ENGL 251 Final Review

Skene

Structure a back of theater stage where actors enter the stage

And once he slipped his neck in the strap of Fate, his spirit veering black, impure, unholy, once he turned he stopped at nothing, seized with the frenzy blinding driving to outrage - watched frenzy, cause of all our grief! Yes he had the heart to sacrifice his daughter! She's fainting—lift her, sweep robes around her, but slip this strap in her gentle curving lips... here, gag her hard, a sound will curse the house"— and the bridle chokes her voice... her saffron robes pouring over the sand her glance like arrows showering wounding every murderer through with pity clear as a picture, live, she strains to call their names...

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: The chorus is describing Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter on his way to the war. They do not hold back on the atrocity he committed, describing how he "slipped his neck in the strap of fate" and how his spirit became unholy, showing he's sacrificing more than just his daughter but also his soul at this point. What an a-hole. p. 623

If only children could be got some other way, Without the female sex! If women didn't exist, Human life would be rid of all its miseries.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Jason Context/Significance: during argument with Medea. Part of central agon.

Women of Corinth, I would not have you censure me, So I have come. Many, I know, are proud at heart, Indoors or out; but others are ill spoken of As supercilious, just because their ways are quiet. There is no justice in the world's censorious eyes. They will not wait to learn a man's true character; Though no wrong has been done to them, one look—and they hate, Of course a stranger must conform; even a Greek Should not annoy his fellows by crass stubbornness. I accept my place; but this blow that has fallen on me Was not to be expected. It has crushed my heart. Life has no pleasure left, dear friends. I want to die. Jason was my whole life; he knows that well. Now he Has proved himself the most contemptible of men. Surely, of all creatures that have life and will, we women Are the most wretched. When, for an extravagant sum, We have bought a husband, we must accept him as Possessor of our body. This is to aggravate Wrong with worse wrong. Then the great question: will the man We get be bad or good? For women, divorce is not Respectable; to repel the man, not possible. Still more, a foreign woman, coming among new laws, New customs, needs the skill of magic, to find out What her home could not teach her, how to treat the man Whose bed she shares. And if in this exacting toil We are successful, and our husband does not struggle Under the marriage yoke, our life is enviable. Otherwise, death is better. If a man grows tired Of the company of at home, he can go out, and find A cure for tediousness. We wives are forced to look To one man only. And, they tell us, we at hoe Live free from danger, they go out to battle: fools! I'd rather stand three times in the front line than bear One child.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Medea Context/Significance: Medea saying that everyone is too quick to judge, calling people out, and calling out how women's roles are unequal as men can kind of so whatever they want and women are stuck in their roles.

Through not observing what is in the mind of another man has seldom been seen to be unhappy; but those who do not observe the movements of their own minds must of necessity be unhappy.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: If you do not self-reflect you will be unhappy, reminiscent of Socrates. p.1275

If it is thus, then, that every art does its work well— looking to the intermediate and judging its works by this standard (so that we often say of good works of art that it is not possible either to take away or to add anything, implying that excess and defect destroy the goodness of works of art, while the mean preserves it; and good artists, as we say, look to this in their work), and if, further, virtue is more exact and better than any art, as nature also is, then virtue must have the quality of aiming at the intermediate. I mean moral virtue; for it is this that is concerned with passions and actions, and in these there is excess, defect, and the intermediate. For instance, both fear and confidence and appetite and anger and pit and in general pleasure and pain may be felt both too much and too little, and in both cases not well [...]

Text: Nichomachean Ethics - the Golden Mean Author: Aristotle Speaker: Aristotle Context/Significance: Discussing the ideas of excess, defect, and the intermediate which is ideal. p.1221

Saying: "O comrades, we have been through evil Together before this; we have been through worse, Scylla, Charybdis, and the Cyclops' dwelling, The sounding rocks. This, too, the god will end. Call the nerve back; dismiss the fear, the sadness. Some day, perhaps, remembering even this Will be a pleasure. We are going on Through whatsoever chance and change, until A quiet dwelling-place, and Troy recovered. Endure, and keep yourself for better days." He kept to himself the sorrow in the heart, Wearing, for them, a mask of hopefulness.

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Aeneas Context/Significance: Aeneas displays his leadership style by trying to boost the morale of his men and puts on a brave face for them even though they are facing danger and death. p.978

The humble furrow? My tale must hurry on: I see the Fabii next, and their great Quintus Who brought us back an empire by delaying. Others, no doubt, will better mould the bronze To the semblance of soft breathing, draw, from marble, The living countenance: and others plead With greater eloquence, or learn to measure, Better than we, the pathways of the heaven, The risings of the stars; remember, Roman, To rule the people under law, to establish The way of peace, to battle down the haughty, To spare the meek. Our fine arts, these, forever."

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Anchises Context/Significance: This passage is part of Anchises describing the parade of Roman heroes, which is defining what Rome is destined to be good at and represent: law, people, and power. p.1064

Hamartia

a fatal flaw leading to the downfall of a tragic hero or heroine

Mechane

A crane used to lift characters on and off a stage, useful for "deus ex machina"

Oristeia

A play trilogy following Agamemnon and his son Orestes. Themes and events focus on revenge and justice

Stichomythia

A sequence of single alternating lines given to alternating characters, functioning as a counterpart to long speeches

Ekkyklema

A wheeled platform

Theater of Dionysus

An open-air amphitheater in 11th cen. BC Athens, home to Dionysia, a communal religious festival.

Agon

Central struggle or contest between two main characters in Greek dramas

Chorus

Composed of 12-15 members residing in orchestra area. Lines are sung or chanted in unison. The chorus provide moral commentary on the play along with plot elements, foreshadowing, and emphasize key themes and ideas. The leader is the only one who directly interacts with characters in play.

Imperium

Empire, command authority. Associated with Jupiter and his prophecy for Aeneas.

furor

Fury and rage, typically in a negative sense. Threatens the stability of civilizations. Associated with Juno in the Aeneid.

Sinon

Greek soldier "left behind" by the Greeks with the Trojan horse, tasked to make the Trojans believe the horse was an offering rather than a trap.

Pietas

Piety, duty, honor, respect, tradition, etc. Roman values embodied by Aeneas.

Sophists

Professional teachers or rhetoric who would charge for services. Plato and Socrates were not fans as they believed they taught false truth and claimed that truth was relative.

peripiteia

Reversal of fortune. An example could be when gods tell Aeneas to leave Carthage, resulting in Dido committing suicide.

Even a man's fate, held true on course, in a blinding flash rams some hidden reef; but if caution only casts the pick of the cargo— one well-balanced cast— the house will not go down, not outright; laboring under its wealth of grief the ship of state rides on.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Chorus discussing how people put too much emphasis on material goods instead of intangible things. p.647

He who was so mighty once, storming for the wars of heaven, he has had his day, And then his son who came to power met his match in the third fall and he is gone. Zeus, Zeus - raise your cries and sing him Zeus the Victor! You will reach the truth: Zeus has led us on to know, the Helmsman lays it down as law that we must suffer, suffer into truth. We cannot sleep, and drop by drop at the heart the pain of pain remembered comes again, and we resist, but ripeness comes as well. From the gods enthroned on the awesome rowing-bench there comes a violent love.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Chorus is here going through one of the main themes of the play, that people learn by suffering. First paragraph describes a familial revenge cycle, as will be described in the rest of the Oresteia p.622

But Justice turns the balance scales, sees that we suffer and we suffer and we learn. And we will know the future when it comes. Greet it too early, weep too soon. It all comes clear in the light of day. Let all go well today, well as she could want, our midnight watch, our lone defender, single-minded queen.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Chorus revealing how consequences will always have to be faced for one's actions, whether they are doles out by the gods or fate/justice. Foreshadows Agamemnon's justice. p.624

