Phèdre: a Primer
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Runaway Puppet Theater
Thanks for downloading the lesson plans for our production The Myth-Adventures of Theseus. Why are the arts important? The arts are intrinsic to our lives, but often arts education is an after-thought or considered non- essential. However the arts are how we define ourselves and put our lives and times in context. For example, think of the 1930's, the 1950's and the 1970's. When you think of these decades, what are the first things that come to mind? The fashion? The music? The design of the automobiles? Guess what? All of these things are "the arts!" Sure, you may have thought of who was President, and maybe a few world events came to mind, but you probably first put those decades into context by the various artistic forms that were prevalent at the time. Why is Greek mythology important? Much of our Western culture and thought comes from ancient Greece. Even today our ideas about government, architecture, arts and literature, and our language have been shaped by ancient Greek culture. One of the most enduring parts of the ancient Greek culture is their mythology. In fact, our English word "myth" comes from the Greek word "mythos" which means "a spoken story, legend, or tale." A culture's mythology tells us what the culture finds most important, what behaviors it values, and how it explains natural phenomenon. They also served as morality plays, illustrating the consequences of both good and bad behavior. Since a people's myths are often about what is most important to them, a study of Greek mythology can give us insight into what the Greek people valued. -
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. -
Ekaterina Avaliani (Tbilisi) *
Phasis 2-3, 2000 Ekaterina Avaliani (Tbilisi) ORIGINS OF THE GREEK RELIGION: MINOAN AND MYCENAEAN CULTURAL CONVERGENCE Natw"ally, the convergence of Minoan and Mycenaean ethno-cultures would cause certain changes in religious consciousness. The metamorphosis in religion and mentality are hard to explain from the present perspective. During this process, the orientation of Minoan religion might have totally changed (the "victorious gods" of Achaeans might have eclipsed the older ones ofMinoans).1 On the other hand, the evidence of religious syncretism should by no means be ignored. Thus, based on the materials avail able, we may lead our investigation in the following directions: I. While identifying Minoan religious concepts and cults, we should operate with: a) scenes depicted on a11ifacts; b) antique written sources and mythopoetics, which have preserved certain information on Minoan religious concepts and rituals.2 2. To identify gods of the Mycenaean period, we use linear B texts and artifacts. It is evident that the Mycenaean period has the group of gods that are directly related to Minoan world, and on the other hand, the group of gods that is unknown to pre-Hellenic religious tradition. And, finally, 3.We identify another group of gods that reveal their syncretic nature already in the Mycenaean period. * * * Minoan cult rituals were tightly linked to nature. Cave dwellings, mountains and grottos were the charismatic spaces where the rituals were held.3 One of such grottos near Candia was related to the name of Minoan goddess Eileithyia.4 Homer also mentions Eileithyia. The goddess was believed to protect pregnant women and women in childbirth.5 Also, there might have been another sacred place, the top of a hill - Dikte, which was associated with Minoan goddess Diktunna (Dikte - "Sacred Mountain").6 Later in Greek mythology, the goddess assimilated to Artemis ("huntress") (Solinus II . -
Finding Empathy for Phaedra in Roman Wall Paintings Phaedra, the Daughter of Minos, Sister of Ariadne, Wife of Theseus and Stepm
Finding Empathy for Phaedra in Roman Wall Paintings Phaedra, the daughter of Minos, sister of Ariadne, wife of Theseus and stepmother of Hippolytus, attempted an affair with Hippolytus, committed suicide, and orchestrated Hippolytus’ murder by means of his father Theseus. Phaedra’s actions and their results are condemnable acts to the modern audience and would have likely been seen as such by Roman viewers who encountered images of Phaedra on the walls of Roman houses and on sarcophagi. However, I think it possible that the representations of Phaedra in Greco-Roman antiquity were not solely meant to point to all of her mistakes as a disloyal wife. My goal in this paper is to show that, despite Phaedra’s reputations as a terrible wife, representations of her