Week 3: The Oresteia

Reading:
Agamemnon
The Eumenides - Courtroom scene at Athens

A Little About The Author:
Aeschylus was the earliest of the three fathers of Greek tragedy (the other two being Euripides and Sophocles). He was born in about 525 BC near Athens. Only seven of his plays have survived.
Aeschylus fought at the Battle of Marathon against the Persians, and considered this to be his greatest achievement.

A Little About The History:
the Greek dark ages (1200-800BC) are the period of time from the time of the Dorian invasion to the rise of Greek city-states. they are marked by the destruction of many classical cities. At the end of the dark ages Mediterranean trade was picking back up, the art on iron working was much more refined, and the Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet (this was the first true alphabet, previously languages used characters).
At the end of the dark ages the Greek city-states had started to form. It is important to understand that Greek history is not the story of a united nation, but rather several small, independent nations.
In 776 BC was the first ancient Greek Olympic Games. This was an attempt to make the Greek cities get along better, have some friendly competition. The games were held in Olympia, Greece.
By about 550 BC the Greek theatre was starting in Athens. This theatrical tradition is very important to Greek history. Everything in Greece was flourishing, the culture, technology, politics. Theatre is just one example of these developments.
One of Greece's most famous playwrights was Aeschylus.

A Little About The Reading:
This trilogy tells of what happened after Agamemnon returns home from Argos after the Trojan War. This is told in the first half of the reading. The second half of the reading is the final schene of Eumenides. In the space between these two readings Orestes returns to Argo after being gone for most of his life, avenges his father, and gets chased around a ton by the furies. The furies were Greek deities who avenge murder, particularly the murder of a parent. Legend is that they were born from the drops of blood of Cronos defeating his father Uranus. Orestes goes to Apollo, who sent him to avenge his father, and asks for protection. He is told to go to Athens and be on trial. This reading is the final court schene when the goddess Athena and 12 Athenian elders try Orestes.

Week 2: Medea by Euripides

Reading:
Medea

A Little About The Author:
Euripides was one of the three great Athenian tragedians, along with Aeschylus and Sophocles. He lived from 480-406 BC. Athens at this time was at it's theatrical height. Every year, at the Festival of Dionysus, three playwrights competed. Each playwright submitted a trilogy of tragedies and a satyr (a short, more comic play performed at the end of the festival for entertainment). Comic plays were introduced into the festival later in it's history, around 486 BC, and held much less importance. Euripides won only 4 festivals in his life, one posthumously, and did not gain his enormous popularity until later in history. We do, however, have a large number of his plays in tact, including the only satyr play existent in it's entirety.


A Little About The Reading:
This play tells of the messy break up between Medea and Jason. Jason was a hero of the ancient world and the rightful king of Iolcus. When he was an infant his tyrant uncle Pelias took the throne. Jason was sent to be raised and trained by the centaur Chiron (Chiron was generally the guy that Greeks went to to raise/teach their children. He also trained Heracles, Ajax, and many others). As an adult Jason returned to his home and challenged Pelias, who gave him a quest; to capture the golden fleece from the barbarian land of Colchis. Jason gathered a band of heroes that included such warriors as himself, Heracles, Orpheus, Castor and Pollux. They sailed in a boat called the Argos, therefore the famous title Jason and the Argonauts.
Long story short, they got the golden fleece, but only with the help of Medea, the princess of Colchis. She used her girlish charm and magical powers to secure Jason's success. Meanwhile they fell in love and sailed off into the sunset. It's not quites as romantic as it seems, though. To help them make a clean getaway Medea cut up her brother and dropped pieces of him into the sea. Her father was slowed down by constantly stopping to gather these pieces.
Lots of other things happened, like trickery, murder, and probably a few arguments. Eventually they were exiled to Corinth, along with their two sons. Here Jason decided to marry the princess of Corinth, Creusa. So here we have the story of the messiest, ugliest, and worst divorce of all time. It's just plain epic.
Some questions for reflection:
- How does Euripides view women?
- What is the function of the Greek chorus?
- How does this play reflect the Greek idea of the gods?

