...Language 5 January 2009 Medea & “Poetics” Euripides’ Medea, a tale of love, sorrow, and revenge, is, by Aristotle’s standards, a tragedy. The play clearly includes each of the three unities and all of the six elements of theatre, as Aristotle discussed in “Poetics.” However, even though Medea can be accurately categorized as a Greek tragedy, the story lacks a tragic hero. Neither of the two main characters, Medea or Jason, possess all the traits that exist in a tragic hero. According to Aristotle, there are three unities of theatre that make plays more pleasurable for the audience. Euripides employs all three. Medea has unity of action, as it only contains one main plot: Medea’s revenge. This makes the story simple for the audience to follow. There is also unity of time, because all of the action involved in the plot occurs in one day. This action unfolds in only one location: Medea’s home. The latter exemplifies unity of place. For example, when Medea’s children bring Jason’s new bride the poison dress and diadem, the setting does not change to the home of Jason and his wife. Rather, a messenger arrives at Medea’s house to report what has happened to the princess. Euripides’ use of the three unities brings the plot together and makes it easy to understand. In addition to the three unities, Medea includes all six of Aristotle’s elements of theatre. The most important element of theatre is the plot. The plot of Medea is very straightforward...
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...Durham, Carolyn A.. "Medea: Hero or Heroine?" Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies 8.1 (1984): 54-59. JSTOR. Web. 2 Nov. 2015. . In her writing “Medea: Hero or Heroine,” Carolyn Durham analyzes Euripides’ “The Medea” through the lens of feminist criticism. Her main argument is that women protagonists are always “societal facts” as opposed to “tragic heroes.” She utilizes the character Medea as an example of this claim, stating “the treatment of Medea in the play of Euripides suggests that the limitations associated with women somehow never seem to be those inherent in being human.” The bulk of Durham’s feminist criticism deals with how Medea is depicted before and after Jason leaves her for a new wife. She claims Euripides “uses Medea to illustrate by contrast the Greek ideal of moderation,” but does so by describing her as a “treacherous...
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...The Unheroic Hero who Impressed me Most in Greek Mythology – Jason Zhang Sijing 【Abstract】 This paper centers on my own opinions about Jason – a famous hero in Greece mythology. With the help of Medea, who had become his wife afterwards, Jason had led the heroes of Argonauts to get the Golden Fleece successfully. However, the story of he and she was not a romance but end up with a big tragedy. To me, Jason was not a hero as typical as others in Greek mythologies, he was just a man with all his weaknesses which led to his death. 【Key Words】 Greek mythology; hero; Jason; Medea; Argonauts 1. Introduction Among numbers of Greek mythological stories I have read, the one of Jason’s impressed me most. Jason was famous for his role as the leader of the Argonauts which consisted of almost all the famous heroes in Greek at that time. These heroes included some familiar names such as Heracles, Perseus, Theseus and many other unfamiliar ones. They were all gathered together for Jason’s quest to find the Golden Fleece, which was in order to get his throne back from his uncle Pelias. During this long adventure he fell in love with Medea, the sorceress and the princess of Colchis. Only with her help could Jason have done his work. Nevertheless, Jason betrayed Medea in the end, which turned his story into a big tragedy. In his story we are more likely to see a real man instead of a perfect hero. So, this essay is trying to focus on the differences between Jason and other classical...
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...Euripides’ story Medea her husband Jason is no different. Medea did everything she could to make sure that Jason was safe and got what he wanted in life. She betrayed her own family for Jason, killing her brother and taking the Golden Fleece. Now Jason has betrayed her by leaving her and their two sons for princess Glauce and king Creon of Corinth. As anyone would, be she is upset and decides to make a plan to hurt Jason as greatly as she can. Throughout her plan she has three conversations with Jason. Medea’s conversation with Jason portrays her as an extreme manipulator who is actually extremely heroic. At the beginning of the play all that is known about Medea is that she is hurt, not seeming harsh or manipulative at all, but her desires and abilities to manipulate soon become revealed. Before Medea’s first conversation with Jason she is screaming and yelling about how she wants to hurt Jason because of the pain he has caused her. King Creon comes to tell her she is banished from his city-state because of her accusations. She however, pleas with Creon asking for one more day which he grants, showing the first sign of her manipulation powers. After he leaves Jason, comes in telling Medea “You could have stayed in Corinth, still lived in this house, /If you had quietly accepted the decisions of those in power. Instead, you talked like a fool; and now you are banished” (30). She uses the visit from Jason to tell him exactly how she feels. She tells Jason how she feels as though...
