Greek Tragedy

Lecturer: Wu Shiyu

1. Athens after the Persian Wars

Age of Pericles

(461-429 B.C.)

1. Politically: A.D

2. The Delian League

3. Parthenon, philosopy

art, history, theater

Athenian Empire

2. Social Background

“Trade and money flowed, art flourished, and new ideas spread.”

Athens: a cultural sponge.

Athens: breeding ground

3. General Introduction

P events, financed by state

A huge national holiday;

The Theatre of Dionysus

On the slope of the Acropolis

Accomodating about 30,000 people.

4. Tragedy: origin

In honor of Dionysus

Greek word tragoidia, “goat song.”

Three tragedies by a dramatist

(a trilogy)

A Satyr play

Watch a comedy

5. Great Tragedians

3 great tragedians: Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides.

Athenian Citizen

埃斯库罗斯 (“ 悲剧之父” )

索福克勒斯 (“ 戏剧艺术的荷马” )

欧里庇得斯 (“ 心理戏剧的鼻祖” )

Born in old aristocratic familyThe Battle of Marathon and Battle of Salamis.In 472 B.C. competition the Persians. Won first prize for him.In 468 B.C. lost to SophoclesRepresent the growth ofAthenian political, military, and cultural power. In Verse

8. Aeschylus (524-456 B.C.)

9. Life of Aeschylus (524-456 B.C.)

Won 13 timesWent to Sicily, buried in Gela.

“Beneath this stone lies Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, the Athenian, who perished in the wheat-bearing land of Gela; of his noble prowess the grove of Marathon can speak, and the long-haired Persian knows it well.”

雅典人埃斯库罗斯，欧福里翁之子， 躺在这里，周围荡漾着革拉的麦浪； 马拉松的圣地称道他作战英勇无比， 长发的波斯人听了，心里最明白。

The Epitaph

10. Works of Aeschylus

90 plays, 7 preserved

The Persians,

Seven against Thebes,

The Suppliants,

The trilogy The Oresteia,

Prometheus Bound

11. The Persians 波斯人

惟一以当时现实为题材的悲剧波斯王宫，报信人报告海军全军覆没抨击东方的专制制度，赞杨雅典的民主关于海战，比希罗多德精彩波斯人失败是骄傲自大，神的惩罚

The Persians (First Prize)

Atossa I’d like to know, dear friends,Where Athens is.

Chorus Far west where the Lord Sun fades out.Atossa My son really wanted to hunt down this city?Chorus Yes, so Greece would bend beneath a Shah.Atossa Does it field a manhorde of an army?Chorus Such that is has worked evils on the Medes.Atossa Then bowtugging arrows glint in their hands?Chorus No. Spear held steady, and heavy shields.Atossa What else? Wealth in their houses?Chorus Treasure, a fountain of silver lies in their soil.Atossa But who herds the manflock? Who lords the army?Chorus They’re not anyone’s slaves or subjects.

The Persians (First Prize)

Shores and reefs filled up with our deadAnd every able ship under Persian commandBroke order,

Scrambling to escape.We might have been tuna or netted fish,For they kept on, spearing and gutting usWith splintered oars and bits of wreckages,While moaning and screams drowned outThe noise till

Night’s black face closed it all in.

From The Persians

The Chorus and Atossa lament( 哀悼 ; 痛哭 ).

Atossa calls up the spirit of her dead husband Darius.Darius tells of how he was defeated by the Athenians at Marathon.He warns that Earth herself is an ally of the Greeks.Darius also warns against reckless pride and descends.Atossa leaves and pledges to accept her son depsite his folly.Xerxes enters a broken man and tells of his defeat. He joins the lament with the chorus.

12. Oresteia《俄瑞斯忒亚》三联剧

Agamemnon,

《阿伽门农》The Libation Bearers,

《奠酒人》The Eumenides,

《复仇女神》

是现存惟一完整的三联剧《阿伽门农》是古希腊最出色的悲剧之一一部伟大的悲剧，思想和艺术价值极高图说剧情

阿伽门农女儿伊菲革涅亚的牺牲

阿伽门农祭女

Clytemnestra outraged

Argos, Mycenae

Clytemnestra has been ruling, a gloomy palace.

Atreus in a bitter dispute with Thyestes

Religious festival, reconcile

Clytemnestra love affair with Aegisthus

The Curse

“Their heads and hands and feet were hacked ( 砍 )

into pieces and thrown into a boiling stew( 煮 ),

From which he,in ignorance, ate his fill.

A meal that brought the curses upon this House!

When he discovered the obscene truth, he screamed

Out in horror, reeled back from the table, kicking it over

And retching ( 干呕） ,vomited up the butchered flesh.

Then he shouted out his curse on the sons of Pelops,

“Damn to death the clan of Pleisthenes!””

