Chapters Three and Four PowerPoint Notes:
Test Questions From Last Week
1. If you were an ancient Greek and your “significant other” decided to dump you in favor of a younger and more attractive lover, to what god or goddess would you pray for advice? Explain why you chose this “deity” for help.
2. What lesson do you think the story of Daedalus and Icarus might have for modern society?
3. What is the reason for the beauty of much Greek art?
A note on the syllabus: We might be falling a bit behind here, but understanding the culture of the ancient Greeks can really help us understand the rest of the material. We’ve already discussed a number of things from chapter four, so I’m going to combine chapters three and four in our discussion with the following clarification:
Understanding the three periods of classical Greek history,
what the text calls
The first period (
The Hellenic period produced the Ionic column—a touch more humanistic with a non-functional little swirl up there. It is the time of adapting mythology into other forms, but still seriously—the age of Tragedy.
The Corinthian column is like the Hellenistic period.
Let’s take it from where we left off last week: We were looking at some pottery and had just
completed John Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian Urn.”
What is beauty?
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.
Let us first meet the greatest of all Greek heroes: Odysseus.
King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of the newly born Telemachus . . .
In those days, the gods often walked with humans. What aspect of Odysseus’ personality do we see in this scene?
A quick summary of the events in The Iliad, as described by Odysseus.
And, the end of the Trojan war . . .
How do Odysseus’ actions in this scene foreshadow the events to come?
Odysseus makes several stops: the Island of the Lotus
Eaters; the
Odysseus makes several stops: the Island of the Lotus
Eaters; the
Aeolus, god of the winds, son of Poseidon . . .
This time, it’s the crew who commit hubris.
They reach the
Following Circe’s instructions, Odysseus travels to the underworld to visit Teiresias, the blind prophet that tried to warn Oedipus . . .
Meanwhile, back in
Odysseus and his men manage to pass the sirens, then face the monsters Charybdis and Scylla . . .
Like James Bond, Odysseus manages to find beautiful girls wherever he goes. This time it’s the goddess Calypso.
Back in
Another storm plagues Odysseus . . .
He washes up on the beach of another beautiful woman, Nausicaa, beautiful daughter of King Alcinoös . . .
Having finally learned his lesson, Odysseus returns home, and meets Telemachus, who believes him dead.
Athena give Odysseus one more gift to help him confront the suitors . . .
After all this, Odysseus must prove his identity to Penelope before she will accept him. He tells her their bed is alive, carved many years before from a living tree, and she finally believes.
Is there no end to speculation about mythology? Iman Jacob Wilkens of
GREEK THEATRE
Theatre is the oldest form of performance art, having
evolved from ancient rituals in which a Shaman (witch doctor) incorporated
music, art, and dance in order to address the gods. In
Primitive tribes in northern
The cult’s most controversial practice involved uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created an altered mental state, known as ecstasis, from which the word “ecstasy” is derived. Ecstasy was an important concept to the Greeks, who would come to see theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions. Ecstasis is similar to the reactions of the primitive African hunters we discussed earlier.
Although it met with resistance, and had to be toned down,
the cult spread south through the tribes of Greece over the next six centuries,
eventually becoming more civilized as it became mainstream. By 600 BC, the rites were practiced every Spring throughout much of
A key part of the rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb, an ode to Dionysus, usually performed by a chorus of fifty men dressed as Satyrs—mythological half human, half goat servants of Dionysus. They played drums, lyres, and flutes, and chanted as they danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Some accounts say they wore phallus-like headgear. Although it began as a purely religious ceremony, like a hymn in the middle of a mass, the dithyramb over time would evolve into stories, drama, and the play form.
Around 550 BC, an actor/author called Thespis stepped out of the chorus and became the first actor. By 534 BC, the dithyrambs had become a yearly play competition for which dramatists submitted four plays: three tragedies and a satyr play (a comedy built around sexual themes). Thespis won the first year’s competition.
Tragedies do not necessarily have a sad ending. They depicted the life voyages of people who steered themselves on collision courses with society, life’s rules, or simply fate. The Tragic Hero is one who refused to acquiesce to fate or life’s rules.
Perhaps this can be made clearer by reading a passage from The Chorus in Antigone, a modern play by Jean Anouilh.
