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Q83MYT Greek Mythology
Seminar 5: Gobbet/exam practice
Taking any three of the following six passages, comment on the version of
the myth used, making close reference to the text of each. Your answer
should take into account: how the myth is depicted, why the author has used
that version, the period, genre and audience of the text, and how the
passage informs our understanding of the myth.
a) Agamemnon explains his decision:
But after the army was gathered and come together, we still remained
at Aulis weatherbound. In our perplexity, we asked Calchas, the seer,
and he answered that we should sacrifice my own child Iphigenia to
Artemis, whose home is in this land, and we would sail and sack the
Phrygians' capital [if we sacrificed her, but if we did not, these things
would not happen]. When I heard this, I commanded Talthybius with
loud proclamation to disband the whole army, as I could never bear to
slay my daughter. Whereupon my brother, bringing every argument to
bear, persuaded me at last to face the crime; so I wrote in a folded
scroll and sent to my wife, bidding her despatch our daughter to me
on the pretence of wedding Achilles, at the same time magnifying his
exalted rank and saying that he refused to sail with the Achaeans,
unless a bride of our lineage should go to Phthia.
Euripides Iphigenia in Aulis 87-103
b) The gods create Pandora:
At once he made an affliction for mankind to set against the fire. The
renowned Ambidexter moulded from earth the likeness of a modest
maiden, by Kronos’ son’s design. The pale-eyed goddess Athene
dressed and adorned her in a gleaming white garment; down over her
head she threw an embroidered veil, a wonder to behold; and about
her head she placed a golden diadem which the renowned Ambidexter
made with his own hands to please Zeus the father. On it were many
designs fashioned, a wonder to behold, all the formidable creatures
that the land and sea foster: many of them he put in, charm breathing
over them all, wonderful designs, like living creatures with a voice of
their own. When he had made the pretty bane to set against a
blessing, he led her out where the other gods and men were,
resplendent in the finery of the pale-eyed one whose father is stern.
Both the immortal gods and mortal men were seized with wonder
when they saw that precipitous trap, more than mankind can manage.
Hesiod Theogony 570-89
c) The sons of Oedipus come to terms:
Eteocles and Polyneices came to an agreement with each other
concerning the kingdom, resolving that they would each rule for one
year at a time. Some say that Polyneices ruled first and handed the
kingdom over to Eteocles after a year, but others say that Eteocles
ruled first and refused to hand over the kingdom. So Polyneices went
into exile from Thebes and came to Argos, taking the necklace and
dress. Adrastos son of Talaos was king of Argos, and Polyneices
approached his palace by night and got into a fight with Tydeus, who
was an exile from Calydon. At the sudden noise Adrastos appeared
and separated them. Recalling a certain seer telling him to yoke his
daughters to a boar and a lion, he chose these two as their husbands,
for one had on his shield the forequarters of a boar and the other had
those of a lion. Tydeus married Deipyle, and Polyneices married
Argeia, and Adrastos promised to restore them both to their
homelands. He was eager to march against Thebes first and
assembled the nobles.
Apollodorus Biblioteca 3.6.57-59
d) Heracles dies:
O lord Hades, receive me! O lightning of Zeus, strike me! Hurl down
your thunderbolt, lord, cast it upon me, father! For again it is feasting
on me, it has blossomed, it has launched! O hands, hands, O back and
shoulders, O dear arms, are you they that once by force subdued the
dweller in Nemea, the scourge of herdsmen, the lion, the creature
none could approach and none confront., and the Lernaean Hydra, and
the fierce army of monsters, with two natures and horses’ feet,
insolent, lawless, overwhelming in their might, and the beast of
Erymanthus, and the three-headed dog of Hades below the earth, a
portent irresistible, the nursling of dread Echidna, and the serpent that
guarded the golden apples in its place remote? And I sampled many
thousand other labours, and none yet has raised a trophy for victory
against my might!
Sophocles, Women of Trachis 1085-1102
e) Orestes murders his mother:
Orestes: Come, this way! I mean to kill you by his very side. For
while he lived, you thought him better than my father. Sleep with him
in death, since you love him but hate the man you were bound to love.
Clytaemestra: It was I who nourished you, and with you I would
grow old.
Orestes: What! Murder my father and then make your home with me?
Clytaemestra: Fate, my child, must share the blame for this.
Orestes: And fate now brings this destiny to pass.
Clytaemestra: Have you no regard for a parent's curse, my son?
Orestes: You brought me to birth and yet you cast me out to misery.
Clytaemestra: No, surely I did not cast you out in sending you to the
house of an ally.
Orestes: I was sold in disgrace, though I was born of a free father.
Clytaemestra: Then where is the price I got for you?
Orestes: I am ashamed to reproach you with that outright.
Clytaemestra: But do not fail to proclaim the follies of that father of
yours as well.
Orestes: Do not accuse him who suffered while you sat idle at home.
Aeschylus, Libation Bearers 904-19
f) Odysseus encounters the soul of Ajax in the Underworld:
Only the soul of Telamonian Aias stood off at a distance from me,
angry still over that decision I won against him, when beside the ships
we disputed our cases for the arms of Achilleus. His queenly mother
set them as a prize, and the sons of the Trojans, with Pallas Athene,
judged; and I wish I had never won a context like this, so high a head
has gone under the ground for the sake of that armour, Aias, who for
beauty and for achievement surpassed all the Dannans next to the
stately son of Peleus. So I spoke to him now in words of conciliation:
“Aias, son of stately Telamon, could you then never even in death
forget your anger against me, because of that cursed armour? The
gods had made it to pain the Achaians, so great a bulwark were you,
who were lost to them. We Achaians grieved for your death as
incessantly as for Achilleus the son of Peleus at his death, and there is
no other to blame, but Zeus; he, in his terrible hate for the army of
Danaan spearmen, visited this destruction upon you…”
Homer, Odyssey 11.543-60