Greek 202:
Attic Tragedy and Comedy
|
Radcliffe G. Edmonds
III Office: Thomas 245 Office Phone: 526-5046 redmonds@brynmawr.edu |
Carpenter 13 MWF 12:00-1:00 Office Hours: MWF 10:00-11:00 or by appointment |
Required Texts:
Euripides
Bacchae - Bryn Mawr
Commentary, Causey
Euripides
Bacchae - Dodds
Nietzsche,
The Birth of Tragedy
Aristophanes
Frogs - Stanford
Aristophanes
Frogs - Dover
Course Description:
This
course is designed to introduce students to Greek tragedy and comedy through a study
of Euripides' Bacchai and
Aristophanes' Frogs. A close reading of the poets' verses,
with careful attention to their use of the language and the poetic forms, will
be supplemented by an examination of the religious context in which they created
their dramas. Greek dramas were
performed in religious festivals held in honor of the god Dionysos. In the Bacchai, Euripides puts on stage the god of tragedy
himself, Dionysos, and draws upon his Athenian audience's understanding of
Dionysos and his place within Greek society. Dionysos is the stranger god, who is always coming from the
outside, but who nevertheless has his place at the very heart of the city or
the individual. This course will
examine the ways Euripides engages this paradox in his tragedy of the foreign
god who invades his native city, with special attention to the oppositions of
men and women, sane and mad, traditional and new, civilized and wild. In the nearly contemporary Frogs, Aristophanes also puts the god on stage, but as
a comic buffoon determined to save war-torn Athens by bringing back a tragic
poet from the underworld.
Aristophanes uses the god, as patronage of tragedy, to engage in
hilarious critiques of Athenian politics and art, including the famous contest
in the underwrold between Aeschylus and Euripides. Selected secondary readings
will illuminate specific issues in the play and the social and religious
contexts in which it was performed.
This
course will also introduce the students to the tools and techniques of reading
ancient Greek texts. Students will
learn to make effective use of Greek lexica and scholarly commentaries,
utilizing resources both in print and on-line. The texts surviving to the present day from ancient Greece
are the products of a process of transmission that has left many unresolved
questions about not only the meaning but even the words of the text. Students will learn to make use of the
critical apparatus as well as the commentaries to understand the controversies
and scholarship that have gone into the modern editions of the text.
Course Requirements:
Class participation:
Participation,
of course, includes attendance, since you cannot participate if you are not in
class. If, for some reason, you
cannot attend class, please inform me in advance. In each class session, we will translate aloud from the
portions of the text assigned for the week. Please be prepared to translate any of the readings
specified in the previous class session.
If, for some reason, you cannot prepare for class, please attend anyway
- you will be better prepared for the next class.
We
will also spend time discussing the characters and ideas that animate these
texts, as well as the contexts of Athenian drama. We will look at some secondary reading on the section of
text covered in the classes for the week.
For each reading, one student will be responsible for introducing and
starting discussion on the material, but every student is expected to
contribute intelligently to the discussion. The readings will be available on blackboard, and they can
also be reached by link from the on-line version of the syllabus at:
http://www.brynmawr.edu/classics/redmonds/grek20207.html.
Writing Assignments:
Two
short writing assignments (4-6 pages) will be assigned for the class, one on
each work. Students are encouraged to submit draft versions for comment before
turning them in for a grade.
Quizzes:
There
will be a short (10 minute) quiz every Monday on the material covered in the
previous week. One quiz may be missed
without penalty, but there are no make-up quizzes. If no quiz is missed, the lowest quiz grade may be
dropped. The quizzes are intended
to ensure that you keep up with the readings and give you further practice to
build your Greek syntax and vocabulary.
Exams:
There
will be a mid-term and a final for this class on all the materials covered to
that date in class. The Midterm
will be in class in the week before the break. The Final Exam will be self-scheduled during the Exam
period.
