The Indidy Of Aeschylus As An Ancient Greek Tragedy

Aeschylus’ The Persians is an Athenian tragedy with a moral purpose designed to reaffirm the power of the Greek gods. In the play, Xerxes’ invasion of Greece is presented as an example of hubris or excessive pride, which must be punished by the gods. Xerxes actions lead to the downfall of his empire and the demoralization of Xerxes. The Persians was written for a Greek audience so naturally it is biased and inconsistent.

The trilogy of Aeschylus’ The Oresteia follows a bloody feud within the House of Atreus. With this feud there are many boundaries that get crossed and challenged dealing with revenge and murder. A clear shift in justice is observed over the course of the three plays and Aeschylus shows that this shift in justice as an evolution that must happen to shape a society. The Oresteia provides a message that a society must come together to define justice in order to become unified and it must protect the interests of everyone and not just a single case or person.

We can see this through the way in which he portrays some of the characters and the things they say. It is as if he writes certain parts of the play as to draw sympathy from the audience for the Persian characters. One example of this is the ghost of Darius when he is talking to the chorus just before departing. At the end of Darius’ speech he tells the chorus, “Even in times of trouble delight yourself each day with trifling pleasures. All wealth is worthless in the underworld (919-21).” I believe that is Aeschylus intention to have the audience feel sorry for the Persians in their time of defeat. Another example of Aeschylus portraying his characters as vulnerable is when Xerxes is with his chorus of elders after his return and he says, “Go on, raise a discordant cry brimming with woes and tears (1006-7).” This shows the vulnerability and sadness of not only the chorus of elder, but also Xerxes over his defeat and his fallen

Considered one of the greatest dramas of all time, Sophocles’ play Oedipus the King follows the tragic life of Oedipus, king of Thebes. Considered a Satyr play, the Oedipus trilogy is perhaps the most famous of Sophocles’ plays. Oedipus the King, is an Athenian tragedy that was first performed somewhere around 429 BC in Athens, Greece. Originally, the Greeks referred to the play as simply “Oedipus,” as that was what Aristotle referred to it as in the Poetics. Perhaps what makes this play so memorable, is Sophocles’ uses of the tragic hero as the main theme. Sophocles uses characterization and conflict to portray Oedipus as an Aristotelian tragic hero.

The major theme of Aeschylus is one that emphasized the strong understanding of human’s weakness and how the quest of power can corrupt, but mostly he tried to emphasize that violence and vengeance only brings about more violence and vengeance. His work also shows the belief that good always wins and in order for people to learn from their mistakes they must first suffer from those mistakes. Aeschylus confided his message in three plays known as the trilogy, first one is “Agememnon”, and it tells a story of a powerful king Agamennon who returned from a successful battle. However, along the way he was given the choice to either forsake his quest of glory or sacrifice his daughter to gain safer passage and continue on his quest. Choosing to sacrifice his daughter he later returned home only to be murdered by his wife and her lover. Her motive to kill was revenge her daughter death, to replace her husband and make her new lover king.

At a first glance, the journeys of Aeneas from Virgil’s Aeneid and Saint Augustine in his autobiography The Confessions, do not seem to have much in common. In Confessions, Augustine embarks on a spiritual journey, while Aeneas endures a physical one. After closely reading both texts, readers can see the powerful, striking connection between Saint Augustine’s journey and Aeneas’. The Confessions serves as a personal inspiration to readers by showcasing Augustine’s journey towards God, and His presence throughout that journey. Aeneas’ ability to overcome hardships because of his belief in the gods and divine grace, is closely related to Augustine’s ability to be exposed to God’s mercy and companionship, even when he did not have faith in Him, because of the notion instilled in him by God. Divine Providence is evident in both The Aeneid and The Confessions through examples such as, characters enduring storms as a result of the gods, or dreams confirming that God is in complete control of the world. Although Augustine has strayed from God, God remains with him. Throughout The Aeneid, Aeneas showcases divine grace, divine Providence, and self-sacrifice, which makes him relate more closely with Augustine’s journey of life than the one written by Virgil.

