For Monday's class, we'll take one more look at our Mythology book to read about the Royal Houses of Atreus and Thebes. Both of them play into two plays in our book, Agamemnon and Oedipus Rex.
Read Part 5, Chapter 17 "The House of Atreus" and Chapter 18 "The Royal House of Thebes" (pp.354-393)--it reads quickly, so don't worry!
Answer two of the following:
Q1: One of the most common themes in many myths (including The Odyssey) is when people "thought [themselves] strong enough not only to deceive the gods...but to defy them openly" (349). Why do you think the Greeks were so obsessed with this plot device? Why, in a world of gods and torments, would people keep testing them?
Q2: Orestes is a bit like Hamlet, written so many centuries later: both men have to avenge the untimely murder of their fathers. However, unlike Hamlet, Orestes faces a moral dilemma that makes Agamemnon one of the greatest Greek tragedies. What is this dilemma, and why is it a riddle without a solution (unlike the Sphinx's riddle in Oedipus)?
Q3: Hamilton reminds us that "The thirst for blood--It is in their flesh. Before the old wound Can be healed, there is fresh blood flowing" (353). Why do the innocent children of people who defy or anger the gods have to be punished for the sins of their fathers? Wouldn't this be an example of sacrifice, which the Greeks felt would disqualify any god from being a true deity? Or does this have a more allegorical meaning?
Q4: In drama, tragedy usually results when people make important decisions in ignorance, or without enough context/information to foresee the results. And yet, every story in this book has at its heart a prophecy, usually from the Oracle at Delphi, where Apollo would tell people the future through a riddle. If the characters knew the future in every story, why do they still make such tragic mistakes? Why might a prophecy be its own form of blindness in one or more of these stories?
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