Download Oedipus the King

Introduction to
Euro-American Literature
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Ancient
Lecture 1
European Literature
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Tian Xiangbin
Poetry
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In Western Literature, poetry is the
oldest of written art forms.
 Poetry has its roots in the oral tradition
of our distant ancestors.
 Poetry is an integral part of the human
condition.
 Written or oral, every culture on earth
has a poetic tradition.
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Poetry is important... It reaches the inside
of the people and heals their wounds like
nothing else can. It is an escape from
reality and a method of coping with
reality. It's a certain feeling inside."
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Ancient Greece
 Greek Literature
Greek Mythology
Heroic Epic
• Homer’s epics: Iliad, Odyssey
Drama
• Aeschylus (525 BC-456 BC) Agamemnon;
Prometheus Desmotes.
• Sophocles (496-406 BC) Oedipus the King
• Euripides (485BC-406 BC) Medea
• Aristophanes (456-386 BC) The Acharnians
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Ancient Greece
 Greek Literature
Poetry
• Sappho (612-?BC)
• Anacreon (582 BC – 485 BC)
Prose
• Aesop (ca. 620-564 BC) (fables)
• Plato (427-347BC)
• Aristotle (384-322BC)
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Ancient Greece: Greek-Latin Mythology
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Zeus/Jupiter 宙斯
Hera/Juno 赫拉
Poseidon/Neptune 波塞东
Apollo/Apollo 阿波罗
Athena/Minerva 雅典娜
Aphrodite/Venus 维纳斯
Ares/Mars 马尔斯
Dionysus/Bacchus 狄俄尼索斯
Hermes/Mercury 赫耳墨斯
Hephaestus/Vulcan赫菲斯托斯
Artemis/Diana阿尔特弥斯
Demeter/Ceres 德墨忒尔
© Binphon 2008
Twelve Olympian Deities
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Zeus(Jupiter)
宙斯(朱庇特)
King of the gods and ruler
of Mount Olympus; god
of the sky and thunder.
Youngest child of the
Titans Cronus and Rhea.
He is a womanizer.
Brother and husband of Hera.
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Hera (Juno)
 赫拉（朱诺)
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Queen of the gods and
the goddess of marriage
and family. Youngest
daughter of Cronus and
Rhea. She is the wife and sister
of Zeus.
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Poseidon (Neptune)
 波塞东（海王）：
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one of the twelve
Olympian deities
of the pantheon in
Greek mythology.
His main domain is
the ocean, and he is
called the “God of the Sea”. In the Iliad ，Poseidon
favors the Greeks. second elder brother of Zeus.
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Apollo 阿波罗（太阳神）
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Apollo is one of the most
important and complex
of the Olympian deities.
He is the god of light and
the sun, truth and prophecy,
healing, plague, music,
poetry, and more. Apollo is the
son of Zeus and Leto, and has a twin
sister, the chaste huntress Artemis.
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Athena (Minerva)雅典娜
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Virgin goddess of wisdom,
handicrafts, defence and
strategic warfare. Daughter
of Zeus and the Oceanid
Metis, she rose from her
father's head fully grown
and in full battle armor after
he swallowed her mother.
Brave, powerful, kind,merciful
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Aphrodite (Venus)
 阿佛洛狄特（维纳斯)
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Goddess of love, beauty,
and desire. She is the
daughter of Zeus and
the Oceanid Dione.
She married to Hephaestus, but
she had many adulterous affairs,
most notably with Ares.
Cupid is their love son.
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Ares (Mars)
 阿瑞斯(马尔斯)
 God of war. He is said to
 Be the son of Zeus and Hera,
 all the other gods (excluding
 Aphrodite) despised him.
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Dionysus (Bacchus)
 狄俄尼索斯
 Dionysus was the god of
 the grape harvest,
 winemaking and wine in
 Greek mythology.
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Hermes (Mercury)
 赫耳墨斯（墨丘利）
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He was an Olympian god in
Greek religion and mythology,
son of Zeus and Maia. Hermes
was a god of transitions and
thieves. He was quick and
cunning, and moved freely
between the worlds of the mortal and
divine.
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Hephaestus (Vulcan):
 赫菲斯托斯（乌尔肯）
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Master blacksmith and
craftsman of the gods;
god of fire and the forge.
Son of Hera, either by
Zeus or alone. After he
was born, his parents threw
him off Mount Olympus because he is very ugly
with camelback. But he married to Aphrodite.
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Artemis ( Diana)
 阿尔特弥斯（狄安娜）
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Virgin goddess of the
hunt, moon, virginity,
Archery and all animals,
twin sister of Apollo and
eldest child of Zeus
and Leto.
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Demeter (Ceres)
 德墨忒尔（刻瑞斯）
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Goddess of fertility
agriculture, nature, and
the seasons. Middle
daughter of Cronus and
Rhea. She is the second sister
of Zeus and his 4th wife.
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Other gods
 Hades/Pluto 哈迪斯
 （冥王）
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Greek god of the underworld.
