HO 91 Honors Greek Drama and Culture
Spring 2006, 1010-1130 TTh Tuttleman 202
Dr. Robin Mitchell-Boyask, Associate Professor of Classics
327 Anderson Hall, 1-3672, robin@temple.edu. Office hours: T&Th 9-10, M 1130-1230 , robin@temple.edu
Course web page http://www.temple.edu/classics/dramadir/
syllabus last updated 2 March 2006

Description and Goals:

Greek Drama and Culture (HO91) is an introduction to how to read and watch theatrical works from ancient Athens in modern America. This course will involve the close reading of a limited number of tragic and comic dramas from fifth-century Athens, with a special focus on the Oresteia of Aeschylus, the sole surviving trilogy. We will attempt to construct the society of fifth-century Athens from these texts that do not, on the surface, seem to engage the society that spawned them. Particular attention will be paid to political and religious issues, and to reconstructing the original performance conditions. Political and religious issues are central both to reading Athenian drama as historical documents and as works with modern significance; for example, drama was funded by the state yet seems to have criticized state policies (or did it?). We will spend a fair amount of time determining the relationship between text and performance. The course concentrates in its first two sections on tragedy but then moves to comedy for the last 3 weeks of the semester, when we can all use a good laugh. While the focus of the course's pedagogy will be on close reading, I shall also introduce students to the important scholarly controversies current in this field through selected readings of recent research by leading critics. Whenever possible, we will watch performances of dramas through videos. No prerequisites. The course should be both educational and enjoyable. Students will be actively involved, whether through Blackboard or working through scenes in class. We will sometimes be "blocking" scenes from the plays, since often stage movements and gestures are key to understanding a drama's meaning.

Drama and Classics at Temple: this course could launch you as a major and minor in Classics, as well as a minor in Ancient Mediterranean Studies. Did you know that by the end of the first year of Ancient Greek you can start reading Euripides in Greek? See me for details. If you are interested in Classics, subscribe to the listserv of the Classics student society Eta Sigma Phi. Directions and information are found on http://www.temple.edu/classics/esp/

 

Blackboard There is Blackboard course site to accompany and organize this course. You will be enrolled automatically. I will post assignments and further course information there, and we can communicate with each other there as well. I will post class outlines in the Discussion Board section, as well as creating a Forum where you can ask questions. Please try to log on to the page regularly, to keep track of announcements.

Requirements and Grading:

  • Four quizzes (40%)
  • Research or creative project on some aspect of ancient Greek drama, its production, or its reception in the modern world: 1-2 pages proposal due 3/16, finished paper, 5-6 pages) due 4/25 (15%) Any student choosing the creative project option must notify me by spring break. If you choose either creative option you must have a B quiz average. If you are interested in some other creative option, please discuss it with me ASAP. The creative project can be (but is not limited to):
    • Performance: if at last 6 students express serious interest, they can work together with me on a performance of a Greek drama (comedy or tragedy). This performance must adhere to the conventions of ancient performance (though masks are not required).
    • Writing: following the format of a typical Greek tragedy, chose a mythological subject and draft the outline of a "lost" drama and compose an extended scene in its entirety. See Assignments in Blackboard.
  • Report on another Greek drama (oral report and paper of 2-3 pages) Template in MS Word available on Blackboard, under Assignments. See schedule below and reserve your spot ASAP! (15%)
  • Final exam (20%)
  • Attendance and participation. (10%) You must notify me in advance if you will miss class; leave a message with voicemail or email me. Repeated unexcused absences will result in automatic failure. Don't be shy about participating, especially when it comes to asking questions. There is only stupidity in not taking steps to overcome misunderstanding.

Books: At the University Bookstore, listed under "GHR Classics". I have tried to find the best translations at the lowest price. In order to facilitate class discussions, please use these translations. You will not be able to pass the course unless you acquire and read these works; don't take this course if you have no plans to make that effort.

  • Aeschylus, Oresteia, translated by Peter Meineck (Hackett Press)
  • Aristophanes, Four Plays by Aristophanes (Meridian)
  • Euripides Four Tragedies, (The Bacchae, Medea, Hippolytus, Heracles) (Focus)
  • Sophocles, Oedipus Tyrannus, translated by Peter Meineck (Hackett Press)

Additional materials at Blackboard both in MS Word and html (under Course Documents):

  • Selections from Aristotle's Poetics
  • Thucydides selections
  • Homer, excerpt from Iliad Book 1
  • Plato, The Apology of Socrates

Tentative Schedule of Readings and Topics

In order to facilitate discussion and maximize your understanding of class meetings, you must read each play before we discuss it in class. Use the study guides (at the web site), and take notes about what you find interesting, boring or confusing. The class is organized around groups of related texts, and the dramas which begin and end each unit will also have important connections to each other, so the class will gradually evolve. Along the way we will discuss matters of staging, performance practice, ancient culture and interpretation.

