DOCSLIB.ORG

1 the EURIPIDEAN PROLOGUE by James Geach

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
1 the EURIPIDEAN PROLOGUE by James Geach The Euripidean Prologue Item Type text; Electronic Thesis Authors Geach, James Publisher The University of Arizona. Rights Copyright © is held by the author. Digital access to this material is made possible by the University Libraries, University of Arizona. Further transmission, reproduction or presentation (such as public display or performance) of protected items is prohibited except with permission of the author. Download date 30/09/2021 19:59:22 Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10150/613579 1 THE EURIPIDEAN PROLOGUE by James Geach ________________________ A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the DEPARTMENT OF CLASSICS In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS In the Graduate College THE UNIVERSITY OF ARIZONA 2016 2 STATEMENT BY AUTHOR The thesis title The Euripidean Prologue prepared by James Geach has been submitted in partial fulfillment of requirements for a master's degree at the University of Arizona and is deposited in the University Library to be made available to borrowers under rules of the Library. Brief quotations from this thesis are allowable without special permission, provided that an accurate acknowledgment of the source is made. Requests for permission for extended quotation from or reproduction of this manuscript in whole or in part may be granted by the head of the major department or the Dean of the Graduate College when in his or her judgment the proposed use of the material is in the interests of scholarship. In all other instances, however, permission must be obtained from the author. SIGNED: James Geach APPROVAL BY THE THESIS DIRECTOR This thesis has been approved on the date shown below: _________________________________ ________________ Arum Park May 3rd, 2016 Assistant Professor of Classics 3 Table of Contents Abstract……………………………………………………………………………………...4 1 Introduction......................................................................................................................... 5-10 1.1 Ancient Theories of the Prologue......................................................................... 5 1.2 The Prologue After Euripides............................................................................... 7 1.3 Modern Scholarship.............................................................................................. 8 1.4 Scopes and Aims................................................................................................... 10 2. Part One: The Prologue Monologue................................................................................... 11-44 2.1 The Prologist......................................................................................................... 11 2.2 The Elements of the Prologue............................................................................... 12 2.2.1 Identification of Self.............................................................................. 13 2.2.1.a Identification of Family (and Self) ........................................ 19 2.2.2 Identification of Location...................................................................... 20 2.2.2.a. Delayed Identification of Location........................................ 22 2.2.3 Prehistory of the Drama......................................................................... 25 2.2.4 Current Crisis......................................................................................... 26 2.2.4.a. Suppliant Drama Crises.......................................................... 27 2.2.5 Prediction of Events............................................................................... 28 2.2.5.a. False or Misleading Predictions............................................. 33 2.2.6 Identification of Characters.................................................................... 37 2.2.7 Announcement of Exit........................................................................... 41 2.2.8 Announcement of Entrance.................................................................... 43 2.2.9 Gnomes................................................................................................... 44 2.2.10 How to Conclude the Prologue Monologue: Survey............................ 44 3. Part Two: The Second Part of the Prologue........................................................................ 44-60 3.1 The Form of the Prologue...................................................................................... 45 3.2 The Speaker of the Second Part of the Prologue................................................... 49 3.3 Summary of the Second Part of the Prologue........................................................ 51-58 3.3.1 Monologue Followed by Monody........................................................... 52 3.3.2 Monol. Followed by Dialogue Including the Monologist....................... 52 3.3.3 Monol.-dialogue-monologue................................................................... 57 3.3.4 Monol. Followed by Dialogue between Two new Characters................ 57 3.4 Survey..................................................................................................................... 58 4. Conclusion........................................................................................................................... 60-61 5. Bibliography........................................................................................................................ 