Electra

HW#1 Do online research about Sophocles and Aeschylus. Compare the three major ancient Greek dramatists' styles.

Aim: Through the peasant's monologue, what conflict is revealed? Why is Electra living in the country outside Argos with a peasant?

Do Now: In your journal respond-If your loved one is killed by a murderer and the murderer is not punished by the law, what would you do to bring the murderer to justice?

Read pages 3-5, the monologue by the peasant and the dialogue between the peasant and Electra and describe-

HW# 2 Use the Resource: Trojan War Myth to write a report on the Trojan War.
HW#3 Do research on the ancient Greek burial customs and write a report on the topic. Make sure to cite sources in your report.

Homer ------ Euripides, Sophocles and Aeschylus (Ancient Greece) -------Roman Empire--------Shakespeare---Enlightenment---21stcentury Modern World

· 1184 BC for the end of the Trojan War, the semi-mythical event which forms the basis for the Iliad

· Herodotus estimated that Homer lived and wrote in the ninth century BC. He almost certainly lived in one of the Greek city-states in Asia Minor. All of the traditional sources say that he was blind.

· His works have formed a foundation for all the Western literature that has followed, and his characters and stories have had an impact on three thousand years' worth of readers.

· He retired to the court of Archelaus, king of Macedon, by whom he was treated with consideration and affection. At his death he was mourned by the king, who, refusing the request of the Athenians that his remains be carried back to the Greek city, buried him with much splendor within his own dominions. His tomb was placed at the confluence of two streams, near Arethusa in Macedonia, and a cenotaph was built to his memory on the road from Athens towards the Piraeus.

· “The works of Euripides have been more variously judged than those of the other two great masters. His art, it has been said, is tamer than theirs, and his genius rhetorical rather than poetical, while the morality that he teaches belongs to the school of Sophists. On the other hand his admirers claim that he is the most tragic of the Greek tragedians, the most pathetic of the Attic poets, the most humane in his social philosophy and the most skillful in psychological insight. Doubtless he owed to Socrates the philosophy interwoven in his tragedies, causing him to be named the "stage philosopher," one haunted by the demon of Socrates. Though he did not live in the most stirring period of the nation's life, he was, both in spirit and in choice of themes, intensely patriotic, and to him is due the spread of dramatic literature more than to any other of the ancient bards. Tragedy followed in his footsteps in Greece and Rome; comedy owed him much, even in the style of Aristophanes, who ridiculed him, and in Menander, who borrowed his sentiments. When the modern drama grafted the classical element on its crude growth, the plays of Euripides were, directly or indirectly, the most powerful influence in the establishment of a living connection between them.”

· The "Father of Tragedy," Aeschylus was born in 525 B.C. in the city of Eleusis. Immersed early in the mystic rites of the city and in the worship of the Mother and Earth goddess Demeter, he was once sent as a child to watch grapes ripening in the countryside. According to Aeschylus, when he dozed off, Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and ordered him to write tragedies. The obedient young Aeschylus began a tragedy the next morning and "succeeded very easily." T

· It was a huge leap for drama when Aeschylus introduced the second actor. He also attempted to involve the chorus directly in the action of the play.

· Although Aeschylus is said to have written over ninety plays, only seven have survived. His first extant work, The Suppliants, reveals a young Aeschylus still struggling with the problems of choral drama. The tale revolves around the fifty daughers of Danaus who seek refuge in Argos from the attentions of the fifty sons of Aegyptus. His second extant drama, The Persians, recounts the battle of Salamis--in which Aeschylus and his brother actually fought--and deals primarily with the reception of the news at the imperial court. This play contains the first "ghost scene" of extant drama. In his third surviving play, Prometheus Bound, Aeschylus tackles the myth of Prometheus

· Born in about 496 BC to a wealthy factory-owner in the Athenian suburb of Colonus,"

· Although Sophocles completed more than a hundred and twenty tragedies, only seven survive, of which Antigone is the earliest. In the play he demonstrated such political acuity, it is said, that the city made him a general in the Athenian army. Though his father's wealth could have assured him of a life of self-directed leisure, Sophocles spent many years serving in public office, as a treasurer and foreign emissary.