Jan 17-19 Tues: Introduction to Greek drama and theaters: a show for Dionysus

Required web readings:
1.Thomas Martin, "Athenian Religious and Cultural Life in the Golden Age," Focus on paragraphs on tragedy. http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text.jsp?doc=Perseus:text:1999.04.0009:chapter=10
2. Introduction to Greek Stagecraft (from Didaskalia) http://didaskalia.open.ac.uk/StudyArea/greekstagecraft.html

Optional: (strongly recommended) C. W. Marshall, "Some Fifth-Century Masking Conventions," Greece & Rome, 46 (1999)188-202
Claude Calame, "Facing Otherness: The Tragic Mask in Ancient Greece," History of Religions, 26 (1986) 125-142
J. F. Davidson, "The Circle and the Tragic Chorus," Greece & Rome, 33 (1986) 38-46

Begin for Thursday, Euripides: Bacchae

Jan 24-26 T. Quiz on these Greek drama terms. Bacchae

Optional: Justina Gregory, "Some Aspects of Seeing in Euripides' Bacchae, Greece & Rome 32 (Apr., 1985) 23-31
Helene P. Foley, The Masque of Dionysus," Transactions of the American Philological Association, 110 (1980) 107-133
E. R. Dodds, "Maenadism in the Bacchae," The Harvard Theological Review, 33 (1940) 155-176
Victor Castellani, "That Troubled House of Pentheus in Euripides' Bacchae"

Th. Aeschylus' Oresteia: Agamemnon

Jan 31-Feb 2 Agamemnon

T: Discussion of the politics of Greek tragedy. Read these Griffin and at least one of Goldhill and Seaford.

1. J. Griffin, "The Social Function of Attic Tragedy," The Classical Quarterly, 48 (1998) 39-61.
2. S. Goldhill, Civic Ideology and the Problem of Difference: The Politics of Aeschylean Tragedy, Again," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 120 (2000) 34-56
3. R. Seaford, "The Social Function of Attic Tragedy: A Response to Jasper Griffin," The Classical Quarterly, 50 (2000) 30-44.

(Optional)
J. Gregory, "Euripides as Social Critic," Greece and Rome 2002 (49) 145-162
H. Lloyd-Jones, "The Guilt of Agamemnon," The Classical Quarterly, 12 (1962) 187-199
H. Lloyd-Jones,"Artemis and Iphigenia," Journal of Hellenic Studies 103 (1983) 87-102

Th. Research skills seminar with Fred Rowland

Feb 7-9 Libation Bearers

Th. Reports on Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis and Trojan Women, and the Prometheus of Aeschylus (maybe!)
Optional: F. Zeitlin, "The Motif of the Corrupted Sacrifice in Aeschylus' Oresteia," Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, 96 (1965) 463-508

Feb 14-16 T. Libation Bearers

Th. Reports on Electras of Sophocles and Euripides, and Suppliants or Persians of Aeschylus
Th. Eumenides

Feb 21-23 Eumenides

T. Reports on Euripides' Orestes, Iphigenia at Tauris, Andromache.
Th. Guest lecture on satyr plays

Feb 28-March 2 Eumenides

Optional:
C. W. MacLeod, "Politics and the Oresteia," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 102 (1982) 124-144
D. Cohen, The Theodicy of Aeschylus: Justice and Tyranny in the 'Oresteia', Greece & Rome 33 (1986) 129-141
A. M. Bowie, "Religion and Politics in Aeschylus' Oresteia," The Classical Quarterly, 43 (1993) 10-31
R.P. Winnington-Ingram, "Clytemnestra and the Vote of Athena," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 68 (1948) 130-147

T. Reports on Euripides' Hecuba and Helen
Th. Quiz on the Oresteia. Guest lecture on satyr drama.

March 14-16 The Great Unraveling 1: The Crisis of Reason

Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus. BB readings on the plague of Book 1 of Homer's Iliad, Athens, Aristotle's Poetics. Good online Iliad available. Read Iliad 1 and Sophocles for Tuesday.