So a man once reared a lion cub at hall, snatched from the breast, still craving milk in the first flush of life. A captivating pet for the young, and the old men adored it, pampered it in their arms, day in, day out, like an infant just born. Its eyes on fire, little beggar, fawning for its belly, slave to food. But it came of age and the parent strain broke out and it paid its breeders back.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Comparing Helen to a lion cub who was taken in by man who cared for it. When the lion grew up it attacked it's breeders, similar to Helen betraying the Greeks by being married to Trojans and causing a war. p.637-638

And still some say that heaven would never stoop to punish men who trample the lovely grace of things untouchable. How wrong they are! A curse burns bright on crime— full-blown, the father's crimes will blossom, burst into the son's. Let there be less suffering... give us the sense to live on what we need

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: This foreshadows the punishment of Agamemnon, and the resulting actions of Orestes, his son. Additionally, this shows the ideas that what a father does reflects on his son and how crimes transfer over generations. p. 628

Sprung from the great good fortune in the race comes blow on bloom of pain— insatiable wealth. But not I, I alone say this. Only the reckless act can breed impiety, multiplying crime on crime, while the house kept straight and just is blessed with radiant children. But ancient Violence longs to breed, new Violence comes when its fatal hour comes, the demon comes to take her toll—no war, no force, no prayer can hinder the midnight Fury stamped with parent Fury moving through the house. But Justice shines in sooty hovels, loves the decent life. From proud halls crusted with gilt by filthy hands she turns her eyes to find the pure in spirit— spurning the wealth stamped counterfeit with praise, she steers all things towards their destined end.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: This is the choral ode about wealth and punishment. Describes how violence leads to more violence in a cycle. However, justice will always be served in the end. p.638

I cried out long ago!—for joy, when the first herald came burning though the night and told the city's fall. And there were some who smiled and said, "A few fires persuade you Troy's in ashes. Women, women, elated over nothing." You made me seem deranged. For all that I sacrificed—a woman's way, you'll say—station to station on the walls we lifted cries of triumph that resounded in the temples of the gods. We lulled and blessed the fires with myrrh and they consumed our victims. But enough. Why prolong the story? From the king himself I'll gather all I need. Now for the best way to welcome home my lord, my good lord... No time to lose! What dawn can feast a woman's eyes like this? I can see he light, the husband plucked from war by the Saving God and open wide the gates. Tell him that, and have him come to speed, the people's darling - how they long for him. And for his wife, may he return and find her true at hall, just as the day he left her, faithful to the last. A watchdog gentle to him alone.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Clytaemnestra Context/Significance: Clytaemnestra pretends to be grateful for Agamemnon's homecoming and pretends that she if still only faithful to him, when in reality she is plotting his death. p. 633-634

The run for home and safety waits, the swerve at the post, the final lap of the grueling two-lap race. And even if the men come back with no offense to the gods, the avenging dead may never rest— Oh let no new disaster strike! And here you have it, what a woman has to say. Let the best win out, clear to see. A small desire but all that I could want.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Clytaemnestra Context/Significance: This is the end of Clytaemnestra's first speech. The speech overall describes the atrocities of war and emphasizes the misery and suffering. Here she describes how the dead from the war will forever haunt the Greeks and Agamemnon and indicates her potential role for revenge. p. 627

One thing more. Be true to your ideals and tell me— True to my ideals? Once I violate them I am lost. Would you have sworn this act to god in a time of terror? Yes, if a prophet called for a last, drastic rite. But Priam—can you see him if he had your success? Striding on the tapestries of god, I see him now. And you fear the reproach of common men? The voice of the people—aye they have enormous power. Perhaps, but wheres the glory without a little gall? And where's the woman in all this lust for glory? But the great victor—it becomes him to give away. Victory in this...war of ours, it means so much to you? O give way! The power is yours if you surrender/all of your own free will to me Enough.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Clytemnestra/Agamemnon Context/Significance: this is the central agon (struggle or contest between two main characters) of the play. Agamemnon eventually gives in to Clytemnestra even though he wanted to avoid being prideful, and seals his fate. p.643-644

True, we have done well. Think back in the years and what have you? A few runs of luck, a lot that's bad. Who but a god can go through life unmarked? A long, hard pull we had, if I would tell it all. The iron rations, penned in the gangways hock by jowl like sheep. Whatever miseries break a man, our quota, every sunstarved day. Then on the beaches it was worse. Dug in under the enemy ramparts—deadly going. Out of the sky, out of the marshy flats the dews soaked us, turned to ruts we fought from into gullies, made our gear, our scalps crawl with lice. And talk of the cold, the sleet to freeze the gulls, and the big snows come avalanching down from Ida. Oh but the heat, the sea and the windless noons, the swells asleep, dropped to a dead calm... But why weep now? It's over for us, over for them. The dead rest and never rise again; no need to call their muster. We're alive, do we have to go on raking up old wounds? Good-by to all that. Glad I am to say it. For use, the remains of the Greek contingents, the good wins out, no pain can tip the scales, not now. So shout this boast to the bright sun— fitting it is—wing it over the seas and rolling earth: "Once when an Argive expedition captured Troy they hauled these spoils back to the gods of Greece, they bolted them high across the temple doors, the glory of the past!" And hearing that, men will applaud our city and our chiefs, and Zeus will have the hero's share of fame— he did the work. That's all I have to say.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Herald Context/Significance In the first part of this speech, the herald is describing the horrors of war, followed by describing the glory that comes from war, but overall shows a form of ambivalence towards war and it's benefits/consequences. p.632-633

Dear gods, set me free from all the pain, the long watch I keep, one whole year awake... propped on my arms, crouched on the roofs of Atreus like a dog... I know the stars by heart, the armies of the night, and there in the lead the ones that bring us snow or the crops of summer, brings us all we have— our great blazing kings of the sky, I know them, when they rise and when they fall... and now I watch for the light, the signal-fire breaking out of Troy, shouting Troy is taken. So she commands, full of her high hopes. That woman—she maneuvers like a man. And when I keep to my bed, soaked in dew, and the thoughts go groping through the night and the good dreams that used to guard my sleep... not here, it's the old comrade, terror at my neck. I mustn't sleep, no— Look alive sentry. And I try to pick out tunes, I hum a little, a good cure for sleep, and the tears start, I cry for the hard times come to the house, no longer run like the great place of old. Oh for a blessed end to all our pain, some godsend burning through the dark—I salute you! You dawn of darkness, you turn night to day— I see the light at last. They'll be dancing in the streets of Argos thanks to you, thanks to this new stroke of— Aieee! There's your signal clear and true my queen! Rise up from bed—hurry, lift a cry of triumph through the house, praise the gods for the beacon, if they've taken Troy... But there it burns, fire all the way. I'm for the morning dances. Master's luck is mine. A throw of the torch has brought up triple-sixes—we have won! My move now— Just bring him home. My king, I'll take your loving hand in mine and then... the rest is silence. The ox is on my tongue. Aye, but the house and these old stones, give them a voice and what a tale they'd tell. And so would I, gladly... I speak to those who know; to those who don't my mind's a blank. I never say a word.

