Friday, October 31, 2008
"The Beast in the Jungle," by Henry James: November 24th
Our next meeting takes place Monday, November 24th at 7 p.m. We will discuss "The Beast in the Jungle," Henry James's fable-like work of short fiction.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Questions for "Agamemnon" discussion, Monday, Oct. 27th, 7:00 p.m., Huntington Public Library
Interpretive questions
What is the significance of the tapestries, why does Agamemnon step on them, and why does that act seal his fate? (cf. p. 14: "Come to me now, my dearest/Down from the car of war, but never set the foot/That stamped out Troy on earth again, my great one.")
By convincing Agamemnon to go "trampling royal crimson," is she also showing her defiance of the gods to whom she was forced to give up her daughter" (p. 117, third paragraph : "There is the sea ... to bring that dear life back.")
Why is Cassandra also killed?
Why does Clytemnestra commit the killings, not Aegisthus?
Interpret Clytemnestra's line (p. 137): "By the Child's Rights, by Ruin and Fury -- the three gods to whom I sacrificed this man"?
Was Iphigenia's death a "sacrifice" or a "murder"? Agamemnon's?
Compare the roles of the watchman (pp. 83-85) and the herald (pp. 100-103, 105-107)
Why in the concluding dialog between Aegisthus and and the chorus leader does the leader question Aegithus's right to become the ruler of Argos? (pp. 143-145).
Textual analysis:
Read and interpret these two choral passages:
pp. 96-99: From "The sky stroke of god!" to "rumors voiced by women come to nothing."
pp. 107-109: From "Who -- what power named the name that drove your fate?" to "She steers all things towards their destined end."
Read and interpret the Agamemnon-Clytemnestra dialog on
pp. 110-118, from "First, with justice I salute my Argos and my gods," to "Speed our rites to their fulfillment once for all!"
Evaluative question
How does the play manifest the biblical notion (Exodus 20) of "the iniquity of the fathers being visited upon the sons"? Does this happen in real life? If it does, are we stuck or can we break free from this mold?
What is the significance of the tapestries, why does Agamemnon step on them, and why does that act seal his fate? (cf. p. 14: "Come to me now, my dearest/Down from the car of war, but never set the foot/That stamped out Troy on earth again, my great one.")
By convincing Agamemnon to go "trampling royal crimson," is she also showing her defiance of the gods to whom she was forced to give up her daughter" (p. 117, third paragraph : "There is the sea ... to bring that dear life back.")
Why is Cassandra also killed?
Why does Clytemnestra commit the killings, not Aegisthus?
Interpret Clytemnestra's line (p. 137): "By the Child's Rights, by Ruin and Fury -- the three gods to whom I sacrificed this man"?
Was Iphigenia's death a "sacrifice" or a "murder"? Agamemnon's?
Compare the roles of the watchman (pp. 83-85) and the herald (pp. 100-103, 105-107)
Why in the concluding dialog between Aegisthus and and the chorus leader does the leader question Aegithus's right to become the ruler of Argos? (pp. 143-145).
Textual analysis:
Read and interpret these two choral passages:
pp. 96-99: From "The sky stroke of god!" to "rumors voiced by women come to nothing."
pp. 107-109: From "Who -- what power named the name that drove your fate?" to "She steers all things towards their destined end."
Read and interpret the Agamemnon-Clytemnestra dialog on
pp. 110-118, from "First, with justice I salute my Argos and my gods," to "Speed our rites to their fulfillment once for all!"
Evaluative question
How does the play manifest the biblical notion (Exodus 20) of "the iniquity of the fathers being visited upon the sons"? Does this happen in real life? If it does, are we stuck or can we break free from this mold?
