Ancient Greek tragedy Aeschylus Sophocles Euripides. Greek tragedy
Tragedy. The tragedy comes from ritual actions in honor of Dionysus. The participants in these actions put on masks with goat beards and horns, depicting the satellites of Dionysus - satyrs. Ritual performances took place during the Great and Lesser Dionysia. Songs in honor of Dionysus were called dithyrambs in Greece. The dithyramb, as Aristotle points out, is the basis of Greek tragedy, which retained at first all the features of the myth of Dionysus. The first tragedies set forth myths about Dionysus: about his suffering, death, resurrection, struggle and victory over enemies. But then the poets began to draw content for their works from other legends. In this regard, the choir began to portray not satyrs, but other mythical creatures or people, depending on the content of the play.
Origin and essence. Tragedy arose from solemn chants. She retained their majesty and seriousness, her heroes became strong personalities, endowed with a strong-willed character and great passions. Greek tragedy has always portrayed some particularly difficult moments in the life of an entire state or an individual, terrible Crimes, misfortunes and deep moral suffering. There was no place for jokes and laughter.
System. The tragedy begins with a (declamatory) prologue, followed by the entrance of the choir with a song (parod), then - episodies (episodes), which are interrupted by the songs of the choir (stasims), the last part is the final stasim (usually solved in the kommos genre) and departure actors and choir - exod. Choral songs divided the tragedy in this way into parts, which in modern drama are called acts. The number of parts varied even with the same author. The three unities of Greek tragedy: place, action and time (the action could only take place from sunrise to sunset), which were supposed to reinforce the illusion of the reality of the action. The unity of time and place to a large extent limited the development of dramatic elements characteristic of the evolution of the genus at the expense of the epic. A number of events necessary in the drama, the depiction of which would break the unity, could only be reported to the viewer. The so-called "messengers" told about what was happening outside the stage.
Greek tragedy was greatly influenced by the Homeric epic. The tragedians borrowed a lot of stories from him. The characters often used expressions borrowed from the Iliad. For the dialogues and songs of the choir, playwrights (they are also melurgists, because the same person wrote poetry and music - the author of the tragedy) used iambic trimeter as a form close to living speech (for differences in dialects in certain parts of the tragedy, see the ancient Greek language ). Tragedy reached its peak in the 5th century. BC e. in the works of three Athenian poets: Sophocles and Euripides.
Sophocles. In the tragedies of Sophocles, the main thing is not the external course of events, but the internal torment of the heroes. Sophocles usually explains the general meaning of the plot right away. The external denouement of the plot is almost always easy to foresee. Sophocles carefully avoids confusing complications and surprises. His main feature is the tendency to portray people, with all their inherent weaknesses, hesitations, mistakes, and sometimes crimes. The characters of Sophocles are not general abstract embodiments of certain vices, virtues or ideas. Each of them has a bright personality. Sophocles almost strips the legendary heroes of their mythical superhumanity. The catastrophes that befall the heroes of Sophocles are prepared by the properties of their characters and circumstances, but they are always retribution for the guilt of the hero himself, as in Ajax, or his ancestors, as in Oedipus Rex and Antigone. According to the Athenian penchant for dialectics, the tragedy of Sophocles develops in a verbal contest between two opponents. It helps the viewer to better understand their rightness or wrongness. In Sophocles, verbal discussions are not the center of dramas. Scenes filled with deep pathos and at the same time devoid of Euripides' pomposity and rhetoric are found in all the tragedies of Sophocles that have come down to us. Heroes of Sophocles are experiencing severe mental anguish, but positive characters, even in them, retain the full consciousness of their rightness.
« Antigone" (about 442). The plot of "Antigone" refers to the Theban cycle and is a direct continuation of the legend about the war of the "Seven against Thebes" and about the fight between Eteocles and Polyneices. After the death of both brothers, the new ruler of Thebes, Creon, buried Eteocles with proper honors, and the body of Polynices, who went to war against Thebes, forbade to betray the earth, threatening the disobedient with death. The sister of the dead, Antigone, violated the ban and buried Politics. Sophocles developed this plot from the point of view of the conflict between human laws and the "unwritten laws" of religion and morality. The issue was topical: the defenders of the polis traditions considered the "unwritten laws" "God-established" and indestructible, as opposed to the changeable laws of people. The religiously conservative Athenian democracy also demanded respect for the "unwritten laws". The prologue to "Antigone" contains another feature that is very common in Sophocles - the opposition of harsh and soft characters: the adamant Antigone is opposed by the timid Ismene, who sympathizes with her sister, but does not dare to act with her. Antigone puts her plan into action; she covers the body of Polynices with a thin layer of earth, that is, she performs a symbolic "" burial, which, according to Greek ideas, was sufficient to calm the soul of the deceased. The interpretation of Sophocles' "Antigone" for many years remained in line with Hegel; it is still followed by many reputable researchers3. As you know, Hegel saw in "Antigone" an irreconcilable collision of the idea of statehood with the requirement that blood ties put forward before a person: Antigone, who dares to bury her brother contrary to the royal decree, dies in an unequal struggle with the state principle, but King Creon, who personifies him, loses in this clash only son and wife, coming to the end of the tragedy broken and devastated. If Antigone is physically dead, then Creon is morally crushed and awaits death as a boon (1306-1311). The sacrifices made by the Theban king on the altar of statehood are so significant (let's not forget that Antigone is his niece) that sometimes he is considered the main character of the tragedy, who defends the interests of the state with such reckless determination. It is worth, however, to carefully read the text of Sophocles' Antigone and imagine how it sounded in the specific historical situation of ancient Athens in the late 40s of the 5th century BC. e., so that Hegel's interpretation would lose all force of evidence.
Analysis of "Antigone" in connection with the specific historical situation in Athens in the 40s of the 5th century BC. e. shows the complete inapplicability to this tragedy of modern concepts of state and individual morality. In "Antigone" there is no conflict between state and divine law, because for Sophocles the true state law was built on the basis of the divine. In "Antigone" there is no conflict between the state and the family, because for Sophocles the duty of the state was to protect the natural rights of the family, and not a single Greek state forbade citizens to bury their relatives. In "Antigone" the conflict between the natural, divine and therefore truly state law and the individual who takes the liberty of representing the state contrary to the natural and divine law is revealed. Who has the upper hand in this clash? In any case, not Creon, despite the desire of a number of researchers to make him the true hero of the tragedy; the final moral collapse of Creon testifies to his complete failure. But can we consider Antigone the winner, alone in unrequited heroism and ingloriously ending her life in a gloomy dungeon? Here we need to take a closer look at what place its image occupies in tragedy and by what means it is created. In quantitative terms, the role of Antigone is very small - only about two hundred verses, almost half that of Creon. In addition, the entire last third of the tragedy, leading the action to the denouement, takes place without her participation. With all this, Sophocles not only convinces the viewer that Antigone is right, but also inspires him with deep sympathy for the girl and admiration for her selflessness, intransigence, fearlessness in the face of death. The unusually sincere, deeply touching complaints of Antigone occupy a very important place in the structure of the tragedy. First of all, they deprive her image of any touch of sacrificial asceticism that could arise from the first scenes, where she so often confirms her readiness for death. Antigone appears before the viewer as a full-blooded, living person, to whom nothing human is alien either in thoughts or in feelings. The richer the image of Antigone with such sensations, the more impressive is her unshakable loyalty to her moral duty. Sophocles quite consciously and purposefully creates an atmosphere of imaginary loneliness around his heroine, because in such an environment her heroic nature is fully manifested. Of course, Sophocles did not force his heroine to die in vain, despite her obvious moral rightness - he saw what a threat to Athenian democracy, which stimulated the all-round development of the individual, is fraught at the same time with the hypertrophied self-determination of this personality in her desire to subjugate the natural rights of man. However, not everything in these laws seemed to Sophocles quite explicable, and the best evidence of this is the problematic nature of human knowledge already outlined in Antigone. “Fast as the wind thought” (phronema) Sophocles in the famous “hymn to man” ranked among the greatest achievements of the human race (353-355), adjoining his predecessor Aeschylus in assessing the possibilities of the mind. If the fall of Creon is not rooted in the unknowability of the world (his attitude towards the murdered Polynices is in clear contradiction with well-known moral norms), then with Antigone the situation is more complicated. Like Yemena at the beginning of the tragedy, so subsequently Creon and the choir consider her act a sign of recklessness,22 and Antigone realizes that her behavior can be regarded in this way (95, cf. 557). The essence of the problem is formulated in the couplet that concludes the first monologue of Antigone: although Creon considers her act stupid, it seems that the accusation of stupidity comes from a fool (f. 469). The finale of the tragedy shows that Antigone was not mistaken: Creon is paying for her foolishness, and we must give the girl’s feat the full measure of heroic “reasonableness”, since her behavior coincides with objectively existing, eternal divine law. But since, for her loyalty to this law, Antigone is awarded not glory, but death, she has to question the reasonableness of such an outcome. What law of the gods have I broken? - therefore Antigone asks. - Why should I, unfortunate, still look at the gods, what allies to call for help if, acting piously, I deserved the accusation of impiety? (921-924). “Look, the elders of Thebes ... what I endure - and from such a person! - although I piously revered the heavens. For the hero of Aeschylus, piety guaranteed final triumph; for Antigone, it leads to a shameful death; subjective "reasonableness" of human behavior leads to an objectively tragic result - a contradiction arises between the human and divine minds, the resolution of which is achieved at the cost of self-sacrifice of the heroic individuality Euripides. (480 BC - 406 BC). Almost all of the surviving plays by Euripides were created during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, which had a huge impact on all aspects of the life of ancient Hellas. And the first feature of the tragedies of Euripides is the burning modernity: heroic-patriotic motives, hostility to Sparta, the crisis of ancient slave-owning democracy, the first crisis of religious consciousness associated with the rapid development of materialistic philosophy, etc. In this regard, the attitude of Euripides to mythology is especially indicative: the myth becomes for the playwright only material for reflecting contemporary events; he allows himself to change not only the minor details of classical mythology, but also to give unexpected rational interpretations of well-known plots (for example, in Iphigenia in Tauris, human sacrifices are explained by the cruel customs of the barbarians). The gods in the works of Euripides often appear more cruel, insidious and vengeful than people (Hippolytus, Hercules, etc.). It is precisely for this reason, “from the contrary”, that the technique “dues ex machina” (“God from the machine”) has become so widespread in the dramaturgy of Euripides, when in the finale of the work God suddenly appears and hastily administers justice. In the interpretation of Euripides, divine providence could hardly consciously take care of restoring justice. However, the main innovation of Euripides, which caused rejection among most of his contemporaries, was the depiction of human characters. Euripides, as Aristotle already noted in his Poetics, brought people to the stage as they are in life. The heroes and especially the heroines of Euripides by no means possess integrity, their characters are complex and contradictory, and high feelings, passions, thoughts are closely intertwined with base ones. This gave the tragic characters of Euripides versatility, evoking in the audience a complex range of feelings - from empathy to horror. Expanding the palette of theatrical and visual means, he widely used everyday vocabulary; along with the choir, increased the volume of the so-called. monody (solo singing of an actor in a tragedy). Monodia was introduced into the theatrical use by Sophocles, but the widespread use of this technique is associated with the name of Euripides. The clash of opposite positions of characters in the so-called. agonakh (verbal competitions of characters) Euripides exacerbated through the use of the technique of stichomythia, i.e. exchange of poems of the participants in the dialogue.
