Chris Bowley’s Reviews > Greek Tragedy > Status Update

24:Tragic legacy-5BCE>4BCE;Hellenistic stage better,plays worse;Roman adaptations 3-1BCE extinct;Seneca survive;1585 renaissance play revival peak;opera based on tragedy;late 19th-rerevival with mythology;Freud;modern adaptions;Star Trek Voyager;what started 2500 years ago as limited association to a single God I hugely popular today.

23:PROM BOUND-Aesch? stagecraft too complex,portrayal of Zeus off;visitors;Io cow gadfly;Heracles;RHESUS-Eurip? short,11 roles,all at night,language off,4BCE;Bk10 Illiad;ARISTOPHANES-11 extant plays;mocks tragedy-can deduce how tragedy worked;Thesmophoriazusae;mocks mechanae,ekkyklema;Agathon works lost;Frogs-mocks language and social importance of tragedy.

22:Sophocles PHILOCTETES-happy end,hero yields to persuasion;need bow to win Trojan war;isolation;poisoned foot;steal bow?;Heracles ex machina;ethically complex;OEDIPUS AT COLONUS-Sophocles birthplace,after 'king',main char outside Polis>guardian hero;death prophecy;Athens glory days-noble Theseus,chorus ode;recalls to Athenians after war loss what was lost;real events from Soph' past written in to play's future

21:Euri & Gods-BACCHAE-vengeful,harsh,no compassion for humans;also Hera, Aphrodite;Aeschylus Gods-grandeur, not petty;Soph Gods-absent;Greek Gods anthro=trivial as immune,no bravery or top traits;force of nature=harsh;if insist on anthro=Gods are evil>Gods can't be anthro;ION-half son of Apollo;kill family in ignorance;happy end;Apollo harsh liar;are anthro Gods worthy of worship?

19:Anti-Tragedy-IPHIGENIA IN TAURIS-not dead,vow to sacrifice most beautiful,Artemis priestess,letter,Orestes recog sister;escape,happy ending;horror prevented;lonely,exile,sorrow;ORESTES-court exists,vigilante,trial drama;thugs must kill themselves;DeusExM ending-Apollo saves but problematic e.g marry woman you threaten; Melodrama,tragic comedies?;Euripedes disillusioned with Greece so breaks down tragedy rules?

18:During PP war,plagues,effect of war on civilians;HECABA-death of family;Polyxena(Achilles sacr) & Polydorus killed ovr treasure by Polymestor then killed;Hecaba just? TROJAN WOMEN-Hector's baby son death focus;tetralogy(3rd only extant);just after Milos barbarism irl;Athena&Pos against Greeks-very anti Syra exped;Hecaba tries to kill Helen,blame each other;events & chars inconsistent to HECABA.

17:Hippolytus(H)-Euripedes,Theseus unifies Attica,parallels Heracles;abducts Amazon Queen,son H,she dies,marries Phaedra(P),both die;P seduce;H celibate workship Artemis>Aphrodite makes P lust;P starves herself,claims H is rapist;P sacrificed H to protect kids' name;no reproduction=shameful citizen;H banished & cursed,H dies;Artemis ex machina tells truth;danger of wordplay,power and untrustworthyness of speech.

16:Medea-Euripedes;myth-sorc princess of Colchis,loves & helps Jason with fleece,magic protection,dragon to sleep,Jason takes Medea,delay with brother body,relies on Jason in Athens,Jason kills his king but flees-both outcasts,Jason 2 sons but marries another;PLAY-start when J finds out,kills sons/wife;not a sorc but clever-murder worse(v Sophocles,Ajax);poison robe;famous speech on women;implied sympathy?Medea God?

15:Heracles-myth and portrayals in 2 differing plays 🛁🛀🛀