“Oedipus Rex” was a Greek Tragedy written by Sophocles in the fifth century BC. It was the first of a trilogy of plays surrounding the life of Oedipus. Sophocles wrote over 120 plays approximately 100 years before Aristotle even defined a tragedy and the tragic hero. Aristotle’s definition of a tragedy is “… an imitation of an action of high importance, complete and of some amplitude; in language enhanced by distinct and varying beauties; acted not narrated; by means of pity and fear effecting its purgation of these emotions” (Kennedy and Gioa 2010). According to Aristotle there were six elements to a tragedy: the plot, the character, the

Truly, when Aeschylus commences the wretched tale of Prometheus, one whose cruel providence commands him to be torn per diem, one is bestowed a variation to the common theological account of a shrewd individual desiring to conquer the will of the gods. Moreover, Prometheus Bound transpires within the initial stages of the Epic Cycle, as Zeus has ultimately established his hegemony quite recently, and his decree is established to be absolute. It commences immediately when Prometheus has been charged with treason towards Zeus, and will be punished accordingly for neglecting the reality that the king of the gods has grown into the principle to abide by. Nonetheless, Aeschylus’ saga of Prometheus is one occupied with the dogmata of one’s hubris

This influence would extend beyond its dramatic and tragic form in the Athenian period, and influence large portions of the greater Western literary tradition which would follow it for over two millennia. All three of the major Athenian tragedians, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, were affected by the myth of Prometheus. The surviving plays and fragments of Aeschylus regarding Prometheus retain a special place of prominence within modern scholarship for their having survived the ravages of time. The majority of plays written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides have been lost to literary antiquity, including many of their writings on

In Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, Zeus is portrayed as a brutal and vengeful tyrant. His tyranny is mostly shown through the punishment of Prometheus. Zeus saw Prometheus giving humans fire as betrayal and as revenge, punished Prometheus by pinning him to a rocky mountain in the Caucasus. Instead of carrying out the punishment himself, Zeus had Might, Violence, and Hephaestus (who was also Prometheus’ friend) carry it out instead. As stated in lines 13-18.

In Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, it dives deep inside the realm of justice, who has the right to do what he or she does. While the fight for justice is the endless battle within the text, family is also portrayed as a weakness, which leads to the struggle of maintaining power and can be shown to inhibit people’s lives.

The protagonist of the Aeneid and known hero to many, Aeneas, was a man of many virtues. His courage and obedience towards the Roman gods are clearly shown all throughout the book, as well as his passion for justice. When he leaves his lover, Dido, at the bidding of the gods, he shows obedience even when it went against his own will. The time Aeneas travels into the underworld to find his deceased father, it shows great bravery. It is even seen by the example of the crew of Aeneas that he was an incredible person, judging by how loyal they were to him. But, even with all these wonderful attributes, Aeneas wasn’t the entirely heroic person we believe him to be.

The struggle between individuality and conformity has been used persistently throughout history and in literature. Prometheus Bound serves as a complete illustration circulating in this theme. Prometheus Bound is an ancient Greek drama based on the story of Prometheus who defies Zeus and gives fire to humanity, which leads to his perpetual torment. In modern history the church/religion, or to be more specific Christianity, has been seen as the for front and bases of societal thinking, acting as a God itself when it comes judicial decision making. The struggle for individual freedom is a topic that is radiant in today’s society and shows great symbolism to the story of Prometheus.

Tragedy as an element of the human experience has been the subject of many of the great works of literature written in the Western tradition. For some, tragedy embodies the highest form of humanity. It is through suffering that we are able to reveal ourselves most completely. Others see tragedy as an element of morality where we are to learn well the lessons of those who tempt the gods. The Ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle, outlined a theory of tragedy as archetypal drama in his classic work, the Poetics. He uses the play by Sophocles, Oedipus the King (hereafter "Oedipus"), as the standard model by which all other tragedies are measured. In Aristotle's view, a perfect

Following the victories of the Greeks invading the Persians at Marathon in 490 B.C. and Salamis in 480 B.C., Athens experienced a period of social optimism and period expansion during the first half of the fifth century B.C. The second half of the fifth century B.C. was also very successful in that Athenians tremendously developed culturally and intellectually. This was the era of Sophocles and a period where everything and anything seemed possible through man effort and reason. Sophocles wrote a trilogy of tragedies, which contained of 3 Theban plays. Oedipus Rex, the first play in the trilogy, was written during a period of political instability and plague. In Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, many themes such as the quest for identity, the nature of innocence and guilt, and the abuse of power are portrayed and are pivotal for the play to build up to the tragic ending.