Golden Age Of Greece Flashcards

Front 1

Dionysus

Back 1

Son of Zeus and Semele, God of Wine, Music, Poetry and Liminal Abandon

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liminal abandon

Back 2

What wine does to you, causes you to lose inhibition and cross normally defined boundaries

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theatron

Back 3

Area where the people sat that was semicircular.

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skēnē

Back 4

Wooden stage building located behind main performance area.

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proscenium

Back 5

Raised area or stage between orchestra and skene.

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ekkyklema

Back 6

Machine rolled out on stage that contained scenes for next parts of play.

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tragoidia

Back 7

Tragedy, derived from "goat song".

Front 8

Thespis

Back 8

Poet, and the founder of Tragedy.

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Dithyramb

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Passionate and inflated speech and writing, wild choral hymn, dedicated to Dionysus.

Front 10

Iambic trimeter

Back 10

Meter consisting of three iambics per line; almost poetry type speech; used in most plays.

Front 11

Trilogy

Back 11

A group of 3 plays, novels, poems, or operas that are usually related to each other.

Front 12

Aeschylus

Back 12

Playwright, wrote Oresteia and the Story of Agamemnon.

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Oresteia

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Trilogy of Tragedies.

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Clytemnestra

Back 14

Wife of Agamemnon. She conspired with her lover Aegisthus to murder Agamemnon on his return from the Trojan War and she was murdered in retribution by her son Orestes and her daughter Electra

Front 15

Agamemnon

Back 15

King of Mycenae and brother of Menelaus. Commander in chief of Greek expedition against Troy.

Front 16

Cassandra

Back 16

A daughter of the Trojan king Priam, who was given the gift of prophecy by Apollo. When she cheated him,(it was more like she spurned his love) however, he turned this into a curse by causing her prophecies, though true, to be disbelieved.

Front 17

Aegisthus

Back 17

The son of Thyestes and lover of Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra

Front 18

chorus of Argive elders

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They represent the voice of Greek culture and tradition; they are the fathers whose sons have gone to war with Agamemnon and died at Troy; they are the citizens. Sad yet hopeful, the Chorus loyally awaits Agamemnon's return. Their knowledge of his house's history and of certain prophecies spoken after the sacrifice of Iphigenia troubles their "conscience." They want to but cannot truly believe the king's homecoming will put an end to all Argos' woes. Moral barometers of the play, the Chorus are wise from long experience; they constantly offers opinions on wickedness, punishment, and righteousness. They are interpreters of the action, ‹intermediaries for the audience.

Front 19

Iphigenia

Back 19

Iphigenia is a daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra in Greek mythology, whom Agamemnon is commanded to kill as a sacrifice to allow his ships to sail to Troy. He tricks her into thinking that she is off to marry Achilles. Some accounts say that she was spared by Artemis before the sacrifice.

Front 20

Libation Bearers

Back 20

the second part of the Greek trilogy. Orestes and Electra plot to avenge Agamemnon’s death. Orestes kills Aegisthus and Clytemnestra. Orestes flees and takes refuge at Apollo’s shrine.

Front 21

Eumenides

Back 21

the third part of the Greek tragedy

Front 22

Orestes

Back 22

was the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon

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Apollo

Back 23

Son of Leto and Zeus. Apollo is the god of the oracle at Delphi. He is the spokesman of his father, Zeus. Besides Athene, he is probably the most powerful deity among the children of Zeus. He is a god of music, explanations, and prophecy. He commanded Orestes to slay Clytaemestra, to put right the city of Argos. He is now Orestes' tireless proponent.

Front 24

Athena

Back 24

Convenes special court to hear Orestes’ case. Finds Orestes innocent. Gives Furies a position of honor in the cult of Athens. Ancient Furies transform into benevolent spirits.

Front 25

Justice

Back 25

more like Karma, gods made sure you got what you deserved

Front 26

Vengeance

Back 26

family has been seeking vengeance on each other for generations

Front 27

Blood Feud

Back 27

Never really ends

Front 28

Tantalus

Back 28

killed his son Pelops to feed to the gods-wanted to feed them his most precious thing he had. Tantalus is punished-sent to the underworld forever starving, standing in a pool of water and under a fruit tree and can’t partake of either.

Front 29

Pelops

Back 29

Son of Tantalus. Because Tantalus was cursed, Pelops and his household are cursed.

Front 30

Atreus and Thyestes

Back 30

Sons of Pelops-Atreus cuts up two of Thyestes’ children and feeds them to him.

Front 31

Agamemnon and Aegisthus

Back 31

Agamemnon is the son of Atreus and Aegisthus is son of Thyestes (the surviving child).