Week 1: Metamorphoses by Ovid

Reading:
Book 1
Echo and Narcissus
Hercules, Nessus and Deianira
Orpheus and Eurydice
The Invasion of Troy

A Little About The Author:
Publius Ovidius Naso was a Roman poet born in 43 BC. Although his father pushed him toward a life of politics, telling him that Homer died poor, Ovid eventually renounced his study of the law and pursued writing. Ovid is the exception to the usual stoic writing style of the Romans, and chose to write emotionally. As a good Roman Ovid often throws in little compliments to Rome and it's monarchs, although this served him little as he was banished by Augustus in 8 AD. He died in isolation 10 years later.
Due to the language of origin the Latin names are used for the gods. I would highly suggest looking up the greek names and becoming familiar with both names. (list of greek gods & even better list)

A Little About The History
It is somewhat ambiguous to me to put a finger on the exact beginning of Greece, but we can start with the Mycenaean civilization (1600-1200 BC). These greek speaking people are responsible for much of greek folklore, including the origin of the poems of Homer (the Trojan War is said to have occurred sometime in the 12th or 11th century BC). Although Homer did not write until much later the stories are from this time and would have been passed down for generations before Homer finally put them on paper.
This culture, as that exhibited in the Iliad and Odyssey, is that of a warrior aristocracy. Greece was composed of many regions. The greek invasion of Troy was not one unified nation attacking another, but rather individual regions bound together by treaties and lead by Agamemnon. Warfare at this time consisted of individual "champions" fighting in a larger battle. It can often be observed in Homer's works that these warriors stop to converse and swap life stories before actually fighting.
Greek mythology does not have a pretty view of the afterlife. There is no greek "heaven" or "Elysian." The best that one could hope for was not being sent to Tartarus (a place of torture) but only having to exist in a kind of half conscious state in the underworld. If one was REALLY lucky, the gods just might whisk one away and deify them, letting them join the gods. All this being said the best that a greek warrior had to look forward to was fame and glory in this life, as the afterlife wasn't a happy place.
There is not complete clarity as to how the Mycenaean civilization fell; whether by some natural disaster or the Dorian invasion. None-the-less from about 1200-800 BC is referred to as the Greek Dark Ages.

coming next week: Greece after the Dark Ages

A Little About The Reading:
These reading selections show everything from the greek creation story to the invasion of Troy. Pay special attention to the interactions of gods and men.

-What purpose do these legends play in the greek worldview?

-What is Polytheism?

-How do the ancient greek people perceive their gods?

-How is this perception similar/different from the Jewish/Christian view of God?

-How does an ancient greek person live a "virtuous" life?

Read carefully the story of Agamemnon and Iphigenia (in The Invasion of Troy) as it will lead nicely into our Week III reading.

Introduction

This blog has been created for the purpose of studying and discussing ancient history, philosophy and literature. It will be organized in a class-like setting to be used for students or personal enrichment.

Course Objective: To create an understanding of the history, philosophy, politics, and religion of ancient Greece and Rome as the foundations of western thought. The student will develop an understanding of these concepts through reading, discussion, and writing.
Course Format: The student will be responsible for completing a reading from an original work every week. Every week the student will be required to participate in an online discussion of the work, answering questions that will deepen the students understanding of the work and how it relates to the history and philosophy of the time.

Curriculum:

Week 1 Metamorphoses by Ovid - Selections
Week 2 Medea by Euripides
Week 3 The Oresteia by Aeschylus
Week 4 The Persian War by Heroditus - Selections
Week 5 History of the Peloponesian War by Thucydides - Selections
Week 6 The Birds by Aristophanes
Weeks 7-12 Symposium by Xenophon, Lives of Eminent Philosophers by Diogenes Laertius. Selections of Plato and Aristotle.