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...plays contained several well-written, complex, and heroic female characters. Each female character took upon herself, the role of villain, the role of victim, and the role of heroine. The tragedies also revealed the problems women encountered in this era within marriage, inheritance and social life when they attempted to break out of their traditional gender roles. Clytemnestra, daughter of Leda and Tyndareus, was probably one of the most recognizable female villains in history due to her partaking in the murder of her husband Agamemnon and his female consort, Cassandra. . in the play Agamemnon by Aeschylus, she was depicted as brutal, treacherous, and cunning woman. Her speeches made the citizens and the audiences to be well-aware of how she would welcome her husband home. “Let there spring up into the house he never hoped To see, where justice leads him in, a crimson path. In all things else, my heart’s unsleeping care shall act With the gods’ aid to set aright what fate ordained.” (Agamemnon 910-913) This reminds us that Clytemnestra had planned to take Agammennon’s life all along. She did not commit the murder out of passion but in cold blood. Throughout the play, Clytemnestra is spoken of with a bitter tongue and a fearful heart. She planned to murder Agamemnon with...
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...Modern Performance and Adaptation of Greek Tragedy Helene P. Foley Barnard College, Columbia University “Leave it to a playwright who has been dead for 2,400 years to jolt Broadway out of its dramatic doldrums” begins a recent New York Times review (December 4, 1998) of a British Electra by Sophocles starring Zoe Wanamaker and Claire Bloom. This fall the Times has repeatedly remarked on the “deluge” of Greek tragedy in the 1998-99 theater season: the National Theater of Greece’s Medea, Joanne Akalaitis’ The Iphigeneia Cycle (a double bill that combines Euripides’ two Iphigeneia plays), a revival of Andrei Serban’s famous Fragments of a Greek Trilogy, and a four-and-a-half-hour adaptation of the Oedipus Rex were announced at the start of the season. Off-off Broadway versions will inevitably follow. The Brooklyn Academy of Music even hosted a dance/theatre piece based on the Eleusinian Mysteries. 1 The Classic Stage Company, an off-Broadway theater group devoted to performance and adaptation of Western classics, currently receives more scripts that re-work Greek tragedy than any other category of drama. 2 From a global perspective, New York is simply reflecting a trend set by important modern playwrights and directors worldwide. Greek drama now occupies a regular place in the London theater season. In the past twenty years, acclaimed productions have been mounted not only in Europe but also in Japan, India, and Africa. Translations are even beginning to proliferate in China, occasionally...
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...The Olympians Zeus - Roman name: Jupiter or Jove. The sky-god Zeus rules Mount Olympus. His weapon is the thunderbolt, and his bird is the eagle. The central figure of the myths, Zeus epitomizes their complexity. At times he is divine and represents a pure, eternal sense of justice; at other times, he is capricious and cruel. Hera - Roman name: Juno. Zeus’s wife and sister, Hera is a very powerful goddess known mostly for her jealousy. She is often vicious and spiteful, and it is usually Zeus’s infidelity that incites her. Many unfortunate mortals endure hardships by provoking Hera’s wrath. Poseidon - Roman name: Neptune. The god of the sea, Poseidon is Zeus’s brother and second only to him in power. Poseidon holds a decade-long grudge against Odysseus. The often cruel and unpredictable violence of the seas is assumed to be a result of his anger. Hades - Roman name: Pluto. The brother of Zeus and Poseidon, Hades rules the underworld, the realm of the dead, with his wife, Persephone. Pallas Athena - Roman name: Minerva. Usually just called Athena, this goddess emerges from Zeus’s head fully-grown and armed. Associated with war, cleverness, and wit, it is no surprise that she favors Odysseus. Athena is the goddess of Wisdom, Reason, and Purity and is chaste, like Artemis and Hestia. Phoebus Apollo - Usually just called Apollo. A son of Zeus and Leto and Artemis’s twin, he is the god of Light and Truth, the master of Poetry and Music, and the god of Archery. His Oracle...