阿伽门农被谋杀

克吕泰涅斯特拉和阿伽门农的尸体

Cassandra foresaw this murder

俄瑞斯忒斯祭奠父亲

俄瑞斯忒斯和厄勒克特拉

Orestes and Electra

俄瑞斯忒斯杀埃癸斯特斯复仇

遭到复仇女神追逐的俄瑞斯忒斯

俄瑞斯忒斯 at Delphi

13. Tragedy: Aristotle’s Definition

The imitation of an action. Not the action itself, but the imitation of the action that is complete and noble.Deal with the noble theme and individualA great and noble figure like Oedipus. It is performed, not narrated.

13. Tragedy: Aristotle’s Definition

And by watching this performance,

the emotions of fear and pity are to be aroused in you.

And thereby to achieve a catharsis

A catharsis is purging,

You have to be purged of these emotions.

To learn to be purged, not to be weighed down by them,

But to learn from them and to go on.

Robert F. Kennedy quoted Aeschylus on the night of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr

“Even in our sleep, pain, which cannot forget, falls drop by drop upon the heart, until in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom through the awful grace of God." (Aeschylus, wonderful!)

“What we need in the United States is not division; what we need in the United States is not hatred; what we need in the United States is not violence or lawlessness; but love and wisdom, …”

11. Influences

古希腊悲剧（下）

Lecturer: Wu Shiyu

11. Sophocles (496-406 B.C.)

Received good education

as a chorus boy for celebrating

Financial Chief the Delian League

Elected twice as strategoi.

First performance in 468 B.C.

Also an actor, but he retired early

The addition of a third actor.

12. Sophocles’ works

Created over 120 works

Won twenty victories.

Dominated the fifth century

作品反映了雅典全盛时期的思想人物丰富多彩，形式趋于完美休战

12. Sophocles’ works

Antigone, 《安提戈涅》

Oedipus the King, 《俄底浦斯王》

The Trachiniae, 《特拉喀斯妇女》Electra, 　　 《厄勒克拉特》

Philoctetes, 《菲洛克忒忒斯》

Oedipus at ColonusOedipus the King, most famousOf all Greek Tragedies

13. Sophocles’ Antigone

Eteocles and Polynices fought for the throne,

Died at each other’s hand.

Creon, their uncle inherited tt

Declared Polynices traitor on FF

No one should bury him (dead)

Anyone violating the decree be put to death.

13. Sophocles’ Antigone

If not buried, shade could not enter the underworld.

In addition, bodies exposed would offend the gods

and thus do harm to the city.

Antigone was facing such a decision,

to bury his brother and face death,

or leave his brother unburied.

In the end, Antigone buried his brother.

13. Sophocles’ Antigone

Antigone was put into jail, where she killed herself.

Her fiancé, Creon’s son Haemon committed suicide

Creon’s wife Eurydice, loved her son so much

She killed herself too,

Only Creon sighing and mourning to himself.

14. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

Freud, founder of the psychoanalysis discipline,

Interpretation of Dreams, adopted

Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

As evidence for his theory of infant sexuality PD

“Oedipus complex” taken from this great tragedy.

The play represents unconscious desires

As a kind of “wish-fulfillment fantasy”

14. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King

《俄》最具震撼力的一部。希腊人笃信命运，这在悲剧中反映。《俄》更是命运剧的代表。但是，命运固然是不可战胜的，俄并不是消极地等待，而是展开英勇的斗争，他的品德，他那种完全不顾自己痛苦的行动，他那种不惜任何代价去寻求真相的决心，本身就是可歌可泣的。可以说，这是一曲人与命运作殊死斗争的悲歌。

13. On Sophocles

Deeper development of characters

His reputation was such that foreign rulers invited him to attend their courts, never accepted.

Aristotle used Sophocles's Oedipus the King in his Poetics (c. 335 BC) as an example of the highest achievement in tragedy.

14. Euripides (c. 480 -406 B.C.)

Born in Salamís on 23 September 480.

Last of three great tragedians in Athens

Claimed four victories

95 plays,

18 -19 survived complete.

15. Works of Euripides

公元前 441 年，《独目巨人 》公元前 438 年，《阿尔刻提斯 》公元前 431 年，《美狄亚 》 Medea

公元前 430 年，《大力士的女儿 》约公元前 430 年，《安德洛玛刻 》公元前 428 年，《希波吕托斯 》公元前 424 年，《赫卡柏 》公元前 421 年，《特洛伊的妇女 》

公元前 414 年，《在陶洛人里的伊菲格纳亚》公元前 413 年，《厄勒克特拉 》公元前 412 年，《海伦 》公元前 412 年，《伊翁 》公元前 411 年，《腓尼基的妇女 》公元前 408 年，《俄瑞斯特斯 》公元前 407 年，《醉酒的女人 》

公元前 407 年，《伊菲格纳亚在奥里斯》

15. Euripides’ Medea

《美狄亚》是欧里庇得斯最感人的悲剧之一 ,.异国女子 , 背叛自己的家庭 , 帮助伊阿宋取得金羊毛流亡到科林斯 .伊阿宋要另娶科林斯国王的女儿 ,用毒药害死了公主和国王 ,然后杀死自己的两个儿子 ,乘坐龙车逃向雅典 .