Medea. The image of a suffering person is the most characteristic feature of Euripides' work. In the man himself there are forces that can plunge him into the abyss of suffering. Such a person is, in particular, Medea, the heroine of the tragedy of the same name, staged in 431. The sorceress Medea, the daughter of the Colchis king, having fallen in love with Jason, who arrived in Colchis, provided him with once invaluable help, teaching him to overcome all obstacles and get the golden fleece. As a sacrifice to Jason, she brought her homeland, maiden honor, good name; the harder it is for Medea to leave Jason’s desire to leave her with her two sons after several years of a happy family life and marry the daughter of the Corinthian king, who also tells Medea and the children to get out of his country. The offended and abandoned woman plots a terrible plan: not only to destroy her rival, but also to kill her own children; so she can fully take revenge on Jason. The first half of this plan is carried out without much difficulty: supposedly resigned to her position, Medea sends Jason's bride an expensive outfit saturated with poison through her children. The gift is favorably accepted, and now Medea faces the most difficult test - she must kill the children. The thirst for revenge struggles in her with maternal feelings, and she changes her mind four times until a messenger appears with a terrible message: the princess and her father died in terrible agony from poison, and a crowd of angry Corinthians hurries to Medea's house to deal with her and her children . Now, when the boys are threatened with imminent death, Medea finally decides on a terrible atrocity. Before Jason returning in anger and despair, Medea appears on a magical chariot hovering in the air; on the lap of the mother are the corpses of the children she killed. The atmosphere of magic that surrounds the finale of the tragedy and, to some extent, the appearance of Medea herself, cannot hide the deeply human content of her image. Unlike the heroes of Sophocles, who never deviate from the once chosen path, Medea is shown in multiple transitions from furious anger to prayers, from indignation to imaginary humility, in the struggle of conflicting feelings and thoughts. The deepest tragedy of the image of Medea is also given by sad reflections on the share of a woman, whose position in the Athenian family was really unenviable: being under the vigilant supervision of first her parents, and then her husband, she was doomed to remain a recluse in the female half of the house all her life. In addition, when marrying, no one asked the girl about her feelings: marriages were concluded by parents who were striving for a deal that was beneficial for both parties. Medea sees the profound injustice of this state of affairs, which places a woman at the mercy of a stranger, an unfamiliar person, often not inclined to burden himself too much with marriage ties.
Yes, among those who breathe and who think, We, women, are not more unhappy. For husbands We pay, and not cheap. And if you buy it, So he is your master, not a slave ... After all, a husband, when the hearth is disgusting to him, On the side of the heart amuses with love, They have friends and peers, and we have to look into the eyes of the hateful. The everyday atmosphere of Athens contemporary to Euripides also affected the image of Jason, far from any kind of idealization. A selfish careerist, a student of the sophists, who knows how to turn any argument in his favor, he either justifies his perfidy by referring to the well-being of his children, for whom his marriage should provide civil rights in Corinth, or he explains the help received once from Medea by the omnipotence of Cyprida. The unusual interpretation of the mythological legend, the internally contradictory image of Medea was evaluated by Euripides' contemporaries in a completely different way than by subsequent generations of spectators and readers. The ancient aesthetics of the classical period admitted that in the struggle for the marital bed, an offended woman has the right to take the most extreme measures against her husband and her rival who cheated on her. But revenge, the victims of which are their own children, did not fit into the aesthetic norms that demanded inner integrity from the tragic hero. Therefore, the illustrious "Medea" was only in third place at the first production, that is, in essence, it failed.
17. Antique geocultural space. Phases of development of ancient civilization Cattle breeding, agriculture, metal mining, handicrafts, trade developed intensively. The patriarchal tribal organization of society disintegrated. The wealth inequality of families grew. The tribal nobility, which increased wealth through the widespread use of slave labor, waged a struggle for power. Public life proceeded rapidly - in social conflicts, wars, unrest, political upheavals. Antique culture throughout its existence remained in the arms of mythology. However, the dynamics of social life, the complication of social relations, the growth of knowledge undermined the archaic forms of mythological thinking. Having learned from the Phoenicians the art of alphabetic writing and improved it by introducing letters denoting vowel sounds, the Greeks were able to record and accumulate historical, geographical, astronomical information, collect observations relating to natural phenomena, technical inventions, mores and customs of people. The need to maintain public order in the state demanded the replacement of unwritten tribal norms of behavior enshrined in myths with logically clear and ordered codes of laws. Public political life stimulated the development of oratory, the ability to convince people, contributing to the growth of a culture of thinking and speech. The improvement of production and handicraft labor, urban construction, and military art went beyond the limits of ritual and ceremonial samples consecrated by myth. Signs of civilization: * division of physical labor and mental; *writing; * the emergence of cities as centers of cultural and economic life. Features of civilization: -the presence of a center with the concentration of all spheres of life and their weakening on the periphery (when urban residents call the inhabitants of small towns a "village"); -ethnic core (people) - in Ancient Rome - Romans, in Ancient Greece - Hellenes (Greeks); -formed ideological system (religion); - a tendency to expand (geographically, culturally); cities; -single information field with language and writing; -formation of external trade relations and zones of influence; -stages of development (growth - peak of prosperity - decline, death or transformation). Features of ancient civilization: 1) Agricultural basis. Mediterranean triad - cultivation without artificial irrigation of cereals, grapes and olives. 2) Private property relations, the dominance of private commodity production, oriented mainly to the market, manifested itself. 3) "polis" - "city-state", covering the city itself and the territory adjacent to it. Polises were the first republics in the history of all mankind. The ancient form of land ownership dominated in the polis community, it was used by those who were members of the civil community. Under the polis system, hoarding was condemned. In most policies, the supreme body of power was the people's assembly. He had the right to make a final decision on the most important polis issues. The polis was an almost complete coincidence of political structure, military organization and civil society. 4) In the field of development of material culture, the emergence of new technology and material values was noted, handicrafts developed, sea harbors were built and new cities arose, and the construction of sea transport was underway. Periodization of ancient culture: 1) The Homeric era (XI-IX centuries BC) The main form of social control is the "culture of shame" - a direct condemning reaction of the people to the deviation of the hero's behavior from the norm. The gods are regarded as part of nature, a person, worshiping the gods, can and should build relationships with them rationally. The Homeric era demonstrates competitiveness (agon) as a norm of cultural creation and lays the agonal foundation of all European culture 2) Archaic era (VIII-VI centuries BC) everyone. A society is being formed in which every full-fledged citizen - the owner and politician, expressing private interests through the maintenance of public ones, peaceful virtues come to the fore. The gods protect and maintain a new social and natural order (cosmos), in which relations are regulated by the principles of cosmic compensation and measure and are subject to rational comprehension in various natural-philosophical systems. 3) The era of the classics (5th century BC) - the rise of the Greek genius in all areas of culture - art, literature, philosophy and science. At the initiative of Pericles in the center of Athens, the Parthenon was erected on the acropolis - the famous temple in honor of the virgin Athena. Tragedies, comedies and satyr dramas were staged in the Athenian theater. The victory of the Greeks over the Persians, the realization of the advantages of law over arbitrariness and despotism contributed to the formation of the idea of a person as an independent (autarkic) person. The law takes on the character of a rational legal idea to be discussed. In the era of Pericles, social life serves the self-development of man. At the same time, the problems of human individualism begin to be realized, and the problem of the unconscious opens up before the Greeks. 4) The era of Hellenism (4th century BC) samples of Greek culture spread throughout the world as a result of the conquests of Alexander the Great. But at the same time, ancient policies lost their former independence. The cultural baton was taken over by Ancient Rome. The main cultural achievements of Rome date back to the era of the empire, when the cult of practicality, the state, and law dominated. The main virtues were politics, war, government.