Grade Distribution:
Class Participation 15%
Written Assignments 10%
Quizzes 40%
Midterm Exam 15%
Final Exam 20%
Week I: Introduction and
Prologue - 1-63
Easterling,
"A show for Dionysos"
Scullion,
"Nothing to Do with Dionysos"
Week II: Parodos - 64-166
and Scene I - 167-369
Vernant,
"The Masked Dionysos of Euripides' Bacchae"
Versnel,
"The Tragic Paradox of the Bacchae,"
pp. 96-155
Week III: Scene I -
167-369; Stasimon I 370-433, Scene II 434-518, & Stasimon II 519-575
Henrichs,
"Changing Dionysiac Identities"
Versnel,
"Ambiguities in the Bacchae"
pp. 156-205
Week IV: Scene III -
576-861
Kraemer,
"Ecstasy and possession. The attraction of women to the cult of
Dionysus"
Segal,
"Arms and the Man: Sex Roles
and Rites of Passage"
Bacchae paper due Friday
Week V: Stasimon III 862-911, Scene IV 912-976,
Stasimon IV 977-1023, Scene V 1024-1152
Smith,
"The Devil in Mr. Jones"
Week VI: Stasimon V
1153-1167, Exodos 1168-1392
Nietzsche,
Birth of Tragedy
Henrichs,
"Nietzsche on Greek Tragedy and the Tragic"
Week VII: Picking up the
pieces - review and midterm
Week VIII: Spring
Break
Week IX: Introduction and
Scene at Herakles' House 1-166
Bowie,
Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual, and
Comedy
Dover,
Introduction
Week X: Scenes with Corpse, Charon, the
Croaking Chorus, Empousa & Parodos 167-311, 312-459
Campbell,
"The Frogs in the Frogs"
Sourvinou-Inwood,
"Festival and Mysteries: aspects of the Eleusinian Cult"
Week XI: Role reversals
at the Gates, Parabasis 460-673, 674-737
Edmonds,
"Who in Hell is Heracles?
Dionysos' Disastrous Disguise in Aristophanes' Frogs"
Marshall,
"Status Transactions in Aristophanes' Frogs"
Week XII: Scenes in Hades
and the Agon 738-829, 830-1117
Rosen,
Aristophanes' "Frogs" and the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod"
Henderson,
"The Dmos and the Comic
Competition"
Frogs paper due Friday
Week XIII: Agon
continued: Prologues and Lyrics
1007-1363
Scharffenberger,
"Parody, Satire, Irony, and Politics"
Week XIV: Agon Continued: Weighty Questions; Conclusion &
Exodos 1363-1499, 1500-1533
Goldhill,
"Comic Inversion and Inverted Commas"
Sommerstein,
"Kleophon and the restaging of Frogs"
Week XV: Happy Ending - review and conclusions
Bibliography
Bowie, A.M. (1993) Aristophanes: Myth, Ritual and Comedy, Cambridge University Press.
Campbell, D.A. (1984), "The
Frogs in the Frogs,"
Journal of Hellenic Studies civ:163-5.
Causey, Beth (1995) Euripides'
Bacchae. Bryn Mawr Commentaries.
Clinton, Kevin (1994) "The
Eleusinian Mysteries and Panhellenism in Democratic Athens," The
Archaeology of Athens and Attica under the Democracy, eds. Coulson, Palagaia, Shear,
Shapiro, and Frost, Oxford: 161-172.
Devereux, G. (1970). "The
psychotherapy scene in Euripides' Bacchae." Journal of Hellenic Studies XC: 35-48.
Dodds,
E. R. (1987) Euripides Bacchae. Oxford University Press.
Dover, K. J. (1972) Aristophanic
Comedy,
University of California Press: Berkely and Los Angeles.
Dover, Kenneth (1993) Aristophanes: Frogs, Clarendon Press: Oxford.
Easterling, P. E. (1997) "A
Show for Dionysos" The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Ed. P. E. Easterling. Cambridge
University Press: 36-53.
Edmonds, R. (2003) "Who in
Hell is Heracles? Dionysos'
Disastrous Disguise in Aristophanes' Frogs," Initiation in Ancient
Greek Rituals and Narratives: New
Critical Perspectives,
eds. Dodds & Faraone, Routledge: 181-200.
Girard, R. (1977). Dionysus. Violence
and the sacred.
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press: 119-142.
Goldhill, Simon (1991)
"Comic inversion and inverted commas: Aristophanes and parody." The
Poet's Voice: Essays on Poetics
and Greek Literature. Cambridge University Press: 167-222.
