Ancient Greek Literature Flashcards
Ancient ‘father of tragedy’ who purportedly died when an eagle dropped a turtle on his head.
Aeschylus
Trilogy by Aeschylus concerning Agamemnon’s death at the hands of Clytemnestra, and Clytemnestra’s murder by Orestes.
Oresteia
Three plays of the Oresteia
Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides
New name of the Furies that is given to them by Athena at the end of the Oresteia
The Eumenides
Play by Aeschylus in which Polynices, the son of Oedipus, raises an army from Argos to depose Oedipus’s brother Eteocles.
Seven Against Thebes (named after the seven captains of the Argive army)
Play by Aeschylus made up of speeches of the title chained Titan.
Prometheus Bound
Play by Aeschylus which follows the aftermath of the Battle of Salamis, in which Xerxes’ mother Atossa summons the ghost of King Darius, who vehemently rebukes Xerxes’ decision to invade Greece.
The Persians
Play by Aeschylus in which the 50 Danaids escape a forced marriage to their Egyptian cousins by fleeing to Argos. The King of Argos, Pelasgus, protects them from an Egyptian army.
The Suppliants (Important: Remember there is a similarly named play by Euripides, which is NOT about the Danaids)
Greek Father of Comedy
Aristophanes
Aristophanes Comedy in which the title woman tries to end the Peloponnesian War by denying men sex.
Lysistrata
Play by Aristophanes in which Strepsiades and his son Pheidippides go to Socrates’ school ‘The Thinkery’ to learn how to make a wrong argument sound right (in order to win a debt case). The play ends with the newly intellectual Pheidippides beating Strepsiades, arguing that sons can beat their fathers, and Strepsiades leading an army to attack The Thinkery.
The Clouds (Patron goddesses of thinkers who serve as the play’s chorus)
Play by Aristophanes in which a disgruntled Athenian, Pisthetaerus, gets the birds to build a new city in the clouds (Cloud-cuckoo-land). The play ends with the Olympians starved (the Athenian offerings couldn’t get to them) and the birds becoming the new rulers of the world.
The Birds
Play by Aristophanes in which Dionysus and his servant Xanthius cross Lake Acheron to get to the Underworld. The play ends with a conflict between Euripides and Aeschylus for the seat of ‘Best Tragic Poet’ at Hades’ dinner table. The conflict includes a scene where the two playwrights compete to say words that will better weigh down a scale balance.
The Frogs (After the brekbrekbreak-koakkoak sound that the frogs make in Lake Acheron)
Play by Aristophanes, references a “revenge” to a prosecution that had occurred after he insulted Cleon in The Babylonians. This is the oldest extant Aristophanes play, and it is about Diakopolis’s miraculous peace treaty with Sparta that is attacked by Athenian war-hawks (called Acharnae).
The Acharnians
Play by Aristophanes, in which he exacts the revenge against Cleon that he mentioned in The Acharnians, roundly abusing him. This play features the sausage seller Agoracritus, who vies with a slave (representing Cleon) for the confidence and approval of Demus (the Athenian public).
The Knights
Aristophanes play which satirizes the legal system. It features the son Bdelycleon (Cleon hater) and the father Philocleon (Cleon lover) with the son trying to convince his father not to enter the Cleon-dominated law courts as a jurer.
The Wasps
Tragedy by Euripides featuring a Princess of Colchis carrying out a revenge plot against her former husband Jason after he remarries, as well as against his new wife Glauce and her father Creon, as well as her own children with Jason. She gains refuge in Athens after curing King Aegeus’s sterility.
Medea
In this Euripides play, Dionysus exerts revenge of the royal family of Thebes for not acknowledging his divinity or existence (as he was product of an affair between Semele, part of the royal family, and Zeus). It ends with the current King of Thebes, Pentheus, getting torn apart by his own deluded mother Agave and the title followers of Dionysus.
The Bacchae
Euripides Play following the fates of prominent Trojan women, including Cassandra (yes, the cursed one), Andromache, and dethroned Queen Hecuba. Throughout the play, the herald Talthybius delivers bad news.
The Trojan Women
Greek Lesbian writer of “Ode to Aphrodite” in which she pleads with the goddess to heal her broken heart (https://www.poemhunter.com/poem/ode-to-aphrodite/) and the Ode to Anactoria.
Sappho
Sophocles play where King Creon refuses to allow Antigone, the sister of Ismene, to bury her brother Polynices, leading to her and her love interest Haemon’s deaths/suicides.
Antigone
Playwright of Philoctetes, Ajax, and The Women of Trachis
Sophocles