Hades and his two brothers,
Poseidon and Zeus, drew lots
for realms to rule. Zeus got the
sky, Poseidon got the seas,
and Hades received the
underworld.
© Binphon 2008
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Eros/Cupid 邱比特
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Eros in Greek mythology,
was the Greek god of love.
His Roman counterpart
was Cupid ("desire"). .
In the Roman version,
Cupid was the son of
Venus and Mars. Cupid
was often depicted with
wings, a bow, and a
quiver of arrows.
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Characteristics of Greek Gods
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The ancient Greek gods normally took on
human form and lived in a society similar to
human society. They exhibited all the emotions of
human beings and frequently intervened in human
history. The most significant difference between
the Greek gods and humans was that the gods
were immortal and human beings were not.
Morality: Zeus is a womanizer.
 Ethics: incest in marriage
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Lyric poet: Sappho
Sappho's poetry
centers on passion
and love for various
personages and all
genders. The word
lesbian derives from
the name of the island
of her birth, Lesbos.
（Depiction of Sappho
in foreground with
female associate）
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Anacreon阿那克里翁 (582 BC – 485 BC)
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Anacreon's poetry touched on
universal themes of love,
disappointment, revelry,
parties, festivals, and the
observations of everyday
people and life. It is the subject
matter of Anacreon's poetry
that helped to keep it familiar
and enjoyable to generations
of readers and listeners.
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Roman Literature
 Virgil (70-19 BC),National epic: Aeneid
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One of Rome’s greatest poets
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Horace: (65-8 BC): poetic theory:
Art of Poetry
 Ovid (43BC-17AD): Metamorphoses
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Homer
 Homer the person
 Herodotus said that
Homer lived 400 years
before his own time,
which is about 850 BC.
 For modern scholarship,
“the date of Homer”
refers to the date of the
poems’ conception (98th C. BC) as much as to
the lifetime of an
individual.
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Homer
 His life
 nothing definite is
known of him.
 The most common
version has Homer born
in the Ionian region of
Asia Minor (at Smyrna,
or on the island of
Chios).
 The poet’s name is
homophonous with
“homêros”, meaning
“hostage”, or, in some
dialects, “blind”.
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Ancient Greece
 Homer the person
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Homer
 His language
 The language used by Homer is an old version of
Ionic Greek, with admixtures from certain other
dialects.
 Also known as Homeric Greek, it later served as the
basis of Epic Greek, the language of epic poetry.
© Binphon 2008
Reading of Iliad
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Form：poetry
Author: Homer
Type: Epic
Time: B.C.
Place: Greece and Troy
Main Characters:
Paris, Hektor , Helen
Menelaos : Akhaian King
Akhilleus, Agamemnon
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Homer’s works
 The Iliad
The first extant work of Western literature
The poem concerns events during the tenth
and final year of the Trojan War.
The main character of the poem is the
Greek warrior Achilles, and his anger
toward the king of Mycenae, Agamemnon,
which proves disastrous for the Greeks.
The action of the Iliad covers only a few
weeks of the tenth and final year of the
Trojan War.
© Binphon 2008
The Trojan War
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a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera,
and Aphrodite
 Eris gave them a golden apple.
 Zeus: sent the apple for Paris to judge. Paris
judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should
receive the apple. In exchange, Aphrodite made
Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife
of Menelaus, fall in love with Paris, who took her
to Troy.
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Paris
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Trojan prince, came to
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Sparta to marry Helen,
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whom hehad been
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promised by Aphrodite
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after he had chosen her
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as the most beautiful
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of the goddesses, earning the wrath of Athena and
Hera. (Judgement of Paris)
Paris judged the fairest lady.
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Helen and Paris
 Helen
Helen of Sparta, later Helen of Troy, was the
daughter of Zeus and Leda, wife of King
Menelaus (brother of Agamennon) of Sparta.
Her abduction by Paris brought about the
Trojan War.
The god Zeus seduced, or raped, Leda in the
form of a swan. Leda laid two eggs from
which the children hatched, one of them is
Helen. children of Zeus.
© Binphon 2008
Leda and the Swan
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Helen
Struck by Helen’s beauty, Menelaus drops his
swords. Detail of an Attic red-figure krater, ca. 450
BC–440 BC.
Helen of Troy by Evelyn de Morgan, 1898© Binphon 2008
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The Story
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When Agamemnon, the commander of the Greek
forces at Troy, dishonors Achilles by taking Briseis,
a slave woman given to Achilles as a prize of war,
Achilles becomes enraged and withdraws from the
fighting. Without him and his powerful warriors, the
Greeks suffer defeat by the Trojans, almost to the
point of losing their will to fight.
The Iliad
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Achilles re-enters the fighting when
Patroclus is killed by the Trojan prince
Hector. Achilles slaughters many Trojans
and kills Hector. In his rage, he then
refuses to return Hector’s body to his
father. Priam, the father of Hector,
ransoms his son’s body, and the Iliad ends
with the funeral of Hector.
Achilles
When killing Hector a blow to the neck, Achilles tied
Hector's body to his chariot and dragged it around the
battlefield for nine days.
