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Yr 12 English > WoT > Flashcards

WoT Flashcards

1
Q

Poseidon(Prologus):
“When a man sacks [and] destroys everything […] sacred temples [and] tombs […] he’s asking for trouble. The same destruction sooner or later will fall on his own head” (pg.9)

FF+G/CoW/DOI

A
  • cyclical pattern of history -> problems in contemporary Athens
  • sinful and barbaric acts (eg. seige of Melos) -> equally sinful and barbaric retaliation
  • what goes around comes around
  • E. warns aud. if x stop/break cycle of barbarity + war far -> Athenians will suffer/havoc break lose
  • In war fare only the pinnacle of the patriarchal pyramid of of power will benefit, rest suffer
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2
Q

Ath. (Prologus) plans to ruin the Greeks journey home “so that the Greeks will learn their lesson, and in future, respect my temples, and fear the power of the Gods” (pg.9)

P.”A somewhat cavalier change of mind, surely?” (pg.7)

FF+G

A
  • Troy was destroyed w/ Athene’s help (by suggesting the Trojan horse)
  • Ath. = goddess of wisdom
  • Ath. = powerful/capricious -> ruins Greeks bc feels assaulted (Ajax rapes Cassandra in Ath.’s temple - desecrated)
  • even fellow God recognises Ath. = capricious, fickle in nature
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3
Q

Prologus - Chorus join H in Kommos:

“a whole generation of women” were “raped in their bedrooms”

CoW

A
  • Fall of Troy -> WOT subject to mass abuse as w/o fathers’/husbands’/brothers’/sons’ protection they’re hugely vulnerable
  • 10 years war ->Greek men behave w/o humanity + this was considered acceptable in Greek society
  • the innocent suffers the most
  • WOT = spoils ofd war
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4
Q

Prologus - H’s monody

Hecuba to Chrous:
“Troy is burning.”

CoW/G

A
  • Troy burning = key metaphor = destruction of Troy + destruction of women - Hecuba draws parallels bw WOT bodies + city
  • -> strengthen audience sense of destruction + indignity both have been forced to endure; Troy endures a literal siege + metaphorical rape/WOT metaphorical siege + literal fear of rape
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5
Q

Prologus

H monody:
“Look at me now, throned in the dust […] an old woman, dragged as a slave from my home, all hope plundered from my God-cursed ravaged with no reprieve from my punishment of everlasting sorrow.”

CoW

A
  • proud + noble queen = ‘old women’ w/o hope
  • position on ground represents change of fortune + new low status
  • Hecuba has no role -> embarrassed + outraged that former queen now useless bc outlived any reproductive function -> trophy of war taken to degrade her (odysseus’s slave)
  • Euripides invites sympathy for H -> Athenian audience to question treatment of prisoners of war
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6
Q

Prologus - H’s Monody

Hecuba calls on Chorus to join her in Kommos: “Weep, wives the of the bronze armoured Trojans, grieve for your hero’s dead, daughters […] Husbands lost!”

DOI/CoW/G

A
  • H calls on WOT (chorus) to lament her in kommos
  • Hecuba wants WOT to pay homage to men before their fate becomes clear
  • Loss of war -> reduced to the most basic functions of their gender = sex objects and their fertile wombs
  • Eurip. establishes how loss of war -> reduces women
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7
Q

Cassanda Ep. 1

“Who could wait for the wind that fills her sails more eagerly than I do?”

“one of the avenging furies”

G/DOI

A
  • Cass. duty = revenge for the war atrocities
  • Cass = metaphorical Trojan horse = pretend to go happily/willingly into a new life w/ Aga. -> revenge bc Aga. jealous wife kills him
  • Across play RQ’s = confusion + helplessness but Cass answers own RQ’s = Cass not helpless victim bc planning revenge
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8
Q

Cassandra Ep. 1

“father and brother destroyed”

CoW

A
  • Cass has lost everything - fam/city/virginity=sacred identity
  • Cass martyrs (die for a cause) herself for revenge
  • fatal marriage to Aga -> his downfall Cass -> unable to enact revenge on behalf of city/fam -> @ end of play only one who can seek vengeance
  • All characters think Cass is mad but women
  • Cass = only one who can give WOT modicum (small quantity) of solace (comfort or consolation)
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9
Q

