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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