Text: Agamemnon Author: Aeschylus Speaker: Watchman Context/Significance: Watchman seeing Agamemnon's ship returning from the Trojan war. Last paragraph is a not of tragic foreboding, predicting the unfortunate fate of Agamemnon. These are the opening lines of the play. p.617-618

If you say so, you will make me hate you, and the hatred of the dead, by all rights, will haunt you night and day. But leave me to my own absurdity, leave me to suffer this—dreadful thing. I will suffer nothing as great as death without glory.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Antigone Context/Significance: Antigone responding to Ismene's refusal to help. She shows her headstrong nature, as well as her pursuit of glory in doing what she believes is right. However, it is also possible she is acting in pursuit of glory for herself. p.796

O tomb, my bridal-bed—my house, my prison cut in the hollow road, my everlasting watch! I'll soon be there, soon embrace my own, the great growing family of our dead Persephone has received among her ghosts. I, the last of them all, the most veiled by far, go down before my destined time's run out. But still I go, cherishing one good hope: my arrival may be dear to father, dear to you, mother, dear to you, my loving brother, Eteocles— When you died I washed you with my hands, I dressed you all, I poured the sacred cups across your tombs. But now, Polynices, because I laid your body out as well, this, this is my reward. Nevertheless I honored you—the decent will admit it— well and wisely too. Never, I tell you, if I had been the mother of children or if my husband died, exposed and rotting— I'd never have taken this ordeal upon myself, never defied our people's will. What law, you ask, do I satisfy with what I say? A husband dead, there might have been another. A child by another too, if I had lost the first. But mother and father both lost in the halls of Death, no brother could ever spring to light again. For this law alone I held you first in honor. For this, Creon, the king, judges me a criminal guilty of dreadful outrage, my dear brother! And now he leads me off, a captive in his hands, with no part in the bridal-song, the bridal-bed, denied all joy of marriage, raising children— deserted so by loved ones, struck by fate, I descend alive to the caverns of the dead. What law of the mighty gods have I transgressed? Why look to the heavens any more, tormented as I am? Whom to call, what comrades now? Just think, my reverence only brands me for irreverence! Very well: if this is the pleasure of the gods, once I suffer I will know that I was wrong. But if these men are wrong, let them suffer nothing worse than they mete out to me— these masters of injustice!

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Antigone Context/Significance: Antigone's death speech. She focuses a lot on the dead rather than the living, and some people say that she promotes death in a way and is actually seeking it. Antigone also justifies why she sacrificed so much for her dead brother as she values him over all. Towards the end she shows some dread related to dying. p.823-824

Enough. Give me glory! What greater glory could I win than to give my own brother decent burial? These citizens here would all agree, they would praise me too if their lips weren't locked in fear. Lucky tyrants—the perquisites of power! Ruthless power to do and say whatever pleases them

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Antigone Context/Significance: This is part of Antigone calling Creon a tyrant and attempting to thwart his authority. Further shows her quest for glory.

Of course I did. It wasn't Zeus, not in the least, who made this proclamation—not to me. Nor did that Justice, dwelling with the gods beneath the earth, ordain such laws for men. Nor did I think your edict had such force that you, a mere mortal, could override the gods, the great unwritten, unshakable traditions. They are alive, not just today or yesterday: they live forever, from the first of time, and no one knows when they first saw the light. These laws—I was not about to break them, not out of fear of some man's wounded pride, and face the retribution of the gods. Die I must, I've known it all my life— how could I keep from knowing?—even without your death-sentence ringing in my ears. And if I am to die before my time I consider that a gain. Who on earth, alive in the midst of so much grief as I, could fail to find his death a rich reward? So for me, at least, to meet this doom of yours is precious little pain. But if I had allowed my own mother's son to rot, an unburied corpse— that would have been agony! This is nothing. And if my present actions strike you as foolish, let's just say I've been accused of folly by a fool.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Antigone Context/Significance: This is part of the central agon (main conflict) of the play between Creon and Antigone. Here, Antigone is justifying her actions to Creon, while simultaneously disrespecting him and accusing him of not respecting the gods, and proceeds to call him a fool. You go girl. p.807

I know it myself—I'm shaken, torn. It's a dreadful thing to yield... but resist now? Lay my pride bare to the blows of ruin? That's dreadful too.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Creon realizing he may be in the wrong, admitting to his arrogance and prides role in his actions.

No? Believe me, the stiffest stubborn wills fall the hardest; the toughest iron, tempered strong in the white-hot fire, you'll see it crack and shatter first of all. And I've known spirited horses you can break with a light bit—proud, rebellious horses. There's no room for pride, not in a slave, not with the lord and master standing by. This girl was an old hand at insolence when she overrode the edicts we made public. But once she had done it—the insolence, twice over—to glory in it, laughing, mocking us to our face with what she'd done. I am not the man, not now: she is the man if this victory goes to her and she goes free. Never! Sister's child or closer in blood than all my family clustered at my altar worshiping Guardian Zeus—she'll never escape, she and her blood sister, the most barbaric death. Yes, I accuse her sister of an equal part in scheming this, this burial.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Creon responding to Antigone after he finds out she defied his order to no bury her brother. Creon shows that he blames Ismene just as much as Antigone regardless of the fact she had no role. p.808

Take me away, I beg you, out of sight. A rash, indiscriminate fool! I murdered you, my son, against my will— you too my wife... Wailing wreck of a man, whom to look to? where to lean for support? Whatever I touch goes wrong—once more a crushing fate's come down upon my head!

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Echoing Oedipus in his despair and how he wants to be taken away and suffer his fate. p.839

No, no, harbor of Death, so choked, so hard to cleanse!— why me? why are you killing me? Herald of pain, more words, more grief? I died once, you kill me again and again! What's the report, boy... some news for me? My wife death? O dear god! Slaughter heaped on slaughter?

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Response to his wife's death. Shows his descent into madness and how Creon feels sentenced by death. p. 837

My countrymen the ship of the state is safe. the gods who rocked her, after a long, merciless pounding in the storm, have righted her once more... Of course you cannot know a man completely, his character, his principles, sense of judgement, not till he's shown his colors, ruling the people, making laws. Experience, there's the test. As I see it, whoever assumes the task, the awesome test of setting the city's course, and refused to adopt the soundest polices but fearing someone, keeps his lips locked tight, he's utterly worthless. So I rate him now, I always have. And whoever places a friend above the good of his own country, he is nothing; I have no use for him. Zeus my witness, Zeus who sees all things, always— I could never stand by silent, watching destruction march agains our city, putting safety to rout, nor could I ever make that man a friend of mine who menaces our country. Remember this: our country is our safety. Only while she voyages true on course can we establish friendships, truer than blood itself. Such are my standards. They make our city great.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: This is Creon's "ship of state speech" which displays highly nationalistic rhetoric. Creon believes that the general prosperity of the state is the most important, and that people derive their personal wellbeing from the wellbeing of their communities. p.798

Oh Haemon, never lose your sense of judgement over a woman. The warmth, the rush of pleasure, it all goes cold in your arms, I warn you... a worthless woman in your house, a misery in your bed. What wound cuts deeper than a loved one turned against you? Spit her out, like a mortal enemy—let the girl go. Let her find a husband down among the dead. Imagine it: I caught her in naked rebellion, the traitor, the only one in the whole city. I'm not about to prove myself a liar, not to my people, no, I'm going to kill her! That's right—so let her cry for mercy, sing her hymns to Zeus who defends all bonds of kindred blood. Why, if I bring up my own kin to be rebels, think what I'd suffer from the world at large. Show me the man who rules his household well: I'll show you someone fit to rule the stat. That good man, my son, I have every confidence he and he alone can give commands and take them too. Staunch in the storm of spears he'll stand his ground, a loyal, unflinching comrade at your side. But whoever steps out of line, violates the laws or presumes to hand out orders to his superiors, he'll win no praise from me. But that man the city places in authority, his orders must be obeyed, large and small, right and wrong. Anarchy—show me a greater crime in all the earth! She, she destroys cities, rips up houses, breaks the ranks of spearmen into headlong rout. But the ones who last it out, the great mass of them owe their lives to discipline. Therefore we must defend the men who live by the law, never let some woman triumph over us. Better to fall from power, if fall we must, at the hands of a man—never be rated inferior to a woman, never.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: to his son Haemon, Creon is servinf his own interest by attempting to convince Haemon he needs to follow in the path of his father and preaching loyalty to the family. Creon is condemning Antigone and her actions further. From my notes: "Creon is a misogynistic *******" (I just found out Quizlet censors) p.815-816

Oh my sister, think— think how our own father died, hated, his reputation in ruins, driven on by the crimes he brought to light himself to gouge out his eyes with his own hands— then mother... his mother and wife, both in one, mutilating her life in the twisted noose— and last, our two brothers dead in a single day, both shedding their own blood, poor suffering boys, battling out their common destiny hand-to-hand. Now look at the two of us, left so alone... think what a death we'll die, the worst of all if we violate the laws and override the fixed decree of the throne, its power— we must be sensible. Remember we are women, we're not born to contend with men. Then too, we're underlings, ruled by much stronger hands, so we must submit in this, and things still worse.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Ismene Context/Significance: Ismene shows hear non-confrontational nature here, where she indicates that she believes Antigone is acting foolishly without being too upfront about it. Her actions and words are more reflective of women's status at the time and she is afraid of the consequences if she were to go against Creon's orders. p.794

Believe me, when a man has squandered his true joys, he's good as dead, I tell you, a living corpse. Pile up riches in your house, as much as you like— live like a king with a huge show of pomp, but if real delight is missing from the lot, I wouldn't give you a wisp of smoke for it, not compared with joy.

