Greek Classics Flashcards
Homer, Virgil, and miscellaneous
Epics: Characteristics
Generally a long narrative about sustained heroism.
Classic conventions of ideal epic are
- Invocation of the muse (epic invocation, epic question)
- in medias res (starts in the midst of things)
- background information and description of equipment-participants in form of long lists (epic catalogs)
Epics: Characteristics - 2.
- Some descriptions are highly stylized (epic simile), very long.
Ex) Now gentle gales,
Fanning their odoriferous wings, dispense
Native perfumes, and whisper whence they stole
Those balmy spoils. As when to them who sail
Beyond the Cape of Hope, and now are past
Mozambic, off at a sea northeast winds blow
Sabean odors from the spicy shore
Of Araby the Blest, with such delay
Well pleased they slack their course, and many a league
Cheered with the grateful smell old ocean smiles;
So entertained these odorous sweets the fiend… (John Milton, [Paradise Lost])
5. Interfering or interested supernatural beings that toy with humans
6. Usually resolved by great battle, contest, deed.
Homer [Iliad]: General
Composed sometime around 8th cen. BC. Events Homer describes took place 400 years before. Historically city of Troy stood on eastern wide of the Hellespont in what is now Turkey.
Homer [Iliad]: Background
City of Troy, ruled by Priam, is under siege from Spartan army Agamemnon Priam’s son, Paris, has stolen Helen, the wife of Agamemnon’s brother, Menelaus. The siege has been ongoing for ten years and is deadlocked.
Homer [Iliad]: Events
“This is the story of an angry man.” Achilles is best warrior and his men Myrmidons are the fiercest fighters. Agamemnon (commander-in-chief) took Achilles’ favorite woman, Bryseis, and angered him. Achilles goes back to his ship with the Myrmidons and his best friend, Patroclos.
The Trojans, led by Hector, (brother of Paris and son of Priam) turn the tide of battle and push the fight back to Greek ships at the shore. Leading Greek captains including Odysseus tell Agamemnon to apologize to Achilles. Agamemnon offers to compensate but Achilles is not appeased, but lets Patroclos take Achilles’ armor and enter the battle. He saves the ships but is killed by Hector and loses the armor.
Achilles is angry and calls his mother demi-god Thetis, gets a fantastic armor crafted by Hephaestus. Achilles kills Hector and drags the corpse behind a chariot. Priam begs for the body and Achilles gives it to him.
Zeus
Jupiter
chief god, god of the sky
Poseidon
Neptune
lord of the sea
Hades
Pluto
lord of the dead, the underworld (but not of death itself)
Hestia
Vesta
goddess of the hearth
Hera
Juno
protector of marriage
Ares
Mars
god of war
Athena
Minerva
goddess of wisdom
Aphrodite
Venus
goddess of love and beauty
Hermes
Mercury
messenger god (leads dead to underworld; inventor of music)
Artemis (twin of Apollo)
Diana
goddess of the hunt
Apollo
Phoebus
god of healing, intellectual pursuits, fine arts, prophesy… in later years, sun and light
Hephaestus
Vulcan
god of smiths and weavers
Demeter
Ceres
goddess of the harvest
Persephone
Proserpine
goddess of the underworld
Dionysus
Bacchus
god of wine
Eros
Cupid
god of love
Eris
goddess of strife
Pan
god of goatherds and shepherds (plays the fife and has a goat-like appearance)
The Graces
daughters of Zeus and Eurynome.
Aglaia - Splendor
Euphrosyne - Mirth
Thalia - Good Cheer
The Muses
daughters of Zeus and Mnemosyne. Known for their music which brings joy to any who hear it.
