Lesson 13- Messenger speeches and the agon

Question 1

what were messenger speeches?

Answer 1

Messenger speeches were a standard plot device in Greek tragedy- playwrights adapted them to suit their purposes so that they had a great impact on the play and the audience.

Question 2

what different things could the messenger speech report?

Answer 2

the fates of the characters as well as violence that had occured off stage

Question 3

what opportunity does the messenger speech give the audience?

Answer 3

The messenger speech gives the audiences the chance to let their imaginations run wild with grizzly detail

Question 4

why do messenger speeches have more impact than simply showing the action on stage?

Answer 4

By not directly portraying actions on the stage (typically violence such as murder), tragedians forced their audience to imagine the horrors for themselves. The power of imagination can do more than any stage gore, especially when we recall that ancient special effects were very limited

Question 5

what does the first messenger speech in Bacchae report?

Answer 5

The messenger speech gives Euripides the opportunity to describe bacchic worship as observed by a neutral bystander. His speech highlights bacchism (cult worship of Dionysus, who was also known by the name bacchus) as women make water, milk, and wine come gushing from the earth. Yet later in the speech, the messenger gives a grisly depiction of the violence that the bacchants resort to when threatened, since they attack the herdsmen’s cattle and rip them to shreds.

Question 6

How does the messenger speech in the bacchae go from sublime to grotesque?

Answer 6

Later in the speech, the messenger gives a grisly depiction of the violence that the bacchants resort to when threatened, since they attack the herdsmen’s cattle and rip them to shreds

Question 7

how does the first messenger speech in the bacchae foreshadow the second messenger speech?

Answer 7

This sense of harmony turning to violence foreshadows what will happen to Pentheus when he spies on the bacchants (just like the cattle, he will also be ripped to shreds)

Question 8

what is reported in the second messenger speech in the bacchae?

Answer 8

The second messenger speech lets us share the experience of watching the bacchants in secret with the messenger, only to be horrified by what happens. e.g Euripides describes the bacchants ripping Pentheus to pieces and playing ball with his dismembered body

Question 9

Give two examples of how the use of body parts makes the description of Pentheus’ fate so horrific in the bacchae messenger speech?

Answer 9

The shoe on the foot reminds us that this was only a recently living person, while the fact that bacchants play ball with his dismembered body creates a horrifying contrast between the bacchants childish joy and what they are actually doing.

Question 10

what horrific details are shared in the final messenger speech in ‘Oedipus’?

Answer 10

The speech describes Jocasta’s anguished lament, Oedipus’ anger, the discovery of Jocasta’s corpse and the horrific sight of Oedipus using pins from the robes of Jocasta to blind himself

Question 11

in what way is the final messenger speech in Oedipus more than just a gory description?

Answer 11

The messenger speech also draws morals about what we can learn from such horrible events. In oedipus, the messenger tells the chorus that “the pains we inflict upon ourselves hurt most of all!” and ends his speech by contrasting Oedipus and Jocasta’s former happiness with their downfall.

Question 12

what was brought out on stage to reinforce the violence the messenger speech had described to the audience?

Answer 12

The ekkyklema- a wheeled platform that would be wheeled through the double doors on the stage, usually depicting palace doors which would hold dead bodies to reveal the action that had taken place off stage

Question 13

how did messenger speeches allow the actor to show off their abilities?

Answer 13

it allows them to show off their abilities because it allows impersonation of different voices in the reports of what had happened

Question 14

what is particularly horrific about the end of the second messenger speech in bacchae?

Answer 14

Pentheus was spying on the bacchants which caused him to be torn apart limb by limb- his mother murders him herself in an ecstatic trance with little consideration of her son, Pentheus. We hear a vivid description of her tearing his flesh before the bacchants join to kill Pentheus. When his limbs have been completely otrn apart and he has taken his last breath, the bacchants play with the flesh of Pentheus whilst blood sprays around their surroundings and their hands

Question 15

why is language so important in messenger speeches?

Answer 15

action did not directly take place on stage and special effects were very limited, and there language in the messenger speeches needed to be dramatic and graphic in order to evoke a response from the audience and keep them entertained and interested using words, not just actions.

Question 16

why was an eyewitness account considered so powerful in ancient Greece?

Answer 16

In fifth century Athens, eyewitnesses were important for the accounts of battles. This is how people were getting their information about what was happening on the battlefield and what might have happened to their loved ones

Question 17

what is it about the messenger’s account of Jocasta’s death that tells us that this is an eye witness account?

Answer 17

The messenger is telling the account of the events as we experience it in real time with the messenger. He’s telling us about what happened to Jocasta, but then is interupted by what Oedipus is doing. This back and forth between the events heightens the tension as the messenger recounts what he has seen, because this disruption of events is how he has experienced it.