Origin of tragedy.
Aristotle "Poetics":
“Having originally arisen from improvisations… from the initiators of ditherambs, tragedy grew little by little… and, having undergone many changes, it stopped, having reached what lay in its nature. Speech from a playful late became serious, because. tragedy arose from the ideas of satyrs.
A dithyramb is a choral song from the cult of Dionysus.
Then the soloist stands out. Thespis is considered the first tragic poet, in which the soloist not only sang, but also spoke, put on various masks and dresses.
Dialogue between choir and soloist.
Initially (with Arion) the members of the choir were dressed as satyrs, wore goat skins, horns, special shoes. - the song of the goat is a tragedy.
Sophocles.(c. 496–406 BC)
"Oedipus Rex", "Antigone". The theme of fate and tragic irony in Sophocles: the problem of the impossibility of foresight, unfortunate delusion. Sophocles as a master of vicissitudes. The catastrophe associated with the acquisition of true knowledge. "Pessimism" of Sophocles. Oedipus duel with fate. The motive of the impotence of the human mind. Collision of two equal motives in "Antigone". Internal conflict of the human soul. Madness theme.
"Antigone"(about 442). The plot of "Antigone" refers to the Theban cycle and is a direct continuation of the legend about the war of the "Seven against Thebes" and about the duel between Eteocles and Polyneices (cf. p. 70). After the death of both brothers, the new ruler of Thebes, Creon, buried Eteocles with proper honors, and the body of Polynices, who went to war against Thebes, forbade to betray the earth, threatening the disobedient with death. The sister of the dead, Antigone, violated the ban and buried Politics. Sophocles developed this plot from the point of view of the conflict between human laws and the "unwritten laws" of religion and morality. The issue was topical: the defenders of the polis traditions considered the "unwritten laws" "God-established" and indestructible, as opposed to the changeable laws of people. The religiously conservative Athenian democracy also demanded respect for the "unwritten laws". “We especially listen to all those laws,” says Pericles in Thucydides (p. 100), “which exist for the benefit of the offended and which, being unwritten, entail generally recognized shame for their violation.”
In the prologue of the tragedy, Antigone informs her sister Ismene about Creon's ban and her intention to bury her brother despite the ban. The dramas of Sophocles are usually built in such a way that the hero already in the first scenes comes up with a firm decision, with a plan of action that determines the entire further course of the play. This expositional purpose is served by the prologues; the prologue to "Antigone" contains another feature that is very common in Sophocles - the opposition of harsh and soft characters: the adamant Antigone is opposed by the timid Ismene, who sympathizes with her sister, but does not dare to act with her. Antigone puts her plan into action; she covers the body of Polynices with a thin layer of earth, that is, she performs a symbolic "" burial, which, according to Greek ideas, was sufficient to calm the soul of the deceased. As soon as Creon had time to set out the program of his reign before the choir of Theban elders, he learns that his order has been violated. Creon sees in this the intrigues of citizens dissatisfied with his power, but in the next scene Antigone is already brought in, captured during her second appearance at the corpse of Polyneices. Antigone confidently defends the rightness of her act, referring to her blood debt and the inviolability of divine laws. The active heroism of Antigone, her directness and love of truth are shaded by the passive heroism of Ismene; Ismena is ready to admit she is an accomplice in the crime and share the fate of her sister. In vain Haemon, the son of Creon and the fiance of Antigone, points out to his father that the moral sympathy of the Theban people is on the side of Antigone. Creon dooms her to death in a stone crypt. The last time Antigone passes before the viewer, when the guards lead her to the place of execution; she performs the funeral lament on her own, but remains convinced that she acted piously. This is the highest point in the development of the tragedy, then comes the turning point. The blind soothsayer Tiresias informs Creon that the gods are angry with his behavior and predicts terrible disasters for him. Creon's resistance is broken, he goes to bury Polynices, and then free Antigone. However, it's already too late. From the message of the messenger to the chorus and wife of Creon, Eurydice, we learn that Antigone hanged herself in the crypt, and Haemon, in front of his father, pierced himself with a sword at the body of his bride. And when Creon, overcome with grief, returns with the labor of Haemon, he receives news of a new misfortune: Eurydice took her own life, cursing her husband as a child killer. The chorus concludes the tragedy with a brief maxim that the gods do not leave wickedness unavenged. Divine justice thus triumphs, but it triumphs in the natural course of the drama, without any direct participation of divine powers. The heroes of "Antigone" are people with a pronounced individuality, and their behavior is entirely due to their personal qualities. It would be very easy to present the death of Oedipus' daughter as the realization of a family curse, but Sophocles mentions this traditional motive only in passing. Human characters serve as the driving forces of tragedy in Sophocles. However, motives of a subjective nature, such as the love of Haemon for Antigone, occupy a secondary place; Sophocles characterizes the main characters by showing their behavior in a conflict on the essential issue of polis ethics. In the relation of Antigone and Ismene to the duty of a sister, in the way Creon understands and fulfills his duties as a ruler, the individual character of each of these figures is revealed.
Of particular interest is the first stasim, which glorifies the strength and ingenuity of the human mind, which conquers nature and organizes social life. The chorus ends with a warning: the power of reason attracts a person both to good and to evil; therefore, traditional ethics should be adhered to. This song of the choir, which is extremely characteristic of Sophocles' whole worldview, is, as it were, the author's commentary on the tragedy, explaining the poet's position on the issue of the clash of "divine" and human law.
How is the conflict between Antigone and Creon resolved? There is an opinion that Sophocles shows the fallacy of the position of both opponents, that each of them defends a just cause, but defends it one-sidedly. From this point of view, Creon is wrong in issuing a decree in the interests of the state that contradicts the "unwritten" law, but Antigone is wrong in arbitrarily violating state law in favor of the "unwritten" one. The death of Antigone and the unfortunate fate of Creon are the consequences of their one-sided behavior. This is how Hegel understood Antigone. According to another interpretation of the tragedy, Sophocles is entirely on the side of Antigone; the heroine consciously chooses the path that leads to her death, and the poet approves of this choice, showing how the death of Antigone becomes her victory and entails the defeat of Creon. This last interpretation is more in line with the worldview of Sophocles.
Depicting the greatness of man, the richness of his mental and moral powers, Sophocles at the same time draws his impotence, the limitations of human capabilities. This problem is most vividly developed in the tragedy Oedipus Rex, which has always been recognized, along with Antigone, as a masterpiece of Sophocles' dramatic skill. Myth about Oedipus at one time already served as material for the Theban trilogy of Aeschylus (p. 119), built on the "ancestral curse". Sophocles, as usual, abandoned the idea of hereditary guilt; his interest is centered on the personal fate of Oedipus.
In the edition that the myth received from Sophocles, the Theban king Lai, frightened by the prediction that promised him death at the hands of “his son, ordered to pierce the legs of his newborn son and throw him on Mount Cithaeron. The boy was adopted by the Corinthian king Polybus and named Oedipus. * Oedipus did not know anything about his origin, but when one drunken Corinthian called him the imaginary son of Polybus, he turned to the Delphic oracle for clarification. The oracle did not give a direct answer, but said that Oedipus was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. In order not to be able to commit these crimes, Oedipus decided not to return to Corinth and went to Thebes. On the way, he had a quarrel with an unknown old man who met him, whom he killed; this old man was Lai. Then Oedipus liberated Thebes from the winged monster Sphinx that oppressed them and, as a reward, received from the citizens the Theban throne, free after the death of Laius, married the widow of Laius Jocasta, that is, his own mother, had children from her and for many years calmly ruled Thebes . Thus, in Sophocles, the measures that Oedipus takes in order to avoid the fate predicted for him, in reality, lead only to the realization of this fate. This contradiction between the subjective design of human words and actions and their objective meaning permeates the entire tragedy of Sophocles. Its immediate theme is not the hero's crimes, but his subsequent self-disclosure. The artistic action of the tragedy is largely based on the fact that the truth, which is only gradually revealed to Oedipus himself, is already known in advance to the Greek viewer, who is familiar with the myth.
The tragedy opens with a solemn procession. The Theban youths and elders pray to Oedipus, famous for his victory over the Sphinx, to save the city a second time, to save it from the raging pestilence. The wise king, it turns out, had already sent his brother-in-law Creon himself to Delphi with a question to the oracle, and the returning Creon conveys the answer: the cause of the ulcer is "foulness", the stay of the killer Laius in Thebes. This killer is unknown to anyone; of Lai's retinue, only one person survived, who at one time announced to the citizens that the king and his other servants were killed by a detachment of robbers. Oedipus energetically takes up the search for the unknown killer and betrays him with a solemn curse.
The investigation undertaken by Oedipus first goes on the wrong path, and on this wrong path it is directed by the openly expressed truth. Oedipus turns to the soothsayer Tiresias with a request to discover the killer; Tiresias at first wants to spare the king, but, irritated by the reproaches and suspicions of Oedipus, angrily throws an accusation at him: "you are the killer." Oedipus, of course, becomes indignant; he believes that Creon planned with the help of Tiresias to become the king of Thebes and obtained a false oracle. Creon calmly dismisses the accusation, but faith in the soothsayer is undermined.