Clio - History Urania - Astronomy Melpomene - Tragedy Thalia - Comedy Terpsichore - Dance Calliope - Epic Poetry Erato - Love Poetry Polyhymnia - Songs to the Gods Euterpe - Lyric Poetry
The Furies
punish crime
The Fates
choose a man’s destiny and life span
Titans
ruled the earth before the Olympians overthrew them
Chronos
Saturn
ruler of the Titans
The Naiads
one of three classes of water nymphs (other two are Nereides and Oceanides)
God Family Tree: first generation
Chaos begets:
Gaea, Tartarus, Eros, Erebus
God Family Tree: second generation
Gaea begets:
Uranus, Mountains, Pontus
God Family Tree: third generation
Gaea begets with Uranus:
Cyclope, Hecatonchires, Cronus, Coeus, Oceanus
God Family Tree: fourth generation (1)
Cronus begets with Rhea:
Hestia, Hades, Poseidon, Zeus, Demeter
God Family Tree: fourth generation (2)
Coeus begets with Phoebe:
Leto
God Family Tree: fourth generation (3)
Oceanus begets with Tethys:
Iapetus
God Family Tree: fifth generation (1)
Zeus begets:
Athena
God Family Tree: fifth generation (2)
Zeus begets with Hera:
Ares, Hebe, Hephaestus
God Family Tree: fifth generation (3)
Zeus begets with Demeter:
Persephone
God Family Tree: fifth generation (4)
Leto begets with Zeus:
Apollo, Artemis
God Family Tree: fifth generation (5)
Iapetus begets:
Atlas, Prometheus, Epimetheus
God Family Tree: sixth generation (1)
Atlas begets:
Maia
God Family Tree: sixth generation (2)
Epimetheus begets:
Dione
God Family Tree: seventh generation (1)
Maia begets with Zeus:
Hermes
God Family Tree: seventh generation (2)
Dione begets with Zeus:
Aphrodite
Homer [Odyssey]: Synopsis (Why is Odysseus cursed?)
(1) After the sacking of Troy, Odysseus attempt to return to his home, Ithaca, with twelve ships and his men. They meet Cyclops Polyphemus and blind him, and his father Poseidon curse them. Eleven of the twelve ships are lost in battle with giants.
Homer [Odyssey]: Synopsis (Who stalls them after the giants?)
(2) They come to island Aenea where Circe turns Odysseus’ men in to pigs. Odysseus have them returned to human form, and they are allowed to leave a year after.
Homer [Odyssey] : Synopsis (What great calamity happens again?)
(3) Odysseus successfully sails between Scylla and Charybdis, and resist the Sirens’ song, but then their men commit sacrilege and kill sacred cows of Helios. They are struck down by Zeus and only Odysseus survive.
Homer [Odyssey]: Synopsis (How does Odysseus finally return home?)
(4) He washes up on Ogygia, island home of Calypso. She detains him for seven years (start of Homer’s narrative) but releases him at Zeus’ command. He builds a raft and gets to land of Scheria after a mishap with Poseidon. He learns at Scheria that his and his companions’ exploits in plains around Troy have become legends. He tells of his subsequent adventures and is returned to Ithaca by ship.
Homer [Odyssey]: Synopsis (What is happening back home?)
(5) In the meanwhile Penelope, Odysseus’ wife, is set by suitors but she put them off with ruses and obstinacy. They plot to have the son Telemachus murdered but he evades their schemes.
Homer [Odyssey]: Synopsis (How does the story end?)
(6) Penelope’s story of stalling and Odysseus’ of returning are united. Odysseus dons a disguise, recognized only by his dog, and slaughters the suitors who are eating him out of house and home, and also the servants that have been in cahoots with them. His martial competence and intervention of Athena prevent the suitors’ relatives from pressing for revenge. Story ends with Odysseus restored to his home and wife.
Virgil: General
He wanted to write epic poems that would be for Romans what the Iliad and Odyssey had been for Greeks. He was a student of tradition.
Due to Catholic church’s influence until the end of nineteenth century, Latin was more studied than Greek, and Virgil and Aeneid had more direct influence.
Virgil: References
Virgil leads Dante through Inferno and Purgatorio.
Book structure of John Milton’s [Paradise Lost] is lifted from book structure of the Aeneid.
Even after Greek made a big comeback in 18th and 19th cen., George Bernard Shaw was more familiar with Virgil and his play [Arms and the Man] is reference to first line of his epic “I sing of arms and the man…”
In that sense, James Joyce’s use of Homer in Ulysses (1922) was somewhat an anomaly (even here the Latin name of Odysseus is used.)
Virgil [Aeneid]: Synopsis (Background)
Like Homer, things start in middle. Like Homer, Juno (Hera) hates Trojans. Aeneas, a Trojan soldier and son of Venus, is leading a fleet to find a new home after their defeat to Greeks. They are foretold they will find a good place to Italy, but Juno blows them to Carthage. Aeneas woos Carthaginian Queen Dido.
Virgil [Aeneid]: Synopsis (What did Aeneas tell Dido?)