· Sophocles was a close friend of Pericles, the greatest ruler of fifth-century Athens, and it is not hard to read his plays as subtle cautions regarding the governance of the polis. The plague that ravages Thebes in Oedipus the King, for example, mirrored an epidemic that had recently swept through Athens, a city less than thirty miles from the mythical home of Oedipus and Antigone. The plays retained political resonance for decades; ather of Tragedy," Aeschylus

· Two thousand years ago, the world was ruled by Rome, and Rome was in turmoil. From the chaos of civil war, the Roman Empire would rise even stronger to embrace hundreds of cultures, and till the soil from which western civilization would grow.

Meet the Emperors of Rome, read the words of poets and philosophers, learn about life in the 1st Century AD,

· The poet Virgil echoed the hope that Augustus would rescue Rome from ruin. In his early pastoral poetry, the Eclogues (42 BC — 39 BC), Virgil imagined the birth of a new Golden Age.

Ye famous ships, that on a day were brought to land at Troy by those countless oars, what time ye led the Nereids' dance, where the dolphin music-loving rolled and gambolled round your dusky prows, escorting Achilles, nimble son of Thetis, when he went with Agamemnon to the banks of Trojan Simois;

When Nereids left Euboea's strand, bringing from Hephaestus' golden forge the harness he had fashioned for that warrior's use; him long they sought o'er Pelion and Ossa's spurs, ranging the sacred glens and the peaks of Nymphaea, where his knightly sire was training up a light for Hellas, even the sea-born son of Thetis, a warrior swift to help the sons of Atreus.

One that came from Ilium, and set foot in the haven of Nauplia, told me that on the circle of thy far-famed targe, O son of Thetis, was wrought this blazon, a terror to the Phrygians; on the rim of the buckler Perseus with winged sandals, was bearing in his hand across the main the Gorgon's head, just severed by the aid of Hermes, the messenger of Zeus, that rural god whom Maia bore;

While in the centre of the shield the sun's bright orb flashed light on the backs of his winged coursers; there too was the heavenly choir of stars, Pleiades and Hyades, to dazzle Hector's eyes and make him flee; and upon his gold-forged helm were sphinxes, bearing in their talons the prey of which the minstrels sing; on his breast-plate was lioness breathing flame, her eye upon Peirene's steed, in eagerness to rend it.

There too in murderous fray four-footed steeds were prancing, while oer their backs uprose dark clouds of dust. But he who led these warriors stout, was slain by wedding thee, malignant child of Tyndareus! Wherefore shall the gods of heaven one day send thee to thy doom, and I shall yet live to see the sword at thy throat, drinking its crimson tide.

HW#6 Look up the following references using the resource link and Interpret the song by the Chorus.

Read pages from24-34 (after the Chorus' lines) and discus & answer the aim questions.

Aim: How did Orestes kill] Aegisthus according to the Messenger on pages 36-37? What ancient Greek custom was described?

Read the myth about the House of Atreus myth. Use your own ingenious way to explain the myth . Use the reference to do your illustration.

"Still the story finds a place in time-honoured legends, how on day Pan, the steward of husbandry, came breathing dulcet music on his jointed pipe, and brought with him from its tender dam on Argive hills, a beauteous lamb with fleece of gold; then stood a herald high upon the rock and cried aloud, "Away to the place of assembly, ye folk of Mycenae! to behold the strange and awful sight vouchsafed to our blest rulers." Anon the dancers did obeisance to the family of Atreus;

The altar-steps of beaten gold were draped; and through that Argive town the altars blazed with fire; sweetly rose the lute's clear note, the handmaid of the Muse's song; and ballads fair were written on the golden lamb, saying that Thyestes had the luck; for he won the guilty love of the wife of Atreus, and carried off to his house the strange creature, and then coming before the assembled folk he declared to them that he had in his house that horned beast with fleece of gold.