Jocasta is trying to undermine faith in the oracles themselves. In order to calm Oedipus, she talks about the oracle given to Lai, which, in her opinion, did not come true, but it is this story that inspires anxiety in Oedipus. The whole situation of the death of Laius recalls his former adventure on the way from Delphi; only one thing does not agree: Lai, according to an eyewitness, was killed not by one person, but by a whole group. Oedipus sends for this witness.
The scene with Jocasta marks a turning point in the (development of the action. However, Sophocles usually precedes the catastrophe with some more delay (“retardation”), promising for a moment a more prosperous outcome. A messenger from Corinth reports the death of King Polybus; the Corinthians invite Oedipus to become his successor. Oedipus triumphs: the prediction of patricide was not fulfilled. Nevertheless, he is embarrassed by the second half of the oracle, threatening to marry his mother. The messenger, wanting to dispel his fears, reveals to Oedipus that he is not the son of Polybus and his wife; the messenger many years ago received on Cithaeron from one of shepherds and gave Polybus a baby with pierced legs - this was Oedipus. Before Oedipus, the question arises, whose son he really is. Jocasta, for whom everything has become clear, leaves the stage with a sorrowful exclamation.
Oedipus continues his investigation. The witness to the murder of Laius turns out to be the same shepherd who once gave the baby Oedipus to the Corinthian, taking pity on the newborn. It also turns out that the report about a detachment of robbers that attacked Lai was false. Oedipus learns that he is the son of Laius, the murderer of his father and the husband of his mother. In a song full of deep sympathy for the former deliverer of Thebes, the choir sums up the fate of Oedipus, reflecting on the fragility of human happiness and the judgment of all-seeing time.
In the final part of the tragedy, after the message of the messenger about the suicide of Jocasta and the self-blinding of Oedipus, Oedipus appears again, curses his unfortunate life, demands exile for himself, says goodbye to his daughters. However, Creon, in whose hands power temporarily passes, detains Oedipus, waiting for instructions from the oracle. The further fate of Oedipus remains unclear to the viewer.
Sophocles emphasizes not so much the inevitability of fate as the variability of happiness and the insufficiency of human wisdom.
Woe, mortal childbirth, to you!
How insignificant in my eyes
Your life is great! the choir sings.
And the conscious actions of people, performed with a specific goal, lead in the "King Edile" to results that are diametrically opposed to the intention of the person who acted.
Before us appears a man who, in the course of the crisis he is experiencing, encounters the mystery of the universe, and this mystery, shaming all human tricks and insight, inevitably brings defeat, suffering and death to him. The typical hero of Sophocles relies entirely on his knowledge at the beginning of the tragedy, and ends with the admission of complete ignorance or doubt. Human ignorance is a constant theme of Sophocles. It finds its classic and most terrifying expression in Oedipus Rex, but is also present in other plays, even Antigone's heroic enthusiasm is poisoned by doubt in her final monologue. Human ignorance and suffering is opposed by the mystery of the deity possessing the fullness of knowledge (his prophecies invariably come true). This deity is a certain image of perfect order and, perhaps, even justice, incomprehensible to the human mind. The underlying motive of the tragedies of Sophocles is humility before the incomprehensible forces that direct the fate of man in all their secrecy, grandeur and mystery.
Euripides.(480 BC - 406 BC)
Medea, Hippolytus, Iphigenia in Aulis. Cult and philosophical origins of Euripides' creativity. Conflict between Aphrodite and Artemis in Hippolyta. Deus ex machina intervention. "Philosopher on stage": sophistical devices in the characters' speech. The problem of the interaction of male and female principles. Female images in Euripides. Strong passions and great suffering. Manifestations of instinctive, semi-conscious forces in man. Recognition technique. Individualistic "declarations" in the tragedies of Euripides.
Almost all of the surviving plays by Euripides were created during the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, which had a huge impact on all aspects of the life of ancient Hellas. And the first feature of the tragedies of Euripides is the burning modernity: heroic-patriotic motives, hostility to Sparta, the crisis of ancient slave-owning democracy, the first crisis of religious consciousness associated with the rapid development of materialistic philosophy, etc. In this regard, the attitude of Euripides to mythology is especially indicative: the myth becomes for the playwright only material for reflecting contemporary events; he allows himself to change not only minor details of classical mythology, but also to give unexpected rational interpretations of well-known plots (say, in Iphigenia in Tauris human sacrifices are explained by the cruel customs of the barbarians). The gods in the works of Euripides often appear more cruel, insidious and vindictive than people ( Hippolyte,Hercules and etc.). It is precisely for this reason, “from the contrary”, that the technique “dues ex machina” (“God from the machine”) has become so widespread in the dramaturgy of Euripides, when in the finale of the work God suddenly appears and hastily administers justice. In the interpretation of Euripides, divine providence could hardly consciously take care of restoring justice.
However, the main innovation of Euripides, which caused rejection among most of his contemporaries, was the depiction of human characters. If Aeschylus's tragedies were played by titans, and Sophocles had ideal heroes, in the playwright's own words, "people as they should be"; then Euripides, as noted in his Poetics already Aristotle brought people to the stage as they are in life. The heroes and especially the heroines of Euripides by no means possess integrity, their characters are complex and contradictory, and high feelings, passions, thoughts are closely intertwined with base ones. This gave the tragic characters of Euripides versatility, evoking in the audience a complex range of feelings - from empathy to horror. So, the unbearable suffering of Medea from the tragedy of the same name leads her to a bloody atrocity; Moreover, having killed her own children, Medea does not feel the slightest remorse. Phaedra ( Hippolyte), possessing a truly noble character and preferring death to the consciousness of her own fall, commits a low and cruel act, leaving a dying letter with a false accusation of Hippolytus. Iphigenia ( Iphigenia in Aulis) goes through the most difficult psychological path from a naive teenage girl to a conscious sacrifice for the good of the motherland.
Expanding the palette of theatrical and visual means, he widely used everyday vocabulary; along with the choir, increased the volume of the so-called. monody (solo singing of an actor in a tragedy). Monodia was introduced into the theatrical use by Sophocles, but the widespread use of this technique is associated with the name of Euripides. The clash of opposite positions of characters in the so-called. agonakh (verbal competitions of characters) Euripides exacerbated through the use of the technique of stichomythia, i.e. exchange of poems of the participants in the dialogue.
Tragedy fathers Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - these are the three great titans, on whose incomparable work the stormy poetry of Her Majesty Tragedy, full of inexpressible passions, boils. The most burning intricacies of human destinies in an endless battle fight for unattainable happiness and, dying, do not know the joy of victory. But out of compassion for the heroes, a bright flower of purification is born - and its name is Catharsis.
The first song of the choir from Sophocles' Antigone became a great hymn to the glory of Great Humanity. The hymn states:
There are many wondrous forces in nature,
But stronger than a man - no.
He is under the blizzards of the rebellious howl
Boldly leads the way across the sea.
Revered in goddesses, Earth,
Forever abundant mother, he tires.
Too little time has left us information about the life of the great tragedians. Too much of it separates us, and too many tragedies that swept over the earth swept away the history of their destinies from the memory of people. And from the huge poetic heritage, only crumbs remained. But they have no price... They are priceless... They are eternal...
The very concept of "tragedy", which carries the full power of fatal events in the fate of a person, his collision with a world filled with a tense struggle of characters and passions breaking into the space of being - in Greek means only - "goat song". Agree, my dear reader, a somewhat strange feeling, which does not allow you to come to terms with this unfair combination, is born in the soul. Nevertheless, it is so. Where did the "goat song" come from? There is an assumption that the tragedy was born from the songs of satyrs, who performed on stage in costumes of goats. This explanation, coming from the external appearance of the performers, and not from the internal content of the performed work, seems somewhat superficial. After all, satyrs should have performed plays of a satirical content, and by no means of a tragic one.
Perhaps the "goat's song" is the suffering song of the very scapegoats on which people laid all their sins and released them into the boundless distance, so that they would carry these sins away from their homes. The scapegoats, on the other hand, told endless distances about what an unbearable load they had to carry on their innocent shoulders. And this story of theirs became a story about the tragedy of human existence ... Perhaps everything was exactly like that? Who knows…
We have already met some of the tragedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles, and they helped us to feel the very spirit of those times, to feel the aroma of living spaces unknown to us.
Aeschylus was a direct participant in the wars and knew firsthand what it means to look death in the eyes and become numb from its chilling gaze. Perhaps it was this meeting that carved in the soul of the tragedian one of the main mottos of his poetry:
For those who are filled with pride
Who is full of arrogance, who is good in the house,
Forgetting about every measure, carries,
The more terrible Ares, the patron of vengeance.
We do not need untold riches -
The need not to know and save from troubles
Modest prosperity, peace of mind.
No abundance
A mortal will not redeem
If the truth is great
He tramples on his feet.
The poet carefully peers into all manifestations of human existence and decides for himself:
I must think. Into the deepest
Depths of reflection let the diver
A keen, sober and calm look will penetrate.
Aeschylus understands:
Man cannot live without guilt
It is not given to walk the earth without sin,
And from grief, from troubles
No one can hide forever.
The gods for the "father of tragedy" are the main arbiters of human destinies, and fate is omnipotent and irresistible. When a defenseless mortal approaches
An irresistible stream of unstoppable troubles,
Then into the raging sea of terrible fate
He is thrown…
And then he can no longer find a quiet and comfortable pier anywhere for himself. If luck turns to face him, then that luck is "a gift from the gods."