It’s between the end of Iliad and present. The “Trojan Horse” was a ruse by Ulysses and given as a gift. Trojan priest Laocoon warned against it, but was eaten by two giant sea snakes. Aeneas fights at the assault but Venus intervenes to tell him to flee. He does with father Anchises on his back.
(Friedrich Schiller’s essay “Laocoon” is not about Virgil but about a statue that was inspired by Laocoon’s cruel fate)
Virgil [Aeneid]: Synopsis (How does Aeneas leave?)
Aeneas doesn’t remember his purpose until Jupiter and Mercury remind him. At his leaving, Dido kills herself and vows Carthage will avenge her (Rome’s recent Punic wars - at the time Virgil was writing - with Carthage are invoked)
Virgil [Aeneid]: References to Dido
William Shakespeare [Romeo and Juliet]: Mercutio alludes to Dido in “Queen Mab” speech
Dante Alighieri [Inferno]: in second circle of hell for her lust
Christopher Marlowe [Dido, Queen of Carthage]
T. S. Eliot [The Waste Land]: “A Game of Chess” section, Lil is a composite of abandoned lovers including Dido
Virgil [Aeneid]: Synopsis (What happens after that?)
Aeneas and his men arrive to Italian shores and fulfill their destinies. Aeneas teams up with king of the Latins, Evander, to combat Turnus and the Rutuli. Many people are killed and at last they settle in Italy.
Aeschylus [Oresteia]: General
Written in 5th cen. BC. Curse is upon the House of Atreus, and Atreus’ sons Agamemnon and Menelaus. Story intersects with Trojan War (Iliad).
Aeschylus [Oresteia]: Family Tree (1st, 2nd, 3rd generation)
Tantalus begets Pelops begets Thyestes and Atreus.
Aeschylus [Oresteia]: Family Tree (4th generation)
Aegisthus is married to Cytemnestra but is later killed.
Menelaus marries Helen (Trojan War).
Agamemnon marries Clytemnestra and begets Iphigenia, Electra, Orestes.
Aeschylus [Oresteia] [Agamemnon]: Synopsis
After Trojan War is concluded, Agamemnon returns to Sparta with Cassandra (daughter of Priam) as a love slave. Clytemnestra in the meanwhile is having an affair with Aegisthus. Despite this Clytemnestra feels jealousy and, with Aegisthus, murder Cassandra and Agamemnon, justifying as revenge for Agememnon sacrificing daughter Iphigenia for fair winds.
Aeschylus [Oresteia] [Choesphoroe]
“The Libation Bearers”
Orestes, Agamemnon and Clytemnestra’s exiled son, kills Aegisthus and Clytemnestra despite her begging almost successfully for mercy. The Furies, divinities of pitiless and relentless revenge (especially within families) shriek down on Orestes and drive him partly mad.
Aeshylus [Oresteia] [The Eumenides]
“Benevolent Ones”
Orestes pleads to Apollo for protection and Athena grants a trial with Athenian citizens. They as well as Athena are the judges, the Furies are prosecution. Vote is split and Athena declares a tie goes to the defendant. The Furies aren’t happy but Athena promises to share the ruling of Athens. Curse on House of Atreus is laid to rest.
Sophocles [Oedipus the King]
Written in 5th cen. BC.
The Oracle prophesies king of Thebes, Laius, will have a son who murders his father and marries his mother. Laius orders to slay his and Jocasta’s son. His feet are pierced by given to a shepherd and taken in by childless king and queen of Corinth.
He then learns from Delphic Oracle of the same prophesy. He vows never to return, wanders, kills a stranger, solves the sphinx’s riddle, becomes kind of Thebes and marries Jocasta. Truth comes out, Oedipus blinds himself, Jocasta hangs herself.
Sophocles [Oedipus at Colonus]
Oedipus had children with Jocasta, Polyneices, Eteocles, Antigone, Ismene. After King Oedipus dies, his children decide to share rulership of Thebes. Eteocles reigns first and refuses to yield after his year is up, Polyneices organizes army against him and attacks Thebes. They kill each other. (story behind [Seven Against Thebes] by Aeschylus)
Sophocles [Antigone]
Creon, brother of Jocasta and regent of Thebes, decrees Polyneices not to be buried since he attacked his own city (his spirit will not find peace). Antigone buries him despite the punishment of death. Creon entombs her alive in a cave, Antigone kills herself, Creon’s son Haemon (and also her lover) finds the body and stabs himself.