Text: Antigone Author: Sophocles Speaker: Messenger Context/Significance: Commenting on Creon's actions, after bringing news of Haemon's death. (r/haemondidnothingwrong)

She cannot resist such loveliness, such heavenly gleaming; She will enfold herself In the dress and the wreath of wrought gold, Preparing her bridal beauty To enter a new home—among the dead. So fatal is the snare she will fall into, So inevitable the death that awaits her; From its cruelty there is no escape. And you, unhappy Jason, ill-starred in marriage, You, son-in-law of kings: Little you know that the favor you ask Will seal your sons' destruction And fasten on your wife a hideous fate. O wretched Jason! So sure of destiny, and so ignorant! Your sorrow next I weep for, pitiable mother; You, for jealousy of your marriage-bed, Will slaughter your children; Since, disregarding right and loyalty, Your husband has abandoned you And lives with another wife.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Chorus being middle ground. Sympathetic to readers and see both sides. They are reserving moral judgement or confused themselves. p.867

Streams of the sacred rivers flow uphill; Tradition, order, all things reversed: Deceit is men's device now, Men's oaths are gods' dishonor. Legend will now reverse our reputation; A time comes when the female sex is honored; That old discordant slander Shall no more hold us subject. Male poets of past ages, with their ballads Of faithless women, shall go out of fashion; For Phoebus, Prince of Music, Never bestowed the lyric inspiration Through female understanding— Or we'd find themes in poems, We'd counter with our epics against man. Oh, Time is old; and in his store of tales Men figure no less famous Or infamous than women. So you, Medea, wild with love, Set sail from your father's house, Threading the Rocky Jaws of the eastern sea; And here, living in a strange country, Your marriage lost, your bed solitary, You are driven beyond the borders, An exile with no redress.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: Take female perspective. Women can turn the tables and the future, it matters who is telling the story.

You abomination! Of all women most detested By every god, by me, by the whole human race! You could endure—a mother!—to lift sword against Your own little ones; to leave me childless, my life wrecked. After such murder do you outface both Sun and Earth— Guilt of gross pollution? May the gods blast your life! I am sane now; but I was mad before, when I Brought you from your palace in a land of savages Into a Greek home—you, a living curse, already A traitor both to your father and your native land. The vengeance due for your sins the gods have cast on me. You already murdered your brother at his own hearth When you first stepped on board my lovely Argo's hull. That was your beginning. Then you became my wife, and bore My children; now. out of mere sexual jealousy, You murder them! In all Hellas there is not one woman Who could have done it; yet in preference to them I married you, chose hatred and murder for my wife— No woman, but a tiger; a Tuscan Scylla—but more savage. Ah, what's the use? If I cursed you all day, no remorse Would touch you, for your heart's proof against feeling. Go! Out of my sight, polluted fiend, child-murderer! Leave me to mourn over my destiny: I have lost My young bride; I have lost the two sons I begot And brought up; I shall never see them alive again.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Jason Context/Significance: Jason responding to Medea's actions. Rip their kids.

I understand The horror of what I am going to do; but anger, The spring of all life's horror, masters my resolve.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Medea Context/Significance: Anger winning over her love for her children.

We were born women—useless for honest purposes, But in all kinds of evil skilled practitioners.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Medea Context/Significance: Medea being ironic, parodying what people generally think. Condemning what men think of women.

Oh, what am I to do? Women, my courage is all gone. Their young, bright faces— I can't do it. I'll think no more of it. I'll take them Away from Corinth. Why should I hurt them, to make Their father suffer, when I shall suffer twice as much Myself? I won't do it. I won't think of it again. What is the matter with me? Are my enemies To laugh at me? Am I to let them off scot free? I must steel myself to it. What a coward I am, Even tempting my own resolution with soft talk. Boys, go indoors. If there is any here who finds it Not lawful to be present at my sacrifice, Let him see to it. My hand shall not weaken. Oh, my heart, don't, don't do it! Oh, miserable heart, Let them be! Spare your children! We'll all live together Safely in Athens; and they will make you happy... No! No! No! By all the fiends of hate in hell's depths, no! I'll not leave sons of mine to be the victims of My enemy's rage. In any case there is no escape,

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Medea Context/Significance: Medea doubting herself, whether to kill her children or not. Question of whether she's authentic or not, sounds like a Greek warrior weighing situation. Emotionally torn, this passage humanizes her because she still loves her children but is rationalizing her decision. Anger wins in the end.

However, enough of that. What makes me cry with pain Is the next thing I have to do. I will kill my sons. No one shall take my children from me. When I have made Jason's whole house a shambles, I will leave Corinth A murderess, flying from my darling children's blood. Yes, I can endure guilt, however horrible; The laughter of my enemies I will not endure. Now let things take their course. What use is life to me? I have no land, no home, no refuge from despair. My folly was committed long ago, when I Was ready to desert my father's house, won over By eloquence from a Greek, whom with God's help I now Will punish. He shall never see alive again The sons he had from me. From his new bride he never Shall breed a son; she by my poison, wretched girl, Must die a hideous death. Let no one think of me As humble or weak or passive; let them understand I am a different kind: dangerous to my enemies, Loyal to my friends. To such a life glory belongs.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Medea Context/Significance: Medea talking about her plan. Mentions glory, though author demonizes her here. Her actions should be taken in context of her experience and her hatred of the male privileges that led her to take revenge

But now her world has turned to enmity, and wounds her Where her affection's deepest. Jason has betrayed His own sons, and my mistress, for a royal bed, For alliance with the kind of Corinth. He has married Glauce, Creon's daughter. Poor Medea! Scorned and shamed, She raves, invoking every vow and solemn pledge That Jason made her, and calls the gods as witnesses What thanks she has received for her fidelity. She will not eat; she lies collapsed in agony, Dissolving the long hours in tears. Since first she heard of Jason's wickedness, she has not raised her eyes, Or moved her cheek from the hard ground; and when her friends Reason with her, she might be a rock or wave of the sea, For all she hears—unless, maybe, she turns away Her lovely head, speaks to herself along, and wails Aloud for her dear father, her own land and home, Which she betrayed and left, to come here with this man Who now spurns and insults her. Poor Medea! Now She learns through pain what blessings they enjoy who are not Uprooted from their native land. She hates her sons: To see them is no pleasure to her. I am afraid Some dreadful purpose is forming in her mind. She is A frightening woman; no one who makes an enemy Of her will carry off an easy victory.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Nurse Context/Significance: Nurse speaking the prologue, detailing how Jason dumped Medea and setting the stage for a revenge drama. Medea feels that he owes her and the Nurse is on Medea's side but is still worried. Starting with the nurse begins the play with suspense and urgency as well as creating more compassion for Medea as the nurse is sympathetic to her.

Oh, the pity of it! Poor Medea! Your children—why, what have they to do With their father's wickedness? Why hate them? I am sick with fear for you, children, terror Of what may happen. The mind of a queen Is a thing to fear. A queen is used To giving commands, not obeying them; And her rage once roused is hard to appease. To have learnt to live on the common level Is better. No grand life for me, Just peace and quiet as I grow old. The middle way, neither great nor mean, Is best by far, in name and practice. To be rich and powerful brings no blessing; Only more utterly Is the prosperous house destroyed, when the gods are angry.

