anne Funke Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Ruby Blondell Department of Classics Research on gender in Greek tragedy has traditionally focused on the extant plays, with only sporadic recourse to discussion of the many fragmentary plays for which we have evidence. This project aims to perform an extensive study of the sixty-two fragmentary plays of Euripides in order to provide a picture of his presentation of gender that is as full as possible. Beginning with an overview of the history of the collection and transmission of the fragments and an introduction to the study of gender in tragedy and Euripides’ extant plays, this project takes up the contexts in which the fragments are found and the supplementary information on plot and character (known as testimonia) as a guide in its analysis of the fragments themselves. These contexts include the fifth- century CE anthology of Stobaeus, who preserved over one third of Euripides’ fragments, and other late antique sources such as Clement’s Miscellanies, Plutarch’s Moralia, and Athenaeus’ Deipnosophistae. The sections on testimonia investigate sources ranging from the mythographers Hyginus and Apollodorus to Apulian pottery to a group of papyrus hypotheses known as the “Tales from Euripides”, with a special focus on plot-type, especially the rape-and-recognition and Potiphar’s wife storylines. -
Cocktail Party
UNIVERSITY OF JYVÄSKYLÄ “AND THEN THEY FOUND HER BODY” T. S. Eliot’s corporeal Cocktail Party A Pro Gradu Thesis by Maili Öst Department of English 2003 JYVÄSKYLÄN YLIOPISTO Tiedekunta Laitos HUMANISTINEN Kielten laitos Tekijä Maili Öst Työn nimi ”And then they found her body”: T. S. Eliot’s corporeal Cocktail Party Oppiaine Työn laji Englannin kieli Pro gradu –työ Aika Sivumäärä elokuu 2003 215 sivua TIIVISTELMÄ – ABSTRACT Tutkin työssäni ruumiillisuuden representaatioita ja rakentumista T. S. Eliotin näytelmässä Cocktailkutsut (The Cocktail Party, 1949). Tahdon selvittää voiko ruumiin paikallistaa näytelmän keskeiseksi kipupisteeksi ja millaisia heijastumia tämä saa tekstin eri tasoilla. Samalla hahmotan ruumiista analyyttista työkalua, jolla raottaa näytelmän rakenteellisia rinnakkaisuuksia ja selittää sen ratkaisemattomia jännitteitä. Ruumis on näin ollen sekä työni matkamittari että sen tuntematon määränpää. Työni pyrkii olemaan löyhästi fenomenologinen löytöretki ruumiiseen ja ruumiillisuuteen. Väi- tän Maurice Merleau-Pontyn ruumiinfenomenologiaa myötäillen, että Cocktailkutsujen ruumis poh- jimmiltaan määrittyy eräänlaisena välitilana. Keskiöön nousevat tällöin ruumiin rajat ja rajanylityk- set. Rajoja rikkova ruumiillisuus sukupuolittuu näytelmän puitteissa pitkälti naiseksi. Työni poltto- pisteeseen nousee näin Eliotin kokonaistuotannossa harvinainen naismarttyyri, Celia. Näytelmät ovat Eliot-tutkimuksen runsaaseen kenttään suhteutettaessa pitkälti yhä aliedustettu alue ja lähestymistavat luutuneita. Toisaalta myös ruumiillisuuden -
Heracles, Action, and Fifth-Century Thought in Euripides, Alcestis
“Existence and Non-Existence are Considered Distinct”: Heracles, Action, and Fifth-Century Thought in Euripides, Alcestis The character of Heracles in Euripides’s Alcestis is rooted in the traditions of the satyr play, known to us from Aeschylus’s Kerykes, Sophocles’s Heracles at Taenarus, and Euripides’s Syleus, and early Greek epic and epinician poetry. In Alcestis itself Heracles is often understood as the embodiment of the ἀγών (Garner, 67-71, inter alios), the victor whose adversary is death itself (Bradley, 121), and one who responds to the χάρις of Admetus with a greater χάρις (Conacher, 44-7; Padilla, 195-6). Food and drink provide the sustenance behind his exhortation to become wiser (779 σοφώτερος). With such tokens of admission Heracles enters Euripides’s earliest extant foray into the great literary and philosophical issues of fifth century Athens. Admittedly, the tradition, personality, and the alcoholic consumption of the hero make it initially difficult to take his points seriously as an intellectual argument. Heracles’s first foray into fifth century philosophical argumentation, χωρὶς τό τ’ εἶναι καὶ τὸ μὴ νομίζεται (528), while technically correct, cannot withstand the rhetorical assault of Admetus, who truly makes the weaker argument the stronger in steering him away from the conclusion that it is Admetus's wife who has died. However, inebriated as Heracles may be, his rebuttals of Admetus and the butler go beyond the wisdom of the pub. Heracles’s insistence on the necessity (840 δεῖ) to reestablish Admetus's home (841 τόνδ’ αὖθις ἱδρῦσαι δόμον) by saving Alcestis is a direct response to the arguments of Admetus, Pheres, and the chorus over the nature of necessity, particularly the necessity of death (cf. -
Alcmaeon in Psophis
Alcmaeon in Psophis Alcmaeon had considerable impact on his successors in the Greek philosophical tradition. Aristotle wrote a treatise responding to him, Plato may have been influenced by his argument for the immortality of the soul, and both Plato and Philolaus accepted his view that the brain is the seat of intelligence. 1.1 Medical Writer or Philosopher? Alcmaeon, son of Peirithous (otherwise unknown), lived in the Greek city of Croton on the instep of the boot of Italy. Diogenes Laertius, in his brief life of Alcmaeon (VIII. Alcmaeon in Psophis (Greek Ἀλκμαίων στην Ψωφίδα ) is a preserved only in fragments tragedy of the Greek playwright Euripides, which was 438 BC premiered as the second part of a tetralogy at the Dionysia. The first part of the tetralogy was the piece Cretans inside, of Alcmaeon in Psophis followed Telephus and then instead of a satyr play the play Alcestis. Euripides followed in his early works the formula to follow up on the Dionysia a play about an evil woman a piece about a woman in need. Alcmaeon distinguished himself greatly in it, and slew Laodamas, the son of Eteocles.4. He first came to Oicles in Arcadia, and thence went to Phegeus in Psophis, and being purified by the latter, he married his daughter Arsinoe or Alphesiboea,5 to whom he gave the necklace and peplos of Harmonia. But the country in which he now resided was visited by scarcity, in consequence of his being the murderer of his mother, and the oracle advised him to go to Achelous.