In the self-same hour it was that Zeus changed the radiant courses of the stars, the light of the sun, and the joyous face of dawn, and drave his car athwart the western sky with fervent heat from heaven's fires, while northward fled the rain-clouds, and Ammon's strand grew parched and faint and void of dew, when it was robbed of heaven's genial showers.

'Tis said, though I can scarce believe it, the sun turned round his glowing throne of gold, to vex the sons of men by this change because of the quarrel amongst them. Still, tales of horror have their use in making men regard the gods; of whom thou hadst no thought, when thou slewest thy husband, thou mother of this noble pair."

Aim: How did the CHORUS feel about Orestes killing of Aegisthus? How did Electra express her feelings toward Aegisthus's death ( based on her monologue on page 40)?

"Terrible alike his crime and your revenge; for mighty is the power of justice"?

Procedure

Read pages 41-50("I too bewail thee, dying by thy children's hands. God deals out His justice in His good time. A cruel fate is thine, unhappy one; yet didst thou sin in murdering thy lord".
Discuss-
- What was Electra's plan to kill Clytemnestra?
- How did Orestes feel about the plan?
- How was Orestes torn between his duty to his revenge for his father and his love for his mother?
- What arguments did Clytemnestra use to defend herself and her murdering her husband Agamemnon( pages 44-45)?
- How did Electra refute her mother's arguments by presenting her perspectives (pages 45-46)?
- Why did Clytemnestra changed her attitude all of a sudden as demonstrated in her speech "
  
  Daughter, 'twas ever thy nature to love thy father. This too one finds; some sons cling to their father, others have a deeper affection for their mother. I will forgive thee, for myself am not so exceeding glad at the deed that I have done, my child. But thou,-why thus unwashed and clad in foul attire, now that the days of thy lying-in are accomplished? Ah me, for my sorry schemes! I have goaded my husband into anger more than e'er I should have done."?
- How did Electra trick her mother to get into her hut where Clytemnestra would be killed?
- Comment on the Chorus' chanting( page 49)-
  
  "Misery is changing sides; the breeze veers round, and now blows fair upon my house. The day is past when my chief fell murdered in his bath, and the roof and the very stones of the walls rang with this his cry: "O cruel wife, why art thou murdering me on my return to my dear country after ten long years?"
  
  The tide is turning, and justice that pursues the faithless wife is drawing within its grasp the murderess, who slew her hapless lord, when he came home at last to these towering Cyclopean walls,-aye, with her own hand she smote him with the sharpened steel, herself the axe uplifting. Unhappy husband! whate'er the curse that possessed that wretched woman. Like a lioness of the hills that rangeth through the woodland for her prey, she wrought the deed."
Homework #10
- What arguments did Clytemnestra use to defend herself and her murdering her husband Agamemnon( pages 44-45)?
- How did Electra refute her mother's arguments by presenting her perspectives (pages 45-46)?
Lesson 9

Aim: How did Electra and Orestes react to their mother's death? Why were they pardoned by the gods (pages 52-56)?

Procedure:
1. Who (is) are Dioscuri? Why are they here? Why didn't they save Clytemnestra?
2. Based on Dioscuri's speech, what were their comment's on Electra and Orestes's murder of their mother? What oracle did they bring to them? What is the punishment waiting for them?
3. Look up the meaning of the following references:
  - Halirrothius
  - Ares
  - Pallas
  - Loxias
  - Acadia
  - Alpheus
  - Lycaean
  - Proteus
  - Phocis
  - Isthmus
  - Cecropia
4. Use this link to look up the images for the Gods and Goddesses mentioned in the play
5. About ORACLES
6. What 's the appointed doom for Orestes and Electra? What will happen to them once they fulfill the doom?
Homework #11
1. Use your own words to retell the story of why Electra and Orestes merely fulfill the oracle by Phoebus.
2. What 's the message of the play according to the last lines by Dioscuri and the Chorus on pages 55 &56?

Electra

by Euripides 410 BC translated by E. P. Coleridge