ipl-logo

Aeschylus Sophocles Greek Tragic Tragedy

723 Words3 Pages

Greek Tragedy The religious and philosophical outlook of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides the three major Greek tragic playwrights and the outlook of each are reflected in his plays. In Aeschylus playwrights, one of his playwrights happens to be one in which the whole trilogy survives called the Oresteia and he also wrote a play called The Persians. Aeschylus who wrote primarily of war, and how hubris and arrogance can lead to disastrous results like in the Persians, which he wrote from the personal experience he saw in Persians defeat and Athenians win. The plays not looking at anything mythical but more towards the present and what was happening at that point in time. For example, in the play The Persians it says, “You see insolence once opened into flower, produces fields ripe with calamity, and reaps a harvest- home of sorrow” (BBC Ancient Greece The Greatest Show on Earth). This shows the hubris/arrogance in the play its shows how huge empires can be destroyed and the risks of war. In the readings of Aristotle, it …show more content…

In his play called The Trojan Women, about the Trojan war and to the women that would now become slaves. “Might is Fight” one soldier said to the once former princess when knowing that her son would be killed (BBC Ancient Greece The Greatest Show on Earth). In this play in shows the misery that war could bring to both sides no matter if one was the victor and the other that suffered the defeat. How war is just irrational and how hubris plays a part in all of this. In Aristotle Fear and Pity, “Fear and pity may be excited by means of spectacle; but they can also take their rise from the very structure of the action, which is the preferable method and the mark of a better dramatic poet” (Readings, p. 92). The fear and pity that is in The Trojan Women is noticeable when it is shown that the princesses son is going to be

Show More
Related
1497 Words | 6 Pages

The literary works of that time can be used to show how hubris was a daily part of living in the Greek world. Hubris in ancient times was of great concern for the Greeks so much it that affected their mentality on society, politics

Read More
1528 Words | 7 Pages

Sophocles depicts the contrast and clash between two people with opposing views in his play ‘Antigone’. One of those people is Creon, the highly motivated king of Thebes who takes pride in his own decisions that he believes to be right and sensible for the state and believes in a form of justice that can’t be compromised. The other person is Antigone, the protagonist and the daughter of the earlier king of Thebes, Oedipus. She places her faith and adheres to the irrational laws of religion and goes against the laws of man, thus defying common reason. We see more nuances to their defining attributes throughout Oedipus’s works.

Read More
2277 Words | 10 Pages

Tom Young was born february 11th, 1999. At the age of 5 his mom and his brother Jim got evicted from there home he and his family had nowhere to live since his mom had vercialy no money left. Tom, Jim and his mom would bounce around homeless shelters for a while there mom could no longer work because it wasn't walking distance and the city bus costed to much money. Tom and jim no longer had to go to school for the time being, so while there mom was looking to gain money anyway she could Tom and Jim would run around town doing pretty much whatever they wanted. By the time tom was 10 Jim was already in high school There mom sandy did find a job at a nearby gas station Jim and Tom were now back in school and they lived in a apartment in Moscow,

Read More
840 Words | 4 Pages

Ahrensdorf, Peter J. Greek Tragedy And Political Philosophy: Rationalism and Religion in Sophocles’ Plays. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Print. Peter J. Ahrensdorf, a professor of political science, examines Sophocles’ timeless masterpieces - Oedipus the Tyrant, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone with a central question of political philosophy. In this book he tries to explain how citizens and leaders should govern society by the light of unassisted human reason and religious faith.

Read More
1448 Words | 6 Pages

The Oresteia is a trilogy written by the Greek author Aeschylus that comprises of three plays; Agamemnon, the libation bearers, and the Eumenides. The central theme of this book is “justice” which in the case of Orestes has led to exile. This book was written at a time when the star of Athens was in decline. It was a time that marked the establishment of a new socio- political order, a democracy adjudicated by the rule of law. This rule of law meant the institutionalization of justice (i.e. having a justice system), where cases are heard and verdicts are being reached based on evidence.

Read More
672 Words | 3 Pages

The main character in Oedipus the King starts out to be a hero but in the end, comes out to be a fearful tyrant (Oedipus the King 5). The theme in this play was to show how being too self-confident can lead to one’s self to not succeed which reflected philosophical matters. Sophocles also made altars in Greek theaters that have never been done before. For example, he increased the characters on stage from two to three. Another example was how he changed the capacity of the chorus from twelve to fifteen people.

