Greek 291: Euripides: Course Home Page (Fall '97)
http://www.wesleyan.edu/~johara/GRK291Eurip.html
My office hours: W 12:30-2:30 p.m. and by appointment
Course Description:
Euripides is the Athenian tragedian of whose work the largest number of plays survive (about 20); he also wrote simpler, more approachable Greek than Aeschylus or Sophocles, and explored a broad range of issues in ways that sometimes surprised or shocked the Athenian audience. In this class, we will read about two-thirds of Euripides' Alcestis and all of the Hippolytus in Greek, and several other Euripidean plays in English.
We will begin with the Alcestis, reading the speeches and dialogue in Greek, and the more difficult choruses only in English. The play examines the roles of husband, wife, parent, child, and especially friend or guest-friend, against the backdrop of a myth that plays against the usual human helplessness in the face of death. Admetus is fated to die, but is offered the chance to live if someone else will die in his place. Only his wife Alcestis is willing, and the play depicts her death and its aftermath, and offers a picture of the kind of man who would let his wife die for him, complete with a controversial and disturbing "happy ending" provided by Herakles.
The Hippolytus is the story of a young man devoted to virginity and the goddess Artemis, and of his stepmother Phaedra, who is filled with desire for Hippolytus by the goddess Aphrodite, who is angry at Hippolytus for his neglect of her. The play features Phaedra's attempts to conquer her passion, her nurse's disastrous attempts to help, and a paradoxical trap that catches Hippolytus, who has sworn an oath that prevents him from defending himself against charges of rape. The play is also interesting for the mixture of attractive and repellant features that characterize Phaedra, Hippolytus, his father Theseus, and the nurse, and for its picture of the power and amorality of the gods.
These plays are unusual among surviving tragedies, the Alcestis for having been staged as the fourth of the poet's four plays at the festival, a position usually given to a satyr-play, the Hippolytus for being a second attempt by Euripides to stage a version of the Phaedra-Hippolytius story, after his first had been rejected for being too boldy immoral.
There will be a midterm and a final, and one or two papers (if two, the first will be short). There will be secondary readings in English, and probably brief class reports (this will depend in part on the size of the class). Our goals will be both to improve ability to read Greek with ease, accuracy, and pleasure (we will use the convenient Bryn Mawr Commetaries); and to explore, discuss, and understand the plays' issues, themes, and problems.
Links
Related Resources for Classical Studies (Wesleyan Page)
Diotima: Women & Gender in the Ancient World
Greek Tragedy: Notes and Study Questions, U. of Sask.
Hippolytus, CLASS 110, U. of Saskatchewan
Tragedy Glossary, CLASS 110, U. of Sask.
Greek Tragedy, CLASS 110, U. of Saskatchewan
BookSearch Results, Euripides, Blackwell's
Introductions to the Ancient Stage (Skenotheke)
THE 3100 Theatre History Lecture Notes
Didaskalia: Ancient Theater Courses
Bibliography (Porter), CLASS 230, U. of Sask.
Theatre Studies TH2010: Greek Tragedy
Didaskalia: Introduction to Ancient Theater