Question 18

How does Sophocles heighten the tension and build on the violence in the messenger speech in Oedipus?

Answer 18

The messenger in his speech reports that Oedipus has ordered the palace doors to be open to show everyone what he has done to himself. This is a twist on convention because ordinarily you’d expect the messenger on stage to be the one saying to undo the palace doors. The chorus in response sings that the sight of Oedipus is too much to see and therefore heightening the tension for the audience as they want to see what Oedipus looks like now and see him following the action

Question 19

How is the graphic description of what Oedipus did in the messenger speech reinforced visually for the audience?

Answer 19

The audience will expect to see the characters suffering with the actions that had happened off stage. In the case of Oedipus, we see him wearing a mask with blood dripping from the eye sockets

Question 20

how does the staging in general support the climax of the horror of a messenger speech?

Answer 20

the audience have built up an image of the effects of the violence that has happened off stage- the staging reinforces the action that has happened and ties together everything that the audience have built up in their minds

Question 21

how do the chorus reflect how the audience must have been feeling at this point?

Answer 21

The response of the chorus mirrors perhaps what the audience is thinking as well when they find this almost too much to see when they claim that the sight of Oedipus is too much to bear.

Question 22

what was the agon?

Answer 22

A formal debate, we find these both in tragedy and comedy

Question 23

what does the term ‘agon’ mean?

Answer 23

Agon means competition, often an athletic contest, and gives us the English word ‘agony’ from the pain that athletes will go through in order to win

Question 24

what does the term ‘agon’ mean in relation to Greek tragedy?

Answer 24

a formal debate in which the playwright can showcase opposing arguments

Question 25

what did the agon allow the playwright to do?

Answer 25

the agon allows the playwright to showcase opposing arguments

Question 26

why was showing off their skills of rhetoric so important in Ancient Greece?

Answer 26

Oratory was important in Greek education, and in Athens all citizens would have the opportunity to hear public speaking in assembly or law courts. It is therefore not surprising that dramatic agones let the playwrights show off their skills as rhetoricians, as well as reflecting the techniques of real-life debates

Question 27

what pattern did dramatic agones follow?

Answer 27

each speaker sets out his or her argument, and both speeches are over, the debate concludes in stichomythia (brief exchanges)

Question 28

what is a stichomythia?

Answer 28

brief exchanges between characters

Question 29

how is the conclusion of a tragic agon different to that of a real life debate?

Answer 29

In real life, the purpose of a debate is to reach a conclusion, for example to persuade the assembly to vote for war, or to convince a jury to convict. In tragedy however, agon scenes usually fail to persuade and end with both sides more polarised than before

Question 30

who do the two agones take place between in oedipus the king?

Answer 30

The scene between Oedipus and Creon resembles a legal trial, with Oedipus taking on the role of prosecutor. The second agon is between Oedipus and Tiresais.

Question 31

what do Oedipus and Tiresais resort to when they fail to persuade each other of their side of the debate?

Answer 31

Tiresais refuses to engage with Oedipus whilst attacking him for his ignorance

Question 32

What rhetorical devices does Creon use in his attempt to defend himself against Oedipus’ accusations?

Answer 32

Creon defends himself using several popular rhetorical tricks. For example, he uses the so-called ‘Argument from probability’, where Creon asks whether it is likely that he would have plotted against Oedipus given the advantages he already enjoys. Similarly, he trots out well-known arguments such as the idea that being king means living in fear.

Question 33

How does the Agon between Oedipus and Creon conclude?

Answer 33

Unlike a real law court, however, Oedipus is both prosecutor and judge, and so Creon’s rhetorical fireworks fall on deaf ears.

Question 34

What themes of contemporary interest are incorporated into the agon in Bacchae? Why are these significant to the play as a whole?

Answer 34

The agon between Pentheus and Tiresais in the bacchae highlights the role of religion in society. Pentheus mocks the story that Dionysus was sewn in Zeus’ thigh as an unborn baby, arguing that this is not possible. Tiresais responds by trying to rationalise the story. Whether or not the old myths about the gods should be taken literally or understood as metaphors was a topic of debate among contemporary intellectuals. It relates to the wider question of what the true nature of the gods is. These questions are important to a play such as Bacchae, where the characters and audience must try to make sense of how Dionysus behaves.

Question 35

How are comic agons different?

Answer 35

Comic agones often drive the action and many influence how events will turn out. In Frogs, the agon between Aeschylus and Euripides forms the centrepiece of the play, as its role is to decide which playwright Dionysus will take out of the underworld