Greek Theatre Scholars Flashcards
(31 cards)
Garvie - modern appeal
Much of its appeal for modern readers may derive from its resemblance in some respects to a Detective novel
Garvie - use of irony
In this play, Sophclean irony is much more prominent than in any other. It springs from Sophocles’ deep conviction that human being by their very nature are flawed and incapale of full understanding.
Garvie - Oedipus & Tiresias - truth
Oedipus is ignorant but determined to know, whereas Tiresias knows the truthbut is determined to suppress it
Garvie - Oedipus and Tiresias
Tiresias is physically blind, while Oedipus, the pysically sighted knows nothing
Garvie - ending/Oedipus victor?
In one sense, Oedipus does not fall at all. He set out to uncover truth and by the end of the play he has succeeded in his quest.
Garvie - Oedipus pursuit of knowledge
He never says ‘I wish I had not fond out-; for he has gained what he values most - knowledge, no matter what it cost.
Edith Hall - anagnorisis/ slave character
…perhaps the most famous anagnorisis in tragedy, Oedipus’ recognition of himself, is a direct result of the extorted testimony of a slave.
Fagles - Oedipus
Oedipus is his own destroyer
Goldhill - Oedipus
Oedipus is paradox in himself - he is both a saviour and a monster.
“Oedipus conquers a monster, the Sphinx, becomes leader of the city…yet this leads this leads to a final discovery of Oedipus’ untenable position in the order of the city” as he has gone against norms of society by killing his father and marrying his mother.”
Garvie - Oedipus - admire
“It is Oedipus, with his relentless search for eh truth, whom we admire
Morwood - Dionysus
The audience finds itself tugged in two different directions by a tragedy which centres on a figure who is both ‘most terrifying and most gentle to mortals’
Morwood - Dionysus & disorder
In driving the Theban women from the city to worship him on the mountainside, Dionysus has profoundly disrupted the city’s social structure. The women have abandoned not only their looms but their children too.
Edith Hall - Perormance
one actor played Dionysus and Tiresias, another Pentheus and Agave, the third Cadmus and the two messengers; this continuity of actors, who walk not have been able to disguise their voices altogether, must have affected the impact of the permoances.
Foley- Dionysus
Euripides presents Dionysus as a director who constructs his own play within a play.
Rosie Wyles - the chorus’ response to hearing of Pentheus’ death
their ecstatic joy is chilling, while heightening the pathos for the circumstances of Pentheus’ destruction
Garvie - Dionysus
The most striking paradox (of the play) is that the god who throughout the play promises joy will at the end produces only suffering and horror.
Garvie - Tiresias (Bacchae)
The tragedians usually treat Tiresias with great respect, and those characters who question his wisdom usually find cause to regret it.
Garvie - the play as a whole (Bacchae)
Somehow the despair seems all the darker because of the recurring theme of joy that has preceded it.
Sophie Mills - Dionysus and Pentheus - gods
Dionysus is a god in human form; Pentheus is a human but aspires to be like a god in human form
Sophie Mills - Dionysus and Pentheus - manipulation
Because Pentheus is manipulated into the mistakes of believing that he is dealing with an equal, watching the whole experience become highly uncomfortable for the audience.
Bettendorf - Purpose of the play (Frogs)
The primary function od the play, however is not literary criticism but political action.
Kovacs - Euripides Style (Frogs)
Euripides appears as a wayward modernist, bent on lowering the tone of tragedy by taking the heroic figures of myth done to the level of ordinary mortals, bringing on adulterous women and other morally dubious characters.
Cartledge - Success of Frogs
generally reckoned to be the finest of Aristophanes’ serving plays.
Redfield - Aeschylus’ victory
The victory of Aeschylus is a rejection of the new life-style, a return to the old moral centre.
