Final Flashcards
AGAMEMNON: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Aeschuylus
GENRE: Tragedy
SUMMARY: Agamemnon returns from the 10 year long Trojan war, which he only engaged in after sacrificing his daughter Iphigenia for the winds to set sail into battle (Artemis was angry that a pregnant animal was ravaged by eagles, the birds of Zeus). Herald reassures and chastises the polis for their mistrust in their king. Clytaemestra forces Agamemnon’s hand and has him tread upon a lavish carpet; she also asserts authority over Cassandra, to which the Chorus begin to question Clytaemestra. With her power, Cassandra sees the murder of Agamemnon unfolds but no one believes her; Clytaemestra reveals herself as the murderess and also introduces Aegisthus as her lover when Agamemnon’s dying cries are heard.
AGAMEMNON: Important Characters (8)
Watchmen + Chorus + Helen: recall past events and direct flow of story towards main characters; Chorus often scapegoats Helen as the reason behind the war; reacts to current events on the behalf of the rest of the city
Iphigenia: sacrificed to appease Artemis; her death causes a rift between Agamemnon and Clytaemestra
Clytaemestra: wife of Agamemnon; angry at the loss of Iphigenia; plots an assassination; embodies the antithesis of female Grecian roles (subservient war prizes) and asserts herself as a dominant ruler with her own agenda
Herald: tells true account of what happened in Troy; supports Clytaemestra’s “rumor”; quells the polis’ resentment towards Agamemnon’s costly involvement in the war
Agamemnon: unwittingly creates strife in his ties with his polis (angry at him for the bloodshed of the war) and oikos (angry at him for killing Iphigenia)
Electra + Orestes: in order to protect her brother, Electra sends Orestes to family friend Strophius when Clytaemestra finds a lover in Aegisthus when Agamemnon goes to war
Cassandra: concubine of Agamemnon; Trojan princess taken as a war prize; is a seer but is never believed (curse of Apollo); sees the murder of Agamemnon as it occurs; prophecies the return of Orestes
Aegisthus: secret lover of Clytaemestra; helps her plan the murder of Agamemnon; takes his place beside her as ruler
THE EUMENIDES: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Aeschuylus
GENRE: Tragedy
SUMMARY: Orestes has killed Clytaemestra and Aegisthus, thereby taking revenge for his father Agamemnon. Temple doors open, showing Orestes surrounded by sleeping Furies with Hermes and Apollo beside him. Apollo reveals that it was he who put the Furies to sleep, and asks Hermes to escort Orestes to the Acropolis where the case will be judged. After they leave, the Ghost of Clytaemestra enters and wakes the Furies up; the Furies have a spiteful exchange with Apollo before they all head for the Acropolis. In the trial (foundation myth of the Areopagus), the Furies call upon matricide as the ultimate crime, for the bond between mother and child is congenital; Apollo denounces this claim and says that mothers have no blood bond with their child and were only used as ovens that receive the seed of the father, the true life giver. Apollo also claims that fathers can have children without mothers, citing Athena as living proof. The trial rules in favor of Orestes. The Furies are angry but Athena quells them by offering them the status of protectors and a place of worship in her city.