62-64 4 Abstract This thesis examines the prologues of all the Euripidean plays except Iphigenia in Aulis and Rhesus. It is divided between discussion of the monologues and discussion of the scene or scenes which followed it but preceded the parodos. The following elements were identified as common to the standard Euripidean form: Self-Identification, Identification of Location, Description of the Prehistory of the Drama, Identification of the Current Crisis, and Prediction of Future Events. These, in addition to several other less prominent elements of the Euripidean prologue, are discussed in detail. The thesis attempts to define the standard form and position of these elements. It also contains discussion of Euripides’ choice of prologists and the various forms that the prologue could take. 5 1. Introduction Beginnings are always difficult, in drama as much as in scholarship. They are of secondary status, supposed to introduce the audience to the material of true interest that follows, and yet they are also expected to be interesting in themselves. Euripides' prologues indisputably fulfilled that first requirement: they provided a wealth of information to his audiences about the plays which they were about to witness. In this thesis, I will posit that his prologues are also interesting, at least for scholars: studying them will allow us to understand key aspects of Euripides' dramatic technique. 1.1 Ancient Theories of the Prologue The prologue was already thought of as a portion of ancient drama by Euripides' contemporaries. In Aristophanes' Frogs, Euripides is represented as comparing his own prologues favorably with those of Aeschylus: καὶ μὴν ἐπ᾿ αὐτοὺς τοὺς προλόγους σοι τρέψομαι, ὅπως τὸ πρῶτον τῆς τραγῳδίας μέρος πρώτιστον αὐτοῦ βασανιῶ τοῦ δεξιοῦ· [ἀσαφὴς γὰρ ἦν ἐν τῇ φράσει τῶν πραγμάτων.] Now I'll turn to the prologues by themselves, in order to first examine the first portion of tragedy of this good man himself: [for he was unclear in expression of affairs] (1119-22)1 These lines, introducing "the earliest surviving example of literary criticism" (Dunn 1992: 1), also provide us with our earliest definition of πρόλογος as τὸ πρῶτον τῆς τραγῳδίας μέρος "the first part of the tragedy". Half a century later, listing the elements κοινὰ μὲν ἁπάντων "common to all" tragedies (1452b17-18), Aristotle gave a stricter definition of the prologue in his Poetics: 1 All translations are my own. 6 ἔστιν δὲ πρόλογος μὲν μέρος ὅλον τραγῳδίας τὸ πρὸ χοροῦ παρόδου "the prologue is the entire portion of the tragedy before the πρόλογος of the chorus" (1452b19-20). This definition is slightly confused by the modern use of the term parodos as 'choral entrance song': the chorus in Children of Heracles does not sing until line 353, despite entering and speaking at line 73, for instance. While it is true that Aristotle also gave his own definition of πάροδος as ἡ πρώτη λέξις ὅλη χοροῦ "the entire first speech of the chorus" (1452b23),2 even according to this definition it cannot be said that the prologue is 'common to all tragedies': the earliest surviving drama, Persians, and possibly the latest, Rhesus, both open with lines delivered by the chorus. Moreover, Aristotle's definition is at odds with that of Aristophanes and probably many contemporaries. As Dover notes, all of the examples from prologues that Euripides and Aeschylus argue over in the Frogs come from the opening monologues of their plays (1993: 331), a definition that Aristotle, by his use of μέρος ὅλον "the whole portion" seems to be deliberately defying (Erbse 1984: 5). This reflects a source of ambiguity throughout the ancient period: the prologue could be referred to as the opening section of the play, whether monologue, dialogue, or some combination of both, or it could refer to the simple monologue that opened many plays. This confusion is paralleled in the definition of προλογίζειν which, as Nestle has pointed out, could mean 'make the preliminary speech or dialogue', but could also imply exposition (1967: 10). 3 Hellenistic theories of the prologue were not articulated in the same comprehensive
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • The Tragedy of the Hippolytus Fu Lly in Linking the Power of Aphrodite, As It Acts Throughout the Play, with the Fo Rce of the Sea
    CHAPTER 6 / The Tragedy of the Hipp olytus: The Waters of Ocean and the Untouched Meadow IN MEMORIAM ARTHUR DARBY NOCK (1902-1963) The clash of human will and divine power is basic to the tragic sense of Greek drama. Not only may the gods serve to set the tragic action into motion, but they may themselves embody its meaning. As this meaning usually involves some of the most complex and difficultissues of human life, so the nature of the gods and their mode of acting upon the human world are, often puzzling, fu ll of real or apparent contradictions or hard, painful truths. The Hippolytus has its full share of these difficulties.1 The human motivation in the play is totally comprehensible and satisfying in itself;2 yet the gods, Aphrodite in the prologue, Artemis in the epi- l. The text used is that of Gilbert Murray (1902; Oxford 195 I). Fragments are cited after Nauck. For a bibliography of the H£ppolytus see Albin Lesky, Die tragische Dichtung der Hellenen (G6ttingen 1956) 165-66 (3d ed., 1972, 313-14); more recently, Froma L Zeitlin, "The Power of Aphrodite," in Peter Burian, ed., Directions in Euripidean Criticism (Durham 1985), 1 89ff. I have touched upon some aspects of the imagery in a more general context in C. Segal, "Nature and the World of Man in Greek Literature," Arion 2, no. 1 (1963) 41-42. 2. The adequacy of the human motivation is stressed by L. H. G. Greenwood, Aspects of Euripidean Tragedy (Cambridge 1953) 44ff.;Gilbert Norwood, Essays on Euripidean Drama (Berkeley and Los Angeles 1954) roMf.;R.
