Well Creusa’s disappearance/being slain during the escape of Troy along with Anchises death both helped show the consequences of war. The deceived Dido throwing her life away in a fury after being duped by Aeneas; really painted the otherwise heroinic and good character in a negative/heartless
Simon Vouet, a French painter, created a piece of artwork known as Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy in ca. 1635. This painting, done in oil on canvas, depicts a strong Aeneas, carrying his father, followed by his son and wife leaving the burning city of Troy. Vouet uses his knowledge of artistic ideas gained during his stay in Italy to create his own technique. Through his experience in Italy, Vouet is able to communicate ideas of his time period in France with his own style.
Analyse the effectiveness of the tactics used by both sides in the Trojan War. ____________________________________________________________
I will be analyzing the piece Aeneas and His Family Fleeing Troy. This artwork is currently being displayed at the San Diego Museum of Art, in Balboa Park near downtown San Diego. This painting was made in 1635 during the Baroque Period in France by Simon Vouet. Vouet was the most influential painter of his time and did much to make Paris an artistic center of Europe. Vouet was heavily influenced by Caravaggio who also heavily influenced other painters during Vouet’s time. In this paper, I will be exploring issues such as material, subject matter, scale, historical context, light, human figure, and finally museum context.
Even though Agamemnon made a success for his homecoming, what was waiting for him was her wife’s conspiracy with Aegisthus and his death (262-263). Namely, his nosmos was rather a failure and he also faced fate of his failed household. This Agamemnon’s gives a comparison with Odysseus future success for preserving his family and throne. Furthermore, Clytemnestra’s unfaithfulness and infidelity provides a foil to Penelope’s faithfulness and loyalty. Clytemnestra’s merciless and brutal actions, not sealing Agamemnon’s eyes while he was dying, adds contrasting characteristics between Odysseus and Agamemnon’s wives. Note that here, the story of successful vengeance for Agamemnon by Orestes gives a foil to Telemachus’ weakness and deficiency. Orestes here is depicted as a heroic example with murder of Aegistus after he comes of age (264). On the contrary to Orestes who saved his household and restored order in his family’s kingdom, Telemachus, as he came of age, couldn’t serve as protecting his household and repel his mother’s suitors in the absence of his father. In the light of comparing each heroic figures’ sons, the son of Achilles is also depicted as successful warrior with great strength and fame in the battlefield against Trojan, adding a foil to Telemachus’ unsuccessful position as a son (266).
“According to Aristotle, the function of tragedy is to arouse pity and fear in audience so that we may be purged or cleansed, of these unsettling emotions.” (“What is” 739) This “purging” is clearly effective in Sophocles’ Antigone which is about a young woman’s will to do what is right by the Gods. Also, according to Aristotle, “a tragedy can arouse twin emotions of pity and fear only if it presents a certain type of hero or heroine who is neither completely good nor completely bad” (“What is” 739). He or she must also be “highly renowned and prosperous,” have a tragic flaw, learn a lesson, and suffer greatly (“What is” 739). Therefore, in Antigone by Sophocles, Creon is the tragic hero because he is a king who has the tragic flaw of
Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, defines a tragic figure as one who represents goodness, superiority, a tragic flaw, and a realization of their tragic flaw and inevitability. A tragic figure is normally someone of royalty, or importance, and also experiences a great devastation. A big flaw of a tragic hero is usually their pride. The figure will experience an ironic plot twist, where they realize things are not what they expected, and then are to face the reality of their fate. In, The Theban Plays, by Sophocles (translated by E. F. Watling), the characters Creon and Antigone represent tragic figures. In the play “Antigone,” Sophocles depicts the character Creon as a tragic hero. Creon portrays many characteristics of a tragic figure. His tragic story begins when makes the decision of becoming a hubris. A hubris is one who ignores the gods, and follows their own path. When Creon does this, his decisions greatly affect the fate of his loved ones; his son, wife and Antigone. Along with Creon, Antigone portrays a tragic hero in as well. Antigone’s tragic fate comes from her loyalty to her family and the gods. She chooses to stick to her own beliefs, rather than having obedience towards the king, and this was the cause of her downfall.