Friday, October 17, 2008
Tragedy and Democracy
This month's reading, "Agamemnon," by Aeschylus, dates from fifth century B.C. Athens. The play was first performed as part of a festival known as the Great or City Dionysia held in honor of Dionysus, god of fertility, vegetation, ritual dance, and mysticism (big portfolio!). "Agamemnon" is the first part of the great Oresteia trilogy, the only surviving Aeschylean trilogy.
To the citizens of fifth century Athens, "Agamemnon" was a well-known tale from the legendary past. The Greek leader Agamemnon's returns in victory to his home in Argos from the Trojan war. Upon his arrival, Agamemnon and his captive, the Trojan princess Cassandra, are murdered by Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra and her paramour Aegisthus (who also happened to be Agamemnon's cousin).
In the second play of the trilogy, "Libation Bearers," Agamemnon's son Orestes avenges his father's murder by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and in the third and final play, "Eumenides," Orestes is tried for his act.
Simon Goldhill asks in his book Aeschylus: The Oresteia (Cambridge University Press, 2004) : "How does tragedy as a genre and the festival in which tragedy was performed relate to democracy? Is there a necessary link between democracy and tragedy?"
I'll take a stab (no pun intended) at a response with the not-so-original observation that human relations can be messy, and those of our prominent leaders even more so. In Greek tragedy, actors wore buskins, or cothurni (lace-up boots) that raised them higher than members of the chorus. By means of such a device, the audience perceived these central players to stand larger than the hoi polloi, the masses.
Tragedy staged in a public venue in effect helped free citizens to find mechanisms to adjudicate conflicts that arose in society.
In their classic How to Read a Book (Touchstone, 1972), Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, both leading proponents of continuing adult education in the classic texts of Western civilization, comment that the reading of play scripts allows you to become, in effect, the director of the the play in your mind. In so "directing" a tragedy such as "Agamemnon," your imagined audience are also citizens of an imagined polity : fifth century Athens, the twenty-first century United States, etc.
To the citizens of fifth century Athens, "Agamemnon" was a well-known tale from the legendary past. The Greek leader Agamemnon's returns in victory to his home in Argos from the Trojan war. Upon his arrival, Agamemnon and his captive, the Trojan princess Cassandra, are murdered by Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra and her paramour Aegisthus (who also happened to be Agamemnon's cousin).
In the second play of the trilogy, "Libation Bearers," Agamemnon's son Orestes avenges his father's murder by killing his mother Clytemnestra and Aegisthus, and in the third and final play, "Eumenides," Orestes is tried for his act.
Simon Goldhill asks in his book Aeschylus: The Oresteia (Cambridge University Press, 2004) : "How does tragedy as a genre and the festival in which tragedy was performed relate to democracy? Is there a necessary link between democracy and tragedy?"
I'll take a stab (no pun intended) at a response with the not-so-original observation that human relations can be messy, and those of our prominent leaders even more so. In Greek tragedy, actors wore buskins, or cothurni (lace-up boots) that raised them higher than members of the chorus. By means of such a device, the audience perceived these central players to stand larger than the hoi polloi, the masses.
Tragedy staged in a public venue in effect helped free citizens to find mechanisms to adjudicate conflicts that arose in society.
In their classic How to Read a Book (Touchstone, 1972), Mortimer Adler and Charles Van Doren, both leading proponents of continuing adult education in the classic texts of Western civilization, comment that the reading of play scripts allows you to become, in effect, the director of the the play in your mind. In so "directing" a tragedy such as "Agamemnon," your imagined audience are also citizens of an imagined polity : fifth century Athens, the twenty-first century United States, etc.
Wednesday, October 1, 2008
"Agamemnon," by Aeschylus: Monday October 27th
Our next discussion will be held on Monday, October 27th at 7 p.m. The featured selection will be "Agamemenon," by Aeschylus (ca. 525 B.C. to ca. 456 B.C.), the first play in the celebrated Oresteia trilogy. This drama recounts the return of Agamemnon, co-leader of the Trojan invasion, to his native Argos and what happens in lieu of the expected victory celebration.
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