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Ancient Greece
 Homer the person
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Heinrich Schliemann
 1822-1990
 German archaeologist
 1871: Troy discovered
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
The Iliad
 Translations into English
1598: George Chapman’s translation was
praised by John Keats in his sonnet, On
First Looking into Chapman’s Homer.
1715: Alexander Pope’s translation into
rhymed pentameter.
1791: William Cowper’s version in Miltonic
blank verse, more faithful to the Greek than
Chapman or Pope.
1898: Samuel Butler’s prose translation:
what we are going to read from the textbook.
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
The Odyssey
a sequel to the Iliad and mainly centers on
the Greek hero Odysseus (or Ulysses, as he
was known in Roman myths) and his long
journey home to Ithaca following the fall of
Troy.
It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca
after the ten-year Trojan War. During this
absence, his son Telemachus and wife
Penelope must deal with a group of unruly
suitors, to compete for Penelope’s hand in
marriage, since most have assumed that
Odysseus has died.
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
For further study
 Online resources
Aristotle's Poetics: Notes on Sophocles'
Oedipus
Background on Drama, Generally, and
Applications to Sophocles' Play
Study Guide for Sophocles' Oedipus the
King
Full text English translation of Oedipus the
King by Ian Johnston, in verse
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
© Binphon 2008
Sophocles (496? - 406 BC)
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His life
– born highly wealthy (his
father was a wealthy armour
manufacturer) and was highly educated
throughout his entire life.
– born a few years before the
Battle of Marathon (490 BC),
probably in Attica.
Sophocles (496? - 406 BC)
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His life
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His artistic career began in 468 BC when
he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre
competition over the reigning master of
Athenian drama, Aeschylus.
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He was a well-liked man who participated
in activities in society and showed remarkable
artistic ability.
Sophocles (496? - 406 BC)
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His contributions:
 =one of high executive officials that
commanded the armed forces.
 -- one of the treasurers of Athena, helping to
manage the finances of the city.
 -- so respected by the Athenians that two
plays performed soon after his death paid
homage to him.
Works by Sophocles
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Sophocles is said to have written 120 or more plays,
but only seven have survived in a complete form.
- Ajax
- Antigone
- Trachinian Women
- Oedipus the King
- Electra
- Philoctetes
- Oedipus at Colonus
Aristotle used Oedipus the King as an example of
perfect tragedy in his Poetics.
Oedipus the King
(Oedipus Tyrannus)
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Form：Drama
Author: Sophocles
Type: Tragedy
Time: 5th century BC
Place: in Thebes
Main Characters:
Oedipus: Ruler of Thebes
Jocasta: Wife and mother of Oedupus;
wife of former king, Laius
Creon: Brother of Jocasta
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Plot:
A tragedy about that Oedipus killed his
father Laius, the King of Thebes and married
his mother, Queen Jocasta, without realizing
what he was doing. After he knew that he is
the murderer to his birth father, the former
King and married his birth mother, Oedipus
blinded by his own act and praying for death
or exile.
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Laius (king)
} Oedipus (Apollo’s Oracles) → Mount
Thebes{
Jocasta (Queen)
Plague (Oracle) ↑
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two shepherds
↓
New King
↑
Polybus (King)
Sphinx riddle
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↓
Corinth {
↑
Queen (Childless)
↓
killed the old man
(birth father)
}Adopter
←
Oedipus (Oracle) flight
Acropolis in Athens
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
Acropolis in Athens
© Binphon 2008
EUROPEAN LITERATURE
The Parthenon Temple
© Binphon 2008
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Oedipus the King
 Oedipus, the protagonist of the tragedy, is
the son of King Laius and Queen Jocasta of
Thebes.
Film:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/bfEm
9lE5VAA/
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Oedipus Complex
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an unconscious sexual feeling that a
son has towards his mother, at the same
time hating his father.
 Oedipus Complex
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A term used by Sigmund Freud to indicate a
male child’s unconscious desire for the exclusive
love of his mother. This desire includes jealousy
towards the father and the unconscious wish for
his death.
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Sphinx
 Greek Mythology
 A winged creature
 having the head of
 a woman and the
 body of a lion,
 noted for killing
 those who could not
 answer its riddle
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Riddle: What goes on four legs in the
morning, two in the afternoon, and three in
the evening?
For further study
 www.ProJet-cn.com/yang
 Binphon.blogbus.com
 www.sparknotes.com/drama/oedipus
 www.pathguy.com/oedipus.htm
Exercises
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1. Write the titles of Homer’s two epics.
2. Who is Helen?
3. “Small wonder that Trojans and Achaeans
should endure so much and so long, for the sake of
a woman so marvelously and divinely lovely.”
Who said the above words?
A. Priest in Oedipus the King
B. Virgil in The Divine Comedy
C. One of the young ladies in The Decameron
D. Sages in Iliad
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4. What do you think of Oedipus from the
selected reading?
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5. What does Oedipus mean to say “not just
for another man’s sake, but for my own as
well. …I shall be serving Laius and
myself”?