15. Works of Euripides

不合理的婚姻制度和男女地位的不平等 ,男子的不道德和自私自利 .当日妇女的共同命运 ,诗人对她们寄予无限的同情 . 希腊悲剧在形式上已十分完美 ,因此诗人只就内容方面加以革新 .他在这方面有两大贡献 ,即写实手法与心理描写 .Focused on the realism of his characters.

Medea

如何看待美狄亚的杀子？如何概括美狄亚的性格？如何理解其中蕴涵的文学母题？

16. Works of Euripides

欧里庇得斯善于描写人物的心理 .

《希波吕托斯》写变态的恋爱心理 ,

《伊翁》写妒嫉心理 ,

《酒神的伴侣》写疯狂心理 .

在《美狄亚》中 ,弃妇的恨和贤母的爱展开了剧烈的冲突 , 美狄亚要杀儿子又不忍下手的复杂心理刻划得非常深刻 . 这样的心理描写在古代文学中是很少见的 .

16. Comments

Later, Euripides' plays became the most popular, because of the simplicity of their language. His works influenced New Comedy and Roman drama, and were later idolized by the French classicists;

16. Comments

亚里士多德《诗学》称赞他“最能产生悲剧的效果” .

罗马诗人塞内加和奥维德都摹仿过他的《美狄亚》 .

但丁在《神曲》中只提到欧里庇得斯 .

高乃依 , 拉辛和歌德也摹仿过欧里庇得斯的作品 .

在英国 ,诗人拜伦 ,雪莱 ,布朗宁等也推崇欧里庇得斯 .

16. Comments

欧里庇得斯最早曾向 Anaxagoras学习，第一个提出月亮上的光反射自太阳光 ,向他的好友 Protagoras 这位诡辩大师学习，最后，欧里批得斯与苏格拉底为友并向他学习。他的剧中人在舞台上论述了太多哲学，使整个剧情变得乏味，但从另一方面来看，这些哲学式的台词赋予了其悲剧更多深刻的含义，而且也丝毫不损害其悲剧中的诗意。

欧里庇得斯曾承认写三句诗有时要花三天时间。一位跟他谈话的低能诗人惊讶地叫了起来：“那么长时间我可写出一百句诗呢！”“这我完全相信，”欧里庇得斯答道，“可它们只会有三天的生命力。”

17 、三大悲剧家比较

   埃斯库罗斯写神或神化了的人物

    索福克勒斯按“应当是怎样”的原则写理想英雄

  欧里庇得斯按“现实中本来是怎样”的原则塑造人

    埃氏悲壮、雄浑、自豪而又充满信心

索氏悲愤、迷惘，上下求索

    欧氏悲痛、憎恨，寻找出路

埃氏把命运看作具体的神，认为命运支配人的一切，但又强调人的意志。

索氏向命运提出怀疑和挑战，把命运视为一种不可捉摸的神秘力量，具有捉弄人的邪恶性质。强调人对命运的反抗和坚强的意志。

欧氏不相信命运。强调事在人为，命运靠自己掌握。

18.Influences of Greek Drama

Western theatre originates in Athens

on Western culture as a whole.

雅典的狄俄倪索斯剧场

"Remember, too, that if your country has the greatest name in all the world, it is because she never bent before disaster; because she has expended more life and effort in war than any other city, and has won for herself a power greater than any hitherto known, the memory of which will descend to the latest posterity."

伯重视文化教育，少年很早便开始在家朗诵诗歌伯鼓励公民积极参政，发放工资 (stipend) 。吸引公民观赏戏剧，为公民发放“观剧津贴”。'idiot‘:a private person, not interested in politics

“It is only we who regard the one, not participating in these duties, not as unambitious but as useless.”

-----Pericles

Acropolis: The Parthenon

雅典的狄俄倪索斯剧场

Oresteia: Agamemnon

The story of the homecoming of king Agamemnon from Troy and his death at the hand of his wife.

Oresteia: Libation Bearers

Orestes returns years later and kills Clytemnestra and her lover, Aegisthus.

Oresteia: Eumenides

Orestes is pursued by the Furies for spilling the blood of his kin and flees to Athens. Where an Athenian jury– presided over by Athena—decide the case.

谢 谢！