Chapter Three: PowerPoint Notes:

The reading for next week is really quite long, so let’s shorten the assignment: read Oedipus the King (56—75) and the parts of The Poetics that deal with Tragedy (90—94). It might be easiest to read Aristotle first.

Chapter Two:

Aegean Civilizations: The Minoans, the Mycenaeans, and the Greeks of the Archaic Age

While the Egyptians were flourishing, another civilization arose to their northwest, that of the Minoans 3000-1100 BC, on Crete, remembered by the name of its most famous ruler, King Minos. (Although it is possible “Minos” was simply a Cretan word for “king.”)

Minos features prominently in the story of Daedalus, a wise inventor. You might find it interesting:

The god, Poseidon, gave him a white bull, expecting it to be sacrificed. Minos tried to outsmart him by sacrificing another bull, instead, so Poseidon made Minos’ wife, Pasiphae, fall in love with the bull, and with the help of Daedalus, she consummated the relationship.

Pasiphae gave birth to the Minotaur:

Minos imprisoned the Minotaur in a giant labyrinth in his palace at Knossus.

He imprisoned Daedalus and his son, Icarus, in a tower of the castle, but it did not stop Daedalus from giving Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, the secret of the labyrinth, so she could guide her lover, Theseus, inside to kill the Minotaur.

Daedalus, meanwhile, fashioned two sets of wings made from feathers held together with wax, so he and his son, Icarus, could escape from the tower. Like many children, Icarus did not heed his father’s advice and flew too close to the sun and perished. Daedalus made it to Sicily, and was welcomed by King Cocalus. Minos caught up with him, but the daughters of Cocalus, who had fallen in love with Daedalus, gave him a bath of water hot enough to cook him and he died.

As the Minoan civilization seems to be the roots of the polytheistic religion of the ancient Greeks, perhaps we should look at the universe as they saw it:

Read the Mythology information here: CLICK ME

Classical Greek Art set the ideal for all art to come. This is because the Greeks discovered the most important geometric ratio in our universe, called PHI, or THE GOLDEN MEAN.

Just as Pi is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, Phi is simply the ratio of the line segments that result when a line is divided in one very special and unique way. Divide a line so that the ratio of the length of the entire line (A) to the length of larger line segment (B) is the same as the ratio of the length of the larger line segment (B) to the length of the smaller line segment (C). This happens only when A is 1.618... times B and B is 1.618... times C.

Alternatively, C is 0.618... of B and B is 0.618... of A. CLICK ME

Phi is even found in the Bible, in the proportions of the Ark of the Covenat, Noah’s Ark, and even in the number 666. It can be found in the Trinity of Jesus: “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God.” Here the human Jesus (the Son of Man) is to the divine Jesus (the Son of God) as the divine Jesus (the Son of God) is to God (the Father or whole).

Beauty, then, is a proportion that fits in with the proportions of the universe, and is felt, or sensed, rather than planned, by the audience.

Statues:

"Kritios Boy" c.480 bce from the Acropolis, Athens.
marble, 33 7/8" high.

"Diskobolos" (Discus Thrower) by Myron. Roman copy of a Greek bronze original. c. 450 bce.

Warrior, from the sea off Riace, Italy, c.460-450 bce  6'6" high, bronze, with glass and bone.

"Aphrodite," also known as 'Venus de Milo, the Greek and Roman goddess of love) from the Greek Island of Melos, by the sculptor Alexandros of Antioch-on-the-Meander.  The statue combines the classical features of the 'stoic' face and contrapposto pose with the realism of the Hellenistic era. 
The statue is marble, from c.150 bce and is 6'7" in height.

Architecture in Greece used a basic POST AND LINTEL CONSTRUCTION . . . . . . With three kinds of columns: DORIC, IONIC, CORINTHIAN. Doric is plain; Ionic has curled sides; Corinthian is fancy.

Frescoes are paintings that are mixed in with plaster, apparently invented by the Ancient Greeks. (“The Sistine Chapel” and “The Last Supper” are Renaissance frescoes.)

The ancient Greeks had a thriving pottery trade.