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...Seneca (4BC-65AD) blindly. So he is called The English Seneca. Seneca was also a Roman Stoic philosopher. Primly he wrote tragic dramas. His dramas were full of melodramatic elements, such as, blood-shed, killing, assassination, horror scenes, etc. For these reasons his dramas are suitable for only to read in chamber or in closed room. Let us now have a brief discussion about the elements of Seneca used by Kyd in his play The Spanish Tragedy. In all the plays of Seneca we find the revenge theme. Revenge was the main plot, main motive in his plays. Like him, Kyd also used the revenge theme. As we find The Ghost of Andrea, Bel-Imperia, Horatio, Isabella and Hieronimo all the characters want to take revenge. Though we see that the climates are different, but their motive is same. We find Hieronimo saying after the death of his son, Horatio: “See’st thou this handkerchief besmeared with blood? / It shall not from me till I take revenge.” (2. 5. 51-52). In Senecan plays, all the characters think that if they take revenge upon the killers who have murdered their dearest persons, it can never be a sin. Rather it is a sacred duty. Because by killing the murderers they will be able to get proper justice. Very same tendency we observe in the character of Bel-Imperia and Hieronimo. We see Bel-Imperia uttering: “But how can love find harbor in my breast, / Till I revenge the death of my beloved?” (1. 4. 64-65). Description of Underworld is...
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...interactions and social development then Enkidu. Enkidu comes off as soul less person, like animals. He is not aware of what the world holds and is subject to his own small surroundings with his animal counterparts. When he takes on his human characteristics and befriends Gilgamesh he is introduced to a whole new world. He is introduced to a completely different environment when he comes to Uruk. His human side comes in to play when he sees how Gilgamesh is treating the people. Enkidu and Gilgamesh became good friends and partners in adventures. He gains a great lot of experiences and a kind of love from Gilgamesh. Through his adventures with Gilgamesh he ends up loosing his life and right before he dies he wishes that he had stayed in his animal world and not join the world of man. Enkidu gets sick and tells Shamash that he wishes the hunter never met him, “…he cursed the hunter to his heart’s content” (p129). He ends up gaining a great friend and looses his life, through the friendship. Achilles comes off as a tragic hero. He comes off as a selfish warrior who does not care for his people. He is all for himself. He can be seen as heroic for his frightening skills and his part-god abilities. In the lliad Achilles, does not improve over time. He acts on his own rage and personal feelings. You can feel sorrow for Achilles,...
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...use of them. Cover Design: Jim Manis Copyright © 2000 The Pennsylvania State University The Pennsylvania State University is an equal opportunity university. THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE THE POETICS OF ARISTOTLE Analysis of Contents A TRANSLATION BY S. H. BUTCHER I ‘Imitation’ the common principle of the Arts of Poetry. II The Objects of Imitation. III The Manner of Imitation. IV The Origin and Development of Poetry. V Definition of the Ludicrous, and a brief sketch of the rise of Comedy. VI Definition of Tragedy. VII The Plot must be a Whole. VIII The Plot must be a Unity. IX (Plot continued.) Dramatic Unity. X (Plot continued.) Definitions of Simple and Complex Plots. XI (Plot continued.) Reversal of the Situation, Recognition, and Tragic or disastrous Incident defined and explained. XII The ‘quantitative parts’ of Tragedy defined. XIII (Plot continued.) What...
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...Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Bloom's Classic Critical Views alfred, lord Tennyson Benjamin Franklin The Brontës Charles Dickens edgar allan poe Geoffrey Chaucer George eliot George Gordon, lord Byron henry David Thoreau herman melville Jane austen John Donne and the metaphysical poets John milton Jonathan Swift mark Twain mary Shelley Nathaniel hawthorne Oscar Wilde percy Shelley ralph Waldo emerson robert Browning Samuel Taylor Coleridge Stephen Crane Walt Whitman William Blake William Shakespeare William Wordsworth Bloom’s Classic Critical Views W i l l ia m Sha k e Sp e a r e Edited and with an Introduction by Sterling professor of the humanities Yale University harold Bloom Bloom’s Classic Critical Views: William Shakespeare Copyright © 2010 Infobase Publishing Introduction © 2010 by Harold Bloom All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage or retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher. For more information contact: Bloom’s Literary Criticism An imprint of Infobase Publishing 132 West 31st Street New York NY 10001 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data William Shakespeare / edited and with an introduction by Harold Bloom : Neil Heims, volume editor. p. cm. — (Bloom’s classic critical views) Includes bibliographical references...