Text: Medea Author: Euripides Speaker: Nurse Context/Significance: Nurse talking about ideal life, where the "middle life" is better than being powerful because everyone falls and falling from the middle is less catastrophic. Finals week is rock bottom so this makes me feel a bit better I guess.

Since it is possible that thou mayest depart from life this very moment, regulate every act and thought accordingly. But to go away from among men, if there are gods, is not a thing to be afraid of, for the gods will not involve thee in evil; but if indeed they do not exist, or if they have no concern about human affairs, what is it to me to live in a universe devoid of gods or devoid of providence? But in truth they do exist, and they do care for human things, and they have put all the means in a man's power to enable him not to fall into real evils. And as to the rest, if there was anything evil, they would have provided for this also, that it should be altogether in a man's power not to fall into it. Now that which does not make a man worse, how can it make a man's life worse? But neither through ignorance, nor having the knowledge, but not the power to guard against or correct these things, is it possible that the nature of the universe has overlooked them; nor is it possible that it has made so great a mistake, either through want of power or want of skill, that good and evil should happen indiscriminately to the good and the bad. But death certainly, and life, honor and dishonor, pain and pleasure, all these things equally happen to good men and bad, being things which make us neither better nor worse. Therefore they are neither good nor evil.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: Addresses "Theodicy," saying that things considered good or bad happen to everyone making them neither fully good or bad, but the gods punish the bad and reward the good overall. p.1276

Of human life the time is a point, and the substance is in a flux, and the perception dull, and the composition of the whole body subject to putrefaction, and the soul a whirl, and fortune hard to divine, and fame a thing devoid of judgment. And, to say all in a word, everything which belongs to the body is a stream, and what belongs to the soul is a dream and vapor, and ice is a warfare and a stranger's sojourn, and after-fame is oblivion.What then that which is able to conduct a man? One thing and only one, philosophy. But this consists in keeping the daemon within a man free of violence and unharmed, superior to pains and pleasures, doing nothing without a purpose, nor yet falsely and with hypocrisy, not feeling the need of another man's doing or not doing anything; and besides, accepting all that happens, and all that is allotted, as coming from thence, wherever it is, from whence he himself came; and, finally waiting for death with a cheerful mind, as being nothing else than a dissolution of the elements of which every living being is compounded. But if there is no harm to the elements themselves in each continually changing into another, why should a man have any apprehension about the change and dissolution of all the elements? For it is according to nature and nothing is evil which is according to nature.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: Life sucks and then you die, but philosophy can guide us through the mess that is life. We should accept life as is given to us without fighting against it. Death is a natural process so it shouldn't be feared. I wrote that this is a good one for the final in my notes... p.1278

Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simply dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts. And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last, laying aside all carelessness and passionate aversion from the commands of reason, and all hypocrisy, and self-love, and discontent with the portion which has been given to thee. Thou sets how few the things are, the which if a man lays hold of, he is able to live a life which flows in quiet, and is like the existence of the gods; for the gods on their part will require nothing more from him who observes these things.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: Live every act as if it could be your last. Do what is logical and follow reason, don't depend of what feels right and live a quiet, peaceful life. p.1275

How quickly all things disappear, in the universe the bodies themselves, but in time the remembrance of them; what is the nature of all sensible things, and particularly those which attract with the bait of pleasure or terrify by pain, or are noised abroad by vapory fame; how worthless, and contemptible, and sordid, and perishable, and dead they are—all this it is the part of the intellectual faculty to observe. To observe to who these are whose opinions and voices give reputation; what death is, and the fact that, if a man looks at it in itself, and by the abstractive power of reflection resolves into their parts all the things which present themselves to the imagination in it [...]

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: We are a part of a bigger picture or something like that. p.1276

The soul of man does violence to itself, first of all, when it becomes an abscess and, as it were, a tumor on the universe, so far as it an. For to be vexed at anything which happens is a separation of ourselves from nature, in some part of which the natures of all other things are contained. In the next place, the soul does violence to itself when it turns away from any man, or even moves towards him with the intention of injuring, such as are the souls of those who are angry. In the third place, the soul does violence to itself when it is overpowered by pleasure or pain. Fourthly, when it plays a part, and does or says anything insincerely and untruly. Fifthly, when it allows any act of its own and any movement to be without an aim, and does anything thoughtlessly and without considering what it is, it being right that even the smallest things be done with reference to an end; and the end of rational animals is to follow the reason and the law of the most ancient city and polity.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: You are hurting yourself when you give in to unreasonable and extreme emotions and actions. p.1277-1278

All that is from the gods is full of providence. That which is from fortune is not separated from nature or without an interweaving and involution with the things which are ordered by providence. From thence all things flow; and there is besides necessity, and that which is for the advantage of the whole universe, of which thou art a part. But that is good for every part of nature which the nature of the whole brings, and what serves to maintain this nature. Now the universe is preserved, as by the changes of the elements so by the changes of things compounded of the elements. Let these principles be enough for thee, let them always be fixed opinions. But case away the thirst after books, that thou mayest not die murmuring, but cheerfully, truly, and from thy heart thankful to the gods.

Text: Meditations Author: Marcus Aurelius Speaker: Marcus Aurelius Context/Significance: idk something about living in the moment and as part of a bigger picture p.1275

That moral virtue is a mean, then, and in what sense it is so, and that it is a mean between two vices, the one involving excess, the other deficiency, and that it is such because its character is to aim at what is intermediate in passions and in actions, has been sufficiently stated. Hence also it is no easy task to be good. For in everything it is no easy task to find the middle, e.g., to find the middle of a circle is not for every one but for him who knows; so, too, any one can get angry—that is easy—or give or spend money; but to do this to the right person, to the right extent, at the right time, with the right motive, and in the right way, that is not for every one, nor is it easy; wherefore goodness is both rare and laudable and noble.

Text: Nichomachean Ethics - the Golden Mean Author: Aristotle Speaker: Aristotle Context/Significance: It is not always easy to find the intermediate that represents virtue, and it is entirely dependent on the individual. It is hard to learn virtue directly from another person. p.1224

arrogance insatiable pride breed the tyrant feed him on thing after thing blindly at the wrong time uselessly and he grows reaches so high nothing can stop his fall his feet thrashing the air standing on nothing and nowhere to stand he plunges down o god shatter the tyrant but let men compete let self-perfection grow let men sharpen their skills soldiers citizens building the good city Apollo protect me always always the god I will honor if a man walks through his life arrogant strutting proud says anything does anything does not fear justice fear the gods bow to their shining presences let fate make him stumble in his tracks for all his lecheries and headlong greed if he takes whatever he wants right or wrong if he touches forbidden things what man who acts like this would boast he can escape the anger of the gods why shouldn't I join these sacred public dances if such acts are honored

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: The first part of this speech is a meditation on the nature of tyranny and pride and what can happen if one is not cautious of these traits. The second portion serves as a cautionary note to Oedipus to not fall into the trap of arrogance and ignoring his fate or the laws of the gods. p.770

O citizens of Thebes, this is Oedipus, who solved the famous riddle, who held more power than any mortal. See what he is: all men gazed on his fortunate life, all men envied him, but look at him, look. All he had, all this man was, pulled down and swallowed by the storm of his own life, and by the god. Keep your eyes on that last day, on your dying. Happiness and peace, they were not yours unless at death you can look back on your life and say I lived, I did not suffer.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Chorus Context/Significance: These are the closing lines of the play, where the chorus discusses the idea that one can only know true happiness on their deathbed when one is no longer suffering or has the potential to suffer. p.791

