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WOMEN IN GREEK DRAMA
Greek Theater at Epidauros
Ever wonder what Greek women were doing while Socrates and Plato were spouting philosophy? Greece was a male-dominated society, but Greek drama has produced some of the strongest women characters in literature. Here we will read plays by the greatest Greek dramatists, meet some of these women, and see why their stories have lasted thousands of years.
So don your chitons and your sandals and come to the theater above, as we watch the three greatest playwrights of antiquity strut their stuff!
Antigone--Sophocles
May 15-28
Agamemnon--Aeschylus
May 31-June 15
Iphigenia in Tauris--Euripides
June 16-?
Antigone OnlineAgamemnon OnlineIphigenia in VerseIphigenia in ProseIphigenia
Schedule:
June 16-? First half--until the point where Orestes and Plyades are talking about Orestes' being sacrificed.
Orestes, knowing he's going to die, says "the Oracle of Phoebus is useless to me now, for look the lady comes."
Then Iphegenia and the chorus returnQuestions:
1. How does Euripides style differ from that of Sophocles and Aeschylus? What other ways is he different?
2. Why does Ipheginia think that Orestes is dead? What do you think her dream meant?
3. Is there a difference in the attitudes toward the gods and omens in this play as against the earlier ones we've read? If so, what indications do you see of it?
4. How do you think all these Greek slave women got there?
5. Are there traces of a sense of humor here? Was there any humor in the earlier plays? This play is neither a tragedy nor a comedy. Are there other such plays in the Greek repertoire?
6. How is the fact that Iphigenia takes the lead in rescuing them fitted into traditional women's roles? In general, what are some of the ways the playwrights we read manage to present strong women and still maintain stereotypical views of women?
7. It took two goddesses and one human woman (herself) to save Ipheginia, not to mention two heroes and a ship. Could you have done it more economically?
Clytemnestra may be self-deceived. Now that Aegisthus is in charge, he sounds
like the type that will be as arrogant toward her as he is to everyone else. And he
definitely does not sound like the man it would take to "set the house in order".
Before I forget, there is a question I meant to ask. Early on, the chorus was
repeating a word in a way that sounded like mourning. Can someone please tell
me the meaning of "ailinon"? I checked a Greek-English dictionary, but it did not
recognize the word. Old Greek, perhaps?