Cassandra Ep.1

Agamemnon will find her “more destructive as a wife than ever Helen was”

G

A
  • Becoming a slave -> opportunity to avenge Troy
  • Cass = going to be worse than Helen/even more influential
  • Cass compares marriage to Aga w/ Helen marriage to Men. +Paris -> Trojan war -> death and destruction
  • Cass = driven by a desire for vengeance/views own fate to be a slave tp Aga’s desure-> chance for revenge for Troy/divine retribution for Aga’s sins(barbaric behaviour)
  • Gift of prophecy -> Cass knows Aga’s choice -> his demise + suffering for Greeks (link to poseidon, “fall on head”)
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10
Q

Ep. 2 - Andromache:
“The Gods always hated us”

Chorus in Stasimon:
Prayers to the Gods are “vain dreaming, false hopes”

DOI/FFG

A
  • Astyanax murder -> Andromache + Hecuba losing hope -> realisation Gods abandoned Troy
  • Hecuba + Andromache = loyal servents to gods
  • Praying = futile/folly
  • Reinforced by Chorus in Ep. 2 stasimon bc realise Gods don’t care about WOT
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11
Q

Ep.2 - Andromache

Cradling Astynax while lamenting “Why are killing this child? What has he done in his innocence? He’s guilting of nothing!”

CoW/G

A
  • Confronting scene - Ath. aud experience pathos (evokes pity or sadness)
  • Ast = innocent child -> no harm/threat to Greeks
  • killed bc Greeks lost mercy + honor
  • end of Trojan lineage
  • Repetition of RQ’s shows her inability to comprehend the events + the exclamative of her fury
  • most explicit violence in play -> appeal to universal human instinct to protect innocent/children to emphasis that such acts are dishonourable
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12
Q

Ep 2

Andromache claims “you Greeks” have “dreamed up such cruelties even the barbarians would flinch at”

CoW/DOI

A
  • challenges Athenian assumptions/arrogance - belief = too sophisticated/above barbarity, stooping to a new level
  • forces Athenian audience to reconsider their ideology about war/duty
  • makes them reflect on contemporary issues, eg. the atrocities + constant fighting of Peloponnesian war (seige of Melos/Sicilian Exped.)
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13
Q

Menelaus - Ep 3

“My real motive was to get my hands on the man who stole my wife”

CoW/G

A
  • play explores toxic, fixed mindset -> both genders suffer
  • M worried war -> appears effeminate so needs to reestablish himself as ‘the man’
  • M believes war = ‘masculine’ bc desire for honor/not ‘feminine’ bc need for love. Play explores how rigid belief system based on past -> War Party to make poor choices (Melos/Sicily)
  • M = fatuous and self serving
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14
Q

Menelaus - Ep 3

“this most glorious of days when I shall finally get my hands on that wife of mine […] yes, I am the man, Menelaus”

CoW/G

A
  • pronoun ‘mine’ = M see Helen as property/possession
  • Helen = 2nd concern/revenge on Paris = #1
  • M. = King of Sparta -> invested in strict gender binary; Men are warriors/women are objects to serve and give pleasure to men
  • M. = fatuous and self serving
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15
Q

Cassandra - Ep2
To Talthybius

“Officers of your kind are always hated by everyone, lackeys. Slaves yourself, doing great men’s dirty work.”

Cow/DOI

A
  • Cass. attacks T. as middle manager
  • T expresses compassion for TW but does nothing to help
  • T = part of Grk war machine -> facilitates brutal + barbaric decisions for generals
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16
Q

Cassandra - Ep2

“had forgotten what their children looked like”

“lie forgotten in a foreign country”

CoW/DOI

A
  • Through Cass., Eurip challenges aud -> ? honor of war in foreign lands
  • Grks were so long away from loved ones @ home -> forgotten faces whereas Trojans went home to fam. each night
  • Bodies of Greek soldiers failed to get the burial rights their culture demands (link to Ast.)
  • Emph. contemporary Ath. aud needless deaths replicated in Pelopensia War (mass loss of life in Sparta/Melos + upcoming EofSc)
17
Q

Cassandra - Ep2

“Any sensible man must hate war, he does his best to avoid it.”