John Keats (1795-1821)

“Ode on a Grecian Urn”

Thou still unravish'd bride of quietness,

Thou foster-child of silence and slow time,

Sylvan historian, who canst thus express

A flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme:

What leaf-fring'd legend haunts about thy shape

Of deities or mortals, or of both,

In Tempe or the dales of Arcady?

What men or gods are these? What maidens loth? What mad pursuit? What struggle to escape?

What pipes and timbrels? What wild ecstasy?

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard

Are sweeter; therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;

Not to the sensual ear, but, more endear'd,

Pipe to the spirit ditties of no tone:

Fair youth, beneath the trees, thou canst not leave

Thy song, nor ever can those trees be bare;

Bold Lover, never, never canst thou kiss,

Though winning near the goal yet, do not grieve;

She cannot fade, though thou hast not thy bliss,

For ever wilt thou love, and she be fair!

Ah, happy, happy boughs! that cannot shed

Your leaves, nor ever bid the Spring adieu;

And, happy melodist, unwearied,

For ever piping songs for ever new;

More happy love! more happy, happy love!

For ever warm and still to be enjoy'd,

For ever panting, and for ever young;

All breathing human passion far above,

That leaves a heart high-sorrowful and cloy'd,

A burning forehead, and a parching tongue.

Who are these coming to the sacrifice?

To what green altar, O mysterious priest,

Lead'st thou that heifer lowing at the skies,

And all her silken flanks with garlands drest?

What little town by river or sea shore,

Or mountain-built with peaceful citadel,

 Is emptied of this folk, this pious morn?

And, little town, thy streets for evermore

Will silent be; and not a soul to tell

Why thou art desolate, can e'er return.

Attic shape! Fair attitude! with brede

Of marble men and maidens overwrought,

With forest branches and the trodden weed;

Thou, silent form, dost tease us out of thought

As doth eternity: Cold Pastoral!

When old age shall this generation waste,

Thou shalt remain, in midst of other woe

Than ours, a friend to man, to whom thou say'st,

"Beauty is truth, truth beauty,--that is all

Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know."

EPIC POETRY:

For generations, the stories of the gods and heroes were passed on orally, as the writing of the ancients had been long forgotten. Eventually, the myths were collected by Homer, who wrote The Iliad and The Odyssey, and Hesiod, who wrote Theogony and Works and Days.

Hubris

        Hubris is an extremely important concept, which is necessary to the understanding of Mythology and especially Tragedy.  The Greek society was very orderly; man knew his limitations.  If he exceeded them, he committed Hubris and was punished.
        Hubris is defiance; Hubris is arrogance; Hubris is thinking you can outsmart the gods.
            Hubris is Oedipus, who refused to believe that he had killed his father and married his mother; Hubris is Creon, who insisted on leaving the body of Polyneices to rot in the fields; Hubris is the crew of Odysseus, who slaughtered the sacred cattle of the sun god.

Major Characters of The Iliad:

Priam, king of Troy
Paris, his son
Hector, Paris' brother, hero of Troy Cassandra, his daughter
Helen, the face that launched a thousand ships.
Menelaus, her husband
Agamemnon, his brother
Achilles, Greek Hero
Ajax, strongest of the Greeks
Patroclus, Achilles' best friend)
Odysseus (Ulysses), smartest of all the Greeks, hero of The Odyssey.  

Is there no end to speculation about mythology? Iman Jacob Wilkens of Cambridge University believes Troy was actually in England. More

Major Characters of The Odyssey:

Odysseus: Wise hero of the Trojan War.

Penelopeia: Odysseus's faithful wife.

Telemachos: Odysseus's son; twenty years old.

Argos: Odysseus's old hunting dog

Antinoos: "Ringleader" of Penelopeia's suitors

Eurymachos: One of Penelopeia's cruelest suitors

Eurycleia: Faithful old servant of Odysseus and his family;

Alcinoos: King of the Phaiacians
Nausicaa: Beautiful daughter of King Alcinoös;
Demodocos: King Alcinoös’ blind minstrel
Calypso: Witch/nymph who wanted Odysseus

Circe: "Terrible goddess with lovely hair,"; daughter of Helios
Hyperion: Sun-god
Polyphemos: "Most powerful of Cyclopians

Teiresias: Blind Theban prophet

Remember, most of the lecture includes films and discussion. These notes cannot take their place.