SECTION 112 Thursday 10-11 242 Dwinelle
might magic nokia 3220SECTION 113 Thursday 11-12 175 Barrows
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Hello Everyone,
For our next meeting, we turn to the tale of the tragic refusal of Theseus’s son to embrace Aphrodite’s domain. The play is the Hippolytus. For our next section meeting (April 1), please read the following items, and address the writing prompts which follow.
I hope you’re having a wonderful spring break, hopefully inhabiting the realm of Aphrodite more than Artemis. And for those of you who may be spending time lounging on the beach near the water: should you see any bulls emerge from the waves, make sure to avoid them!
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1) Robert Graves, Greek Myths, chapter 131 paragraphs B, K (on the Amazons) and chapter 100 (Theseus and the Amazons).
2) Euripides’s Hippolytus (on pages 65-98 in our “Ten Plays by Euripides” volume).
3) Pages 35-61 of Bernard Knox’s introductory essay to Robert Fagles’s translation of Homer’s Iliad. (Photocopies of the essay were distributed in section. If you missed section, you can pick one up from my box in the Art History Department office: 416 Doe Library.)
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1.a) How does Knox describe the nature of the gods? Do you think his characterization of them and their furious self-absorption is applicable to Euripides’s Aphrodite? To Artemis?
1.b) How does Knox characterize the Greek hero? Do you think Knox would consider Hippolytus to be a hero?
2) The Amazons: that society of warrior women from the far north. How are the Amazons like Artemis and her close-knit group of followers? Given their similarities, why do you think the Amazons stand for a dangerous form of society which must be countered and defeated, while Artemis and her society are affirmed as an important part of Greek life and integrated within the community?
3) Who is Hippolytus’s mother, and how does this help us understand his own nature and fate?
4) What animal is sent to cause Hippolytus’s death? How might this be appropriate?
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