What do you want from me, Oedipus? Drive me out of Thebes, do it now, now— drive me someplace where no man can speak to me, where no man can see me anymore. Believe me, Oedipus, I would have done it long ago. But I refuse to act until I know precisely what the god desires. Apollo has revealed what he desires. Everything is clear. I killed my father, I am polluted and unclean. I must die That is what the god commanded, Oedipus. But there are no precedents for what has happened. We need to know before we act.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Creon is showing his character by indicating his respect for the gods and his careful considerations of his actions before he takes them. His words indicate he is thoughtful, which in this play he is, however this is contrasted by his behavior in Antigone. p.788

No, Oedipus. Consider it rationally, as I have. Reflect: What man, what sane man, would prefer a king's power with all its dangers and anxieties, when he could enjoy the same power, without its cares, and sleep in peace each night? Power? I have no instinct for power, no hunger for it either. It isn't a royal power I want, but its advantages. And any sensible man would want the same. Look at the life I lead. Whatever I want, I get from you, with your goodwill and blessing. I have nothing to fear. If I were king, my life would be constant duty and constraint. Why would I want your power or the throne of Thebes more than what I enjoy now—the privilege of power without its dangers? I would be a fool to want more than what I have—the substance, not the show, of power. As matters stand, no man envies me, I am courted and admired by all. Men wear no smiling masks for Kreon. And those who want something from you come to me because the way to royal favor lies through me. Tell me, Oedipus, why should I give these blessings up to seize your throne and all the dangers it confers? A man like me, who knows his mortal limits and accepts them, cannot be vicious or treacherous by nature. The love of power is not my nature, nor is it treason or the thoughts of treason that go with the love of power. I wold never dare conspire against your life.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Creon Context/Significance: Here Creon is defending himself against Oedipus's accusation that he is plotting with Tiresias to steal the throne from Oedipus and that he was involved in Laios's murder. Creon displays here that he has no interest in power and it's consequences, but would instead prefer to benefit from knowing those in power and gaining from it. p.762

Why should men be afraid of anything? Fortune rules our lives. Luck is everything. Things happen. The future is darkness No human mind can know it. It's best to live in the moment, live for today, Oedipus. Why should the thought of marrying your mother make you so afraid? Many man have slept with their mothers in their dreams. Why worry? See your dreams for what they are—nothing, nothing at all. Be happy, Oedipus.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Jocasta Context/Significance: Jocasta shows here that she doesn't believe in prophecy or reading the future, perhaps because she is scared of the results and attempts to shut down Oedipus's investigation into the death of Laios and revealing that he has actually married his mother. p.773

Children, poor helpless children. I know what brings you here, I know. You suffer, this plague is agony for each of you, but none of you, not one suffers as I do. Each of you suffers for himself, only himself. My whole being wails and breaks for this city, for myself, for all of you, old man, all of you. Everything ends here, with me. I am the man. You have not wakened me from some kind of sleep. I have wept, struggled, wandered in this maze of thought, tried every road, searched hard— finally I found one cure, only one: I sent my wife's brother, Kreon, to great Apollo's shrine at Delphi; I sent him to learn what I must say or do to save Thebes. But his long absence troubles me. Why isn't he here? Where is he? When he returns, what kind of man would I be if I failed to do everything the god reveals?

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Oedipus Context/Significance: Here Oedipus is responding to a priest asking for his help. Oedipus in his speech is showing that he cares about his people and their welfare, but also displays his pride and arrogance in his form of speech and claiming his people's utmost dependence on him. p.746

I couldn't get it out of my head. Without my parents' knowledge, I went to Delphi: I want the truth, but Apollo refused to answer me. And yet he did reveal other things, he did show me a future dark with torment, evil, horror, he made me see— see myself, doomed to sleep with my own mother, doomed to bring children into this world where the sun pours down, children no one could bear to see, doomed to murder the man who gave me life, whose blood is my blood. My father.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Oedipus Context/Significance: Oedipus describing how he knew his fate, and attempted to flee it which only resulted in his fate being carried out. p.768

Then I never would have murdered my father, never heard men call me my mother's husband. Now I am Oedipus! Oedipus, who lay in that loathsome bed, made love there in that bed, his father's and mother's bed, the bed where he was born. No gods anywhere now, not for me, now, unholy, broken man. What man ever suffered grief like this? [continued] I banished the royal sons of Laios, the man the gods revealed is stained with the awful stain. The secret stain that I myself revealed is my stain. And now revealed at last, how could I ever look men in the eyes? Never. Never. If I could, I would have walled my ears so they heard nothing, I would have made this body of mine a wall. I would have heard nothing, tasted nothing, smelled nothing, seen nothing. No thought. No feeling. Nothing. Nothing. So pain would never reach me anymore.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Oedipus Context/Significance: Oedipus reflecting on his misfortune and mental state after learning what he has done. Oedipus shows he is upset with his own existence and attempts to reduce himself to nothingness to cope with his shame. p.785-786

You call me cold, stubborn, unfeeling, you insult me. But you, Oedipus, what do you know about yourself, about your real feelings? You don't see how much alike we are. How can I restrain my anger when I see how little you care for Thebes. The truth will come, by itself, the truth will come no matter how I shroud it in silence. All the more reason why you should speak. Not another word. Rage away. You will never make me speak. I'll rage, prophet, I'll give you all my anger. I'll say it all— Listen: I think you were involved in the murder of Laios, you helped plan it, I think you did everything in your power to kill Laios, everything but strike him with your own hands, and if you weren't blind, if you still had eyes to see with, I'd say you, and you along, did it all.

Text: Oedipus the King Author: Sophocles Speaker: Tiresias and Oedipus (switching off) Context/Significance: This is the argument between Oedipus and Tiresias when Tiresisas refuses to tell him about who killed Laios, which would reveal Oedipus's fate. Oedipus accuses Tiresias of being involved in the murder due to his refusal to help. This passage emphasizes how blind to his fate Oedipus is as well as the difference between being blind and being able to see what is and isn't. p.755

I bent down And over my neck and shoulders spread the cover Of a tawny lion-skin, took up my burden; Little Iulus held my hand, and trotted, As best he could, beside me; Creusa followed. We went on through the shadows. I had been Brave, so I thought, before, in the rain of weapons And the cloud of massing Greeks. But now I trembled Fearful for both my burden and companion. I was near the gates, and thinking we had made it, But there was a sound, the tramp of marching feet, And many of them, it seemed; my father, peering Through the thick gloom, cried out:—'Son, they are coming! Flee, flee! I see their shields, their gleaming bronze.' Something or other took my senses from me In that confusion. I turned aside from the path, I do not know what happened then. Creusa Was lost; she had missed the road, or halted, weary, She was not sen again; I had not looked back, Nor even thought about her, till we came To Ceres' hallowed home. The count was perfect, Only one missing there, the wife and mother. Whom did I not accuse, of gods and mortals, Then in my frenzy? What worse thing had happened In the city overthrown? [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Aeneas Context/Significance: Aeneas leading his family and surviving Trojans out of the city. He is carrying his father with his son and wife following. They are almost caught and Aeneas's wife is lost. In this passage Aeneas is adimitting fear making seem seem like a more vulnerable, and thus relatable, hero. p.1007

'Never, O Queen, will I deny you merit Whatever you have strength to claim; I will not Regret remembering Dido, while I have Breath in my body, or consciousness of spirit. I have a point or two to make. I did not, Believe me, hope to hide my flight by cunning; I did not, ever, claim to be a husband, Made no such vows. If I had fate's permission To live my own life my way, to settle my troubles At my own will, I would be watching over The city of Troy, and caring for my people, Those whom the Greeks had spared, and Priam's palace Would still be standing; for the vanquished people I would have built the town again. But now It is Italy I must seek, great Italy, Apollo orders, and his oracles Call me to Italy. There's is my love, There is my country. [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Aeneas Context/Significance: Aeneas showing their differing perspectives on their relationship. Towards the end, Aeneas shows how he prioritizes a public purpose over private matters. Rip Dido's heart. p. 1032-1033

"O happy men, thrice happy, four times happy, Who had the luck to die, with their fathers watching Below the walls of Troy! Ah, Diomedes, Bravest of the Greeks, why could I not have fallen, Bleeding my life away on plains of Ilium Went down before Achilles' spear, and huge Sarpedon lay in dust, and Simois river Rolled to the sea so many noble heroes, All drowned in their armor?" And the gale Howls from the north, striking the sail, head on; The waves are lifted to the stars; the oars Are broken, and the prow slews round; the ship Lies broadside on; a wall of water, a mountain, Looms up, comes pouring down; some ride the crest, Some, in the trough, can see the boil of the sand.