Aeschylus was the first poet who began to carefully peer into the whole clot of terrible crimes that is hidden in the struggle of hungry heirs for a coveted inheritance. And the richer the family, the more terrible the fight. In a wealthy home, blood relatives only have hatred in common. And there is no need to talk about the royal. Here
Divides the father's inheritance
Merciless iron.
And everyone will get the land
How much is needed for the grave -
Instead of the expanse of royal lands.
And only when the blood of half-brothers mixes with the damp earth, "the rage of mutual murder subsides and lush flowers of sadness" crown the walls of the native house, where the only loud cry is heard, in which
Goddess curse rings, rejoicing.
It's done! The ill-fated family collapsed.
The goddess of death has calmed down.
Following Aeschylus, the longest line of poets and prose writers will develop this burning theme of all times.
The father of tragedy Sophocles was born in 496 BC. He was seven years younger than Aeschylus and 24 years older than Euripides. Here is what ancient testimonies about him tell: Glorious became famous for his life and poetry, received an excellent upbringing, lived in abundance, distinguished himself both in government and in embassies. So great was the charm of his character that everyone and everywhere loved him. He scored 12 victories, often took second place, but never third. After the naval battle of Salome, when the Athenians celebrated their victory, Sophocles, naked, anointed with oils, with a lyre in his hands, led the choir.
The name of the divine Sophocles, the most learned man, was added to the names of philosophers when, after a heavy golden goblet was stolen from the temple of Hercules, he saw in a dream a god telling him who had done it. He didn't pay any attention to it at first. But when the dream began to repeat itself, Sophocles went to the Areopagus and reported this: the Ariopagites ordered the arrest of the one whom Sophocles pointed out. During interrogation, the arrested man confessed and returned the goblet. After everything happened, the dream was called the appearance of Hercules the Herald.
Once, in the tragedy of Sophocles "Electra", a famous actor was busy, surpassing all others in the purity of his voice and the beauty of his movements. His name, they say, was Paul. He skillfully and with dignity played the tragedies of famous poets. It so happened that this Paul lost his dearly beloved son. When, by all accounts, he had long been grieving over the death of his son, Paul returned to his art. According to the role, he was supposed to carry in his hands an urn with supposedly the ashes of Orestes. This scene is conceived in such a way that Elektra, carrying the remains of her brother, as it were, mourns him and mourns over his imaginary death. And Paul, dressed in the mourning robe of Electra, took his ashes and urn from the grave of his son and, squeezing him in his arms, as if they were the remains of Orestes, filled everything around not with feigned, acting, but with real sobs and groans. So, when it seemed like a play was going on, real mourning was presented.
Euripides corresponded with Sophocles and once sent him this letter in connection with a nearly shipwreck:
“The news reached Athens, Sophocles, about the misfortune that happened to you during the voyage to Chios; the whole city reached the point where the enemies grieved no less than the friends. I am convinced that only thanks to divine providence could it happen that in such a great misfortune you were saved, and did not lose any of your relatives and servants who accompanied you. As for the trouble with your dramas, then in Hellas you will not find anyone who would not consider it terrible; but since you survived, then it is easily corrected. Look, come back as soon as possible safe and sound, and if now you feel bad from seasickness while swimming, or, breaking your body, annoys the cold, or it seems that it will annoy, immediately return calmly. At home, know that everything is in order, and everything that you punished has been fulfilled.
This is what the ancient testimonies about the life of Sophocles tell us.
Of his vast artistic heritage, only seven tragedies remained - an insignificant part ... But what! ... We do not know anything about the rest of the works of the genius, but we know that he never in his life had a chance to experience the cooling of the Athenian public, either as an author or as a performer of the main roles in their tragedies. He also knew how to charm the audience with his art of playing the cithara, and the grace with which he played the ball. Indeed, the motto of his life could be his own lines:
O thrill of joy! I am inspired, I rejoice!
And if the joy of life
Who lost - he is not alive for me:
I can hardly call him alive.
Save yourself riches if you want
Live like a king, but if there is no happiness -
I won't even give you a shadow of smoke
For this all, with happiness comparing.
The jubilant, victorious pace of Sophocles through life was not to everyone's taste. Once it came to the point that the ill-fated passion for victory overcame another genius - Aeschylus. When Sophocles won a brilliant victory at the feast of Dionysus, dejected, saddened, consumed by envy, Aeschylus was forced to retire away from Athens - to Sicily.
“In the terrible years for Athens, when war and an epidemic burst behind seemingly strong defensive walls, Sophocles began work on the tragedy King Oedipus”, the main theme of which was the theme of the inevitability of the destiny of fate, rigorous divine predestination, hanging like a thundercloud over those who tried with all their might to resist this Oedipus - the hostage of the goddesses of fate Moira, who wove a web too inhuman for him. After all, “if God begins to persecute, even the strongest will not be saved. Human laughter and tears are in the will of the highest, ”the poet warns. And it seems that the Athenian tragedy created for his soul that necessary background of hopelessness that the tragedy of Oedipus rex breathes.
Independence in their decisions, readiness to bear responsibility for their actions distinguishes the courageous heroes of Sophocles. To live well or not to live at all - such is the moral message of a noble nature. Intolerance to other people's opinions, intolerance towards enemies and to oneself, indomitability in achieving the goal - these properties are inherent in all true tragic heroes of Sophocles. And if in the Euripides "Electra" the brother and sister feel lost and crushed after taking revenge, then there is nothing similar in Sophocles, because matricide is dictated by her betrayal of her husband, Electra's father and is sanctioned by Apollo himself, therefore, is carried out without the slightest hesitation.
As a rule, the very situation in which the characters are placed is unique. Any girl sentenced to death will mourn her failed life vocation, but not every girl will agree, under pain of death, to violate the king's ban. Any king, having learned about the danger threatening the state, will take measures to prevent it, but not every king should at the same time turn out to be the very culprit he is looking for. Any woman, wishing to regain her husband's love, can resort to a life-saving potion, but it is by no means necessary that this potion be a deadly poison. Any epic hero will have a hard time experiencing his dishonor, but not everyone can be guilty of having plunged himself into this shame due to the intervention of a deity. In other words, Sophocles knows how to enrich each plot borrowed from myths with such “details” that unusually expand the possibilities for creating an unusual situation and for manifesting in it all the various traits in the character of the hero.
Sophocles, who knows how to weave the extraordinary destinies of people in his tragedies, turned out to be not so far-sighted in everyday life. At one time, citizens entrusted him with an important post of strategist and made a mistake, by the way, a very common one. The rich imagination and subtle intuition that a poet needs are more likely to interfere with a politician who needs cruelty and speed in making decisions. Moreover, these qualities should be in a military leader. An intelligent and creative person, faced with a problem, sees too many ways to solve it and an endless chain of consequences of each step, he hesitates, is indecisive, while the situation requires immediate action. (Kravchuk)
If Sophocles turned out to be not so hot what a strategist, then there is no doubt about the wisdom of his sayings. Therefore, my dear reader, let me present you with some of the poetic masterpieces of an incomparable master:
Your table is magnificent and your life is luxurious, -
And I have only one food: a free spirit! (Sophocles)
Light souls
Shame is not sweet, their honor is in good deeds. (Sophocles)
Experience teaches a lot. None of the people
Do not hope to become a prophet without experience. (Sophocles)
Saved by God, do not anger the gods. (Sophocles)
A man is right - so he can be proud. (Sophocles)
In trouble, the most reliable
Not the one who is powerful and broad-shouldered, -
Only the mind overcomes in life. (Sophocles)
To labor is to multiply labor by labor. (Sophocles)
Not in words, but in their actions
We lay down the glory of our lives. (Sophocles)
To live without knowing the troubles - that's what's sweet. (Sophocles)
Who asks for the lawful,
You don't have to ask for a long time. (Sophocles)
When your urgent request
They don't do it, they don't want to help
And then suddenly, when the desire has passed,
They will fulfill everything - what is the use in this?
Then mercy is no longer yours. (Sophocles)
All people make mistakes sometimes
But who fell into error, if he is not windy
And not unhappy from birth, in trouble,
Leaving perseverance will fix everything;
The stubborn will be called insane. (Sophocles)
Perhaps not loving the living
The dead will be regretted in difficult times.
A fool has happiness - does not keep,
And if he loses happiness, he will appreciate it. (Sophocles)
Empty, presumptuous people
The gods plunge into the abyss of grave disasters. (Sophocles)
You are not wise, if you are out of the path of reason
You find taste in stubborn self-conceit. (Sophocles)
Look into yourself, see your torment,
Knowing that you yourself are the culprit of torment, -
This is true suffering. (Sophocles)
I recently realized
That we must hate the enemy,
But to know that tomorrow we can love;
And a friend to be a support, but remember
That he may be an enemy tomorrow.
Yes, the harbor of friendship is often unreliable ... (Sophocles)
If someone takes revenge for the offense of the offender,
Rock never punishes the avenger.
If you answer the insidious with deceit,
Sorrow, and not good to you as a reward. (Sophocles)
Works for loved ones
Should not be considered for work. (Sophocles)
What does mother mean? We are abused by children
And we don't have the strength to hate them. (Sophocles)
Must husband
Cherish the memory of the joys of love.