“The spring is wound up tight. It will uncoil of itself. That is what is so convenient in tragedy. The least little turn of the wrist will do the job. Anything will set it going: a glance at a girl who happens to be lifting her arms to her hair as you go by; a feeling when you wake up on a fine morning that you’d like a little respect paid to you today, as if it were as easy to order as a second cup of coffee; one question too many, idly thrown out over a friendly drink—and the tragedy is on.
“The unbelievable silence, when, at the beginning of the play, the two lovers, their hearts bared, their bodies naked, stand for the first time face to face in the darkened room, afraid to stir. The silence inside you when the roaring crowd acclaims the winner—so that you think of a film without a soundtrack, mouths agape and no sound coming out of them, a clamor that is no more than a picture, and you, the victor, already vanquished, alone in the desert of your silence. That is tragedy.
“Tragedy is clean, it is firm, it is flawless. It has nothing to do with melodrama—with wicked villains, persecuted maidens, avengers, sudden revelations and eleventh hour repentances. Death, in a melodrama, is really horrible because it is never inevitable. The dear old father might so easily have been saved; the honest young man might so easily have brought the police five minutes earlier.
“In a tragedy, nothing is in doubt and everyone’s destiny is known. That makes for tranquility. There is a sort of fellow--feeling among characters in a tragedy: he who kills is as innocent as he who gets killed: it’s all a matter of what part you are playing. Tragedy is restful; and the reason is that Hope, that foul deceitful thing, has no part in it. There isn’t any hope. You’re trapped. The whole sky has fallen on you and all you can do about it is to shout.
“Don’t mistake me: I said, ‘shout:’ I did not say groan, whimper, complain. That you cannot do. But you can shout aloud; you can get all those things said that you never thought you’d be able to say—or never knew you had it in you to say. And you don’t say these things because it will do any good to say them: you know better than that. You say them for their own sake; you say them because you learn a lot from them.
“In melodrama, you argue and struggle in the hope of escape. That is vulgar; it’s practical. But in tragedy, where there is no temptation to try to escape, argument is gratuitous: it’s kingly.”
Now, let us consider how Aristotle explained this in The
Poetics.
Aristotle wrote that
tragedy’s main purpose was to arouse in the audience fear and emotion and by
doing so, purge the audience of these feelings, in an Ecstasis
he called CATHARSIS. Here’s how
it goes: a character (usually a king or aristocrat) commits HUBRIS, and
then is punished for it. If the play is
well-written and performed, the audience shares the protagonist’s experience,
and feels the act of hubris vicariously, freeing itself from the need to act yourself.
How does it
work? Think about some movies where you
enjoyed acts of hubris: a guy allowing a police officer to drink a cup of
urine; a nerdy teenager standing up to the bully and winning the prom queen;
serial Mom running over the stupid teacher with her car. We don’t have to do these things because well
made movies and plays make us feel these experiences.
In the words of
Aristotle, “Tragedy is a representation of an action that is worth serious
attention, complete in itself, an of some amplitude, in language enriched by a
variety of artistic devices appropriate to the several parts of the play;
presented in the form of action, not narration; by means of pity and fear bring
about the purgation of such emotions.”
Aeschylus c. 525 – 456 BC
Aeschylus added a
second actor to the drama, as well as some scenery and props. His most famous work is The Orestia, which describes the assassination of Agamemnon
by his wife, Clytemnestra, followed by the vengeance and redemption of his
children, Orestes and Electra. His Achilles
has recently been discovered.
Sophocles
495 – 406 BC
Sophocles added two
more actors and enlarged the chorus.
Although he did believe in the gods, his plays focused more on human
foibles and relationships.
He is best known for the Oedipus plays: Oedipus
Rex, Oedipus at Colonnus, Seven Against
Euripedes
C. 480 – 406 BC
Euripedes provided
the most Humanistic approach of the three, giving important roles to lower, as
well as higher class people. He invented
the Prologue, which set the scene for the play, and the Deux et Machina, a machine which lowered a god at the end of
the play and tied off all the lose ends.
His best known plays are The Trojan Women and Medea.
Structure of
Tragedy:
Prologue:
expository dialogue
Parodos: entrance
of chorus
Episode: characters
talk
Stasimon: chorus
comment on action (There may be many
sets of these.) Exodos: chorus
leaves, often with a song (kommos).
