Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides’ ›Electra‹

Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides’ ›Electra‹
Author: Nicholas Baechle
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 205
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110611317

Euripides’ Electra opened up for its audience an opportunity to become self-aware as to the appeal of tragic Kunstsprache: it both reflected and sustained traditional, aristocratically-inflected assumptions about the continuity of appearance and substance, even in a radical democracy. A complex analogy between social and aesthetic valuation is played out and brought to light. The characterization of Orestes early in the play demonstrates how social appearances made clear the identity of well-born, and how they were still assumed to indicate superior virtue and agency. On the aesthetic side of the analogy, one of the functions of tragic diction, as an essential indication of heroic character and agency, comes into view in a dramatic and thematic sequence that begins with Achilles ode and ends with the planning of the murders. Serious doubts are created as to whether Orestes will realize the assumed potential inherent in his heroic genealogy and, at the same time, as to whether the components of his character as an aesthetic construct are congruent with such qualities and agency. Both sides of this complex analogy are thus problematized, and, at a metapoetic level, its nature and bases are exposed for reflection.

Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides' ›Electra‹

Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides' ›Electra‹
Author: Nicholas Baechle
Publisher: de Gruyter
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre:
ISBN: 9783110613100

Euripides' Electra opened up for its audience an opportunity to become self-aware as to the appeal of tragic Kunstsprache: it both reflected and sustained traditional, aristocratically-inflected assumptions about the continuity of appearance and substance, even in a radical democracy. A complex analogy between social and aesthetic valuation is played out and brought to light. The characterization of Orestes early in the play demonstrates how social appearances made clear the identity of well-born, and how they were still assumed to indicate superior virtue and agency. On the aesthetic side of the analogy, one of the functions of tragic diction, as an essential indication of heroic character and agency, comes into view in a dramatic and thematic sequence that begins with Achilles ode and ends with the planning of the murders. Serious doubts are created as to whether Orestes will realize the assumed potential inherent in his heroic genealogy and, at the same time, as to whether the components of his character as an aesthetic construct are congruent with such qualities and agency. Both sides of this complex analogy are thus problematized, and, at a metapoetic level, its nature and bases are exposed for reflection.

Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides’ ›Electra‹

Aesthetic Response and Traditional Social Valuation in Euripides’ ›Electra‹
Author: Nicholas Baechle
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2020-06-22
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 311061099X

Euripides’ Electra opened up for its audience an opportunity to become self-aware as to the appeal of tragic Kunstsprache: it both reflected and sustained traditional, aristocratically-inflected assumptions about the continuity of appearance and substance, even in a radical democracy. A complex analogy between social and aesthetic valuation is played out and brought to light. The characterization of Orestes early in the play demonstrates how social appearances made clear the identity of well-born, and how they were still assumed to indicate superior virtue and agency. On the aesthetic side of the analogy, one of the functions of tragic diction, as an essential indication of heroic character and agency, comes into view in a dramatic and thematic sequence that begins with Achilles ode and ends with the planning of the murders. Serious doubts are created as to whether Orestes will realize the assumed potential inherent in his heroic genealogy and, at the same time, as to whether the components of his character as an aesthetic construct are congruent with such qualities and agency. Both sides of this complex analogy are thus problematized, and, at a metapoetic level, its nature and bases are exposed for reflection.

Fake News in Ancient Greece

Fake News in Ancient Greece
Author: Diego De Brasi
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
Total Pages: 544
Release: 2024-12-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 3111394298

Scholars have recognized that fake news is not a phenomenon peculiar to the 21st century. While efforts for a more focused approach to fake news in the ancient world have been carried out in the field of Roman history, the phenomenon of fake news in ancient Greece has received limited attention. The contributions in this volume offer a selective approach to this phenomenon by applying media and cultural studies instruments to ancient texts. They pinpoint parallels and differences between ancient and modern fake news by employing methods of literary and cultural studies, as well as historical-documentary analysis of ancient sources. In particular, they explore questions such as: To what extent does reflection on the concepts of truth, lie, and opinion influence ancient Greek political-rhetorical discourse? What is the political or social function of embedding ‘misleading information’ in ancient Greek historiographical texts or pamphlets? Which intentions are pursued with the help of fake news in literary and documentary texts? Can parallels be drawn with modern approaches to fake news? Thus, the volume investigates the mechanisms that historically lay behind the creation, dissemination, and adaptation of ‘misleading information’.

Greek and Roman Aesthetics

Greek and Roman Aesthetics
Author: Oleg V. Bychkov
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 295
Release: 2010-06-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 052154792X

An anthology of works commenting on the perception of beauty in art, structure and style in literature, and aesthetic judgement.

Late Sophocles

Late Sophocles
Author: Thomas Van Nortwick
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 163
Release: 2015-02-26
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 0472119567

An accessible examination of the evolution of key Sophoclean characters

The "Sacred History" of Euhemerus of Messene

The
Author: Marek Winiarczyk
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2013-04-30
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 3110294885

In his utopian novel Hiera Anagraphe (Sacred History) Euhemerus of Messene (ca. 300 B.C.) describes his travel to the island Panchaia in the Indian Ocean where he discovered an inscribed stele in the temple of Zeus Triphylius. It turned out that the Olympian gods (Uranos, Kronos, Zeus) were deified kings. The travels of Zeus allowed to describe peoples and places all over the world. Winiarczyk investigates the sources of the theological views of Euhemerus. He proves that Euhemerus’ religious views were rooted in old Greek tradition (the worship of heroes, gods as founders of their own cult, tombs of gods, euergetism, rationalistic interpretation of myths, the explanations of the origin of religion by the sophists, the ruler cult). The description of the Panchaian society is intended to suggest an archaic and closed culture, in which the stele recording res gestae of the deified kings might have been preserved. The translation of Ennius’ Euhemerus sive Sacra historia (ca. 200 - ca. 194) is a free prose rendering, which Lactantius knew only indirectly. The book is concluded by a short history of Euhemerism in the pagan, Christian and Jewish literature.

Playing the Other

Playing the Other
Author: Froma I. Zeitlin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 498
Release: 1996
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780226979229

Zeitlin explores the diversity and complexity of these interactions through the most influential literary texts of the archaic and classical periods, from epic (Homer) and didactic poetry (Hesiod) to the productions of tragedy and comedy in fifth-century Athens.

The Politics of Greek Tragedy

The Politics of Greek Tragedy
Author: David M. Carter
Publisher: Liverpool University Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2007
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 9781904675167

Part of the 'Greece and Rome Live' series, which aims to introduce figures and aspects of the ancient world to the general reader, this is a guide to the political aspect of Greek tragedy using close examination of specific plays. A handy combined index/glossary and a bibliography are included.