    [Show full text]
  • The Garland of Hippolytus
    1 2 3 4 Richard Hunter 5 6 7 The Garland of Hippolytus 8 Abstract: This article discusses a set of remarkable scholia on the dedicatory ad- 9 dress and prayer which Hippolytus offers to Artemis as he places a garland at her 10 statue (Euripides, Hippolytus 73–87); the scholia consider a variety of allegorical 11 interpretations for the garland and for Hippolytus’ moral elitism. The article sets 12 these scholia within the context of the poetic interpretation of later criticism 13 and traces their roots in the language of classical poetry itself. The affiliations of Hippolytus’ language and why it attracted the notice of the scholiasts is 14 also explored, as is the way in which this scholiastic interest points us also to 15 a very important strand of the play’s meaning. 16 17 Keywords: allegorical interpretation, Euripides, Pindar, Orphics, scholia 18 19 One of the most celebrated Euripidean passages is the dedicatory address 20 and prayer which Hippolytus offers to Artemis as he places a garland at 21 her statue, immediately after the hymn which he and his fellow-hunts- 22 men have sung to her as they enter: 23 24 so· t|mde pkejt¹m st]vamom 1n !jgq\tou _ § 25 keil mor, d]spoima, josl^sar v]qy, 5mh’ oute poilµm !nio? v]qbeim bot± 75 26 out’ Gkh] py s_dgqor, !kk’ !j^qatom 27 l]kissa keil_m’ Aqimµ di]qwetai, 28 aQd½rd³ potal_aisi jgpe}ei dq|soir, 29 fsoir didajt¹m lgd³m !kk’ 1mt/i v}sei ¹ ? U 1 ± ! 30 t syvqome mekgwem rt p\mt’ e_,80 to}toir dq]peshai, to?r jajo?si d’ oq h]lir.
    [Show full text]
  • Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine
    Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects 1-2020 Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine Liz Amato Montclair State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Amato, Liz, "Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine" (2020). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 333. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/333 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract The Euripidean tragedies Hippolytus., The Bacchae and The Medea present us with female characters who have sacred and profcrund interactionrs with the gods. These women havr: powerful ritualistic abilities that move the tragic a,ction. Sirrrilarly, Euripides' versions of Hecuba ancl Electra present us v,rith dynamio female characters who derive their agency from tlhe religio-judiroial need for cosmic ;,rtonement. .tt is up to these heroines to uphold the sacred laws decreed by the gods. Why does l:uripides errLpower these fernales with such direct means of divination? Arguably, Euripides felt it necessary to use these,deistic feminine connections to destroy the titular male characters. The tragedian's implicaticn is clear: divine feminine power supersedes patriarchal power. This divine power is inherent in all women and it compels them act on behalf of cosmic necessity'. The importance of Medea's, Phaedra's and Agave's respective spiritual connections shows us the crucial role that women ptayed in ancient religious worship.
    [Show full text]
  • 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
    [Show full text]
  • Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Knox, Bernard M W Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1966; 7, 3; Proquest Pg
    Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Knox, Bernard M W Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1966; 7, 3; ProQuest pg. 215 Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Bernard M. W. Knox "IN HUMAN LIFE," says the Nurse in Euripides' Hippolytus (435-6), "second thoughts are somehow wiser." Like many another character in Euripidean tragedy, she has just changed her mind, and, in true Euripidean style, she justifies her action with a generaliza­ tion. It is not a generalization which would have recommended itself to Aeschylus and Sophocles; before Euripides, change of mind is a rare phenomenon on the tragic stage.! Aeschylus, as Bruno Snell has demonstrated, broke new ground in Greek poetry with his explicit presentation of a conscious human choice between alternatives, a free human decision which commits its taker to a tragic course.2 The responsibility the hero thus assumes, and the complex relation of his choice to the will of the gods and his own heredity, allow little scope for a change of mind. Aeschylean drama is linear; its principal figures, their decision once made, pursue their chosen course to the bitter end.3 In the Persians, which is the tragedy of a whole people rather than an individual, and which furthermore works through retrospect and prophecy rather than through present action, a change of mind is excluded by the nature of the dramatic organization. In the Seven against Thebes, Eteocles, at the end of a slow, almost static, preparation, makes his swift decision to fight against his brother; it is a decision, but not a change of mind-he had already decided to fight in person at one of the gates (282) and the gate where Polynices awaits him is the last remaining assignment.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]
  • A HISTORY of the PELASGIAN THEORY. FEW Peoples Of