Read More
1003 Words | 5 Pages

So how would an ancient Greek tragedy and comedy hold up to his standard? Sophocles’s Oedipus Tyrannus and Aristophanes’s Clouds are both great plays but which is the superior work? Whereas both Oedipus Tyrannus and Clouds are fantastic works in their adherence to Poetics in terms of the similarity of their characters

Read More
133 Words | 1 Pages

In this ancient Greek tragedy composed by Sophocles, he makes a rationalization about the motives for ancient Greek suicide. At the beginning of the play, the tragedy introduces the characters. Antigone and Ismene are the daughters of Oedipus Rex (this play is one of the three Theban plays written by Sophocles). Eurydice is the wife of Creon, the king of Thebes. Haimon is the son of Creon, Teiresias is a blind seer, and the remaining characters include: a sentry, messenger, priest, and chorus.

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

Euripides: One of Greece’s Best Tragic Playwrights Euripides is well known as one of the best Greek tragic playwrights, most notably known for writing Medea, The Bacchae, Cyclops, Hippolytus, The Trojan Women and many more. During his lifetime, Euripides composed roughly 92 plays, 19 of which still exist today. Euripides was born in 480 B.C.E, in Attica and sources suggest that he was brought up in a well-off family, though there are many different accounts of his family background.

Read More
1661 Words | 7 Pages

One of the major consequences of war is the horrific tragedies that occur. In the Iliad, in book eighteen, when Achilles hears that Hector killed Patroclus he is filled with rage and enters the war seeking vengeance. His rage causes him to kill hundreds of trojans and seek

Read More
1230 Words | 5 Pages

Influence Of Homer And Euripides There has been an impact on the Homeric poems at the tragic poets of Athens turned into very substantial. No matter Aristotle's declaration that "the Iliad and the Odyssey offer the topic of a tragedy or at maximum ". We find that they've provided Aeschylus with the challenge of as a minimum six tragedies and a satirical drama, Sophocles with the disasters, and Euripides with that of a sarcastic show, the Cyclops. The unknown author of Rhesus drew his theme from the Iliad; and Achilles and Ettore, with Laerte, Penelope, and their suitors, had been a number of the subjects of the tragic minor poets of the 5th and fourth centuries. The confirmation of Aristotle is almost authentic for Sophocles and Euripides,

Read More
1883 Words | 8 Pages

Known as the “Father of Comedy”, the ancient Athenian playwright Aristophanes wrote forty plays between 427 B.C. and 386 B.C. Of those forty, only eleven plays survive in their entirety. His most well-known and anthologized play is Lysistrata. First performed in 411 B.C., the comedy is a political satire meant to criticize the Peloponnesian War raging between the Greek city-states of Athens and Sparta at the time. The plot of the play revolves around a sex strike that was organized by the women of the two city-states as a ploy to get the men to end their fighting. Amid the comedic, suggestive scenes and jokes, Aristophanes manages to include some very serious and important themes.

Read More
1109 Words | 5 Pages

He criticized society and he may have been charged with irreverence by Creon. Also, all but the earliest of his plays are written with the back-drop of the Peloponnesian War, they are mostly about heroic acts of war. For example, Euripides writes about the trouble of the Trojan women and the soldiers who have killed their husbands. The play was written after the Athenians had conquered Melos. This play explains how Euripides felt about the Athenian military.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

Sophocles’ Electra is a well-known Greek tragedy, set place at Mycenae after the Trojan wars. In the tragedy Electra plays one of the most important roles among the Chorus. The Chorus often sympathises with Electra and also helps the reader (or the audience considering it was written as a play) to understand the events better. The Chorus shares emotions with Electra, such as her grief and frustration, or her joy upon the return of Osteres. In my essay I will discuss the importance of the Chorus and how to the presence of the Chorus guides the audience.

Read More
1135 Words | 5 Pages

MEDEA, Euripides In the ancient era was the theater plays and a very central part of the future society. Usually written the dramas and love stories. A classic piece of antiquity is Medea, written by Euripides. The play 's fable is that a woman who learns that her husband has been cheating on her.

Read More

More about Aeschylus Sophocles Greek Tragic Tragedy

Related Topics

Open Document