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Class
Prep
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- Greece:
Aeschylus' Oresteia, "Agamemnon"
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- We begin our unit examining ancient conceptions of human ethics
and divine justice with a trilogy of plays from classical Greece,
Aeschylus' Oresteia, or the Orestes trilogy.
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- As you read the Agamemnon, try to discern not only what is occurring
in the "real time" of the play, but also what happened
before the opening of the play that sets the stage (so to speak)
for the plot. There are oblique references to Agamemnon's
dysfunctional family; use the family tree of the House
of Atreus to keep track of the names (pdf
58KB).
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- Consider the following issues and questions:
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- How are the gods represented?
- Are any religious rituals in evidence? If so,
where do they take place?
- Are there any religious functionaries present in the play?
- What is the unjust situation that requires remedy? What
remedies might be pursued?
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- Assigned Readings
- Primary: "Agamemnon" pp. 27-71 of the
Oresteia book (read through line 781)
- Secondary: Lloyd-Jones' "Introduction" to the
Oresteia on pp.3-23 of the Oresteia book; online
class prep
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- Further Reading
Burkert, Walter. Greek Religion, trans. John
Raffan. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University
Press, 1985.
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--------. Homo Necans: The Anthropology of Ancient
Greek Sacrificial Ritual and Myth, trans. Peter Bing. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1983.
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--------. Structure and History in Greek Mythology
and Ritual. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 1979.
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Detienne, Marcel. The Creation of Mythology, trans. Margaret Cook. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1986.
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Detienne, Marcel and Jean-Pierre Vernant, ed. The
Cuisine of Sacrifice among the Greeks, trans. Paula Wissing. Chicago:
University of Chicago, 1989.
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Dodds, E. R. The Greeks and the Irrational. Berkeley:
University of California Press, 1951.
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Easterling, P. E. and J. V. Muir, eds. Greek Religion
and Society. New York: Cambridge University Press,
1985.
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Nilsson, Martin P. A History of Greek Religion,
2d ed. New York: Norton, 1964.
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--------. The Minoan-Mycenaean Religion and Its
Survival in Greek Religion, 2d rev. ed. New York:
Biblo and Tannen, 1971.
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--------. Greek Piety, trans. Herbert Jennings
Rose. Oxford: Claredon, 1948.
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--------. Greek Popular Religion. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania, 1998; original, New York: Columbia
University Press, 1940.
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Rice, David G. and John E. Stambaugh. Sources for the Study of Greek Religion. Missoula, Montana: Scholars Press, 1979.
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Vernant, Jean-Pierre. Myth and Society in Ancient
Greece, trans. Janet Lloyd. New York: Zone, 1988.
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--------. Myth and Thought among the Greeks. Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1983.
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Vernant, Jean-Pierre and P. Vidal-Naquet. Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece, trans. Janet Lloyd. New York: Zone, 1988.
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Zaidman, Louise Bruit and Pauline Schmitt Pantel. Religion
in the Ancient Greek City, trans. Paul Cartledge. New
York: Cambridge University Press, 1992; original, Paris:
Armand Colin, 1989.
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- Links
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- Sources
- Photograph: "Gold Mask from the Acropolis of Mycenae, mid
16th century BCE," Hannibal Slides Set No. 10 (Athens National
Museum), National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
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