“It is no shame for a city, indeed it is a crown of honour to die nobly, with dignity”

CoW/DOI

A
  • Aosth society = long celebrated + mythologised war
  • sign of heroism -> increase status and $
  • but through Cass. E suggests ppl hastily going to war = ignorant and foolish
  • E worried about Athenian soldiers who dies attacking foreign countries like Sparta/Melos etc. could lose life for nothing
  • Dying defending home = honourable
  • Expedition to Sicily = pointless loss of life
  • Cycle of violence bw Athens + Sparta (Pos. quote)
18
Q

Talthybius:

“I ask you not to hate me”
“with the greatest reluctance”
“joint decision of the council of the Greeks”
“they have decided…”
“I’m not half hard enough”

DOI

A
  • Tal = concerned about H and respect for him decreases
  • Makes it clear its the joint decision of council - no individual is taking individual responsibility
  • group decisions made by council -> dishonourable choices bc no one has accountability
  • pronoun ‘they’ - faceless bureaucrats
    -> soldiers carry inhumane acts
  • = Tal wants TW to know he is x responsible to assuge his guilt
  • Tal feels guilty but powerless to stop war-> Ath aud ? decision making of War Party within Eccesia
19
Q

Talthybius - Ep2
About Cass. concubinage to Agamemnon

“King’s mistress”/”no bad thing”

DOI/G

A
  • dehumanising affect on military service -> Tal ignorant of the impact of concubinage on TW (most would rather die)
  • noun ‘mistress’ = euphemism -> masquerade reality that Cass = Aga. sex slave
  • -> forcing Ath. aud to consider foreign policy during war esp. following SofM.
20
Q

Ep4 Ast. body carried in on Hectors shield

Hectors shield transforming: shield -> coffin
Thalth. “This shield with its bronze back” becomes a “coffin and cairn of stones, that the boy should be buried lying beneath”.

Hecuba “What’s certain is that luck always runs out, and that no happy man every stays happy or lucky for long”

A
  • Hectors shield = symbol of patriarchal protection father should provide BUT H. can not/Ast. = manifestation of an innocent victim of war (thrown of battlements)
  • E. suggests patriarchal support will eventually fall bc cycle of war continues
  • E suggests Athenians fighting abroad have abandoned children to fight war, doing duty but sacrificed their integrity
  • Hec. nearing anagnorisis bc reversal of fortune -> E. message to Ath. aud = often deviation from societal expectations is the only way to survive
  • Hectors shield -> symbol of failure of patriarchal protection (Pos. link), monument of the barbarity of Greeks
21
Q

Helen - Ep3

Helen wants to “speak in [her] own defence”:
- blames Hecuba “giving birth to Paris”
- she was “exported, sold off abroad” as a saleable asset
- victim of “the destructive power of love”
- “I was raped, not married”
- Marriage to P. was “blessing” to Greece bc prevented Athene from helping Paris invade Greece
- Attempted to “escape to the Greek ships”

G/FFG

A
  • E. shows Helen using logic and sexuality to try to survive/Helen tries to cast herself as hero similar to how aud. see Cass. but she only serves herself
  • Helen uses sophism to explain/justify actions + attempts to rebut accusations
  • claims to be victim of Gods (Aphrodite) who bewitched her and “sold” her to Paris
  • Helen is a concubine to Paris like Cass. to Aga.
  • “blessed” Greece by stopping Athene from support and Asian invasion of Greece
  • claimed to Menelaus she tried to escape in attempt to reconcile w/ Men.
  • In a patriarchal society = best women can hope for
22
Q

Hecuba - Ep3

“hair” + “make up” + “best dress”/”I beg you on my knees”

G

A
  • Helen uses sexuality to survive bc only asset patriarchy values. ‘begs’ M to appeal to his ego/desire. Kneels before him, emph. vulnerability
  • Helen dishonourable bc begging for mercy
23
Q

Hecuba + Helen -> Ep3

Hec: “with one look she makes men’s eyes her prisoners, she sacks whole cities, burns houses to the ground with that bewitching smile”

Hecuba accuses Helen of being “wet with lust the moment” she saw Paris.
Hecuba believes “any women of breeding” would never be swayed by her emotions or desires.

