Greek chorus

Greek society is a very complex structure. With the amount of gods and goddesses worshiped, the rules of their society vary upon the distinct god or goddess in charge. For instance; if the weather is bad the Sky God, Zeus will need to be appeased. To do this, sometimes the Greek people hold a ritualistic sacrifice of human or animal life. The aroma is said to make the god happy, thus settling the Sky God’s temper. According to Greek tradition the gods are to be the first and last thought of the…

In ancient Greek culture Fate was an unstoppable outside force that predetermined human life. A person’s fate was created by the gods and then could be revealed by the oracle at Delphi. In Sophocles’ Oedipus, fate carries the story as the titular character attempts to outrun his fate. In the end he fails and it turns out that he can’t outrun fate because destiny is inevitable. This raises the question of how much responsibility can be put on Oedipus for his own fate and how much responsibility…

still trying to take care of everyone. Through the play, Oedipus’ persistence to find out who the killer of Laius was, made him lose his wife/mother to suicide. Oedipus also lost his best friend as well as the faith of his people. In the end, the Chorus (the voices of Thebes) hates Oedipus for the decisions he has made and for what he has done. Oedipus’ virtues result in negative consequences because he has caused much harm and sadness to come to Thebes. Thebes is the home of all of the bad…

Throughout history, the presence of violence justified by the credence in godly figures is exemplified, especially in Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, and Homers’, The Odyssey. Although both archaic works concern the ideologies and practices of faith in the Greek mythological gods, the reasoning for violent actions and their means of justification differ in their aspiration for and fulfillment of vengeance, their justification through the divine, and their means of punishment. In The Oresteia,…

be considered as Sophocles weapons of choice as a deviation from the Theban style of writing and creating a new identity to the Athenian plays .He achieves this by radically changing the style of language, the role of the chorus and roles of genders generally seen in the Greek plays of the time. An example of how Sophocles changed the character roles in his plays is the dynamic tension between the character of Antigone and Haemon and what role he plays in the overall narrative of the play.…

Against the Gods: Exploring hubris and its consequences in Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and Euripides’ Hippolytus In the following Greek tragedies hubris is not merely overweening pride but behaviour or an action against – or in defiance of – the gods. With this definition of hubris in mind, an examination of Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound and Euripides’ Hippolytus will show that central characters within the plays – wittingly or unwittingly - commit acts of hubris which lead to their…

as a flush-faced, longhaired Lydian stranger. Although he is disguised as a mortal, his non-human powers are firmly felt throughout the play. The two sides of Dionysus exist simultaneously and this is exemplified in the following example: while the chorus hears the god command the earthquake, the foreigner remains inside the palace torturing…

The Greek epic The Iliad by Homer depicts the war shaped customs of Ancient Greece. Throughout the epic, the idea of war is championed by the characters as a form of problem-solving. This form of problem solving involves a social-Darwinian scenario where the strongest survive,which in turn develop honor and heroism for these winners. However, Homer utilizes the Greek’s romance with war as an instrument to criticize the violent practice. A culture formed around constant wars will become a culture…

for all people”(Maya Angelou.) However, an ancient civilization known as the Greeks have six values one must fulfill to be known as a Greek hero. One person commonly known in Greek mythology is the Son of Laertes, Odysseus. Odysseus’s story was told by Homer and has been carried out for centuries. His long and troublesome journey is permanently marked into our history and the Greeks. The six values of qualifying to be a Greek hero are the importance of fate, loyalty to friends and family,…

Medea is portrayed as a heroine in Euripides play Medea. In today’s world Medea would hardly be considered a heroine. She may be called evil, cunning, a murderer, or even crazy. However in ancient Greek methodically and literature the hero/heroine normally possessed a sense of being out of the ordinary, had a strong purpose, and did not have to be a particularly good person or the actual hero to make them one. The hero had a tragic flaw. I believe that Medea meets the standards of a heroine in…