Th. Paper proposal due

March 21-23 Oedipus

Optional:
E. R. Dodds, "On Misunderstanding the 'Oedipus Rex'," Greece & Rome, 13 (1966), 37-49
R. G. A. Buxton, "Blindness and Limits: Sophokles and the Logic of Myth," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 100(1980) 22-37
G. Devereux, "The Self-Blinding of Oidipous in Sophokles: Oidipous Tyrannos," The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 93 (1973) 36-49

Th. Report on Euripides' Phoenissae and Ion, and Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes. Quiz on Sophocles and Aristotle.

March 28-30 The Great Unraveling 2: The Crisis of the Generations

Euripides' Hippolytus

Optional: Charles P. Segal, "The Tragedy of the Hippolytus: The Waters of Ocean and the Untouched Meadow," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 70 (1965) 17-169.

April 4-6 Aristophanes' Clouds; read also Plato's Apology of Socrates on BB

Optional: R. Rosen, "Performance and Textuality in Aristophanes' Clouds," The Yale Journal of Criticism, 10 (1997) 397-421

April 11-13 Heracles on Stage: Euripides' Heracles

Optional: S. A. Barlow, "Structure and Dramatic Realism in Euripides' Heracles," Greece & Rome 29 (1982) 115-125

T. Quiz on Hippolytus and Clouds
Th. Reports on Sophocles' Trachiniae and Ajax and on Euripides' Alcestis

April 18-20 Aristophanes' Birds

Th. Report on Sophocles' Philoctetes and Aristophanes' Peace

April 25-27 Another show for Dionysus: Aristophanes' Frogs

Th. Report on Aristophanes' Thesmophouriazousae and Acharnians

Tuesday 5/9 Final Exam 830-1030

Selected Bibliography (links are to articles available through a campus connection on JSTOR)

  1. Collard, C. "Formal Debates in Euripides' Drama," Greece & Rome 22 (1975) 58-71
  2. Csapo, E. and W. Slater.The Context of Ancient Drama (1995)
  3. Damen, M. "Actor and Character in Greek Tragedy," Theatre Journal, 41 (1989) 316-340
  4. Dodds, E. R. "Euripides the Irrationalist," The Classical Review, 43 (1929) 97-104.
  5. Easterling, P.E., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy (1997)
  6. Easterling, P.E. and B. Knox,eds. The Cambridge History of Classical Literature. Volume I: Greek Literature (1986)
  7. Easterling, P.E. "Presentation of Character in Aeschylus, " Greece and Rome 20 (1973) 3-19
  8. Easterling, P.E. "Character in Sophocles, " Greece and Rome 24 (1977) 121-29
  9. Easterling, P.E. "Anachronism in Greek Tragedy", The Journal of Hellenic Studies, 105 (1985) 1-10
  10. Foley, H. "Modern Performance and Adaptation of Greek Tragedy," Transactions of the American Philological Association 129 (1999) 1-12.
  11. Foley, H. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (2001)
  12. Gill, C. "The Question of Character and Personality in Greek Tragedy," Poetics Today 7 (1986) 251-273
  13. Goldhill, S. Reading Greek Tragedy (1986)
  14. Gregory, J. ed., A Companion to Greek Tragedy (2006)
  15. Halliwell, S. "The Uses of Laughter in Greek Culture," Classical Quarterly 41 (1991) 279-296
  16. Henderson, J. "Women and the Athenian Dramatic Festivals," TAPA 121 (1991) 133-47
  17. Henrichs A. "Loss of Self, Suffering, Violence: The Modern View of Dionysus from Nietzsche to Girard," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, 88 (1984) 205-240
  18. Jones, J. On Aristotle and Greek Tragedy (1962)
  19. Silk, M., ed. Tragedy and the Tragic (1996)
  20. Slater, Niall W. "Making the Aristophanic Audience," American Journal of Philology, 120 (1999) 351-368
  21. Taplin, O. Greek Tragedy in Action (1978)
  22. Vernant, J. and P. Vidal-Naquet, Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece (1988)
  23. Wiles, D. Tragedy in Athens (1997)
  24. Winkler, J. and F. Zeitlin, eds. Nothing to do with Dionysos? (1990)
  25. Zeitlin, F, Playing the Other (1996)

See also Diotima bibliographies on Greek drama, tragedy, comedy, and John Porter's more comprehensive bibliography

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