Philosophy pt. 2

Psychology and Ancient Drama

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• Primary reading posted on canvas for next class.
• Homework due next Tuesday
• Quiz #3 is next thursday (may 18)

Base Practice! Two monologues:

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Adapted from Sophocles’ Antigone, lines 891–928

O tomb, eternal prison to which I venture to meet my own, those perished in their magnificent numbers and received by Persephone amongst the dead. I am the latest, and my eulogy the worst by far, before my allotment of life has reached completion. Yet, I donate myself, in hopes of proving dear to my father when I reach him, and to you, mother, and to you, brother. For when you died, it was I who washed you and adorned you, I who poured your tomb-libations. But now for tending your body, Polynices, this is my reward.

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Adapted from Euripides’ Medea, lines 214–251

I am undone, I have resigned all joy in life, and I want to die. For the man in whom all I had was bound up, as I well know—my husband—has proved the basest of men. In the hierarchy of creatures that have breath and sensation, we women are the most unfortunate. First at an exorbitant price we must buy a husband and master of our bodies. And our stability hangs on this, for divorce is discreditable for women and it is not possible to refuse wedlock. And when a woman comes into her husband’s new practices, she must somehow divine, since she has not learned it at home, how to deal with him. If after we have spent great efforts on these tasks our husbands live with us without resenting this, our life is enviable. Otherwise, death is preferable. A man, whenever he is annoyed with the company of those in the house, goes elsewhere. But we must fix our gaze on one person only. Men say that we live a life free from danger at home while they fight with the spear. How wrong they are! I would rather stand three times with a shield in battle than give birth once.

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Aristotle! 384-322 BCE

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• only ⅕ of Aristotle's works are extant.
• No complete finished work of Aristotle has survived. His extant works consist of fragments of finished writings; manuscripts that he used in teaching; and lecture notes by him or his students.
• Taught by Plato, but disagrees in many matters
• Was teacher to Alexander the Great
• Authored a philosophical and scientific system that became the framework for Christian & Islamic philosophy
• Big on metaphysics & scientific method – argued that an argument is more based on structure than content. The right structure will lead you to the right content.

Aristotle: On Drama, from The Poetics

Purpose of drama is to achieve catharsis

Catharsis → from the Greek verb kathairein meaning “to cleanse/purify”

One can achieve catharsis by purging out the emotions of pity and fear as an audience member.

Ambiguous means to get to a purifying end – but plot is most important

“Tragedy is an imitation [mimēsis] of an action that is serious, complete, and of a certain magnitude…through pity and fear affecting the proper purgation [catharsis] of these emotions” – Aristotle, Poetics

Catharsis in Medea!

https://vimeo.com/702455272 1 hr 12 min

Vitruvius, On the Theatre ca 37 BCE:

“There are three sorts of scenes, the Tragic, the Comic, and the Satyric. The decorations of these are different from each other. The tragic scenes are ornamented with columns, pediments, statues, and other royal decorations. The comic scene represents private buildings and galleries, with windows similar to those in ordinary dwellings. The satyric scene is ornamented with trees, caves, hills, and other rural objects in imitation of nature.”

Genre:

• Ancient Greek drama had three genres:
• Comedy – sometimes sitcom-ish, “comedy of manners,” and/or ridiculing people in power.
• Tragedy – tackling topics like pride, crime, and abuse of power.
• Satyr plays – “palate cleansers;” short plays before or after a tragedy that make fun of the tragic characters, performed by satyrs wearing large phalluses.

Tragedy:

• Potential etymology: tragos (goat) + aeido (song) → a goat song!
• The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

• Plays were performed in trilogies + one satyr play – ex: Sophocles’ “Theban Cycle” is 1) Oedipus, 2) Oedipus at Colonus, 3) Antigone
• Tragedy competitions: held at religious festivals (agōn). To perform, you had to go through an audition process judged by the archon.
• Tragedies were huge cultural monuments: representing power dynamics, patriotic ideals, reinforcing customs, and exploring philosophy and psychological phenomena.
• Eventually greek tragedies were translated into latin and then performed in Rome

Comedy

• Split into Old Comedy (Aristophanes, etc.) and New Comedy (Menander, Plautus etc.)
• Restored Pronunciation of The Birds by Aristophanes
• Aristophanes → comic playwright from ca 5th century BCE, considered “father of comedy.”
• Wrote over 40 plays! 11 survive!
• Ridiculed contemporaneous Athenians, like Socrates and Plato!
• Plays written in meter.
• Wrote a play called Lysistrata about women withholding sex in order to put a stop to a war.
• Comedies were often polymetrical – with intervening songs, sort of like musicals!
• Enslaved people feature heavily – a useful (but complicated) source for ancient slavery.

Satyr Plays

The Dramatic Festivals

• “Joking tragedies”
• Alleviate the tension of the tragedy – which were performed in 3 (long!) plays all in one day… an emotional roller coaster!
• Only one Satyr play remains – Euripides’ Cyclops.

• Tragic plays were performed at state-sponsored multi-day festivals for Dionysus that had over 16,000+ attendants each year
• Three playwrights were selected by the public to compete – they would each put on an entire trilogy + one satyr play in one day.
• There were 10 judges, one chosen by lot from each of the administrative districts of Athens and sworn to impartiality. The winning playwright could perform again next year!