in Roman private art were designed to invoke empathy in the hearts and minds of Roman viewers. Phaedra is well known through her literary treatment in both Euripides’ Hippolytus and Ovid’s Heroides IV. Phaedra and her myth are also frequently represented in Roman private art. Wall paintings from Pompeii and Herculaneum dating from the late first century BCE to the late first century CE feature a seated Phaedra by her nurse who often holds the letter to Hippolytus in her hand. In some examples Hippolytus is also depicted leaving the scene, presumably after he has received the letter and rejected Phaedra’s offer. Phaedra was repeatedly chosen to be portrayed in Roman homes as an example of consuming love, whether by a god’s influence or her own choice, not condemnable betrayal of her husband and household. -
Getting Acquainted with the Myths 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. Getting acquainted with the myths Search the GML advanced Sections in this Page I. Getting acquainted with the myths II. Four "gateways" of mythology III. A strategy for reading the myths I. Getting acquainted with the myths What "getting acquainted" may mean We'll first try to clarify the meaning that the expression "getting acquainted" may have in this context: In a practical sense, I mean by "acquaintance" a general knowledge of the tales of mythology, including how they relate to each other. This concept includes neither analysis nor interpretation of the myths nor plunging too deep into one tale or another. In another sense, the expression "getting acquainted" has further implications that deserve elucidation: First of all, let us remember that we naturally investigate what we ignore, and not what we already know; accordingly, we set out to study the myths not because we feel we know them but because we feel we know nothing or very little about them. I mention this obvious circumstance because I believe that we should bear in mind that, in this respect, we are not in the same position as our remote ancestors, who may be assumed to have made their acquaintance with the myths more or less in the same way one learns one's mother tongue, and consequently did not have to study them in any way. -
Durham Research Online
Durham Research Online Deposited in DRO: 09 October 2017 Version of attached le: Accepted Version Peer-review status of attached le: Peer-reviewed Citation for published item: Bexley, E. M. (2011) 'Show or tell? Seneca's and Sarah Kane's Phaedra plays.', Trends in classics., 3 (2). pp. 365-393. Further information on publisher's website: https://doi.org/10.1515/tcs.2011.016 Publisher's copyright statement: The nal publication is available at www.degruyter.com Additional information: Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in DRO • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full DRO policy for further details. Durham University Library, Stockton Road, Durham DH1 3LY, United Kingdom Tel : +44 (0)191 334 3042 | Fax : +44 (0)191 334 2971 https://dro.dur.ac.uk 1 Show or Tell? Seneca’s and Sarah Kane’s Phaedra Plays Abstract: This article analyzes the Senecan background to Sarah Kane’s Phaedra’s Love by focusing upon both playwrights’ predilections for graphic violence and sexual content. Kane’s version of the Phaedra story presents sex, death and mutilation as acts that often defy meaning – these phenomena have such a strong experiential impact that they are slow to move into the referential realm of sign and symbol. -
Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica Book 3, Translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912
Apollonius of Rhodes Argonautica book 3, translated by Robert Cooper Seaton, Harvard University Press, Cambridge MA, 1912. (http://oaks.nvg.org/sa4ra16.html#tres) Come Now, Erato, stand by my side, and say next how Jason brought back the fleece to Iolcus aided by the love of Medea. For you share the power of Cypris, and by your love-cares charm unwedded maidens; wherefore to you too is attached a name that tells of love. Thus the heroes, unobserved, were waiting in ambush amid the thick reed-beds; but Hera and Athena took note of them, and, apart from Zeus and the other immortals, entered a chamber and took counsel together; and Hera first made trial of Athena: "Do you now first, daughter of Zeus, give advice. What must be done? Will you devise some scheme whereby they may seize the golden fleece of Aeetes and bear it to Hellas, or can they deceive the king with soft words and so work persuasion? Of a truth he is terribly overweening. Still it is right to shrink from no endeavour." Thus she spoke, and at once Athena addressed her: "I too was pondering such thoughts in my heart, Hera, when you did ask me outright. But not yet do I think that I have conceived a scheme to aid the courage of the heroes, though I have balanced many plans." She ended, and the goddesses fixed their eyes on the ground at their feet, brooding apart; and straightway Hera was the first to speak her thought: "Come, let us go to Cypris; let both of us accost her and urge her to bid her son (if only he will obey) speed his shaft at the daughter of Aeetes, the enchantress, and charm her with love for Jason. -
