Aeschylus: the Oresteia on the Odyssey Vs

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Aeschylus: the Oresteia on the Odyssey Vs

Classical Myth Lecture 11 Murder and Retribu5on: The House of Atreus The House of Atreus: Family Tree hp://www2.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/oresteia.html The death of Agamemnon Red figure krater from Athens (c. 470 B.C.E.) hp://www.uncg.edu/cla/myth/agamemnon.htm The House of Atreus in Homer Odyssey and Aeschylus Oresteia Trilogy of plays, wri>en 458 BCE, Athens • Agamemnon • Libaon Bearers • Eumenides (= Erinyes, Furies) (see readings on LMS) • Odyssey 11.451-545 (= Lamore 11.387-464) • Odyssey 1.42-62, 1.344-46, 3.208-14, 4.545-73 (= Lamore 1.26-51, 1.279-305, 3.303-10, 4.512-47) Goldhill (1992) Aeschylus: The Oresteia on the Odyssey vs. Oresteia 1. Homer: Aegisthus and Agamemnon Aeschylus: Clytemnestra - gender trouble 2. Homer: oikos vs. Aeschylus: polis Athens - Areopagus court Goldhill (1992) Aeschylus: The Oresteia on the Odyssey vs. Oresteia 1. Homer: Aegisthus and Agamemnon Aeschylus: Clytemnestra - gender trouble 2. Homer: oikos vs. Aeschylus: polis Athens - Areopagus court Archaic vs. democrac law Archaic – Furies – daughters of nux • mantra of ‘fury and u>er hate’ • 792 ff. = 820 ff. & 847 ff. = 879 ff. • -> ‘Eumenides’ • cthonic, metoikoi (1021) • support Clytemnestra Democrac - Areopagus court • Apollo, Athena – Olympians • support Orestes (and Agamemenon) Froma Zeitlin ‘Dynamics of Misogyny’ ‘social evolu5on is posed as a movement from female dominance to male dominance, or as it is ocen figuravely phrased, from “matriarchy” to “patriarchy”’. (in Perado>o & Sullivan The Arethusa Papers: 161). Clytemnestra as terrifying female • Cassandra: = Scylla, amphisbaina, and as ‘woman-lioness’ (1258) • ‘You try me out as if I were a woman and vain’ (Ag. 1401). • ‘Bring me quick, somebody, an ax to kill a man’ (LB 888). Persian effeminacy ‘do not try me in some woman’s ways to make/ me delicate, nor, as if I were some Asiac/ bow down to earth’. (Ag. 918-19) Archaic vs. democrac law Archaic – Furies – daughters of nux • female but sterile • support oikos and Clytemnestra Democrac - Areopagus court • Apollo, Athena – Olympians • support polis, Orestes Nicole Loraux Tragic Ways of Killing a Woman • female death = ‘law of femininity’ • the synoikein death Orestes: You love your man, then? You shall lie in the same grave with him, and never be unfaithful even in death. (LB 881-2) Clytemnestra: I think, child, that you mean to kill your mother. Orestes: No It will be you who kill yourself. It will not be I. (LB 909-10) Dying at the hands of a woman Eumenides 625-28 Apollo: It is not the same thing for a man of blood to die honored with the king’s staff given by the hand of god, and that by means of a woman, not with the far cast of fierce arrows, as an Amazon might have done... .

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Collins Magic in the Ancient Greek World.Pdf
9781405132381_1_pre.qxd 30/10/2007 12:09 Page i Magic in the Ancient Greek World 9781405132381_1_pre.qxd 30/10/2007 12:09 Page ii Blackwell Ancient Religions Ancient religious practice and belief are at once fascinating and alien for twenty-first-century readers. There was no Bible, no creed, no fixed set of beliefs. Rather, ancient religion was characterized by extraordinary diversity in belief and ritual. This distance means that modern readers need a guide to ancient religious experience. Written by experts, the books in this series provide accessible introductions to this central aspect of the ancient world. Published Magic in the Ancient Greek World Derek Collins Religion in the Roman Empire James B. Rives Ancient Greek Religion Jon D. Mikalson Forthcoming Religion of the Roman Republic Christopher McDonough and Lora Holland Death, Burial and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt Steven Snape Ancient Greek Divination Sarah Iles Johnston 9781405132381_1_pre.qxd 30/10/2007 12:09 Page iii Magic in the Ancient Greek World Derek Collins 9781405132381_1_pre.qxd 30/10/2007 12:09 Page iv © 2008 by Derek Collins blackwell publishing 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Derek Collins to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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