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... Mgeander branch of named of Paul it in the of Lyons. the Hierapolis of Colossi that time is mentioned epistle from people (Coloss. there of the was iv. a 13); which church date of fact his master has been concluded at Christian The Hierapolis birth of the apostie. The Epictetus life is that is unknown. he a was a only Rome, recorded and of broke the his was early slave in Epaphroditus, There is a profligate that the freedman master to on emperor his slave's dence evi- Nero, story leg by torturing of or him; but the that it is better trust to the Simplicins, who an commentator the weak how Encheiridion in he Manual, from but says Epictetus It is not in was body became that found and a lame early age. said modern slave; parents it has the this been child. asserted I have times the any sold for be for not, however, authority It may statement. supposed his master that sent the or young slave him showed to ligence, intelthe permitted an attend lectures of It C, may have Musonius seem Rufus, strange slave that made eminent a Stoic pher....
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...Hogarth Blake Presents: Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire By Drusilla Dunjee Houston First published in 1926 This e-book was edited by Hogarth Blake Ltd Download this book and many more for FREE at: hh-bb.com hogarthblake@gmail.com ‘Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire’ by Drusilla Dunjee Houston Reproduction & duplication of this work for FREE is permitted. Refer to the terms & conditions page for more details. Terms & Conditions Scanned at sacred-texts.com, October, 2004. John Bruno Hare, redactor. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was not renewed at the US Copyright Office in a timely fashion as required by law at the time. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice of attribution is left intact in all copies and subject to the sacred texts Terms of Service at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tos.htm Hogarth Blake presents this e-book FREE of charge; it may be used for whatever purpose you see fit. The only limitations are that you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, modify, create derivative works based upon, sell, publish, license or sub-license the work or any part of it without the express written consent of Hogarth Blake Ltd. The work is provided as is. Hogarth Blake Ltd. makes no guarantees or warranties as to the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of or results to be obtained from using the work via hyperlink or otherwise, and expressly...
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...Hogarth Blake Presents: Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire By Drusilla Dunjee Houston First published in 1926 This e-book was edited by Hogarth Blake Ltd Download this book and many more for FREE at: hh-bb.com hogarthblake@gmail.com ‘Wonderful Ethiopians Of The Ancient Cushite Empire’ by Drusilla Dunjee Houston Reproduction & duplication of this work for FREE is permitted. Refer to the terms & conditions page for more details. Terms & Conditions Scanned at sacred-texts.com, October, 2004. John Bruno Hare, redactor. This text is in the public domain in the United States because it was not renewed at the US Copyright Office in a timely fashion as required by law at the time. These files may be used for any non-commercial purpose, provided this notice of attribution is left intact in all copies and subject to the sacred texts Terms of Service at http://www.sacred-texts.com/tos.htm Hogarth Blake presents this e-book FREE of charge; it may be used for whatever purpose you see fit. The only limitations are that you may not decompile, disassemble, reverse engineer, modify, create derivative works based upon, sell, publish, license or sub-license the work or any part of it without the express written consent of Hogarth Blake Ltd. The work is provided as is. Hogarth Blake Ltd. makes no guarantees or warranties as to the accuracy, adequacy or completeness of or results to be obtained from using the work via hyperlink or otherwise, and expressly...
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...A Company of Swans Chapter One There was no lovelier view in England, Harriet knew this. To her right, the soaring towers of King's College Chapel and the immaculate lawns sloping down to the river's edge; to her left, the blue and gold of the scillas and daffodils splashed in rich abundance between the trees of the Fellows' Gardens. Yet as she leaned over the stone parapet of the bridge on which she stood, her face was pensive and her feet— and this was unusual in the daughter of a professor of classics in the year 1912— were folded in the fifth position. She was a thin girl, brown-haired and brown-eyed, whose gravity and gentleness could not always conceal her questing spirit and eagerness for life. Sensibly dressed in a blue caped coat and tarn o'shanter bought to last, a leather music case propped against the wall beside her, she was a familiar figure to the passers-by: to ancient Dr. Ferguson, tottering across the willow-fringed bridge in inner pursuit of an errant Indo-Germanic verb; to a gardener trimming the edges of the grass, who raised his cap to her. Professor Morton's clever daughter; Miss Morton's biddable niece. To grow up in Cambridge was to be fortunate indeed. To be able to look at this marvelous city each day was a blessing of which one should never tire. Harriet, crumbling bread into the water for the world's most blase ducks, had told herself this again and again. But it is not cities which make the destinies of eighteen-year-old girls, it is people— and...
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