Week 2

Preparation for Mon. Feb. 13

1. Read Aeschylus Agamemnon lines 489-end of play (pp. 21-66), including the notes at the bottom of the page. As you do so, think about the following questions:

a) Clytemnestra: How does the characterization of Clytemnestra develop over the course of the play? How do others, especially the Chorus, describe her? Remember that they are old MEN. How does she present herself? Look out for double-meanings in what she says.

b) Agamemnon: How do you feel about Agamemnon by the time he appears? Why does Clytemnestra make such a big deal about his entrance? And why, after all his protests, does he walk on the tapestries?

c) Cassandra: Why does Clytemnestra kill Cassandra as well as Agamemnon? What does Cassandra contribute to the meaning of the play?

Preparation for Wed. Feb. 15

1. Putting on a play: Read and take notes on Professor Walter Englert’s description of the process of staging a tragedy: http://academic.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/staging.html

You should be familiar with the terms archon, liturgy, choregos, and proagon as well as the process of selecting, performing, and judging plays.

2. Read Aeschylus Libation Bearers (the whole play, i.e. pp. 68-113) - again, don’t forget to take in the footnotes as you go. Here are some questions to think about. The asterisked question requires a written response:

*a) Staging: In Agamemnon, the dramatic focus of the play is the skene, representing the oikos (house) of Agamemnon/Clytemnestra. In the first two scenes of Libation Bearers, the action occurs at the tomb of Agamemnon at the center of the orchestra. Choose one moment at which the action of the play makes use of the tomb as a physical symbol. How might the action of this scene be staged, and what meaning is conveyed by the tomb at this point?

b) Chorus: In Agamemnon, we had a male chorus; Libation Bearers has a chorus of women. (What is a libation anyway)? Why did Aeschylus choose a female chorus for the second play? (Hint: Think about the functions of women in the play, and think about interactions between the chorus and the actors.) Does the chorus always represent a credible female perspective?

c) Masks: Scene 6 (staging the climactic scene between mother and son) and scene 7 (Orestes hounded by the Furies) are both highly charged scenes in which the characters experience strong emotions. Given that the actors’ faces would not have been visible because they were wearing masks, how might emotion have been conveyed?

Preparation for Fri. Feb. 17

1. To understand Aeschylus’ Furies, you have to understand the functions of the Areopagus court and the nature of the controversy surrounding Ephialtes’ reforms of its powers. Go to Stoa’s online article on the Areopagus court. (Stoa is a consortium of scholars dedicated to research on Athenian democracy) http://www.stoa.org/projects/demos/areopagus.pdf. Most of the evidence for this article is drawn from 4^th century B.C. sources, writing a century after Aeschylus, but the information they give us is applicable.

You only need to read the following subsections:

Introduction; The Areopagus in the 4^th Century; Procedure in the 4^th Century; The Areopagus in the 4^th Century: Intentional Homicide; History of the Areopagus: Ephialtes’ Reforms and the People; History of the Areopagus: the reforms of Ephialtes.

As you read, jot down your answers to the following questions:

a) What was the Areopagus (as a place and as an institution)?

b) What does the word Areopagus mean? What is the myth behind its name? What did the Areopagus represent in the minds of Athenians?
c) What was the jurisdiction of the court (i.e. what cases did the court handle)?
d) What was the procedure of trials?

e) What reforms did Ephialtes bring about in 462 B.C., just four years before the performance of Eumenides, and what motivated those reforms?

2. Read Aeschylus’ Furies (the whole play, i.e. pp. 116-160). As you do so, consider what elements of the origins, nature, and development of the Areopagus court surface in the play. I’d recommend annotating the margins when you spot a reference. Depending on your reading habits, you might want to be thinking about Monday’ s written response on your first read through.

Optional desert: The early 20^th century poet and classicist A.E. Housman wrote a famous poem parodying the elevated, bold, and convoluted language of Greek tragedy (esp. Aeschylus’). http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/jod/texts/housman.html

The Invention of Love, the latest play of the brilliant British playwright Tom Stoppard is about Housman.