A grateful feeling will be born in us
From a feeling of gratitude, - husband,
Forgetting the tenderness of caresses, ungrateful. (Sophocles)
Because of the empty rumor
Blame your friends should not be in vain. (Sophocles)
Rejecting a devoted friend means
Lose the most precious thing in life. (Sophocles)
Contrary to the truth - and bad in vain
Consider friends and enemies of the good.
Whoever expelled a faithful friend - that life
I cut off the color of my favorite. (Sophocles)
And finally...
Everything in life is impermanent:
Stars, troubles and wealth.
Unstable happiness
Suddenly disappeared
A moment - and joy returned,
And behind it - again sadness.
But if the exit is indicated,
Believe; any misfortune can become a boon. (Sophocles)
We have received information that Sophocles had a son, Jophon, with whom, in all likelihood, he first had the most wonderful relationship, because they were connected not only by their own blood, but also by a love of art. Iophon wrote many plays with his father and staged fifty of them. But the son forgot the wise admonition of his father:
The small one holds on, if the great one is with him,
And the great one - since the small one is standing next to him ...
But such thoughts are in vain to inspire
For those who are of poor mind.
When Sophocles grew old, a lawsuit broke out between him and his son. The son accused his father of losing his mind and squandering the inheritance of his children with might and main. To which Sophocles replied:
You all shoot me
Like an arrow target; and in censure even
I am not forgotten by you; by his relatives
I have long been valued and sold out.
Perhaps there was some truth in this lawsuit, because the poet's indifference to beautiful hetaerae was no secret to anyone. Sophocles was especially tender and reverent in love with the incomparable Archippa, with whom he lived soul to soul until a ripe old age, which made it possible for the restless gossips to scratch their tongues, but did not tame the love of the poet and the hetaera, which Sophocles reinforced with care for his beloved, making her heiress of his condition.
Here is what ancient testimonies tell about this story: “Sophocles wrote tragedies until old age. When the son demanded that the judges remove him as if insane from the possession of household property. After all, according to customs, it is customary to forbid parents to dispose of the household if they do not manage it well. Then the old man declared: If I am Sophocles, then I am not mad; if he is mad, then not Sophocles” and recited to the judges the essay that he held in his hand and had just written, “Oedipus in Colon,” and asked if such an essay could really belong to a madman who owns the highest gift in poetic art - the ability portray character or passion. After he finished reading, by decision of the judges he was released from the charge. His poems aroused such admiration that he was escorted out of court, as if from a theater, with applause and rave reviews. All the judges stood before such a poet, brought him the highest praise for wit in defense, magnificence in tragedy, and left no sooner than accusing the accuser of dementia himself.
Sophocles died at the age of ninety as follows: after the grape harvest, a bunch was sent to him. He took an unripe berry in his mouth, choked on it, suffocated and died. In another way, while reading Antigone aloud, Sophocles came across a long phrase at the end, not marked in the middle with a stop sign, overstressed his voice, and with it expired. Others say that after the performance of the drama proclaimed the winner, he died of joy.
Joking lines were written about the reasons for the death of great people:
Having eaten a raw centipede, Diogenes immediately died.
Choking on grapes, Sophocles gave up his spirit.
Dogs killed Euripides in the distant regions of Thrace.
God-equal Homer was starved to death by a severe hunger.
And solemn odes were created about the departure of the great:
Son of Sophill, you, O Sophocles, dancer,
She took a small measure of the earth into her bowels,
Curls of ivy from Acharn were completely wrapped around your head,
Muses of tragedy star, the pride of the Athenian land.
Dionysus himself was proud of your victory in the competition,
Every word of yours shines with eternal fire.
Quietly, spreading ivy, bend over the grave of Sophocles.
Quietly accept in your canopy, cover with lush greenery.
Roses, open buds, vine stems,
Flexible wrap around the shoot, beckoning with a ripe bunch.
May it be serene on your grave, God-equal Sophocles,
Ivy curls are always flowing around a light foot.
Bees, descendants of oxen, always let them irrigate
Your grave is poured with honey, Hymettian drops are poured.
Sophocles the God-equal was the first to erect altars to these deities.
He also took the lead in the glory of the tragic muses.
You spoke about sad things with sweet speech,
Sophocles, you skillfully mixed honey with wormwood.
The childhood of another Father of tragedy, Euripides, was barefoot, and sometimes a hungry belly, grumbling sullenly, prevented him from sleeping sweetly on a bed of straw. His mother was not always successful in selling vegetables at the market, and then she had to eat those that had already rotted - they were not in demand among buyers. The young man Euripides was also not in demand, because he was not only ugly, but also had some physical defects. But he had one virtue - the love of the word!
Why, - he asked with inspiration, -
O mortals, we are all other sciences
Trying to study so hard
And speech, the only queen of the world
Are we forgetting? Here's who to serve
Should all, for a fee dear
Bringing teachers together so that the secret of the word
Knowing, persuading - to win!
But fate did not give him true victories during his lifetime, denied him the opportunity to soar high into the heavens in their joyful ecstasy. At poetry competitions, a laurel wreath was rarely hoisted on the head of Euripides. He never pandered to the desires of the audience. To their demands to change some episodes, he answered with dignity that he had a habit of writing plays in order to teach the people, and not learn from them.
To an insignificant boastful poet, who boasted before him that he, they say, writes a hundred verses a day, while Euripides is unable to create even three, while making incredible efforts, the great poet replied: “The difference between us is that your there will only be enough plays for three days, but mine will always come in handy.” And he turned out to be right.
About what glory came to him, having passed through the millennia, Euripides failed to find out. Death had overtaken her considerably. On the other hand, the adversities that often visited the poet and sought to trample on his rushing spirit happened to suffer crushing defeats, because the poet’s life experience, rich in suffering, told him that
And in life a tornado
Like a hurricane in the field, it does not make noise forever:
The end comes to happiness and misfortune ...
Life keeps moving us up and down
And the brave is the one who does not lose faith
Among the most terrible disasters: only a coward
Loses vigor, seeing no way out.
Survive the disease - and you will be healthy.
And if among the evils
Announced us, happy wind again
Will it blow us?
Then only the last fool will not catch his life-giving tight streams in his sails. Do not miss the moment of good luck and joy, reinforce it with the intoxicating currents of Bacchus. Otherwise you
Mad man, so much power, so much sweetness
Opportunities to love which game
Wine promises freedom... to dance
God calls us, and takes away the memory
Past evils...
But evil is eternal, it goes away and comes back again. It rages in life and on the darkened sheets of tragedies. In the tragedy Hippolytus, a chaste young man avoids female love and affection. He only likes free hunting in the company of the beautiful virgin Artemis. His stepmother Phaedra, who has fallen in love with her stepson Hippolyte, needs only his love. Light is not dear to her without this all-devouring love. But while the passion has not exhausted her to the end, Phaedra tries to hide her misfortune from those around her, and especially from the all-understanding nurse. In vain ... Finally she confesses:
Woe, woe! For what, for what sins?
Where is my mind? Where is my goodness?
I was completely insane. Evil Imp
Defeated me. Woe to me, woe!
Love, like a terrible wound, I wanted
Move with dignity. At first I
She decided to remain silent, not to betray her torments.
After all, there is no trust in the language: the language is much
Only to calm someone else's soul,
And then you yourself will not end up in trouble.
The unfortunate Phaedra rushes about, cannot find peace. There is no rest, but quite different, and the old sympathetic nurse:
No, it's better to be sick than to go after the sick.
So only the body suffers, and here the soul
There is no rest, and hands ache from work.
But the life of a man is one torment
And the hard work is unceasing.
Confessions that escaped from the soul of Phaedra, desecrated by the impudent, shameful gift of Cyprida-Aphrodite, this time asked for, horrify the nurse:
O hateful world, where in love and honest
Powerless before vice. Not a goddess, no
Cyprida. If you can be higher than God.
You are higher than God, dirty mistress.
Cursing the goddess, the nanny tries to calm Fedra, fed by her milk:
My long age taught me a lot,
I realized that people love each other
It is necessary in moderation, so that in the very heart of love
She did not penetrate, so that she could, at her own will,
Then loosen, then pull tight again
The bonds of friendship. heavy burden to
Drops out who owes one for two
Grieve. And better, for me,
Keep the middle always and in everything,
Than, not knowing the measure, fall into excess.
Who is reasonable - I agree with me.
But is love subject to reason?.. No... Phaedra sees one, only one hopeless way out:
I tried
To overcome insanity with a sober mind.
But all in vain. And finally despairing
In the victory over Cyprida, I considered that death,
Yes, death, - do not argue, - is the best way.
And my feat will not remain unknown,
And from shame, from sin, I will leave forever.
I know my illness, its infamy
I know well that I am a woman
Branded with contempt. Oh be damned
Scoundrel, that the first with a lover
Wife cheated! It's a disaster
Went from the top and the female ruined the sex.
After all, if the noble amuses the nasty,
That vile and even more so - such is the law.
Contemptible are those who are under the guise of modesty
Reckless-daring. Oh foam born
Lady Cyprida, how they look
In the eyes of husbands without fear? After all, the darkness of the night
And the walls, accomplices in crimes,
They can be issued! That's why I call death
My friends, I don't want infamy
Execute my husband, I don't want my children
Disgrace forever. No, let the proud
Free speech, with honor and dignity
They live in glorious Athens, not ashamed of their mother.
After all, even a daredevil, having learned about the sin of his parents,
Like a vile slave, he lowers his gaze in humiliation.
Truly for those who are just in soul,
More precious than life itself is a pure conscience.
