English Spring Exam

when does the Trojan War occur?

12th or 13th century BCE

King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy’s kids

Hector and Paris

Paris’s prophecy

he will cause the destruction of his city and family; so Priam and Hecuba leave him in the woods to die, but a shepherd finds him

King Tyndareus and Queen Leda of Greece

Leda is very beautiful, so Zeus turns into a swan and rapes her. On the same night, she sleeps with Tyndareus. She lays eggs

Tyndareus and Leda’s children

Clytemnestra and Helen

Castor and Pollux

When Helen grows up

She is the most beautiful women in the world, and lots of Greek kings and princes want to marry her. Penelope and Odysseus come up with a plan where all the Greek men have to make an oath and swear they will defend Helen’s marriage, whoever she ends up marrying.

Who does Helen marry

Tyndareus marries her to Menelaus of Sparta

Thetis and Peleus

Zeus hears a prophecy that Thetis (a very beautiful women) son will be greater than his father, so he quickly marries her off to a mortal so her son wont be greater than a God. They have a big wedding where everyone comes

Eris

Eris wasn’t invited to the wedding, but she comes anyway. She brings a golden apple that says “to the fairest”, and Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite fight over who deserves it. They ask Zeus, and he says he can’t decide, so he refers them to Paris, who’s popular with the ladies.

Paris and golden apple

Paris chooses Aphrodite for the apple because she promised him the most beautiful women in the world if he chose her. He’s invited back to Troy by Hector, and becomes a prince.

Paris and Helen

Paris and Hector travel to Mycenae for diplomatic duties to trade with Agamemnon. Agamemnon introduces Paris to Menelaus, who introduces Menelaus to Helen. Paris thinks Helen is the most beautiful women in the world, so he kidnaps her, triggering a ten year long Trojan War.

Values for the Greeks

knowledge, wisdom, truth, self improvement, warrior culture, physical strength, courage, democracy. Values are more individual based and can apply to everyone

Homer

8th century BCE

Sappho

7th-6th centuries BCE

Greek writers/philosophers

Herodotus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes, Socrates, Thucydides (5th century BCE)

Greek philosophers 4th century BCE

Plato, Aristotle

Illiad and Oddyssey

Homer, 8th century BCE

Classical Greek/Greek Drama

500-400BCE

Sappho Poetry

a woman poet, 630-570 BCE, fragmentary (lots of her works have been lost), greatly admired, from island of Lesbos, a feminine response to the mostly masculine world of epic poetry, focused on women and their struggles

original sin of the Greeks

lack of knowledge

catharsis

the process of releasing, and thereby providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions

Greek tragedies lessons

Greek drama often used to teach Greek citizens about functions of the state, what it means to be a part of a nation, what does it mean to be a good citizen, what it means to be a human in a political community

Human ambition vs. divine retribution

anytime human ambition reaches too high, occasionally the Gods will smack it down

Free will vs. predetermined fate

paradox of believing in both free will and predetermined fate

Aeschylus

Golden age of Greek drama, 525-456 BCE, adds a second actor to plays, wrote first trilogy, only surviving trilogy

Sophocles

Golden age of Greek drama, 497-406 BCE, adds a third actor, divided loyalties with 3 people, introduced idea of a painted scenery

Euripides

Golden age of Greek drama, focuses on underdogs, downtrodden, especially women, more personal and feelings

when was the oresteia written and by who

458 BCE by Aeschylus

3 parts of the Oresteia

Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides

Tantalus and Pelops

Zeus and a beautiful nymph have a son named Tantalus. Tantalus steals some special fruit and gets banished from Mt. Olympus. He then gets with a beautiful nymph and has two kids, Niobe and Pelops. Tantalus chops up Pelops and serves it to Gods as child stew. Zeus thinks this is wrong and remakes Pelops with a brand new shoulder. Now Pelops is more beautiful.

Tantalus’s punishment

standing in a room full of food and water but can’t eat or drink and dies from hunger and starvation

Niobe

Niobe is best friends with Leto. Niobe had 7 sons and 7 daughters. Leto only has 1 daughter (artemis) and 1 son (apollo). Niobe brags about all the kids she has, so Apollo and Artemis kill all of her kids. Niobe cries for so long the Gods turn her into stone.

Oenomous and Hippodymia

Greek king Oenomous has beautiful daughter named Hippo. Everyone falls in love with her, including O. O makes sure nobody can marry her by having her suitors race him in a chariot competition, and he always wins.

Pelops and Hippo

Pelops had a thing with posiedon, and so has his nice chariot. He beats O in a chariot competition with the help of a servant, Myrtilus. He betrayes Myrtilus and Myrt curses Pelops. Pelops and Hippo have two sons, Atreus and Thyestes.