THE EUMENIDES: Important Characters (6)
Pythia: Pythian Priestess of Apollo; supplicates the gods for a good prophecy but sees Orestes surrounded by sleeping Furies
Apollo: puts the Furies to sleep; defends Orestes’ actions to murder
Ghost of Clytaemestra: calls upon the Furies to enact justice onto Orestes
Orestes: is put on trial for the murder of his mother and her lover
Chorus: aka Furies; aka Eumenides; desires to prove Orestes guilty and deserving of punishment; outcasted by Zeus during overthrow of Cronos and hold a deep resentment towards new gods and those who seekto overturn the ancient traditions
Athena: judge of the trial; establishes an actual court with jurors and witnesses; cast a vote in favor of Orestes because she is always for the male and was borne without a mother anyways
ANTIGONE: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Sophocles
GENRE: Tragedy
SUMMARY: Eteocles and Polyneices, brothers to Antigone and Ismene, are both dead; King Creon will honor the former brother with burial but will let the latter rot outside the tomb, and decrees that anyone who attempts to bury Polyneices will die by public stoning. Antigone asks her sister to help bury Polyneices anyway; Ismene reminds her of the family’s tragedies and the typical role of women. The Guard notifies Creon that Polynices has been buried by someone, and the Guard brings Antigone in. The Guard recounts how Antigone was caught and Creon questions Antigone’s motives. Antigone is sentenced to imprisonment but Ismene attempts to split the blame, which Antigone immediately denounces. Haemon asks his father to lift the punishment but it is already in the process of being carried out. Tiresias arrives and tells Creon that his kingdom is cursed by the gods, an omen against the imprisonment of Antigone. Creon recedes his punishment, only to find that Antigone has hung herself. In his grief, Haemon kills himself with his sword to join her; this causes Creon’s wife to kill herself as well, over the the grief of losing her son.
ANTIGONE: Important Characters (5)
Antigone: defies Creon’s commandment and buries her brother; Haemon’s (Creon’s son) fiancee
Ismene: foil and sister to Antigone; upholds the rules and values
Chorus: recounts the tragedies of Oedipus’ family; pleads with Creon on behalf of Antigone
Creon: crowned after the brothers die in a duel where one brother defended the city the other tried to ruin
Guard: fears being killed as a scapegoat for Polyneices’ burial; catches Antigone by undoing her first burial and baiting her out when she returns to rebury her brother
MEDEA: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Euripedes
GENRE: Tragedy
SUMMARY: Medea tells the Chorus of her sadness, but Creon interrupts with a notice of exile for fear of Medea’s vengeance upon his family. Medea begs for and is granted one day before her exile; she vows to use that time to take revenge. Jason enters and tells Medea that her excessive lamentations are to blame for the exile; Medea rejects his offers to help her in living with exile and berates him until he leaves. Medea tells the chorus of her plan for revenge to make Jason suffer as much as possible, which involves killing her own children, and then puts it into action. The Messenger tells Medea that the wife was dead and that Creon was too because he touched the corpse. Medea then kills her children to spare them being killed by someone else for her crimes; Jason comes upon the scene and asks to bury their bodies. Medea escapes in a dragon-drawn chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-God.
MEDEA: Important Characters (5)
Medea: sorceress who betrayed her past life to help Jason steal the Golden Fleece
Chorus: made of Corinthian women; want to console Medea and bring her back to the traditional nature of women
Jason: marries Glauce in order to solidify his family in wealth and comfort but angers his first wife Medea in the process
Aegeus: king of Athens and an old friend to Medea; is childless; agrees to save Medea from exile if she cures his sterility
Creon: offers Glauce’s and in marriage in return for Jason’s retrieval of the Golden Fleece; fears the safety of his family and exiles Medea
BACCHAE: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Euripedes
GENRE: Tragedy
SUMMARY: Dionysus, disguised as a magician, returns to his birthplace of Thebes to clear his mother Semele’s name and exact vengeance on the city state that doesn’t allow people to worship him. While the Chorus dances in honor of Dionysus, Teiresias enters and calls for former king Cadmus. Pentheus enters and speaks of the Maenads that dance in the forests of Mt. Cithaeron; he denounces their worship of Dionysus and says that Aphrodite is the true goddess that they worship. Pentheus calls for the arrest of the magician that is enchanting the women in the kingdom; he questions the disguised Dionysus of his origins and motives, all while undermining him through insults. Pentheus jails Dionysus, who calls upon lighting to free himself amidst the calling of the Chorus. Pentheus, embarrassed, confronts Dionysus with anger until a cowherd interrupts with news of three groups of dancing women climbing the mountain – one of which led by Pentheus’ mother, Agave. He tells of the naked ferocity and strength of the women; he advises Pentheus to allow the worship of the great god Dionysus but Pentheus instead summons troops to kill the women. Dionysus offers to retrieve the women without bloodshed but also asks if Pentheus would like to see the naked revelry, to which Pentheus readily admits he would. Dionysus advises that Pentheus would have to dress as a women to avoid being killed; Pentheus, after a moment of deliberation, returns disguised and possessed by effeminate beings. In the mountains, Pentheus is abandoned by Dionysus and ripped apart limb from limb by the Bacchae; the Messenger relates the news to the city state while Coryphaeus rejoices. They are later joined by Agave, who proudly exhibits her thyrsus (spear) with the head of Pentheus impaled at the point; Cadmus does not share in her happiness and walks her back from the brink of madness, remarking that Dionysus has punished the family rightly but excessively. In his true form, Dionysus banishes Agave and changes Cadmus and his wife Harmonia into serpents, destined to lead barbarians into Greek lands.