The nurse is trying with all her might to dissuade Phaedra:
Right, nothing too scary
It didn't happen. Yes, the goddess is angry
Yes, you do. Well, so what? Many love.
And you, because of love, are ready to die
Doom yourself! After all, if all lovers
Deserved to die, who would want love?
Do not stand on the rapids of Cyprida. From her - the whole world.
Its seed is love, and we all, therefore,
From the grains of Aphrodite were born into the world.
Phaedra, tormented by unbearable passion, is already almost losing consciousness, and the nurse, in order to avert trouble, begins to reproach and exhort the unfortunate woman:
After all, not under special
You walk like gods: everything is like you, and you are like everyone else.
Or there are no husbands in the world, in your opinion,
Looking through their fingers at the betrayal of their wives?
Or there are no fathers that indulge sons
In their lust? This is old wisdom
Do not expose unseemly deeds.
Why do we humans need to be overly strict?
After all, we are the rafters of the roof with a ruler
We do not verify. How are you, overwhelmed
Waves of rock, will you leave your fate?
You are a man, and if the beginning is good
You are stronger than evil, you are right all around.
Leave, dear child, black thoughts,
Down with pride! Yes, he sins with pride
One who wishes better to be the gods themselves.
Don't be afraid of love. This is the will of the highest.
Is the disease unbearable? Turn the disease into a blessing!
It is better to be saved by sinning
Than to give life for magnificent speeches.
The nurse, in order to save her favorite, convinces her to open up to Hippolyta. Phaedra takes advice. He ruthlessly rejects her. And then, in despair, the nurse resorts to Hippolytus, once again tries to persuade him to quench Phaedra's passion, that is, offers to cover the honor of her own father with shame. Here Hippolyte first unleashes all his unbearable anger on the nurse:
How are you, you rascal! you dared
I, son, offer a sacred bed
Father of the native! Ears with spring water
I'll wash it now. After your vile words
I'm already unclean. What about the fallen?
And then anger, like a stormy wave, falls upon the entire female race:
Why, O Zeus, on the mountain of a mortal woman
Have you given a place under the sun? If the human race
You wanted to grow up, are you without it
Couldn't get along with the insidious class?
It would be better if we were in your sanctuaries
Demolished copper, iron or gold
And received, each on its own merit
Your gifts, the seeds of children to live
Freer, without women, in their homes.
What now? We exhaust everything that the house is rich in,
To bring evil and grief into this house.
That wives are evil, there are many examples of this.
I pray that it doesn't
Overly smart women in my house.
After all, they are something for deceit, for dashing deceit
Cyprida and pushes. And brainless
Poverty will save the mind from this whim.
And to assign to the wives not servants, no,
And mute evil beasts to a woman
In their chambers under such protection
And I couldn't exchange a word with anyone.
Otherwise, the maid will give a move immediately
Any bad idea of the bad lady.
While Hippolytus curses the female race, Phaedra hides from all eyes and throws a noose around her neck. Her husband Theseus suffers mercilessly for the loss of his beloved:
How much grief fell on my head,
How many troubles are looking at me from everywhere!
No words, no more urine. I died. Died.
The children were orphaned, the palace was deserted.
You left, you left us forever
Oh my dear wife. better than you
No and there were no women under the light of day
And under the stars of the night!
But Phaedra did not pass away silently, unrequitedly, she decided to justify herself before her family and before the world with a false letter in which she slandered Hippolyta, declaring that it was he who allegedly defiled his father's bed and thereby forced Phaedra to lay hands on himself. After reading the letter, Theseus changed his mournful speeches to angry ones:
sad city,
Hear, hear, people!
Forcibly take possession of my bed
Tried, in front of Zeus, Hippolytus.
I will order him
Go into exile. Let one of the two fates
Will punish the son. Or, heeding my prayer,
In the chamber of Hades Poseidon punishing
He will be sent, or a stranger
To the bottom, the ill-fated outcast will drink the cup of troubles.
O human race, how low can you fall!
There is no limit to shamelessness, no boundaries
Doesn't know arrogance. If it continues like this
And with each generation, everything is spoiled,
People will get worse, new land
In addition to the old, the gods must create,
To all villains and criminals
Enough space! Look, the son is standing,
Flattered on his father's bed
And convicted of meanness by evidence
Deceased! No, don't hide. Managed to sin -
Be able to look into my eyes without flinching.
Is it possible to be a God-chosen hero,
An example of integrity and modesty
count you? Well, now you're free
To boast of lenten food, to sing hymns to Bacchus,
Praise Orpheus, breathe the dust of books -
You are no longer a mystery. I give orders to everyone -
Saints beware. Their speech is good
Thoughts are shameful and deeds are black.
She is dead. But it won't save you.
On the contrary, this death is any evidence
Is. No eloquence
Will not refute the sad dying lines.
The choir sums up the experienced tragedy with a terrible conclusion for people:
There are no happy people among mortals. The one who was first
Becomes the last. Everything is upside down.
And yet Hippolyte tries to explain himself to his father:
Think, there is no young man in the world -
Even if you don't believe me, it's more pure
than your son. I honor the gods - and this is the first
I see my merit. Only with honest
I enter into friendship with those who are their friends
Doesn't force you to act dishonestly
And he himself, for the sake of friends, will not do evil.
I can not for the eyes of comrades
Scolding slyly. But the most sinless
I am in that, my father, with which you brand me now:
I kept my innocence, I kept my purity.
Love is only familiar to me
Yes, according to the pictures, even without any joy
I look at them: my soul is virgin.
But if you do not believe in my purity,
What could, tell me, seduce me?
Perhaps there was no woman in the world
Prettier than this one? Or maybe,
I strove to take possession of the royal heiress
For her legacy? Gods, what nonsense!
You will say: power is sweet and chaste?
Oh no, not at all! Gotta be crazy
To seek power and take the throne.
I want to be the first only in Hellenic games,
And in the state let me stay
Second place. Good comrades,
Well-being, carefree complete
My soul is dearer than any power.
Theseus, stunned with grief, completely dismisses such obvious arguments of his own son:
What eloquence! Nightingale sings!
He believes that with his equanimity
Will force the offended father to be silent.
Then Hippolyte makes a lunge in his direction:
And I, to confess, marvel at your meekness.
After all, I would, if we suddenly changed places,
I killed you on the spot. Wouldn't get off
Exile encroaching on my wife.
Theseus immediately finds an answer to his hated son:
You are right, I do not argue. Only you won't die like that
As he appointed himself: instant death
It is most gratifying for those who are punished by fate.
Oh no, banished from home, a cup of bitterness
You will drink to the bottom, living in poverty in a foreign land.
This is the retribution for your guilt.
Hippolyta, perhaps, could still have been saved by the true truth, had he told it to Theseus, but the nobility of his soul did not allow him to open his mouth. His wanderings were not long. The moment has come for Hippolyte to say goodbye to life. He is mortally wounded. And then the goddess Artemis stood up for his honor, whom the young man indescribably honored and with whom he gave himself only to the free wind and hot hunting. She said:
Take heed, Theseus,
How can you enjoy your shame?
You killed an innocent son.
Unproven, deceitful believing the words,
You proved, unfortunate, that you have a mind
I got confused. Where will you go from shame?
Or sink into the ground
Either as a winged bird you will fly up to the clouds,
To live far from the sorrows of the earth?
For places in the circle of just people
You are now lost forever.
Now listen to how the trouble happened.
My story will not console you, it will only hurt you,
But then I appeared, so that with glory,
Justified and pure, your son ended his life
And so that you know about the passions of your wife
And the nobility of Phaedra. Struck
The goad of the one that is more hateful than all the gods
To us, eternally pure, to your son
The wife fell in love. Overcome the mind passion
She tried, but in the nets of a wet nurse
She died. Your son, having taken a vow of silence,
I learned a secret from my nanny. Honest young man
Didn't fall into temptation. But how did you not shame him,
He did not break his oath to honor the gods.
And Phaedra, fearing exposure,
She slandered her stepson treacherously
And she lost. Because you believed her.
Hippolytus, mercilessly suffering from his wounds, utters his last words:
Look, Zeus
I was afraid of the gods, I honored the shrines,
I am more modest than everyone, I lived cleaner than everyone,
And now I'll go underground, to Hades
And I will end my life. piety labor
I carried in vain and was reputed in vain
Pious in the world.
Here again, here again
Pain took hold of me, pain dug into me.
Ah, leave the sufferer!
May death come to me as a deliverance,
Kill me, finish me off, I pray
Cut into pieces with a two-edged sword,
Send a good dream
Give me peace by finishing with me.
Artemis, who appeared so late, tries to console both the deceived father and the dying son:
O unfortunate friend, you are harnessed to the yoke of trouble.
You have lost a noble heart.
But my love is with you.
The insidious Cyprida thought so.
You did not honor her, you kept her purity.
Girls' songs will not be silent forever
About Hippolyta, the rumor will live forever
About bitter Phaedra, about her love for you.
And you, Egeus the elder's son, your child
Hug stronger should and press to the chest.
You killed him unwittingly. Mortal
It is easy to make a mistake, if God permits.
My order to you, Hippolyte, do not be angry
To your father. You fell victim to fate.
Now goodbye. I shouldn't see death
And defile the departed with the breath
Your heavenly face.
Euripides, an ardent misogynist, cursed the immortal Cyprida in his tragedy, but forgave the mortal Phaedra. The poet placed Chastity on the podium. Hippolytus - a contemplative of nature, passionately worshiping the virgin goddess Artemis and despising sensual love for a mortal woman - this is the true hero in the imperfect world of gods and people. Such is the predilection of Euripides.
