Lit 102

Pointers first1. 25 items multiple choice:- 10 from old testament- 10 from Drama Birth, Sohocles ( don’t answer

Jodistrata )2. 4 essay questions:- Development of the theme” one suffers for all” in ancient

Hebrew Literature- Effect of trojan war on the changes in the character of

Akhilleus- Attitude of oedipus as major force to the inevitable end- Two types of drama

The City-States of Greece• Trojan war- 12c. B.C.• 7-9c. B.C.- “ Dark Age” :

the collapse of the Mycenaean Civilization The time of the final settlement of Greeks The foundation and growth of many independent

cities

The city-states never lost their common Hellenic heritage, but unite only in the presence of the overwhelming danger and only for a short time.

The city-states differ from each other in:

• Custom relations of rivals and

fierce competitors

• Constitution/political structure• dialects

• 8-7c B.C. – Colonization: landless men found new cities near seas all over Mediterranean coasts

Today, these are the territories:-in Spain and Southern France (Marseilles, Nice,

Antibes)-In South Italy ( Naples)-North Africa ( Cyrene)

the coasts of Asia Minor- (Smyrna, Miletus)

On the Black Sea- Russia (Crimea)

Greeks adapted to their Language the Phoenician system of writing >first efficient alphabet

• 7c B.C.- commercial records political decrees (on stone) literary works ( rolls of paper- papyrus plant)

Athens and Sparta

Beginning of the 5th c. B.C. Athens and Sparta are:- two most prominent city-states- combined Greek resistance to the Persian invasion of Europe in 490 t0 479 B.C.

• Athens

- the first in Western history democracy (direct not representative) free citizens exercise the power by meeting in assembly

- Power of city-states lays in fleet at Aegean Sea

• Sparta

- Totalitarian state ( rigidly conservative in government and policy, the individual citizen is trained for the war

- Thepower of this city-state lays in the best land army ( consequently superiorto any other in Greece)

The two cities became enemies when the external danger became eliminated.

431-404 BC Peloponnesian war ( total defeat of Athens )

Before the war Athenian democracy provided its citizens with a cultural and political environment unique in the ancient world:- the institutions encouraged the maximum dev’t of individual capacities-inspired maximum devotion to the interests of the community

Delicate and precarious balance between the freedom of the individual and the demands of the state

Pericles: “ The individual Athenian in his own person seems to have the power of adapting himself to the most varied forms of action with the utmost versatility and grace”

But the freedomdid not produce anarchy

“ while we are…unconstrained in our private relationships, and lifestyles, a spirit of reverence pervades our public acts”.

Under the pressure of war this personal freedom brought brilliant statesman Alcibiades to the betrayal of the country.

5c B.C. The Intellectual Revolution• Aeschylus – generation that fought at Marathon,

defeated Persian invasion (Athens won at Aegean Sea)• Sophocles –(prosperous Athens) generation that lived in

empire.• Democratic institutions created demand for an education

which would prepare men for public life by training them in the art public speaking on subjects about governments, ethics, literary criticism, astronomy by Sophists.

• European civilization of the liberal education. Generation could argue the weaker side as efficiently as the stranger, the false as effectively as the true Cynical mood which denied the existence of any absolute standards ( even the concept of Gods )This spirit led to disaster.

• The roots of disaster- supreme confidence in the human intelligence and a secular view of man’s position in the universe, expressed by Protagoras: “ Man is the measure of all things”

Tragedy by Sophocles

430 “Oedupus Tyrannus” story of a man of- High principles true

self blindness/exile

- Probing intelligence

Oedipus

Mysterious figure from the past, who broke fundamental human taboos

He on stage displayed the attitude of a typical 5c B.C. Athenean

Aristotle “Poetics” : “Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete I itself and of a certain magnitude.” It is concerned with grave human actions and their consequences

-the incidents must be causally connected-the events have to be logically related, one

growing naturally out of another

- Each event should be should be leading to the inevitable catastrophe/downfall of the hero

- It results in the flaw of the character:* fate*coincidence*error in judgment committed by the hero

- The essential element of the hero’s experience is a recognition of what has happened to him

- When the reversal of fortune and discovery occur, tragic plot moves swiftly to the conclusion

- Pity and fear aroused in the audience are released and they experience cleansing of emotions and a sense of relief that the action is over (catharsis). Tragedy gives us dramatic reminder of our own mortality.

Types of Drama• Horace : “The world is a comedy for those

who think and a tragedy for those who feel.”

• The comic view celebrates life and affirms it, it is typically joyous and festive. The tragic view highlights life’s sorroes, it is solemn

• Tragedy and Comedy have:-discovery scenes-consequent reversals of fortune

• Comic heroes are:-ordinary people, less grand/noble than legendary

characters in tragedies-frequently predictable in their behavior-developing plots that are surprising or improbable

• Oedipus1. He already sent Creon

to delphi, while prist/shorus just suggest it

2. Took risk in answering the riddle of the sphynx

3. “I am the son of fortune”4. Loves Thebes

• 5c B.C.Atheneans ( according to Thucydides)

1. “quick in the conception and execution of every new plan”

2. “Bold beyond their strength, run risks which prudence will condemn”

3. In the midst of fortune, full of hope”

4. Devotion to the city

• Aristotle:“Pity and terror are aroused most effectively

by the spectacle of a man whose misfortune is brought not by vice or depravity but by some error or frailty. He must be one who is highly renowned and prosperous- like Oedipus”

But it is not only error that leads him to the truth but also his personality.

The attitude in the play explains not only present actions, but also his behavior in the past

Uncontrollable Anger

• Present Action on stage

-Angry death sentence of Creon

• Action committedin the past

-killing of stranger in place where 3 roads meet

Impulsive Decision Making

• Present action on stage

- proclamation of total excommunication for the unknown murderer

• Action committed in the past

- Run away Corinth getting m-d to an older woman

Intelligence and Courage

• Present action on stage

-persistent search for the truth

• Action in the past

-solving the riddle

Revelation of the character in the play is at the same time a recreation of his past. This tragedy is an example that the human intellect is inadequate and there is power in the universe which humanity cannot control.

The Birth of Drama

5c B.C. Athens ( European drama)

Tragedy developed from the dance and song of the chorus performing on a circular dancing floor. Thespis introduced an actor, whose medium was speech and who performed outside of the circle. Aeschylus made dialogues for 2 actors.

Sophocles increased their number to 3.The spoken part of the performance grew in importance.

• 458 B.C. Aeschylus in his drama “ Agamemnon” established the balance/equilibrium between the two elements of the performance:

• Actors

With their speeches create dramatic situation and its movement, the plot

• Chorus

While contributing to dramatic suspense and illusion, ranges free of the immediate situation in its odes, which extend and amplify the significance of the action

Aeschylus “ Agamemnon”It is the first play of the trilogy. “Choephoroe” and “ Eumenides” carried the same theme to the conclusion.

The theme is justice. The story is based on a well-known legend about the tragedy in the House of Atreus, which is rich in dramatic potential ( since it deals with a series of retributive murders which stained the hands of three generations of a royal family)

It is even larger in social and historical significance-the legend preserves the memory of an important historical process- transition from tribal institutions

of justice communal justice

Demanded revenge for the death of the murdered man’s kin

system requiring a settlement of the private quarrel by the court of law

• Characters:-Agamemnon-Clytemnestra-Iphigenia-Orestes• Religious statement-the sequence of

events will of Zeus.Meaning, out of suffering comes an important advance in human understanding and civilization.