Let us look at a
modern film in this format: Mighty Aphrodite, written and directed by
Woody Allen, which begins with the parodos:
In the first
Episode, we meet Mr. and Mrs. Lenny Weintraub and learn of their desire to
adopt a child . .
Stasimon: Led by
old king Laius (father of Oedipus) the chorus reflects about having children.
Lenny loves his
adopted child, but questions plague him—who were the child’s parents?
Lenny discusses his
need to find the real mother with the chorus.
(What role does the chorus play, both in the stasimon and the episode
that follows?)
Lenny soon learns
that the child’s mother was a prostitute who worked on the side as an actress
in pornographic films. Cassandra (sister
of
Many Greek words
and names have become part of the English language.
In Greek Theatre,
the role of MESSENGER is extremely important.
As no action takes place onstage, only dialogue, the messenger must
bring to life what has happened offstage.
(Of course, this being a film, Woody Allen changes that a bit.)
Lenny wants to
change Linda. What does the chorus think
about this idea?
Undaunted, Lenny
tries to find a guy who might want to marry Linda.
Teiresias, the
blind man who can see things so much more clearly than Odysseus, Oedipus, or
Lenny Weintraub, has a tale to tell.
When Linda’s
relationship with the boxer falls flat because of her line of work, she turns
to Lenny for consolation.
What is the
function of the DEUX ET MACHINA?
A
final episode, followed by the tradition exodos, including the KOMMOS (song).
Oedipus Rex (The King)
was part of your reading assignment.
Here are a couple of scenes to show you a more traditional (although
still a modernization) of this classical tragedy:
Oedipus Rex
by Sophocles
Anagnorisis: Oedipus learns that he has committed
hubris, and has, indeed, killed his father (Laius) and married his mother
(Jocasta), fathering Eteocles, Polyneices, Ismene, and Antigone in the process.
Fifth Stasimon: The chorus reflects on Oedipus’ acts and
Hubris.
Sixth Episode: The messenger arrives to describe the
fates of Oedipus and Jocasta.
Pathos: Oedipus’ self-punishment for his sin.
Pity and Sorrow: We learn, and perhaps share the despair of
Oedipus.
GREEK COMEDY
Aristophanes
c. 448 - 380 BC
Aristophanes was
the leading exponent of Old (or High) Comedy, which bristled with satire and
lampoon. He made fun of the more serious
plays and playwrights, as well as social mores.
His plays are mostly Comedy of Ideas with bright dialogue: The Frogs,
The Clouds, Wasps, The Birds, and
others.
His most famous play, however, is
the first real battle of the sexes comedy, Lysistrata.
As raw as some of
Aristophanes was, New comedy went lower, with the work
of the very important Menander (342—291 BC).
Unfortunately, very
little of his work has survived, but the Roman playwrights, PLAUTUS and
TERENCE, copied much of his material, and his stories of mistaken identity,
swindles gone wrong, and stock characters such as the Con Man, the Clever
Tricky servant, the Young Lovers, the Miser, the Dirty Old Man, the ditsy young
woman, and the Braggart Warrior have all found their way into modern theatre:
The comedy
character of “The Dirty Old Man” gets the tables turned on him by Dolly Parton in the film, Nine to Five.
In this clip from a community
production of A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, we can see
the pure silliness of Menander’s comedy style.
Pseudolus, a clever, tricky servant, has disguised his friend as a girl
(despite his mustache!) and now has to persuade him to act like one . . .
MUSIC
The music of ancient
The kithara
The phorminx
(Stringed
instruments based on the lyre played by Apollo)
The aulos
player wore tragic costume, stood next to the altar in the orchestra and was
the highest paid performer.
When gods would
appear onstage, especially in Euripedes’ work, they would often we accompanied
by a tympanum (drum) and castanets.
While at the court
of King Alcinoös, Odysseus weeps, when he hears the king’s blind singer, Demodokos,
singing of
Pythagoras of
Samos c.582-c.507
The most important
mathematical scholar who ever lived, Pythagoras was influential in the
development of music. He discovered the
numerical relations of tones to divisions of a stretched string.
Called the DIATONIC SYSTEM, this led
to a basic understanding of a musical scale of eight notes.
The temperament, or Pythagorean
tuning, derived from this series of ratios has been important throughout
subsequent music history.
“Phil” means “love;” “soph” means “wisdom.”
A philosopher is one who loves wisdom.