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Aeneas Context/Significance: Aeneas's speech in the face of death. Similar to Odysseus in that he would rather die in war, but because he would rather die with his people and community than alone rather than for glory. What a nice guy. p.975

"Unhappy Dido, so they told me truly That your own hand had brought you death. Was I— Alas!—the cause? I swear by all the stars, By the world above, by everything held sacred Here under the earth, unwillingly, O queen, I left your kingdom. But the gods' commands, Driving me now through these forsaken places, This utter night, compelled me on. I could not Believe my loss would cause so great a sorrow. Linger a moment, do not leave me; wither, Whom, are you fleeing? I am permitted only This last word with you."

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Aeneas Context/Significance: Here is where Aeneas sees Dido in the underworld after she dies. Aeneas is still fully unaware of his responsibility in her death. Guys, right? p.1054

"First, my son, a spirit Sustains all matter, heaven and earth and ocean, The moon, the stars; mind quickens mass, and moves it. Hence comes the race of man, of beast, of winged Creatures of air, of the strange shapes which ocean Bears down below his mottled marbled surface. All these are blessed with energy from heaven; The seed of life is a spark of fire, but the body A clod of earth, a clog, a mortal burden. Hence humans fear, desire, grieve, and are joyful, And even when life is over, all the evil Ingrained is so long, the adulterated mixture, The plagues and pestilences of the body Remain, persist. So there must be a cleansing, By penalty, by punishment, by fire, By sweep of wind, by water's absolution, Before the guilt is gone. Each of us suffers His own peculiar ghost. But the day comes When we are sent through wide Elysium, The Fields of the Blessed, a few of us, to linger Until the turn of time, the wheel of ages, Wears off the taint, and leaves the core of spirit Pure sense, pure flame. A thousand years pass over And the god calls the countless host to Lethe Where memory is annulled, and souls are willing Once more to enter into mortal bodies.

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Anchises Context/Significance: This is where Anchises discussed death and the afterlife. He describes that when one dies the soul is still contaminated by bodily worries and must be cleansed of those before the soul can receive a new body/be reincarnated. p.1060

She is the first to speak: "And so, betrayer, You hoped to hide your wickedness, go sneaking Out of my land without a word? Our love Means nothing to you, our exchange of vows, And even the death of Dido could not hold you. The season is dead of winter, and you labor Over the fleet; the northern gales are nothing— You must be cruel, must you not? Why, even, If ancient Troy remained, and you were seeking Not unknown homes and lands, but Troy again, Would you be venturing Troyward in this weather? I am the one you flee from: true? I beg you By my own tears, and your right hand—(I have nothing Else left my wretchedness)—by the beginnings Of marriage, wedlock, what we had, if ever I served you well, if anything of mine Was ever sweet to you, I beg you, pity A falling house; if there is room for pleading As late as this, I plead, put off that purpose. You are the reason I am hated [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Dido Context/Significance: Dido's speech to Aeneas when she discovers he's leaving. Dido begs him to stay while being angry he's deserting her and believes she has been nothing but good to him. p.1032

Raged to herself: "I am beaten, I suppose; It seems I cannot keep this Trojan king From Italy. The fates, no doubt, forbid me. Pallas, of course, could burn the Argive ships, Could drown the sailors, all for one man's guilt, The crazy acts of Ajax. Her own hand Hurled from the cloud Jove's thunderbolt, and shattered Their ships all over the sea; she raised up storm And tempest; she spiked Ajax on the rocks, Whirled him in the wind, blasted his heart with fire. And I, who walk my way as queen of the gods, Sister of Jove, wife of Jove, keep warring With one tribe through the long, long years. Who cares For Juno's godhead? Who brings sacrifice Devoutly to her altars?

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Juno Context/Significance: shows Juno's bitterness at the position people have put her in and how she feels underappreciated and less powerful than she would like. p.974

"Fear not, my daughter; fate remains unmoved For the Roman generations. You will witness Lavinium's rise, her walls fulfill the promise; You will bring to heaven lofty-souled Aeneas. There has been no change in me whatever. Listen! To ease this care, I will prophesy a little, I will open the book of fate. Your son Aeneas Will wage a mighty war in Italy, Beat down proud nations, give his people laws, Found them a city, a matter of three years From victory to settlement. His son, The boy Ascanius, named Ilus once, When Troy was standing, and now called Iulus, Shall reign for thirty years, and great in power Forsake Lavinium, transfer the kingdom To Alba Longa, new-built capital. Here, for three hundred years, the line of Hector Shall govern, till a royal priestess bears Twin sons to Mars, and Romulus, rejoicing In the brown wolf-skin of his foster-mother, Takes up the tribe, and builds the martial walls To these I set no bounds in space or time; They shall rule forever. Even bitter Juno Whose fear now harries earth and sea and heaven Will change to better counsels, and will cherish The race that wears the toga, Roman masters Of all the world. It is decreed. The time Will come, as holy years wheel on, when Troy Will subjugate Mycenae, vanquish Phthia, Be lord of Argos. And from this great line Will come a Trojan, Caesar, to establish The limit of his empire at the ocean [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Jupiter Context/Significance: Jupiter's prophecy for Aeneas. The prophecy is glorifying Rome and speaking to it's longevity. Jupiter implies that Roman power is something the world needs at this point, but appears to care more about power than morality. p.979

And as he watched these marvels In one long fascinated stare of wonder, Dido, the queen, drew near; she came to the temple With a great train, all majesty, all beauty, As on Eurotas' riverside, or where Mount Cynthus towers high, Diana leads Her bands of dancers, and the Oreads follow In thousands, right and left, the taller goddess, The quiver-bearing maiden, and Latona Is filled with secret happiness, so Dido Moved in her company, a queen, rejoicing, Ordering on her kingdom's rising glory. At Juno's portal, under the arch of the temple, She took her throne, a giver of law and justice [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Narrator Context/Significance: Details Dido's entrance and her power. p.985

Soft fire consumes the marrow-bones, the silent Wound grows, deep in the heart. Unhappy Dido burns, and wanders, burning, All up and down the city, the way a deer With a hunter's careless arrow in her flank Ranges the uplands, with the shaft still clinging To the hurt side. She takes Aeneas with her All through the town, displays the wealth of Sidon, Buildings projected; she starts to speak, and falters, And at the end of the day renews the banquet, Is wild to hear the story, over and over, Hangs on to each word, until the late moon, sinking, Sends them all home. [...]

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Narrator Context/Significance: Displays how Dido is hopelessly in love with Aeneas, becoming a shadow of the powerful woman we first saw her as. Thefire echoes the burning of Troy and the future burning of Carthage by Romans. Frickin' gods playing with the love lives of mortals, am I right? p.1027

Arms and the man I sing, the first who came, Compelled by fate, an exile out of Troy, To Italy and the Lavinian coast, Much buffeted on land and on the deep By violence of the gods, through that long rage, That lasting hate, of Juno's. And he suffered Much, also, in war, till he should build his town And bring his gods to Latium, whence, in time, The Latin race, the Alban fathers, rose And the great walls of everlasting Rome. Help me, O Muse, recall the reasons: why, Why did the queen of heaven drive a man So known for goodness, for devotion, through So many toils and perils? Was there slight, Affront, or outrage? Is vindictiveness An attribute of the celestial mind?

