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Minotaur, Labyrinth, Greek Tragedy and Greek Architecture. An introduction of the Classical Period. Outline of today’s lecture. 1 . Labyrinth and ancient Greek design 2. Greek Tragedy 3. the father of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus 4. Greek architecture and Athens.
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Minotaur, Labyrinth, Greek Tragedy and GreekArchitecture An introduction of the Classical Period
Outline of today’s lecture • 1. Labyrinth and ancient Greek design • 2. Greek Tragedy • 3. the father of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus • 4. Greek architecture and Athens
A gentle reminder: Term-paperAand B • (A)Two essays. (answer two of the questions TBA). • (B)Editing all weekly journals. --week 17 (6 January 2014) :due for term paper and time for peer review --week 18: (13 January 2014) final exam/ 33 fill in the blanks (all questions are from the weekly journals <part one>
牛頭人(Minotaur ) • 克里特島的國民米諾斯（Minos）可說是擁有極大權力的王者，在他統治之下的國家也顯得相當的和平。 • 某天，海神波賽頓賜給他一隻極為美麗的白色公牛，而這是給諸神的獻禮。 • 可是，米諾斯一時起了貪念，竟然把這頭公牛據為己有。震怒的波賽頓，於是下了一個強力的詛咒：祂讓米諾斯的皇后愛上白公牛，並且和牠生下了一個牛頭人身的怪物。
Labyrinth/ Maze • 羞愧的米諾斯請希臘最強的工匠達德洛斯建造了一座巨大的迷宮，將這個怪物藏進這出不來的大迷宮中（Labyrinth）。 • 從此之後，每年米諾斯都要派出七名少年少女進入迷宮，試圖殺死（或有一說是獻祭）這頭怪物。但最後這些少年都因為迷失方向而成為牛頭人的食物。
Theseus and Ariadne. • 數年之間，克里特島的居民生活在恐懼中，惶惶不可終日。希臘的英雄賽修斯（Theseus）聽到這個傳聞之後，自願進入這座大迷宮。 • 在公主愛瑞雅妮（Ariadne. ）的協助下，他帶著一卷線捲進入迷宮，殺死牛頭人之後靠著這條線一路走出迷宮。 • Ariadne’s thread
Daedalus an Athenian architect, and the first inventor of images.
Daedalus flying machines • Minos 把Daedalus關在迷宮裡. . . • 或是因為迷宮建得實在太複雜了，Daedalus和其子Icarius被丟進去連自己都出不來。他心想這樣不行，難道就得如此被關在這裡老死嗎？既然無法自己走出去，那就用飛得好了。
Minos, king of Crete/ Daedalus • the first ruler to control the Mediterranean Sea, which he ridded of pirates. • He had with him a famed craftsman, Daedalus the Athenian, who was in exile from Athens because he had murdered his nephew Talos. • Daedalus 神話傳說中的希臘建築師、雕刻家、設計大師!!
Greek tragedy and theater Arts and architecture
The classical period Alice Y. Chang
The three major Greek tragedians Aeschylus— Agamemnon Sophocles— Oedipus the King Euripides— Medea
Epitaph of Aeschylus “This tomb hides the dust of Aeschylus, an Athenian, Euphorion’s son, who died in wheat-bearing Gela; his glorious velour the precinct of Marathon may proclaim, and the long-haired Medes, who knew it well.” • ~Aeschylus, Fragment 272
Greek Text • Αἰσχύλον Εὐφορίωνος Ἀθηναῖον τόδε κεύθειμνῆμα καταφθίμενον πυροφόροιο Γέλας·ἀλκὴν δ' εὐδόκιμον Μαραθώνιον ἄλσος ἂν εἴποικαὶ βαθυχαιτήεις Μῆδος ἐπιστάμενος
the creator of tragedy The earliest documents in the history of the Western theater are the seven plays of Aeschylus that have come down to us through the more than two thousand years since his death.
490s BCE • When he produced his first play in the opening years of the fifth century B.C., the performance that we know as drama was still less than half a century old, still open to innovation—and Aeschylus, in fact, made such significant contributions to its development that he has been called “the creator of tragedy.”
Dionysia Festival After the defeat of the Persian invaders (480-479 B.C.), as Athens with its fleets and empire moved toward supremacy in the Greek world, this spring festival became a splendid occasion. The Dionysia, as it was now called, lasted for four or five days, during which public business (except in emergencies) was suspended and prisoners were released on bail for the duration of the festival.
an open-air theater • In an open-air theater that could seat seventeen thousand spectators, tragic and comic poets competed for the prizes offered by the city.
three tragedies and a satyr play Poets in each genre had been selected by the magistrates for the year. On each of three days of the festival, a tragic poet presented three tragedies and a satyr play (a burlesque on a mythic theme), and a comic poet produced one comedy.
trilogy • The three tragedies could deal with quite separate stories or, as in the case of Aeschylus’s Oresteia, with the successive stages of one extended action. • By the time this trilogy was produced (458 B.C.) the number of actors had been raised to three; the spoken part of the performance became steadily more important.
The Oresteia • The first play, Agamemnon, was followed at its performance by two more plays, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides, which carried on its story and theme to a conclusion.
an equilibrium (~concerto) In the Oresteia an equilibrium between the two elements of the performance has been established. The actors, with their speeches, create the dramatic situation and its movement, the plot; the chorus, while contributing to dramatic suspense and illusion, ranges free of the immediate situation in its odes, which extend and amplify the significance of the action.
justice • The theme of the trilogy is justice, and its story, like that of almost all Greek tragedies, is a legend that was already well known to the audience that saw the first performance of the play.
Tribe polis • The legend preserves the memory of an important historical process through which the Greeks had passed: the transition from tribal institutions of justice to communal justice, from a tradition that demanded that a murdered person’s next of kin avenge the death to a system requiring settlement of the private quarrel by a court of law (the typical institution of the city-state, which replaced the primitive tribe).
Avenge When Agamemnon returns victorious from Troy, he is killed by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aegisthus, who is Agamemnon’s cousin. Clytemnestra kills her husband to avenge her daughter Iphigenia, whom Agamemnon sacrificed to the goddess Artemis when he had to choose between his daughter’s life and his ambition to conquer Troy. Aegisthus avenges the crime of a previous generation, the hideous murder of his brothers by Agamemnon’s father, Atreus.
standards of the old system, justice The killing of Agamemnon is, by the standards of the old system, justice; but it is the nature of this justice that the process can never be arrested, that one act of violence must give rise to another.
This red-figure crater • The Libation Bearers presents the revenge taken on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus by Orestes, Agamemnon's son. • This red-figure crater (c470 BCE) shows Orestes striking down Aegisthus as Clytemnestra tries to intervene with an axe. • Electra stands at far right, urging him on.
