Download The Iliad vs. The Burial at Thebes

The Iliad vs. The Burial at Thebes
From literature to philosophy to art
Homer
• b. sometime around 800
b.c.e.?
• creator of epic poetry
• wrote The Iliad and The
Odyssey
• we know NOTHING of
him
The Iliad
• Agamemnon and the Greeks are
beginning their 10th year of
fighting the Trojans
• Achilles, the best fighter, will not
enter the battle because of his
rage toward Agamemnon
• through the intervention of the
Gods, the Greeks eventually
begin to overpower the Trojans
• culmination of the battle occurs
when Achilles defeats Hector
• we are foretold of events to
come, e.g. Achilles’ death
• the poem focuses on great
heroic battle
Tensions and Themes
•
•
•
•
Rage
Heroic Acts
Duty and Honor
Ideal representation of
Greek manhood
• Intervention of the Gods
• Guide to proper behavior
Sophocles
• b. 496 b.c.e.
• d. 406 b.c.e.
• most prolific Greek
tragedians, wrote 125
plays
• only 7 of these plays
survive
The Burial at Thebes
• written around 442 b.c.e.
• simple plot line of conflict between
Creon and his niece Antigone
• Antigone, name means “born to
oppose” in Greek
• against the law of Creon, she buries
her brother
• she is sentenced to death for the
crime
• she hangs herself
• Creon’s son and wife kill themselves
in response to Antigone’s death
• What happens to Creon at the end?
– he gives up the throne after “seeing the
light”
Tensions and Themes
• tyranny vs. democracy
– Creon vs. Haemon
• who might the Athenian
people have sided with?
• fate
– Oedipus as source of
destiny
• The Gods and Heroes
– What role do they play?
– Who are they?
Greek Philosophy
• Sophists
– offered wisdom to
students
– emphasis on
development of
practical skills like
public speaking
– committed to
humanistic values
– “man is the measure
of all things”
– human beings have the power to make judgments about themselves and
their world
– helped to free the human spirit to become more creative
– tendency toward skepticism – undermined traditional values of the power
of the Gods
• Socrates (470-399 b.c.e.)
– opposed Sophists
– also focused on human problems
and empowerment of humans to
make moral choices
– belief in an enduring moral and
intellectual order in the universe
– the psyche is the most important
thing
– it must be nurtured by knowledge
– one gains knowledge through
stimulating conversations,
debates, and abstract thinking
– he was seen as a heretic and a
corruptor and was sentenced to
death after Athens falls to the
Spartans in 404 b.c.e.
– died by ingesting hemlock
How does Philosophy relate to The
Iliad and The Burial at Thebes?
• The Iliad
– traditionally philosophical
text
– uses the Gods as the
controllers of human fate
– Achilles = hero b/c he is
godlike
• The Burial at Thebes
– Sophist or Socratic?
– role of the Gods?
– what defines a hero?
How does Art figure into this?