Odysseus had many adventures throughout his life, but the most important one were the ones between Troy and Ithaca. During these adventures, three important theories explained the myths of Odysseus’s encounters. The theory of social charter theory, feminism and ritual theory can all be related to some of the outrageous adventures that Odysseus had to go through.
dying for obeying the words of the gods. This particularly gives Antigone an admirable character, as religion
In Julius Caesar Brutus displays the traits of a tragic hero throughout this play. His tragic flaw is need to be nobel. He makes an error in judgment, and when killing Caesar causes all of Rome to turn against the conspirators everything from then on causes tragic events. All of which eventually lead to his death.
One of the greatest Greek plays is Antigone. Antigone is a tragic Sophoclean play, which portray two great examples for a tragic hero. I believe Creon and Antigone, the main characters of the play to be tragic heroes. A tragic hero is a character who is known for being dignified and has a flaw that assists to his or her downfall. Both Creon and Antigone are dignified and flawed in their own ways, having a similar tragic flaw.
Tragic Greek dramas featured tragic heroes, mortals who suffered incredible losses as a result of an inescapable fate or bad decisions. According to Aristotle, a tragic hero is a character, usually of high birth, which is pre-eminently great, meaning they are not perfect, and whose downfall is brought about by a tragic weakness or error in judgment. The three Greek heroes Oedipus, Medea and Agamemnon, who each killed a member of their family, carry most of the qualities that make up a tragic hero: being of noble birth, being surrounded by an extraordinary circumstance, and gaining self-awareness or some kind of knowledge through their downfall. There is an important need for the audience to identify with the Aristotelian hero through
Sophocles’ play Antigone continues the calamitous story of the Theban royal family, recounting the conflict between Creon’s authority as king and Antigone’s sense of justice. While many of the events of the play are certainly tragic, whether or not Antigone and its characters should be considered tragic is less definite. Aristotle’s theory of a tragic hero calls for a basically good character who experiences a fall due to some flaw or error, experiencing a transformative realization and catharsis as a result. When considered together, the traits of both Antigone and Creon come together to fulfill all of the requirements for the play to be a tragedy, but neither character can be considered an Aristotelian tragic hero standing alone.
A critical element of classical tragedy is gruesome, gruelling, and often heart wrenching deaths of characters, regardless of whether or not they are central figures to the plot as a whole. The first example of this found within in Book II of Virgil’s “Aeneid’ is the encounter with Hector’s ghost. A once great hero of the Trojan race is belittled into a grim description: “his beard was filthy, his hair matted with blood”. Whilst the murder of Hector is not the main focus within the ‘Aeneid’, nor even within Book II, it is still a greatly tragic death due to the vulgar actions of Achilles. In fact, Hector still retains the appearance induced by his gruesome death, further adding to the tragic nature of his death. Another example of tragic death within Book II of ‘The Aeneid’ is that of Priam – the old king of Troy. He is slain by the cruel Pyrrhus, after witnessing the murder of his own son: “defiling a fathers face with the murder of his own son”. Not only is that event in itself tragic, but also Pyrrhus then dragged Priam “through pools of his own son’s blood” to an altar at which he was killed. This event within Book II exemplifies the tragic nature of heroic deaths for a multitude of reasons. The first is the obvious cruel nature of death within a great battle. During this time period it was a common occurrence for young men to head off into battle in order to defend their own nation. However, Priam was an old man, and for him to die in battle is a tragic occurrence in
The Greek forces won the Trojan War. The story of the war is a cornerstone of Greek legend, and pervaded Greek literature and culture. Though the evidence for the Trojan War as historical fact is scarce, it was a formative event in Greek cultural memory, producing some of the classical world’s most famous heroes and narratives. The War was won, Helen was retrieved from Paris, whose violation of ξενία was redressed, the heroes attained the κλέος that many of them fought for – and yet the positive outcomes of the Trojan War are difficult to grasp. For the victims of the Trojan War, the tragedy is obvious; the War ended in genocide and total cultural destruction. But such a war, burnt into legend, should have left the victors far better off; and yet, the Greek heroes only suffer because of it. They die tragic, dishonourable deaths; their households are left in ruin; their families are torn apart. From both modern and classical perspectives, the Trojan War is a tragedy, a “harrowing destruction of life” (Euripides, Andromache, 291). The victory is pyrrhic, the loss of life is horrific, the reparations non-existent.
As a result, characters such as Desdemona and Cassio to pay the price. Othello’s jealousy was his downfall that cost the deaths of multiple lives.