Many of mankind’s most important philosophers were Greek. The major schools of the Hellenic age were
Pre-Socratic, Sophist, Socratic, Platonist, and Aristotelian. Later, in the more humanistic Hellenistic
period, the schools were Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism.
Pre-Socratics:
What is the
nature of the physical world?
Parmenides ( c. 515 BC): The world is
unchanging, but its order can be understood by human reasoning.
Empedocles (c. 484-424 BC):
The world is made of four elements: Earth, Water, Fire, and Air.
Democritis (c. 460 BC):
Matter is made up from atoms. The atoms were always moving and clustering in
various, temporary combinations. Therefore, things seem to change, but are
essentially unchanging.
SOPHISTS: “Man is the
Measure of all things.”
Protagoras (481-411BC): He
dismissed the atomic theory and other elemental ideas, in favor of his own
humanistic viewpoint that man is the center of the universe. He believed humankind should strive to
be godlike in its creativity and knowledge. Being hundreds of years ahead of his time, he
was clearly hubraic and impious.
Socrates (469-399) turned
philosophy to a different direction: Ethics. Knowledge, he thought, led to people doing
good things. He often asked people to
define words like courage, honor, love, etc. He was forced to drink hemlock
after a charge that he had corrupted a treasonous youth.
Plato (c. 427-347):
Human beings have a PSYCHE which has a spiritual connection with a universe we
no longer remember. This psyche is often
at odds with our physical bodies and we must learn to control physical urges.
Other theories:
There was once a mighty kingdom called Atlantis, which was destroyed in
the great flood.
Platonic love: a homosexual relationship between teacher and male pupil
inspired by his own teacher, Socrates.
Aristotle (384-322 BC):
Aristotle is the most influential philosopher of all ages and the founder of
modern science. A student of Plato’s, he was less interested in the psyche, and
more in the physical world, although he did believe in a god that was the first
cause of everything.
Aristotle developed
the EMPIRICAL METHOD of studying nature by observation, classification, and
comparison. His books, the Prior
Analytics (in which he described the rules of logic), the Physics,
the Animal History, the Rhetorics, the Poetics, the Metaphysics,
the Nicomachean Ethics, and the Politics and studied today and
remain the source material for much of our world, from botany to poetry.
Alexander the Great
was his student.
In the Politics,
he suggested that the best government is one that is run by the middle class.
In Nicomachean Ethics,
he developed Plato’s theory that man must find a balance between his physical
and ethical desires. That Greek balance
has never been forgotten.
Nowhere is the duality of man seen more clearly than in Jesus in the
garden at
The philosophies of
the Hellenistic period show an influence of other cultures and religions, as
well as an increased humanism: Cynicism, Skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism.
Cynicism denounced
religion and government and focused on the needs of the individual.
Diogenes (c. 412-323 BC)
believed that man suffers from too much civilization. We are happiest when our
life is simplest, which means that we have to live in accordance with nature -
just like animals. Human culture, however, is dominated by things that prevent
simplicity: money, for example, and our longing for status. Diogenes refrained
from luxury and often ridiculed civilized life.
Skeptics, such as Carneades
(213-129 B.C.) and
Pyrrho (c.360-c.270 BC) argued that we can not fully
comprehend nature, do not know for certain whether a statement is true or
false, and are therefore unable to build an ethical system. People would be happier if they gave up
useless intellectual exercises and postponed their judgment. The result was a
conservative political philosophy, that suggested even
though we had no moral absolutes, we should live by time-honored traditions.
Epicurus (342-271) thought We live happiest when we are free from the pains of life,
and a virtuous life is the best way to obtain this goal. We are cannot
understand the gods, who may or may not have created this world but are in any
case not really interested in mankind. Nor do we know life after death - if
there one. Therefore, we must not speculate about gods and afterlife, just
concentrate on having a good time now.
Zeno (336-264 BCE), a stoic,
focused on man's inner peace, which was reached when a person accepted life as
it was, knowing that the world was rationally organized by the logos (a divine
logic). A man's mind should control his emotions and body, so that one could
live according to the rational principles of the world, and basically, leave
everything up to God.
The Hellenistic period brought a few differences to Art, mostly in the
area of increased humanism. Look at
most of the pictures in your textbook.
Let us close by considering the lives of the women and children of the
Greek family.
As world power switches from