Homer's Iliad Via the Movie Troy (2004)
23 November 2017 Homer’s Iliad via the Movie Troy (2004) PROFESSOR EDITH HALL One of the most successful movies of 2004 was Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Brad Pitt as Achilles. Troy made more than $497 million worldwide and was the 8th- highest-grossing film of 2004. The rolling credits proudly claim that the movie is inspired by the ancient Greek Homeric epic, the Iliad. This was, for classical scholars, an exciting claim. There have been blockbuster movies telling the story of Troy before, notably the 1956 glamorous blockbuster Helen of Troy starring Rossana Podestà, and a television two-episode miniseries which came out in 2003, directed by John Kent Harrison. But there has never been a feature film announcing such a close relationship to the Iliad, the greatest classical heroic action epic. The movie eagerly anticipated by those of us who teach Homer for a living because Petersen is a respected director. He has made some serious and important films. These range from Die Konsequenz (The Consequence), a radical story of homosexual love (1977), to In the Line of Fire (1993) and Air Force One (1997), political thrillers starring Clint Eastwood and Harrison Ford respectively. The Perfect Storm (2000) showed that cataclysmic natural disaster and special effects spectacle were also part of Petersen’s repertoire. His most celebrated film has probably been Das Boot (The Boat) of 1981, the story of the crew of a German U- boat during the Battle of the Atlantic in 1941. The finely judged and politically impartial portrayal of ordinary men, caught up in the terror and tedium of war, suggested that Petersen, if anyone, might be able to do some justice to the Homeric depiction of the Trojan War in the Iliad. -
Bacchylides 17: Singing and Usurping the Paean Maria Pavlou
Bacchylides 17: Singing and Usurping the Paean Maria Pavlou ACCHYLIDES 17, a Cean commission performed on Delos, has been the subject of extensive study and is Bmuch admired for its narrative artistry, elegance, and excellence. The ode was classified as a dithyramb by the Alex- andrians, but the Du-Stil address to Apollo in the closing lines renders this classification problematic and has rather baffled scholars. The solution to the thorny issue of the ode’s generic taxonomy is not yet conclusive, and the dilemma paean/ dithyramb is still alive.1 In fact, scholars now are more inclined to place the poem somewhere in the middle, on the premise that in antiquity the boundaries between dithyramb and paean were not so clear-cut as we tend to believe.2 Even though I am 1 Paean: R. Merkelbach, “Der Theseus des Bakchylides,” ZPE 12 (1973) 56–62; L. Käppel, Paian: Studien zur Geschichte einer Gattung (Berlin 1992) 156– 158, 184–189; H. Maehler, Die Lieder des Bakchylides II (Leiden 1997) 167– 168, and Bacchylides. A Selection (Cambridge 2004) 172–173; I. Rutherford, Pindar’s Paeans (Oxford 2001) 35–36, 73. Dithyramb: D. Gerber, “The Gifts of Aphrodite (Bacchylides 17.10),” Phoenix 19 (1965) 212–213; G. Pieper, “The Conflict of Character in Bacchylides 17,” TAPA 103 (1972) 393–404. D. Schmidt, “Bacchylides 17: Paean or Dithyramb?” Hermes 118 (1990) 18– 31, at 28–29, proposes that Ode 17 was actually an hyporcheme. 2 B. Zimmermann, Dithyrambos: Geschichte einer Gattung (Hypomnemata 98 [1992]) 91–93, argues that Ode 17 was a dithyramb for Apollo; see also C. -
Antigone by Sophocles Scene 4, Ode 4, Scene 5, Paean and Exodos
