Review Sheet for Exam 2 Lecture 14 Afterlife Myth Part I Homer s Nekuia aka Book 11 of the Odyssey Nekuia rites by which the dead are called up Necromancy and catabasis House of Hades Hades and his queen Persephone Geography of the cosmos threefold division of cosmos heaven earth underworld Tiresias Blind Theban prophet who can see the future Interesting story as to how he became a blind prophet House of Hades Psyche soul vs body body requires proper burial for the soul to find rest cf Elpenor Anticleia and the incorporeal nature of the psyche Canonical Sinners Tityus Tantalus Sisyphus Lecture 15 Afterlife Myth Part II Vergil s Aeneid Written in 20 s BC epic poem about Aeneas son of Anchises and Aphrodite Aeneas quest to flee Troy and start new life in Italy Myth used to provide the story of Roman origins Aeneas became Roman founding father Aeneadae descendants of Aeneas Book 6 Aeneas descends into Underworld with Sibyl a prophet and priestess of Apollo Entrance to Underworld located near Lake Avernus in southern Italy Lake Avernus the lake of no birds The golden bough a gift for Proserpina i e Persephone a ticket to hell Charon the ferryman at the River Styx the hated river Cerberus the three headed hound of hell The Fields of Mourning Aeneas sees Dido queen of Carthage A fork in the road Left leads to Tartarus where wicked souls are punished River Phlegethon Right leads to Elysian Fields where good souls purified souls enjoy themselves Aeneas speaks with his father Anchises is shown parade of great Romans to come Lecture 16 The Theban Saga Part I The Founding of Thebes Abduction of Europa by Zeus as bull Taken from Phoenicia modern Lebanon to Crete Europa origin of the word Europe Her brother Cadmus sets out to find her Europa is down by the water playing with friends Zeus sees Europa and lusts after her He comes in the form of a beautiful white bull and catches the attention of Europa He lets her pet him he is docile When she finally gets on sees still as a bull runs across the see to Crete He then turns back into his normal form and he has sex with her and she gets pregnant Now that she is missing her family doesn t know where she has gone Her brother Cadmus goes on a quest to find her He doesn t know where he s going so he goes to the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi She tells him to give up because he won t find her But he would come across a white cow with a half moon shape on it He is to follow the cow until it rests and found a city there and live there for the rest of his life He founds his city in an area known as Boeotia but he called his city Cadmeia which later became known as Thebes the acropolis retained the name Cadmeia He wants to thank the gods for his new city so he is going to sacrifice a cow for them But he needs water for the sacrifice so he sends his men to a river but they don t come back He goes to the river and finds a serpent dragon that lives by the river who devoured his men He then kills the dragon and the gods tell him to take the teeth of the dragon and plant them in the Earth Up from the ground comes armed warriors Spartoi and they start fighting each other Only 5 survive who get along with Cadmus They give rise to the most noble families of Thebes Cadmus eventually takes as his wife Harmonia daughter of Ares and Aphrodite They have 4 daughters two of whom are Semele mother of Dionysus and Agave mother of Pentheus Pentheus who succeeded Cadmus was succeeded by Labdacus With Labdacus death and infant son named Laius was next in line Laius was the guest of Pelops King of Elis Laius violated the guest host relationship xenia by seducing and abducting Pelops son Chrysippus Pelops curses Laius Laius now king consults the oracle at Delphi She says he is going to have a son with his wife Jocasta who will kill him A son is born and is exposed to die with a spike driven through his ankles But the servant pitied the child releases him and gave him to a Corinthian shepherd The shepherd took the child to Polybus the king of Corinth who raised him as his own son named Oedipus Oedipus grows up and is told he was not Polybus s natural son In an attempt to find out who he is so he goes to Delphi and he asks the oracle He was told that he was fated to murder his father and marry his mother Believing he is a Corinthian he decides to go to Thebes instead of returning to Corinth On his way to Thebes he comes across some travelers in a caravan and they get into a fight Oedipus goes into a rage and kills everyone and continues on his way He makes his way to Thebes and the city is in trouble The king is missing because he was in a traveling caravan and was killed and the Sphinx a beastly woman lion bird creature It has a riddle and if you get it right it will die but if you get it wrong it will eat you and who ever is good enough to solve the riddle will marry the queen Oedipus solves the riddle and gets the prize taking Jocasta as his wife and queen What happens next is the subject of Sophocles Oedipus the king Attic Tragedy Theater and Performance Tragedies are performed once a year in Athens at the City Dionysia a festival in honor of Dionysus god of drama Were staged at the theater of Dionysus near the acropolis Theater could seat around 20 000 Audience would have been mostly male citizens but also would have included foreign visitors and possibly women as well A fund made it possible for poor citizens to afford tickets so all classes A highly political genre use of traditional myths to analyze current political would have attended and social realities o Athens spoke to and about itself through tragedy Performance of tragedies occurred in context of a contest agon Performance of tragedies was also a contest o Greek culture was very agonistic Tragic competition lasted 3 days 3 tragedians put on 3 tragedies each day A panel of judges would decided which of the 3 was victorious o Very prestigious to win both the playwright and the choragus chorus director roughly equated with the modern notion of a producer won prizes and erected trophies along the street outside the theater Performance space Theater of Dionysus Open air structure Orchestra dancing floor where the chorus performed Skene tent or hut a stage building that served as a set and backdrop and changing room often stands for house or palace Eisodoi entrances usually stand for roads into and out of the city Actors and Chorus All male even when …
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