BACCHAE: Important Characters (7)
Dionysus: god of wine and prophecy; aka Bacchus, Bromius, Evius
Pentheus: doesn’t allow worship of Dionysus; is lured, bewitched, and punished by Dionysus for his punishment
Chorus: made of Asian Bacchae or Maenads; followers of Dionysus
Cadmus: former king who believes in Dionysus
Teiresias: blind seer of the future; also believes in Dionysus
Coryphaeus: leader of the Chorus; gives great praise to Dionysus
Agave: mother to Pentheus; takes part in Bacchae revelry; kills her own son in a fit of madness
FROGS: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Aristophanes
GENRE: Comedy
SUMMARY: Dionysus is disguised as Heracles, which the actual Heracles finds very amusing, to ask for directions to the Underworld, where he seeks to retrieve the great poet Euripedes. Heracles responds with ways of mortal death before actually reciting his own passage to the Underworld, with thanks to Theseus. Charon, the ferryman across the River Styx, refuses to take the slave Xanthias; on the passage across, Dionysus hears and is annoyed by the frog chorus. Reunited at the other side, Dionysus and Xanthias are confronted by Empusa, a legendary bogey. The chorus of Initiates enters, singing of Iacchus, Demeter, and Persephone; Dionysus interrupts them to ask for directions to Pluto’s house. Aeacus answers the door and threatens Dionysus-as-Heracles, who faints and promptly puts the disguise onto Xanthias; a maid comes out of Pluto’s household and invites Heracles in, pushing Dionysus to demand the costume back but Xanthias dismisses the attempts. Aeacus returns to punish Heracles but Xanthias-as-Heracles shifts the blame to his “slave”, who in turn claims to be a god; Aeacus ends up torturing both of them until one admits feeling pain, something that gods do not feel. Finally, Aeacus says he will see if Pluto and Persephone will vouch for their divinity. Euripides contests Aeschuylus’ title for the most accomplished tragic poet; Pluto calls for an official competition, which Dionysus will judge. In a series of contests, Aeschylus and Euripides discuss who is better at prologues, lyrics, and making their audience better citizens. Dionysus cannot come to a conclusion so he orders the verses to be weighed; Aeschuylus wins since he refers to “heavy” things. Finally, the two poets are asked to comment on how the Athenians should deal with the statesman Alcibiades. Dionysus decides Aeschylus is the overall winner; Aeschylus tells Pluto to give his chair to Socrates once he departs for the upper world. The chorus praises Aeschylus and proclaims that it hopes he will assist Athens with sound advice.