Habash,
M. (2002) "Dionysos' Roles In Aristophanes' Frogs" Mnemosyne, Vol. LV, Fasc. 1: 1-17.
Henderson, Jeffrey (1996)
"The Dmos
and the Comic Competition," Oxford Readings in Aristophanes, ed. Erich Segal, Oxford
University Press: Oxford: 65-97.
Henrichs, A. (1983). Changing
Dionysiac identities. Jewish and Christian self-definition, III :
Self-definition in the Greco-Roman world. B. F. a. E. P. S. Meyer. London, SCM Press: 137-237.
Henrichs, A. (1984). "Loss
of self, suffering, violence: the modern view of Dionysus from Nietzsche to
Girard." Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 88: 205-240.
Henrichs, A. (2005)
"Nietzsche on Greek Tragedy and the Tragic" A Companion to Greek
Tragedy. Ed.
Justina Gregory. Blackwell: 444-458.
Kraemer, Ross, (1979),
"Ecstasy and Possession: The attraction of women
to the cult of Dionysus," The Harvard Theological Review, Vol. 72, No. 1: 55-80.
Littlefield, David J., ed.,
(1968) Twentieth Century Interpretations of The Frogs, Prentice-Hall, Inc.:
New Jersey.
Marshall, C. W. (1993)
"Status Transactions in Aristophanes' Frogs" Text and
Presentation: Journal of the
Comparative Drama Conference 14: 57-61.
Nietzsche, Friedrich (1995) Birth
of Tragedy,
trans. Fadiman, Dover Books.
Rosen, R. (2004)
Aristophanes' "Frogs" and the "Contest of Homer and Hesiod"
Transactions of the American Philological Association Vol. 134, No. 2:
295-322.
Scharffenberger, E. (1998)
"Parody, Satire, Irony, and Politics: From Euripides' Orestes to Aristophanes' Frogs." Text and
Presentation: Journal of the
Comparative Drama Conference 19: 111-122.
Scullion, S. (2002) "Nothing
to Do with Dionysos: Tragedy Misconceived as Ritual" Classical
Quarterly 52.1:
102-137.
Segal, C. (1997) "Arms and
the Man: Sex Roles and Rites of
Passage" Dionysiac Poetics and Euripides Bacchae. Princeton University Press:
158-214.
Segal, C. P. (1961) "The
Character of Dionysos and the Unity of the Frogs," Harvard Studies in Classical Philology 65:
207-17, 227-30.
Silk, Michael (2000) "Comedy
and Tragedy" Aristophanes and the Definition of Comedy. Oxford University Press: 42-97.
Smith, Jonathan Z., (1982)
"The Devil in Mr. Jones." Imagining Religion, University of Chicago
Press: 102-134.
Sommerstein, Alan, (1993)
"Kleophon and the restaging of Frogs," Tragedy, Comedy and the Polis: Papers from
the Greek Drama Conference, Nottingham, 18-20 July 1990, eds. Sommerstein, Halliwell,
Henderson, and Zimmerman, Levante Editori: Bari, Italy: 461-476.
Sourvinou-Inwood, Christiane
(2003) "Festival and Mysteries: aspects of the Eleusinian Cult,"
Greek mysteries : the archaeology and ritual of ancient Greek secret cults. Ed.
Michael B. Cosmopoulos, Routledge: 25-49.
Stanford, W. B., (1983)
Aristophanes: Frogs, reprint of
1963 2nd ed., Bristol Classical Press: Bristol.
Vernant, J. P. (1990a) "The
God of Tragic Fiction" Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece. trans. Janet
Lloyd, Zone Books: New York:
181-188.
Vernant, , J. P. (1990b)
"The Masked Dionysos of Euripides' Bacchae" Myth and Tragedy in
Ancient Greece. trans. Janet Lloyd, Zone Books: New York: 381-412.
Versnel, H. S. (1998a) "ΕΙΣ
ΔΙΟΝΥΣΟΣ: The
Tragic Paradox of the Bacchae" Ter Unus:
Isis, Dionysos, Hermes - Three Studies in Henotheism. Brill: 96-154.
Versnel, H. S. (1998b)
"Ambiguities in the Bacchae" Ter Unus:
Isis, Dionysos, Hermes - Three Studies in Henotheism. Brill: 156-205.