Aeschylus was born in Eleusis, a Greek town near Athens, in 525 B.C. He was the first of the great Greek tragedians, preceding both Sophocles and Euripides, and is often credited with inventing tragic drama. Prior to Aeschylus, plays were primitive, consisting of a single actor and a chorus offering commentary. In his works, he added a
"second
actor" (often more than one) thus creating endless new dramatic possibilities. He lived until 456 B.C., fighting in the wars against Persia, and attaining great acclaim in the world of the Athenian theater.
Aeschylus wrote nearly ninety plays; however, only seven have survived to the modern era, including such famous works as Prometheus Bound and The Seven
Against
Thebes. Agamemnon is the first of a trilogy, called the Oresteia, which continues with The
Libation-Bearers and concludes with The Eumenides. The trilogy--the only such work to survive from Ancient Greece--is considered by many critics to be the greatest
Athenian
tragedy ever written, both for the power of its poetry and the strength of its characters.
Agamemnon depicts the assassination of the title character by his wife,
Clytemnestra, and her lover; The Libation-Bearers continues the story with the return of
Agamemnon's son, Orestes, who kills his mother and avenges his father.
Orestes is pursued by the Furies in punishment for his matricide, and finally finds refuge in Athens, where the god Athena relieves him of his persecution.
The events of Agamemnon take place against a backdrop that would have been familiar to an Athenian audience. Agamemnon is returning from his victory at
Troy, which
Palmieri 2
has been besieged for ten years by Greek armies attempting to recover Helen,
Agamemnon's brother's wife, stolen treacherously by the Trojan Prince, Paris.
(The events of the Trojan War are recounted in Homer's Iliad.) The play's tragic events occur as a result of the crimes committed by Agamemnon's family. His father, Atreus, murdered and cooked the children of his own brother, Thyestes, and served them to him;
Clytemnestra's
lover, Aegisthus (Thyestes's only surviving son), seeks revenge for that crime. Meanwhile,
Agamemnon sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia to gain a favorable wind to Troy, and Clytemnestra murders him to avenge her death.
Tragedies were Athenian, reflecting the taste and intellectual climate of mid fifth century Athens. The weight of history and heritage becomes a major theme of the play, and indeed of the entire trilogy, for the family it depicts cannot escape the cursed cycle of bloodshed from its past.
Aeschylus wrote this victory-winning trilogy in Athens, 458 B.C. His participation in a loosely organized political “group” is thought to have influenced his
Undoubtedly there has been a tremendous amount of speculation and dissection of this play by countless people throughout the ages. I can only draw my own conclusions as to what Sophocles intended the meaning of his play to be. The drama included a number of horrific and unthinkable moral and ethical dilemas, but I believe that was what made the play so interesting and that is exactly the way Sophocles intended it to be. The play was obviously meant to entertain and portray the author’s own insight. The underlying theme to the play is that no man should know his own destiny, it will become his undoing. This knowledge of things to come was presented to both Laius and Oedipus in the form of prophecies well in advance of it coming to be. The prophecies told of things that were so morally disturbing that they both aggressively did everything in their power to try and stop them from coming true. The story begins with Oedipus at the height of power as King of Thebes. His kingdom has encountered rough times and he has sent his nobleman Creon to seek help from the god Apollo to restore his land. Creon tells Oedipus that he must find the murderer of the previous King Laius and by finding this man and banishing him, his land will be restored. The murder occurred some time ago and King Oedipus sends for the seer Theiresias with his powers of prophecy to aid in the search for the murderer. Sophocles cleverly projects his feelings on wisdom and knowledge through Teirsias when he says “Alas, how terrible is wisdom when it brings no profit to the man that’s wise!”(23) Teirsias knows that this terrible prophecy has already been set into motion and the damage has already been done. There is really no point in telling it to Oedipus because it will only cause more harm than good. Oedipus provokes Teirsias into telling him the prophecy, “ Í tell you, king, this man, this murderer-he is here. In name he is a stranger among citizens but soon he will be shown to be a citizen true native Theban, and he’ll have no joy of the discovery: blindness for sight and beggary for riches his exchange, he shall go journeying to a foreign country tapping his way befor him with a stick.
In modern theatres today we do not have a chorus, as it would obscure the view of the play and maybe set the wrong atmosphere as modern audiences are less willing to suspend their disbelief and want things to be as realistic.
are a reflection of his devotion to the ideals of an honorable Roman hero. A roman hero is one whose actions are guided by pietas and stoicism. Aeneas is fated to found the great Empire of Rome. On this journey, he endures many instances of great personal suffering yet continues to act in accordance with the fate, which has been imposed upon him by the gods, exemplifying his adherence to the standards of a Roman hero. Beginning in Book Ten, however, when the gods withdraw from human affairs, the death of a comrade, Pallas, ignites an ineradicable anger in Aeneas, causing him to perform actions in direct contrast with the ideals of a Roman hero. This withdrawal of the gods reveals Aeneas’ true character, as he acts according to his own will, exposing his ignoble nature. illustrates the pinnacle of Aeneas’s betrayal of Roman heroism. Rather than enact clementia , Aeneas chooses to indulge in his rage and kill Turnus, ignoring his invocation of familial piety and violating the characteristics of a truly pious Roman Stoic hero.
I believe that the ending of the Aeneid shows that Aeneas is very heroic. According to Webster’s New Dictionary, “a man of distinguished bravery” and “admired for his exploits.” Aeneas is very brave when he fights Turnus, especially because it is known that the gods are on his side. He successfully killed Turnus, which is an achievement that calls for admiration.
Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound portrays a greek god detained by a superior for disobedience against the latter’s rule. On the other hand in Euripides’ Hippolytus portrays lust and vengeance of the gods and the extent that they can go to to avenge it.
Concealed weapons on college campuses have been a debatable issue for a long time now. “Statistically, colleges and universities are relatively safe environments for students, faculty, and administrators”, but will concealed carry affect this (Kirszner and Mandell, 626)?Supporters argue that being able to carry a concealed weapon lowers the percentage of shooting or accidents and that it is simply constitutional to have the right to bear arms. On the other hand, non-supporters believe that this will affect the way of learning in school, and raise anxiety. While it is true that having a concealed weapon can make the person holding it feel safe, we should not allow it because it may bring more negative rather than positive things into the college campuses.
The Second Amendment guarantees that an individual’s right to possess and bear arms will not be infringed upon, yet college campuses have denied their students’ right to carry a weapon for years. As of 2014, 22 states do not allow students to carry guns on campus and 22 leave the policy of guns on campus to the schools. The remaining 6 allow students to carry weapons, but not necessarily into school buildings. Only in Utah is a student’s right to concealed carry protected by state law. While the government, state or federal, may not be able to control a private institutions right to ban guns, on public school grounds, students should be allowed to legally carry weapons, as they are on almost any other public grounds. Not only is the right protected by the Second Amendment, allowing concealed carry on campuses would contribute to lower crime rates, rather than lead to more crime.
The sign on a college campus reads: “No weapons allowed on campus.” The majority of people would look and the sign and feel safe when they enter. But when you ask the students of Virginia Tech if they feel secure and protected every day, they would answer the exact opposite. Thirty-two people were killed on a terrifying day in April 2007. What did they learn? Criminals don’t need permission to bring weapons to school, so what’s the point in the rule against it? More than likely, a college campus is more worried about what might happen if they allowed guns than generating an answer that will stop the violence altogether. David Burnett, the president of Students for Concealed Carry, agrees by claiming, “Rather than considering that criminals fear armed victims more than rules, colleges peddle imaginary problems as an excuse not to implement real solutions.” It is logical to view the issue this way, but the fact is allowing licensed carry is more lik...
Many times humans do things that contradict another thing they do. An example of this is one thing may be good but also bad at the same time. A person who has done this more then once is Oedipus in the writer Sophocles plays. Sophocles uses imagery like light verses darkness, knowledge verses ignorance and sight verses blindness.
Oftentimes, the things individuals take for granted as preexisting facts are merely the products of social construction, which exert tremendous impacts on belief and action. Men and women are socially constructed categories inscribed by norms of masculinity and femininity that enables rape to occur. Catharine MacKinnon claims that rape is defined in a male perspective, which lacks the account of female experience. On the other hand, Sharon Marcus argues that rape is a constructed language that scripts the female body. As bell hooks points out, black men celebrate “rape culture” as a mean of expressing patriarchal dominance and endorsing female subordination. In order to redefine rape and to develop effective rape prevention, it is crucial to deconstruct the predetermined assumptions about men and women. Rape is socially constructed, through the ways how individuals possess misogynistic ideologies and endorse patriarchal power, turning the erotic fantasy of male dominance into “reality”.
Many people seem to be under the impression that the Aeneid is a celebration of Roman glory, led by the hero of fate Aeneas. I find these preconceived ideas hard to reconcile with my actual reading of the text. For starters, I have a hard time viewing Aeneas as a hero at all. Almost any other main characters in the epic, from Dido to Camilla to Turnus, have more heroic qualities than Aeneas. This is especially noteworthy because many of these characters are his enemies. In addition, Aeneas is presented as a man with no free will. He is not so much bound to duty as he is shielded by it. It offers a convenient way for hum to dodge crucial moral questions. Although this doesn’t necessarily make him a bad person, it certainly makes him a weak one. Of course some will argue that it takes greater moral conviction to ignore personal temptation and act for the good of the people. These analysts are dodging the issue just like Aeneas does. The fact is that Aeneas doesn’t just sacrifice his own personal happiness for the common good; he also sacrifices the past of the Trojan people, most notably when he dishonors the memory of his fallen city by becoming the men he hated most, the Greek invaders. The picture of Aeneas as seen in the end of the Aeneid bears some sticking resemblances to his own depiction of the savage and treacherous Greeks in the early books.
While A Chorus Line had an interesting plot, the actors brought it to life. Every face had excellent expressions, presenting their characters perfectly. Also, each actor added their own twist on the characters,
Even though Oedipus is a hero, we should not admire him, as the intentions for his actions are self-centered. This distinction is necessary to help us better understand the difference between being a hero, and a hero worth of admiration. It is important to know that somebody’s admiration must ultimately stem from the intentions of their actions rather than the results of their actions alone, so we can act accordingly in the future.
In the Greek theatre they take on a significant role of emphasising the storyline by groups speaking in unison rather than one single actor trying to reach the ears of around 17,000 listeners. They were after all a very natural part of Greek theatre and their absence would certainly reflect an unorthodox presentation. They also keep the emotion running as any scene changes can be done during their narrative sections. In a 20th Century production, the chorus performs a seemingly less essential role. As there would be ample amplification of sound, the chorus could be projected to the role of town folk who would fit into the structure of the play neatly.
Aristotle’s fifth point was that of Melody. The Chorus should “be regarded as one of the actors; it should be an integral part of the whole, and share in the action”. In Shakespeare’s works there is often singing in the beginning, or interludes during the performance.