    A HISTORY OF THE PELASGIAN THEORY. FEW peoples of the ancient world have given rise to so much controversy as the Pelasgians; and of few, after some centuries of discussion, is so little clearly established. Like the Phoenicians, the Celts, and of recent years the Teutons, they have been a peg upon which to hang all sorts of speculation ; and whenever an inconvenient circumstance has deranged the symmetry of a theory, it has been safe to ' call it Pelasgian and pass on.' One main reason for this ill-repute, into which the Pelasgian name has fallen, has been the very uncritical fashion in which the ancient statements about the Pelasgians have commonly been mishandled. It has been the custom to treat passages from Homer, from Herodotus, from Ephorus, and from Pausanias, as if they were so many interchangeable bricks to build up the speculative edifice; as if it needed no proof that genealogies found sum- marized in Pausanias or Apollodorus ' were taken by them from poems of the same class with the Theogony, or from ancient treatises, or from prevalent opinions ;' as if, further, ' if we find them mentioning the Pelasgian nation, they do at all events belong to an age when that name and people had nothing of the mystery which they bore to the eyes of the later Greeks, for instance of Strabo;' and as though (in the same passage) a statement of Stephanus of Byzantium about Pelasgians in Italy ' were evidence to the same effect, perfectly unexceptionable and as strictly historical as the case will admit of 1 No one doubts, of course, either that popular tradition may transmit, or that late writers may transcribe, statements which come from very early, and even from contemporary sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Languages of Mourning: Between Page and (Modern) Stage
    Philosophy Study, ISSN 2159-5313 June 2014, Vol. 4, No. 6, 416-422 D DAVID PUBLISHING Languages of Mourning: Between Page and (Modern) Stage Justyna Biernat Jagiellonian University The aim of this essay is to provide an analysis of the Euripides’ “Phoenician Women” in terms of mourning. The author intends to set a parallel between the ancient tragedy and its modern adaptation staged by one of the most prominent Polish directors Krzysztof Warlikowski. In the essay, the author will discuss how suffering is depicted in the ancient drama and what changes of mourning motif are introduced into its modern performance. The author will examine the literary as well as the (modern) theatrical topos of grief by analyzing the poetics of tragedy (dramatic structure, metaphors of death, dramatis personae, funeral vocabularium, function of laments) and the poetics of performance (stage design, costumes and props, funerary symbolism, acting, directing solutions). The purpose of the paper is to argue against the insignificance of Euripides’ drama and the marginalization of Warlikowski’s “Phoenician Women.” Finally, the author will attempt to indicate the mourning motif as one of the essential and attractive for the ancient tragic plot and the modern performance as well. Keywords: Euripides, Krzysztof Warlikowski, Greek tragedy, mourning 1. Introduction In one of the central scenes of the Euripides’ “Phoenician Women,” the future king of Thebes Creon enters to expose and mourn the death of his younger son. He begins his lament with the characteristic, mourning question: Ah, ah, what shall I do? Shall I weep and groan for myself or my city1 and continues his weeping for the heroic self-sacrifice of Menoeceus and the ongoing war on the tainted Theban land.
    [Show full text]
  • Theseus, Helen of Troy, and the House of Minos
    Anistoriton Journal, vol. 11 (2008-2009) 1 Theseus, Helen of Troy, and the House of Minos By John Dana, B.A., M.L.S., M.A. Independent Scholar In February 2006 while on vacation, this author read Bettany Hughes' biography entitled Helen of Troy [1]. In Chapter 6, Ms. Hughes describes a liaison between a very young Helen and very old Theseus, king of Athens. Ms. Hughes' description generated the kernel of an idea. If Helen was about 12 years old and Theseus was about 50 years old at the time, then this incident occurred about 20 years before the beginning of the Trojan War -- assuming that Helen was about 30 years old when she journeyed to Troy. Theseus was alive about 20 years before the Trojan War! What an eye opening moment! If true, then what would be the approximate date when Theseus participated in Athens 3rd Tribute to Knossos [2] ? One could calculate an approximate date by constructing a time line or chronology. The second part of this short discourse is to use the time line. By constructing the time line one could discern something about Minos, King of Knossos. References to Minos abound , but they are somewhat contradictory. Sir Arthur Evans named a entire civilization -- the Minoan Civilization -- after him; this may have been a misnomer. There are also references to ethnicity – especially languages spoken on the Aegean Islands – relating to King Minos; these are crucial to gain an understanding of who were the Minoans and what was the Minoan Civilization. 1. The Trojan War. -- One crucial point in constructing the time line was assigning a date to the beginning of the Trojan War.
    [Show full text]
  • 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.
    [Show full text]