Front 32

Antigone

Back 32

The story of Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus, and her desire and efforts to bury her brother Polyneices. She tries to convince her sister Ismene to take part but she refuses and eventually Creon catches Antigone in the act of burying her brother. He condemns her to be buried alive but Tiresias enters and says that Thebes is cursed for his actions. He orders Antigone taken out of the tomb and buries Polyneices but Antigone had already hung herself and Haemon, her fiance (Creon’s son) has also killed himself, and then Creon’s wife also offs herself in grief.

Front 33

Ismene

Back 33

sister to Antigone

Front 34

Haemon

Back 34

Fiance to Antigone and son of Creon

Front 35

Teiresias

Back 35

blind; knows all

Front 36

Chorus of Theban Elders

Back 36

Pledge their allegiance to Creon-they always take his side; except in the end when they plead with Creon to bury Polyneices and remove Antigone from the tomb.

Front 37

Oedipus Rex

Back 37

Play is about Oedipus finding out that he killed his father and married his mother, and the prophecy that said so. Prophecy said that if Laius had a son, that son would kill him-so he and his wife, Jocasta, when they had Oedipus, pierced his feet, tied them together, and gave him to a messenger to put on the hillside. However, the messenger actually finds a shepherd and gives Oedipus to him, who then passes Oedipus on to to Polybus, king of Corinth. He discovers that Polybus and the queen aren’t his real parents. He consults an oracle at Delphi to discover his true parentage, but instead it tells him that he will kill his father and marry his mother. He won’t go back to Corinth, but he doesn’t want/thinks the prophecy can’t and won’t happen. He still sets out to find his parents. However, Thebes is plagued by a sphinx-so Laius leaves to find out how to kill it, he meets Oedipus, and Oedipus kills him without knowing that it was his father. When Oedipus gets to Thebes, he defeats the Sphinx (by solving the riddle) and saves Thebes-the king is dead, so he marries Jocasta (the queen). This takes place before the play.

Front 38

Oedipus

Back 38

Son of Jocasta and Laius. Supposed to kill his father and marry his mother. Oedipus means “swollen foot”.

Front 39

Creon

Back 39

This is the same Creon in Antigone, her uncle.

Front 40

Jocasta

Back 40

Wife of Laius. Marries her son Oedipus-but doesn’t know it’s her son. He was named by the people who took care of him.

Front 41

Laius

Back 41

Husband of Jocasta. Receives a prophecy that his son will kill him. Doesn’t succeed in killing his son, and he unknowingly is killed by him.

Front 42

Teiresias

Back 42

Oedipus received a prophecy that Thebes is housing a murderer (reason for the plague or something), and needs to find him and kill him. He starts searching for the murderer, and everyone is telling him to stop (because they know that it’s Oedipus-for killing his father). He seeks help from Teiresias. He can see/know all truth, but he is physically blind. Teiresias won’t give the answer to Oedipus. He finally tells Oedipus that he is the murderer (its more that he tells him that all the problems are his fault and Oedipus assumes that they are plotting against him for the power of kingship), but Oedipus won’t believe him at first.

Front 43

Herdsman

Back 43

messenger that is supposed to kill Oedipus gives him to a herdsman, who instead of killing him or “exposing” him on the hillside, he gives Oedipus to the King and Queen of Corinth

Front 44

epistemology

Back 44

Concerned with the nature and scope of knowledge. (refer to below)
it questions what knowledge is, how it is acquired, and how well the subject can be known (according to wiki)

Front 45

sophistic vs. mantic

Back 45

Where does knowledge come from? The gods or our own wisdom? The focus of the play is mantic (prophetic-gods), there is sophistic knowledge, but manic trumps it.

Front 46

individual vs. state

Back 46

Antigone-Creon (justice-manmade laws), Antigone-(higher law-respects and obeys the gods; holds them at a higher esteem than the justice system). I.E. individual vs. state-Antigone goes against rules.

Front 47

divine influence (oracles)

Back 47

rejection of prophecy/denial of prophecy leads to your downfall

Front 48

Philoctetes

Back 48

Odysseus needs two things to win the war-Achilles’ son and Heracles’ bow (which he gave to Philoctetes). Neoptolemus and Odysseus, in Philoctetes, try to get Phil to bring his bow and fight.

Front 49

Philoctetes

Back 49

Heracles tries to get his son to light his funeral pyre (so he can die-this is the only way he can die since he is immortal), but he won’t, so he gets Philoctetes to do it and in return gives Phil his bow that never misses. Philoctetes gets bit by a snake, and because of the festering smell and his screams, Odysseus leaves him on the “deserted” island of Lemnos.

Front 50

Neoptolemus

Back 50

Neoptolemus is Achilles’ son. He is one of the things Odysseus needs to win a battle. He goes with Odysseus to the island of Lemnos to retrieve the bow from Philoctetes. At first, he tries to deceive it from Philoctetes, but in the end he tries to persuade Philoctetes by telling him the truth.