Pelops and nymph

Pelops sleeps with nymph, has his favorite son Chryssipus. Atreus and Thyestes kill Chryss. Pelops banishes Hippo, Atreus, and Thyestes to Mycenae. Hippo is very distraught and kills herself.

Pelops son prophecy

His son will be the king of Mycenae.

Atreus and Aerope

have two sons, Agamemnon and Menelaus.

Thyestes and wife

have three kids: 2 sons and Pelopia.

Trouble with Atreus, Aerope, and Thyestes

Atreus disrespects Artemis by keeping the Golden sheep for himself, and Aerope is not happy with this, so she starts sleeping with Thyestes. Whoever finds the golden sheep is king. Aerope gave sheep to Thyestes. Atreus kills Aerope.

date of publication for dantes inferno

1314

what language was Dante written in?

tuscan dialect of Italian

Dante’s hometown

Florence

Dante character

 in exile from Florence because of political conflict; went on journey through hell, purgatory, and heaven to go where no human has gone before and find his way back to truth and goodness. 

Virgil

guided Dante through hell and purgatory, but couldn’t guide him through heaven because he lived before Jesus Christ; incredibly important Roman poet; teaches Dante a greater meaning of free will and the difference between choosing good and choosing evil

Beatrice

Dante’s love interest since he was only 10 years old; she became the representation of the highest divine love in his life; his “guardian angel.”

Lucifer

angel who betrayed God, the ultimate sin; sent to the bottom level of hell to be punished for eternity; very large with three heads and wings; forever chewing on Brutus, Cassius, and Judas; also known as Satan; now just as ugly as he was beautiful before

what is the purpose of Dante’s journey

Dante is traveling through hell, purgatory, and heaven to gain a deeper understanding of free will, good and evil, and how your choices in life, and devotion to the holy trinity, affect your life after death. He is driven by the desire to figure out what it means to be a devoted, good Christian.

1st level of hell

Limbo: the people who were born before Jesus, weren’t baptized, and can’t go to heaven. Their punishment is being forever sad that they can’t go to heaven.

9th level of hell

Treachery: the people who betrayed. Their punishment is being twisted up completely buried in the ice in various depths based on the levels above

9.1 level of hell

Caina: betrayal against blood ties

9.2 level of hell

Antenora: betrayal against country

9.3 level of hell

Ptolomea: betrayal against hospitality ties

9.4 level of hell

Judecca: betrayal against one’s master

Who were the 3 people that Satan was chewing on?

Judas, Cassius, Brutus

Where is Moses in hell?

Limbo

where is Orpheus in hell?

Limbo

Where are Dante and Virgil at the end of the Inferno? Where will they go next? Where will Dante go last and who will accompany him? Why that guide and not another guide?

At the end of the Inferno, Dante and Virgil have just exited hell through Satan’s butt to the opposite side of the world. What they are now in is purgatory, which they will travel through to get to heaven. Once in heaven, Beatrice will accompany Dante instead of Virgil because Virgil is unable to go to heaven as he lived before Jesus Christ. 

Who was Dante infleunced by?

classical Greek and Roman philosophers, poets, scholars, etc.

who is the chorus in Agamemnon?

old Greek men

Why is Clytemnestra upset with Agamemnon?

first, he killed her 1st husband and baby to marry her. Then, he sacrificed their daughter iphegenia to get a favorable wind from Artemis for the Greek men to set sail for the Trojan War. So, while he is gone, she was having an affair with Aegisthus

How does the chorus feel about Helen in the Agamemnon?

they blame her for the war and call her a war whore

How does Clytemnestra act towards Agamemnon when he gets home?

she acts all devotional and profeses her love, but he acts cold to her.

Who is cassandra?

Cassandra is a Trojan Princess whom Agamemnon has taken as his slave and concubine. She talks really weirdly and tells Clytemnestra she knows she is going to die.

Clytemnestra murders

Clytemnestra murdered Cassandra and Agamemnon in a bathtub to avenge Iphegenia. She and Aegisthus (her lover and Agamemnon’s cousin) plan to take control over the palace. She does not feel guilty at all and is completely willing to tell everyone what she did. She and Aegisthus rule for 7 years before Orestes comes back.

oracle of delphi

believed to deliver propheies from Apollo

Orestes

sent to Agamemnons grave by oracle of delphi to avenge his father’s death. He was told to avenge Agamemnon’s death by Apollo.

chorus in the Libation bearers

slave women

orestes kills clytemnestra

with the encouragement of Apollo and his friend orestes murders clytementstra to avenge his dad, Agamemnon. He also murders aegisthus. Clytemnestra tries to stop him by reminding her of their mother-son relationship

3 characteristics of a tragic hero

1. audience develops an emotional attatchment to hero

2. the audience fears what may befall the hero

3. audience pities the hero

Orestes as a tragic hero

1. nobility from being the real son of king and queen of thebes and fake son of king and queen of corinth. also nobility from being good ruler of thebes

2. Oediupus bears no respobsibility for his lack of knowledge about his true identity

3. great pity from his blinding, for he received the worst of both life and death. Also, he continues suffering after the end of the play.

hamartia

mistake, error, failure due to a lack of knowledge

what spawned the furies?