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Narrator Context/Significance: Opening lines to Aeneid. Presents the epic question about vindictiveness at the end of the passage. Sets the scene for the epic and what will happen. p.973

The heaven Darkens, and thunder rolls, and rain and hail Come down in torrents. The hunt is all for shelter, Trojans and Tyrians and Ascanius dashing Wherever they can; the streams pour down the mountains. To the same cave go Dido and Aeneas, Where Juno, as a bridesmaid, gives the signal, And mountain nymphs wail high their incantations, First day of death, first cause of evil. Dido Is unconcerned with fame, with reputation, With how it seems to others. This is marriage For her, not hole-and-corner guilt; she covers Her folly with this name.

Text: The Aeneid Author: Virgil Speaker: Narrator Context/Significance: This is where Aeneas and Dido are married in the eyes of Dido, however Aeneas sees it differently, leading to their separation and Dido's death. Communication is key I guess... p.1029

Whereas, upon your view, the heroes who fell at Troy were not good for much, and the son of Thetis above all, who altogether despised danger in comparison with disgrace; and when he was so eager to slay Hector, his goddess mother said to him, that if he avenged his companion Patroclus, and slew Hector, he would die himself—'Fate,' she said, in these or the like words, 'waits for you next after Hector;' he, receiving this warning, utterly despised danger and death, and instead of fearing them, feared rather to live in dishonor, and not to avenge his friend. "Let me die forthwith,' he replies, and be avenged of my enemy, rather than abide here by the beaked ships, a laughing-stock and burden of the earth.' Had Achilles any thought of death and danger? For wherever a man's place is, whether the place which he has chosen or that in which he has been placed by a commander, there he ought to remain in the hour of danger; he should not think of death or anything but of disgrace. And this, O men of Athens, is a true saying.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: In comparing himself to Achilles, Socrates is elevating himself to draw sympathy from the jurors by comparing himself to a famous and respected hero. Socrates is also showing that he is not afraid of death, and won't compromise his values in the face of death. p.1210

I believe that to hear me will be good for you, and therefore I beg that you will not cry out. I would have you know, that if you kill such an one as I am, you will injure yourselves more than you will injure me. Nothing will injure me, not Meletus, nor yet Anytus—they cannot, for a bad man is not permitted to injure a better than himself. I do not deny that Anytus may, perhaps, kill him, or drive him into exile, or deprive him of civil rights; and he may imagine, and others may imagine, that he is inflicting great injury upon him: but there I do not agree. For the evil of doing as he is doing— the evil of unjustly taking away the life of another—is greater by far.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: Socrates claiming tat a lesser man cannot hurt someone better than them as that would simply be doing more harm to the lesser person and those around them by depriving them of the better person. p.1211

Now do you really imagine that I could have survived all these years, if I had led a public life, supposing that like a good man I had always maintained the right and had made justice, as I ought, the first thing? No indeed, men of Athens, neither I nor any other man. But I have been always the same in all my actions, public as well as private, and never have I yielded any base compliance to those who are slanderously termed my disciples, or to any other. Not that I have any regular disciples. But if anyone likes to come and hear me while I am pursuing my mission, whether he be young or old, he is not excluded. Nor do I converse only with those who pay; but any one, whether he be rich or poor, may ask and answer me and listen to my words; and whether he turns out to be a band man or a good one, neither result can be justly imputed to me; for I never taught or professed to teach him anything. And if any one says that he has ever learned or heard anything from me in private which all the world has not heard, let me tell you that he is lying.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: Socrates explaining how he doesn't want to be a part of politics as that would have hindered him from achieving his purpose. Instead he chose to teach anyone who wanted to be taught p.1213

And I am called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I myself possess the wisdom which I find wanting in others: but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and by his answer he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing; he is not speaking of Socrates, he is only using my name by way of illustration, as if he said, He, O men, is the wisest, who, like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in the truth worth nothing. And so I go about the world, obedient to the god, and search and make enquiry into the wisdom of any one, whether citizen or stranger, who appears to be wise; and if he is not wise, then in vindication of the oracle I show him that he is not wise; and my occupation quite absorbs me, and I have no time to give either to any public matter of interest or to any concern of my own, but I am in utter poverty by reason of my devotion to the god.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: Socrates in search for wisdom and truth in service of God. He spreads this to others around him and hat is his service to men. This part of his speech comes after he has questioned politicians, poets, and artisans in search of wisdom and did not find it. p.1205

Some one will say: Yes, Socrates, but cannot you hold your tongue, and then you may go into a foreign city, and no one will interfere with you? Now I have great difficulty in making you understand my answer to this. For if I tell you that to do as you say would be a disobedience to the God, and therefore that I cannot hold my tongue, will you not believe that I am serious; and if I say again that daily to discourse about virtue, and of those other things about which you hear me examining myself and others, is the greatest good of man, and that the unexamined life is not worth living, you are still less likely to believe me.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: Socrates is claiming independence is gained from thinking critically about yourself and your actions, and that by examining oneself you can become morally self-aware. p.1217

I should reply: Men of Athens, I honor and love you; but I shall obey God rather than you, and while I have life and strength I shall never cease from the practice and teaching of philosophy, exhorting any one whom I meet and saying to him after my manner: You, my friend,—a citizen of the great and mighty and wise city of Athens,—are you not ashamed of heaping up the greatest amount of money and honor and reputation, and caring so little about wisdom and truth and the greatest improvement of the soul, which you never regard or heed at all?

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: Socrates is criticizing how Athenians live thier lives, with too much emphasis on the material rather than wisdom and truth. Socrates is placing God above the state and following the will of God instead of conforming to Athenian standards p.1211

And now, Athenians, I am not going to argue for my own sake, as you may think, but for yours, that you may not sin against the God by condemning me, who am his gift to you. For if you kill me you will not easily find a successor to me, who, if I may use such a ludicrous figure of speech, am a sort of gadfly, given to the state by God; and the state is a great and noble steed who is tardy in his motions owing to his very size, and requires to be stirred into life. I am that gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you. You will not easily find another like me, and therefore I would advise you to spare me. I dare say that you may feel out of temper (like a person who is suddenly awakened from sleep), and you think that you might easily strike me dead as Anytus advises, and then you would sleep on for the remainder of your lives, unless God in his care of you sent you another gadfly. When I say that I am given to you by God, the proof of my mission is this:—if I had been like other men, I should not have neglected all my own concerns or patiently seen the neglect of them during all these years, and have been doing yours, coming to you individually like a father or elder brother, exhorting you to regard virtue; such conduct, I say, would be unlike human nature. If I had gained anything, or if my exhortations had been paid, there would have been some sense in my doing so; but now, as you will perceive, not even the impudence of my accusers dares to say that I have ever exacted or sought pay of any one; of that they have no witness. And I have a sufficient witness to the truth of what I say—my poverty.

Text: The Apology Author: Plato Speaker: Socrates Context/Significance: This is Socrates's "gadfly speech" where he compares himself with a gadfly to show how he is trying to wake up the state and make Athenians not get too comfortable in their own thinking but rather be open to changing their ideas. He is claiming God sent him to perform such duties and that is his motivation. p.1212

Laocoön

Trojan priest of Poseidon who tries to warn the Trojans against the Trojan Horse. He got eaten by a sea serpent lol

Orchestra

Where play was performed

Catastrophe

a large-scale disaster, misfortune, or failure. I wrote "everyone's dead oops" in my notes so that's how that day was going for me

Coryphaeus

leader of the chorus

Philosopher-hero

model of heroism where one fights for their morals or beliefs

Anagnorisis

recognition or discovery on the part of the hero; change from ignorance to knowledge, typically regarding wrongdoing

Peripiteia

reversal of fortune

Catharsis

the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions. Used in Greek drama as tragedy arouses negative emotions and purges them form our systems.

Theodicy

the theological question that tries to answer why bad things happen to good people if God is all-powerful and all-knowing.

Dramatic Irony

when a reader is aware of something that a character isn't