Front 51

Odysseus

Back 51

Has to send Neoptolemus to Philoctetes in disguise to do the lying, because if Odysseus showed his face, Philoctetes would shoot him on sight (still bitter that he left him on the island of Lemnos) with his bow...that never misses.

Front 52

Achilles

Back 52

Father of Neoptolemus. He is the greatest warrior; he is a demigod and immortal. He is very brave and loyal, and HATES liars; he is honest and big on getting glory and honor

Front 53

Heracles

Back 53

Philoctetes has the Bow of Heracles

Front 54

deceit vs. persuasion

Back 54

Neoptolemus wants to get get it through persuasion - tell Philoctetes the truth and persuade him to come

Front 55

pathological love

Back 55

Love that is so twisted and distorted between two not exactly good people

Front 56

Medea

Back 56

Crazy spouse of Jason. Considered a witch.
- Kills her children in order to get back at Jason
- reasons with herself - save her children from dealing with a terrible father
- kills Jason’s new bride, the princess
- giver her poisoned gifts delivered by her children
Jason - he’s a jerk
- Medea helped him escape after stealing the Golden Fleece
- She betrayed her country and killer her brother
- He has 2 kids with Medea, but he still betrays her
- Says that it was to secure his children’s lives and welfare
- they’d have royalty for half-brothers and -sisters
Creon - king - doesn’t trust Medea
- tells her that she has to leave and that she is banished
children - killed by Medea
- deliver deadly poisonous gifts to the princess

Front 57

myth innovation

Back 57

Changing myths ever so slightly. Medea kills her children instead of the mob, which was the traditional myth.

Front 58

interpolations

Back 58

Some other people putting their own lines and ideas into plays because they felt their speeches were too short.... we don’t know which lines were Euripides’ lines and which were not. Scholars want to cut a lot out of the play.

Front 59

Aphrodite

Back 59

Aphrodite is the voice in the prologue. She wants revenge on Hippolytus cause he worships Artemis, and has sworn he will never marry and doesn’t pay Aphrodite the proper respects for it. Aphrodite’s revenge is her killing people. She basically tells the reader exactly what happens in the play-Theseus kills Hippolytus with the three wishes granted to him by Poseidon.

Front 60

Artemis

Back 60

Hippolytus worships Artemis rather than Aphrodite-promises he won’t marry - this is only a problem because he ignores Aphrodite completely

Front 61

Hippolytus

Back 61

Not a very nice guy. He makes a speech against women: women make the world worse, the best kind of wife you can have is an idiot, and clever women are evil.

Front 62

Nurse

Back 62

Tells Hippolytus that Phaedra is in love with him

Front 63

Phaedra

Back 63

Kind of a weak character. She would rather die than do anything wrong, she has a victim sort of mentality. She has devoted herself to inaction-she is suffering but won’t do anything to fix it. She is in love with Hippolytus, and when she finds out the nurse told him, she kills herself and blames the nurse and leaves a note condemning Hippolytus-she is worried about her honor, wants to die respectfully, worried that something will happen to her even though she didn’t declare her love or pursue it. She is worried her posterity will be punished.

Front 64

Theseus

Back 64

Hippolytus’ father. He had a fling with an Amazon woman and had Hippolytus, but he married Phaedra (Hippolytus’ step mom). He kills Hippolytus after he finds Phaedra’s dead body, and a note that she left saying that Hippolytus is the reason for her death. Theseus calls upon his three wishes from Poseidon and banishes his son, but then later learns that Hippolytus was innocent-Hippolytus dies.

Front 65

agon logon

Back 65

an argument, a big debate

Front 66

Hecuba

Back 66

Blames the Trojan war on Helen-it wasn’t Aphrodite’s fault that she ran away with Paris; Paris was handsome and Helen fell for him. Hecuba dies in Troy, and never makes it to Greece

Front 67

Cassandra

Back 67

She herald’s the Greek’s destruction-she has all of the answers but no one listens to her. She is taken by Agamemnon

Front 68

Andromache

Back 68

Neoptolemus makes it home with Andromache-but doesn’t have good luck when he gets there.

Front 69

Helen

Back 69

She makes a lot of excuses for why she did the things she did (leaving with Paris with lots of silver, raises no alarm, starts a big war). She says it’s Aphrodite’s fault and partly Menelaus’ fault cause he left her alone with Paris. Helen says they should be thankful that she ran away with Paris, cause if Paris had not chosen her, Hera would have made him ruler. Helen is a Sophist (making the weaker argument seem stronger). Menelaus is supposed to put her to death-but he doesn’t.

Front 70

Talthybius

Back 70

Sympathetic towards Troy, but has to carry out his duty

Front 71

Menelaus

Back 71

king/husband of Helen

Front 72

Odysseus

Back 72

He’s taking Hecuba back with him, or he tries to
She jumps off the boat, turns into a dog, and dies in Troy

Front 73

Astyanax

Back 73

He is killed - he is Hector’s son, and he was thrown off the battlements