FROGS: Important Characters (8)
Dionysus: effeminate god of wine
Xanthias: servant of Dionysus
Heracles: very masculine hero that travelled to the Underworld to bring Cerberus to the surface
Chorus: literally a chorus of frogs; later becomes a chorus of Initiates (part of the Eleusinian mysteries)
Aeacus: one of the three judges in Hades; holds the keys to hell
Euripides: dead; believes he makes tragedies more understandable to the demos
Aeschuylus: possess the chair of the most accomplished tragic poet; wins the competition; passes on the chair to Socrates
Pluto: aka Hades; god of underworld, husband to Persephone; allows winner of contest to return to the upperworld
CLOUDS: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Aristophanes
GENRE: Comedy
SUMMARY: Strepsiades is tired of Pheidippides incurring debts and asks him to enroll in the Thinkery; Pheidippides rejects the offer, leaving Strepsiades to enroll himself. There, Strepsiades encounters a pupil who recounts the genius of Socrates, even if the methods are weird; Strepsiades then meets Socrates, who proves that Gods do not exist and the Chorus of Clouds controls the weather. The Chorus interrupts to remind the audience of the moral insight that satire possesses and not to be offended by the sacrilege. Socrates and Strepsiades return to discuss the gender of nouns; Socrates puts Strepsiades in a louse-ridden bed to contemplate more. After much suffering, Strepsiades tells Socrates of ludicrous theories to erase his debts; at first, Socrates agrees but soon becomes frustrated at Strepsiades and refuses to teach him any further. Now expelled, Strepsiades pushes Pheidippides to enroll in the Thinkery; Better and Worse Argument clash over the appropriate model of education, and Worse Argument ultimately wins and is granted Pheidippides as a pupil. The Chorus of Clouds foreshadows Strepsiades’ teaching of Pheidippides will undo his son but Socrates thinks otherwise when Pheidippides breaks down the Old and New Day Paradox. Strepsiades is visited by two creditors who ask for repayment on the debt. Strepsiades refuses to pay the debt and appear in court for the First Creditor on the basis of ignorance for gender of nouns; for the Second Creditor, Strepsiades berates him for believing in gods and uses the Worse Argument to escape repayment. The Chorus comments that Strepsiades’ evil will return to him, which it ultimately does when Pheidippides beats Strepsiades over an argument for the recitation of traditional poetry. Strepsiades laments that his son has exchanged his obsession for race horses to rhetoric and still has a price to pay; he also rails against the Chorus for deceiving him, and they retort that he learned a lesson. He take revenge on the Thinkery by lighting the school on fire.
CLOUDS: Important Characters (6)
Strepsiades: old Athenian that enrolls in the Thinkery; is taught and abandoned by Socrates; pragmatist that is deeply rooted in the physical world and its pleasures
Pheidippides: son of Strepsiades; has an expensive gambling obsession with horse racing
Socrates: master-sophist of the Thinkery; represents pure, rarified intellect at its most ethereal and impractical
Chorus of Clouds: personified divinities of rain and thunder; explain motives and forward the play
Better Argument: traditional poetry and physical fitness
Worse Argument: refers to myths and other trivia; promotes “new education”
SYMPOSIUM: Author, Genre, and Summary
AUTHOR: Plato
GENRE: Philosophical dialogue
SUMMARY: Socrates arrives late to Agathon’s party, held in celebration of winning a dramatic competition. After dinner, Phaedrus proposes they go in turn to eulogize Eros; Eryximachus agrees and asks Phaedrus to start. Phaedrus promotes Eros as one of the oldest gods that promotes virtue in lovers that are willing to die for each other; he references the the myths of origin, Alcestis, Orpheus, and Achilles. Pausanias compares Commonly Love, which concerns lust, against Heavenly Love, which is only between pairs of men and fosters wisdom. Eryximachus explains that good Love engenders orderliness and moderation, and can be found in pure fields like medicine or music. Aristophane tells a myth of three human races: female, male, and androgynous; he also says that we were all once merged together with our lover, but since Zeus split us, we are forever searching for our other half. Agathon describes Eros as young, beautiful, wise, and sensitive that instills virtue in us. Socrates challenges each of Agathon’s points, breaking down his argument by citing a past conversation with Diotima; Diotima refers to love as a mediator between people and their desires and is therefore in the middle of many things (eg. not immortal but not mortal; not wise but not ignorant). A drunk Alcibiades interrupts the party and delivers a eulogy to Socrates, whom he was never able to seduce since Socrates is not interested in physical pleasure.