Antigone by Sophocles Scene 4, Ode 4, Scene 5, Paean and Exodos By: Anmol Singh, Kesia Santos, and Yuri Seo Biographical, Cultural, and Historical Background The Greek Theater - Sophocles was one of the prominent figures in Greek theater. - Plays were performed in outdoor areas. - There were a limited number of actors and a chorus.6 - Antigone was mostly likely performed in the same fashion. AS Family Tree YS What do Scene 4, Ode 4, Scene 5, Paean and Exodos of Antigone focus on? - Family Conflict (internal and external) - Death (tragedy) - Poor judgment - Feeling and thinking - Fate - Loyalty - Love YS Genres & Subgenres Tragedy - Not completely like modern tragedies (ex. sad & gloomy). - Tragedies heavily used pathos (Greek for suffering). - Used masks and other props. - Were a form of worship to Dionysus.7 AS Tragic Hero - Antigone and Creon are both like tragic heros. - Each have their own hamartia which leads to their downfalls.8,9 AS Family Conflict & Tragedy in Antigone - Antigone hangs herself - Haimon stabs himself - Eurydice curses Creon and blames him for everything - Eurydice kills herself YS Dominant Themes Family: The story of Niobe - Antigone relates her story to the story of Niobe. - Antigone says “How often have I hear the story of Niobe, Tantalus’s wretched daughter…” (18) - Chorus tells Antigone that Niobe “was born of heaven,” but Antigone is a woman. YS Womanhood - Antigone defies the place a woman is supposed to have during this time period - Antigone and Ismene contrast each other - Creon is the prime example of the beliefs that males hold during this period KS Power and Corruption: Dryas and Lycurgus - A character the chorus compares to Antigone is Lycurgus. -
1 Divine Intervention and Disguise in Homer's Iliad Senior Thesis
Divine Intervention and Disguise in Homer’s Iliad Senior Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Undergraduate School of Arts and Sciences Brandeis University Undergraduate Program in Classical Studies Professor Joel Christensen, Advisor In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Arts By Joana Jankulla May 2018 Copyright by Joana Jankulla 1 Copyright by Joana Jankulla © 2018 2 Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Joel Christensen. Thank you, Professor Christensen for guiding me through this process, expressing confidence in me, and being available whenever I had any questions or concerns. I would not have been able to complete this work without you. Secondly, I would like to thank Professor Ann Olga Koloski-Ostrow and Professor Cheryl Walker for reading my thesis and providing me with feedback. The Classics Department at Brandeis University has been an instrumental part of my growth in my four years as an undergraduate, and I am eternally thankful to all the professors and staff members in the department. Thank you to my friends, specifically Erica Theroux, Sarah Jousset, Anna Craven, Rachel Goldstein, Taylor McKinnon and Georgie Contreras for providing me with a lot of emotional support this year. I hope you all know how grateful I am for you as friends and how much I have appreciated your love this year. Thank you to my mom for FaceTiming me every time I was stressed about completing my thesis and encouraging me every step of the way. Finally, thank you to Ian Leeds for dropping everything and coming to me each time I needed it. -
Myth, Ritual, and the Labyrinth of King Minos
Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History Volume 5 Issue 1 Article 1 4-2015 Myth, Ritual, and the Labyrinth of King Minos Nicole Tessmer St. Louis University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Tessmer, Nicole (2015) "Myth, Ritual, and the Labyrinth of King Minos," Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History: Vol. 5 : Iss. 1 , Article 1. DOI: 10.20429/aujh.2015.050101 Available at: https://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/aujh/vol5/iss1/1 This article is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. It has been accepted for inclusion in Armstrong Undergraduate Journal of History by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons@Georgia Southern. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Tessmer: Myth, Ritual, and the Labyrinth of King Minos Myth, Ritual, and the Labyrinth of King Minos Nicole Tessmer St. Louis University According to ancient mythology, King Minos built a perplexing labyrinth to house the Minotaur, a monstrous creature to which his wife had given birth. Each year, the myth states, seven girls and seven boys were chosen to enter the labyrinth as tributes to become food for the Minotaur.1 It was not until Theseus entered the labyrinth, and killed the Minotaur that it could be considered a place to leave your childhood behind. Once inside, they wrestled with their demons, experienced a rebirth, and finally, emerged as adults ready to take their places in society. The myth of the labyrinth can thus be understood as a rite of passage or a coming of age ritual in ancient Greece.