Exam 3

• Nostoi (returns)

  • One of the lost texts of the epic cycle
  • It describes all of the returns except for that of Odysseus (the Odyssey)
• Menelaus and Helen

  • Leaves w/ Helen, Nestor, and Diomedes
  • Loses all ships but 5 in storm
  • Spends time in Egypt
  • Forces Proteus (shapeshifter) to tell him how to appease gods
  • Has to fight shapeshifter that killed Loocaan
  • After 7 yrs in Egypt, returns to Sparta with Helen
  • Menelaus goes to Elysian Fields (a form of immortality for heroes) after his death
  • Helen is turned into a minor goddess by Apollo to join her brothers Castor and pollux as protectors of seafarers
  • Good ex of masculinity
• Idomeneus

  • King of Crete, escaped Trojan War uninjured, another top general of Agamemnon
  • Caught in a storm and vows that if he survives, he would sacrifice the 1st living thing that met him when he gets home to Poseidon
  • Son comes out to greet him and is sacrificed
  • Structurally similar to Jephthah's vow in Judges
  • A plague spreads across Crete
  • He is blamed for it and driven into exile
  • Inspired an opera by Mozart Idomeneus
• Ajax the Lesser or Locrian

  • Raped Cassandra in Athenas temple
  • Athena, angered by this, and by many other offenses committed by the Greeks in the sack of Troy, turns on the Greeks
  • According to Pseudo-Apollodorus, Athena takes a thunderbolt and sinks his ship
  • Ajax survives the wreak and taunts the gods declaring "in the tenth of the gods, I have escaped the waters sheer abyss" Odyssey 4:565
  • Poseidon blasts the rock with his trident and ajax drowns
  • Thetic buries him in Myconoe
  • Obedience to gods
• Neoptolemus

  • Warned by Thetis not to return by sea
  • Takes the longer land route
  • Brings Helenus (brother of Hector and Paris) and Andromache as slaves
  • Leaves Greece with them and his wife, Hermione
  • Rules Epirus and the Molossi
  • Killed at Delphi by the priests as revenge for denouncing Apollo for killing his father, Achilles
  • Different versions, in some Apollo killed
  • Worshipped as a god - Time
• The Oresteia

  • By Aeschylus (also wrote Prometheus Bound)
  • Trilogy of tragedies
  • Agamemnon
  • He dies
  • The libation bearers
  • Oresteia avenges daddy's death and kills mom
  • The Eumenides
  • 1st courtroom drama in western lit
  • Orestes escapes furies but goes to Athens to face trial
  • Won 1st place at the Dionysia festival 458 BC
• Dionysia Festival and Theater of Dionysus

  • Theater competition where playwrights would write and perform 3 tragedies and a satyr play (comedy)
  • 1st performance was by Thespis (thesbean) 534 BCE related to drama or acting
  • Other famous Greek playwrights such as Euripides and Sophocles also competed here

   
• Agamemnon


  1st book in Orestia
• Agamemnon returns

  With Cassandra
• Cassandra


  Tells prophecies of the curse on the House of Agamemnon which is part of the House of Atreus
• Cassandra predicts

  1. Agamemnon's death

  2. Her own death

  3. An avenger will come
• Clytemnestra


  Kills Agamemnon to avenge his sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia
• Aegisthus and Clytemnestra


  Become king and queen
• The Eumenides

  1st courtroom drama, marks the end of revenge killings being acceptable in society
• Reinforces women being lesser than men (common in myth, argument is over if men's life are more important then women's)
• After killing Agamemnon, Clytemnestra

  1. Walks out to chorus (old men, too old to fight)

  2. Brags about killing him

  3. Asks if they want to be offed too
• Clytemnestra's actions are extremely counter-culture
• Clytemnestra defends Helen
• The Libation Bearers

  2nd book of the Oresteia
• Orestes

  • Agamemnon's son
  • Comes home many years later
  • On orders from Apollo
  • To seek revenge for Agamemnon
• Orestes meets Electra

  1. At Agamemnon's grave

  2. Electra is pouring libations (wine) over the grave
• Orestes and Electra


  Conspire to kill their mother in revenge for killing their father
• Orestes kills

  1. Aegisthus

  2. Hesitates but also kills Clytemnestra
• Orestes killing Clytemnestra


  He is pursued by the Furies immediately and flees
• Reason for Furies pursuing Orestes

  Blood relation, there was no blood relation in her killing husband, was blood relation in him killing mom
• Clytemnestra showed Orestes her breasts (life force), had a wet nurse for him
• Orestes was told to go to the temple of Delphi to absolve his sins
• The Eumenides (3rd Oresteia book)

  • Eumenides (another name for the furies) means "gracious ones"
  • Orestes has sought shelter in Apollo's temple at Delphi
  • The furies still surround him
  • Apollo puts the furies to sleep and has Hermes bring Orestes to Athens
  • The furies wake and hunt him down in Athens
  • Orestes begs Athena for help
  • Fight between older and newer Gods
  • Furies (older) vs Athena (newer)
  • Athena has to placate which is why new name
  • Old gods= more nature like, new= more anthropomorphic
• Athena


  • Brings a jury of 10 Athenians
  • Presides over the trial (judge)
• Apollo


  Speaks for Orestes (witness/defense attorney)
• The Furies


  Advocate for Clytemnestra (prosecuting attorneys)
• The jury is split 5-5
• Athena


  Casts her vote for acquittal and declares that Orestes goes free
• Athena


  • Renames the Furies the Eumenides and makes them honorary citizens of Athens
  • Gives them temples
• Orestes


  Returns to Argos and takes his place as king
• The Trial is the 1st courtroom drama
• The Eumenides is the 1st courtroom drama (Oresteia is the whole trilogy)
• The Trial ends the curse of the house of Atreus
• The court system is based on the argument of whether a mother's or father's life is more important
• Where does the curse of the house of Atreus end= Orestes acquittal