last updated 19 December

A survey of ancient Greek drama and the society that produced it. The course will examine a representative sample of the major plays of the tragedians Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as the comic playwright Aristophanes. Among the topics considered will be: the tragic and comic festivals, tragedy's relationship with Athenian democracy, the nature of Greek theaters and ancient theatrical production techniques, reeligion and drama, women and tragedy, tragic and comic heroism, myth and tragedy, and the legacy of Greek tragedy in the modern world. Plays to be read include the Oresteia, Bacchae, Medea, Frogs and Ajax.

This course satisfies the Core Arts requirement. There are no prerequisites.

Syllabus for Spring 2006.

General background resources

• Thomas R. Martin, An Overview of Classical Greek History from Homer to Alexander

• Character Glossary for Greek Mythology, including geneological charts Quick answers to your perplexity about who s/he is.

Study guides

• Glossary of terms, people and places

• The instructor's mythology site; this has background on the gods and major myths.

• Bibliographies on Greek drama. From Diotima (see below), so use the "back" button after finishing.

• Guide to Euripides' Bacchae

• Guide to Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannos with a separate worksheet on structure.

• Guide to Sophocles' Ajax. New chart and worksheet

• Guide to Euripides' Medea and worksheet chart

• Guide to Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound

• Structural worksheet on Birds. Ancient Greek painting of a scene from Aristophanes' Birds, which you can compare with a photo from Aquila's production.

• Guide to the Fagles translation of Aeschylus' Oresteia, and now to Meineck's translation. New chart and worksheet for Agamemnon, and for Libation Bearers and now for The Furies

• Guide to Sophocles' Electra

• Guide to Euripides' Hecuba

• Guide to Euripides' Iphigenia at Tauris and chart and worksheet

• Study page for Aristophanes' Clouds

• Guide to Sophocles' Philoctetes, with a new chart and guide

• Guide to Sophocles' Trachiniae, along with a new structural worksheet

• Guide to Euripides' Hippolytus and now a new chart and worksheet

• Chart and worksheet for Euripides' Heracles

• Guide to Aristophanes' Lysistrata

• Guide to Aristophanes' Frogs

Secondary Readings from Perseus

• The Development of Athenian Tragedy

• Background information on Aeschylus

• Background information on Sophocles

• Background information on Euripides

• Background information on Aristophanes and an essay on the historical and cultural nature of Greek comedy.

Other materials

• The Archive of Performances of Greek and Roman Drama
• An essay by Marilyn A. Katz, Did the Women of Ancient Athens Attend the Theater in the Eighteenth Century? (Yes, that's not a misprint)
• An essay by Helene Foley, "Modern Performance and Adaptation of Greek Tragedy"
• Didaskalia is a web site devoted entirely to Greek drama, featuring a wide range of materials from ancient sources to modern productions of Greek plays
• Perseus Project provides the home page for the web version of Perseus, a multimedia exploration of ancient Greek civilization, which can help you understand the broader context of the plays.
• Diotima leads you to a web site devoted to the study of women and gender in the ancient world, which can help you better understand the gender dynamics so important to Greek drama.
• Janice's Siegel's useful pages on Greek drama theater; really good pictures!

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