F/DOI

A
  • Hec. and other WOT cannot understand/accept Helens behaviour -> condemn Helen bc acts on love/lust for Paris
  • Women held to a different set of standards to men
  • Bewitching = evil/magic
    Wet = sexual desire
    Breeding = royal blood/bred as commodity for power alliance
  • WOT subscribe to same gender binary as Grk men despite -> death/slavery/concubinage
24
Q

Hecuba + Helen - Ep. 3
Hec: “consummate the Greek victory […] wives who betray their husbands deserve death”

Andromache - Ep2
Helen should “die in agony”

Chorus - Ep3
“punish your wife in a way worthy of the traditions of your family”

G/DOI

A
  • Hecuba wedded to patriarchal society even though it harms her
  • WOT united blame 4 Helen - > implore Men. to kill Helen in retribution
  • Verb ‘consummate’ = refers to sexual penetration after wedding/Hec. suggests victory for M. is to regain ownership of Helen and destroy her
  • Last hope for WoT is for Helen to suffer + die because vindication of values lived their lives by
  • E uses Chorus to ? values of Greek/ Athenian republic bc brutalisation of women = ‘tradition’/’noble’ behaviour
  • Hec’s last ‘crumb of comfort’ -> looking for a modicum of solace
25
Q

Hecuba

“This child was murdered by the Greeks because they were afraid of him!” They should be “ashamed […] of such an epitaph”

A

valour/kleous -> fame + victory through war

  • Andromache taken to ships as spoil of war -> H. prepares Ast. body
  • confronting scene -> pathos (evokes pity or sadness) but aud. wont get relief of catharsis bc play doesn’t follow the standard structure of a tragedy = symbol that the conflict in unresolved in Greece + still taking place in contemporary Athens
  • Eurip. challenges Ath. aud loyalty to traditional patriarchal structures bc strict gender roles = reductive, eg. Grk soldiers killed Ast bc viewed him Trojan soldier, not child
  • E criticises fixed view of masculinity bc harmful to them and means peace = unlikely
26
Q

BP3

Hecuba - Exodus

Attempts to “die in [the] embrace” of the burning city -> runs into the flames/attempts suicide for release from pain

A
  • Hecuba = manifestation of Troy
  • Destruction of city + loss of fam + enslavement + Ast. death + fear of Helen release -> Hec
  • Hec experiences anagnorisis bc realised commitment to the structures of her old life (patriarchy/Hellenic values) ,Gods have lead her to this point
  • Grk generals should recognise crimes but its WoT who realise commitment to the Trojan way of life -> perpetuates cycle of history
  • E denies aud. catharsis -> leave theatre feeling frustrated, angry, sad
27
Q

BP3

Chorus

Catharsis - the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.

Anagnorisis - moment main character realises there wrong doing/leading to a moral lesson making them a better person

“March down to the Aechaen Fleet!”

A
  • E’s contemporary Ath. aud + modern aud. DONT experience catharsis bc @ end of play WoT are slaves but Grk men are not punished for the crimes
  • E. withholds cath. -> cause aud to face moral unease, confront with role in Peloponnesian war
  • No Grk men experiences anagnorisis bc they get away with their own crimes + dishonor duties/play ends w/ WoT on ship
  • @ end of play, Ath. aud see warships prepared for Exped. to Syracuse (Sicily) in harbour
28
Q

Helen - Ep.3

She was “exported, sold off abroad” as a “saleable asset”

“I was raped, not married”

A
  • ‘exported’ ‘sold’ ‘asset’ = dehumanising language
  • Women = commodities -> traded and profited from
  • x power to control own bodies
  • Women x escape subjugation even within marriages/marriages = vehicles patriarchal control and dominance
  • Wmn expectation = fulfils sexual needs of husbands/worth determined by bodies
  • In society, survival = best a women can hope for
29
Q

Helen Ep. 3

Chorus - “This woman whose promiscuity shamed Greece, and stained the pure water of Simois with blood”

Andromache - Ep.2
Helen should “die in agony”

A
  • Ch. accuse H being sexually irresponsible and disloyal -> humiliate all Greeks
  • Helen = shameful and contemptible bc strays from expectations (dissented from the majority)
  • Ch. suggest H wholly respons. for Trojan war/P + M = blameless
  • Overlooks H’s reality of rape and kidnapping
  • A views Helen with disgust /worth of violent and prolonged suffering
  • last hope for WOT = Helen to die bc vindication of values they live by
  • WOT reinforce and weaponise past patriarchal exp. -> disempower others

Yr 12 English (4 decks)

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