Uranus’s blood fell too the Earth and mixed with Gaia

why is the Furies’ bloody backstory important?

establishes their age and lineage; direct result of co-mingling of two primeval forces (heavens and earth); result of a crime committed by a son against his father

what did Furies look like

visually terrifying, tattered black clothing, snakes for hair

how did the furies punish their victims

wild paralytic song that aroused intense feelings of guilt and remorse. They essentially drove criminals mad by exposing them to their own guilt and fear.

Erinyes to Eumenides

Angry ones to the kindly ones

what is the furies job?

to punish violations of the natural order. In their opinion, blood bond is much stronger than marriage bond.

why do the furies go after orestes?

because he killed his mother, which is a violation of the natural order, and even though she killed his father, blood bond is stronger than marriage bond so Orestes should be punished

what does Apollo tell orestes to do?

go to Athena and beg for her assistance

What does Athena do?

puts together Athens’ first trial by jury to decide if Orestes actions were justified or not. The jury was an even split, so Athena’s vote countes, and Orestes was voted to have been justified

Furies mad and wanted to leave

The furies were very unhappy with the conclusion of Orestes’ trial, so they threaten to leave. It would be very bad if they left, because if they did, so would the feeling of guilt, and so people would just go around doing bad things without feeling guilty about it and there would never be justice.

how did Athena get the furies to stay?

1. legally recognized home in Athens

2. worshipped at every marriage and childbirth

3. power over the weather

essentially made them representations of everything that humans and politics cannot control, reminding humans they are limited and imperfect, which would ultimately help bring justve

what potential fear might prevent a juror from being able to make a decision about someone’s guilt in a trial?

fear of getting it wrong or making the wrong decision

what was oedipus’ prophecy

he will grow up to kill his father and marry his mother

what do King Lauis and queen Jocasta do when they hear about Oedipus’ prophecy

pins his legs together and leaves him with a servant who abandons him at Mt. Citheron

What does Lauis do that is bad?

he goes to Pelops and rapes chryssipus and now is to be punished

sphinx comes to Thebes

riddle to get in and out of city; Oedipus solves the riddle and sphinx throws itself of a cliff

King Polybus and Queen Merope

adopt baby that a sphepherd brings to them, name it Oedipus.

Oedipus and prophecy

Oedipus’ defining characteristic growing up is knowledge, and he hears a rumor that he might not be who he thinks he is, so he goes to Oracle at Delphi to find out. He hears about the prophecy and thinks its about Polybus and Merope so he tries to get away and heads towards Thebes

Oedipus kills Lauis

Oedipus comes to a crossroads while going to Thebes and kills Lauis and all his servants except 1. Servant goes back to Jocasta and tells her Lauis was murdered by a band of robbers

Oedipus as king of Thebes

Oedipus becomes king of Thebes and marries Jocasta, fulfilling his prophecy. He has kids. He is a good king, husband, and father. Everyone is happy, but its incest and so the Gods aren’t gonna let it fly

at the beginning of the play, from what are the supplicants asking Oedipus to save them?

a plague/curse that is preventing all the women from giving birth and starving everyone. Oedipus sends Crean, Jocasta’s brother, to the Oracle to find out what Thebes is being punished for.

Which God sent the plague to Thebes?

Apollo

What news does Creon bring back from the Oracle about the problem in Thebes?

the suffering in Thebes is a punishment for the murder of king Lauis and the murderer must be brought to justice.

What does Oedipus do after finding out what Thebes is being punished for

he basically says he wont stop until he finds the murderer and neither shouls anyone else and everyone needs to help find this guy

what does Oedipus want from Teiresias?

he wants to know the truth about the murder, but Teiresias wont tell him because he knows that Oedipus was the murderer and he doesn’t want to tell him because it will really mess up his world. But eventually, he tells him that its Oedipus’s fault and he is the murderer.

What does Oedipus accuse Teiresias of doing with Creon?

plotting the death of Laius and then blaming Oeidpus for the murder so they could gain power in Thebes

What reason does Creon give for why he would never try and steal Oedipus’ throne

he has all the respect and wealth without any of the pressure or responsibility

What does Jocasta tell oedipus about the baby born to her so long ago

about the prophecy and that they abandoned him on a mountain and he died

What person (not creon) does Oedipus summon to look for answers around Laius’ murder

the servant that survived Laius murder