Despite the fact that he curses women who are hated by him, and perhaps because of this hatred, because the feeling of hatred and the feeling of love are the sharpest experiences in the world - Euripides creates the most complex and most vivid images of the fair sex. Rich life observations allow the poet to present to the audience all the diversity of human characters, spiritual impulses and violent passions. Unlike Sophocles, who shows people as they should be, Euripides strives to portray people as they are. He concluded the highest statement of justice in these lines:
Isn't it a mistake to stigmatize people for their vices? ..
If the gods are an example to people -
Who is to blame? Teachers. Perhaps…
But the meaning of the tragedy can be revealed in another way. “As in Medea, the action is driven by an internal struggle – only not of two passions, but of passions and reason. Phaedra cannot defeat her love with reason. But the meaning of the tragedy is deeper. Its protagonist is not the vicious Phaedra, but the innocent Hippolyte. Why is he dying? Perhaps Euripides wanted to show that the position of man in the world is generally tragic, because this world is arranged without logic and meaning - it is ruled by the willfulness of the forces that the author clothed in the images of the gods: Artemis, the chaste patroness of the chaste Hippolytus, And Aphrodite, his sensual opponent. And, perhaps, Euripides, on the contrary, believed that harmony reigns in the world, the balance of power, and the one who violates it suffers, neglecting passion for the sake of reason, like Hippolytus, or not listening to reason in the blindness of passion, like Phaedra. (O. Levinskaya)
One way or another, Euripides' man is far from harmony. No wonder Aristotle called him "the most tragic of poets."
In his tragedy "Electra", Euripides reveals the depth of the abyss of endless horror that has fallen on a man of a thirst for revenge.
I am twisted with evil and torment, - Elektra yells, -
Burned with grief.
Day and night, day and night I
I'm languishing - cheeks in the blood
Ripped apart with a sharp fingernail
And my forehead is beaten
In honor of you, the king - my father ...
Don't be sorry, don't be sorry.
What made the poor girl so desperate? And the following happened: her royal mother kills her lawful husband - the hero of the Trojan War, in order to fall into the ardent embraces of her lover freed. Elektra, who lost her father, is expelled from the royal chambers and drags out a miserable, destitute existence in a poor shack. To the girls who invite her to have fun, Elektra replies:
Oh, the soul does not break, virgins,
From my chest to fun.
necklaces of gold
I don't want to, and with my foot
I am flexible among the virgins of Argos
I won't be in the round dance
trample on the native fields,
The dance will be replaced by tears ...
Look: where is the gentle curl?
You see - the peplos is all in rags
Is this the share of the royal daughter,
Proud daughter of Atris?
When Elektra's brother Orestes returns from distant lands, she tells him about everything that happened:
Killer
Grabbed with unwashed hands
Father's rod - he rides in a chariot,
In which the king rode, and how proud he is!
No one dare to water the royal graves.
Decorate with a branch of myrtle, bonfire
The leader did not see the victim, but the grave
A tyrant, drunker with wine, tramples with his feet ...
Orestes is horrified by what he heard and Electra convinces his brother to kill his mother's insignificant lover. The feast of revenge begins.
And here is the blow of the knife
Opens the chest. And just over the heart
Orestes himself bowed attentively.
On tiptoe, the knife rose
He thrust the king in the scruff of the neck, and with a blow
He breaks his spine. The enemy collapsed
And rushed about in agony, dying.
And now Orestes cries out: “Not a robber
He came to the feast: the king returned home ...
I am your Orestes.
To Elektra he says:
Here's a dead one for you
And if you feed it to the beasts
Ile scarecrows for birds, children of ether,
You want to nail it on a pole, it's for everything
I agree - he is your slave, yesterday's tyrant.
And Elektra, proudly standing over the corpse of her enemy, “unwound the whole ball of speeches and threw it in his face”:
Hear that you must still be alive
Was to listen. Damned, without guilt
Why did you leave us orphans?
Having fallen in love with the leader's wife, enemy walls
You did not see ... And in arrogant stupidity
A murderer, a thief and a coward, did not dare to dream,
That taken by adultery will be
An exemplary wife for you. If anyone
On the bed of caresses deceitfully bowed
Married, she will become her husband and
Imagine that a modest friend
His hall was decorated, to name
He can't be happy. Oh you weren't
So happy with her, as perhaps dreamed of.
Wicked kisses did not wash away
From her soul, and your baseness
In the midst of ardent caresses, she did not forget,
And you both tasted the bitter fruit,
She is yours, and you are her vices.
Oh worst of shame
When the wife is the head of the family, and the husband
So pitiful, so belittled that among the people
Children are not called by patronymic.
Yes, a truly enviable marriage - from home
Get rich and noble
Wife and become even more insignificant with her ...
Aegisthus coveted gold:
He dreamed of adding weight to them ...
In the soul of Elektra, the feast of revenge flares up more and more. She tries to persuade Orestes, following her lover, to send to the underworld their own mother - "beloved and hateful." Orestes at first resist the onslaught of his sister. He does not want to embark on a "terrible path to a terrible feat", does not want to shoulder a "bitter burden" on his shoulders. But he takes it on... And now "the mother is in the hands of the children - oh, a bitter lot."
A bitter lot overtakes the son-murderer. In a feverish delirium, he keeps repeating and repeating:
Have you seen how bitter from under the clothes
She took out her chest so that the killer's knife would tremble?
Alas, alas! How do I like her
There, crawling on her knees, she tormented her heart! ..
Heartbreak!..
Tortured heart!
Orestes, who has lost his mind, rushes about for a long time among the empty, bloodied walls of the palace. But time passes and the mind returns to him. After all, not only by the will of Electra is justice done, but also by the will of the god Apollo himself.
If in his poetry Euripides lived with passions, deeply penetrating with his soul into the inner world of a person overwhelmed by love, jealousy, joy, sadness, then in life solitude was the sweetest thing for him. “The opening of the grotto, in which Euripides often basked, opened the silvery sea to his gaze. Peace reigned here, broken only by the measured splash of waves against coastal boulders and the plaintive cries of birds nesting on the rocks. The poet brought here scrolls of papyri. He loved books, and although he was not rich, he bought them wherever he could. In the grotto, Euripides read and created. Sometimes, in search of the appropriate word and rhyme, he peered into the sky for a long time or slowly followed the boats and ships quietly gliding over the sparkling surface.
Euripides watched the sea from the hills of Salamis. Here he was born, here he managed on a piece of land inherited from his father. He never had any special property, and later many laughed at the fact that the poet's mother herself sells vegetables in the market.
A crevice in the rock attracted Euripides not only with a beautiful view from here, but also with silence, remoteness from the noisy crowd. The love of solitude led to the fact that later the poet was accused of hostility towards people in general. Not true! He despised not people, but the mob. He was disgusted by her loudness, base tastes, naive dexterity and ridiculous self-confidence.
What a fuss! he lamented,
Call him blessed
To whom the daily day does not hide evil.
But in front of quiet people, who thought about the secrets of the universe, Euripides joyfully opened his heart, “he looked for expressions for his thoughts.” Leisurely conversations in the circle of the elite intoxicated with poetry and calm wisdom. Therefore, he often said: “Happy is he who penetrates the secrets of knowledge. He will not be lured by a policy that is detrimental to everyone, he will not offend anyone. As if enchanted, he peers into the eternally young and immortal nature, explores its indestructible order.
Even over a cup of wine, Euripides did not know how to laugh carelessly. How different he was in this sense from Sophocles, who, although he was 15 years older than him, immediately became the soul of every feast, shone, had fun and amused others! The feast "battlefield" Euripides willingly yielded to this favorite of gods and people. However, he was always saddened by the fact that, in the opinion of the public, he would never be compared with him as a poet. Sophocles received his first award at 28, he - only at forty. But Euripides did not stop working.” (Kravchuk)
In his tragedies, he does not worship the gods, on the contrary: his gods are endowed with the most disgusting human traits: they are envious, petty, vindictive, capable of destroying a pure, honest, courageous person out of jealousy. Such is the fate of Hippolytus, the maddened Hercules, Creusa, who was vilely possessed by Apollo, and then also mercilessly treated the maiden seduced by him,
Together with his hero Iona, Euripides “is indignant at the fact that the gods, who created laws for people, trample them themselves; therefore, one cannot call people bad if they only imitate the gods. He does not like the actions of people either: the royal power is good only in appearance, but in the house of a tyrant it is bad: he picks up friends among the villains and hates worthy people, fearing to die from their hands. This is not compensated by wealth either: it is unpleasant to hold treasures in your hands, hearing censures. Good and wise people do not take part in business, but prefer to remain silent so as not to arouse the hatred of people in power. Therefore, Jonah likes a moderate life, but free from grief. This mood of Ion was alien to those who occupied an influential place in Athens under Pericles. It is characteristic of the people of the next generation, when the vicissitudes of politics have forced many to retire far from the anxieties of public life.
In the drama of the satyrs, Euripides, in the images of the heroes of mythology, shows modern man. His Polyphemus knows only one god - wealth; everything else is verbal embellishment, hype. How he teaches the “little man” Odysseus, who fell into his clutches, who vainly tries to convince him of the disastrous vile self-interest with arguments from the past of Hellas. Polyphemus despises those who invented laws. His Zeus is food and drink" (History of Greek Literature)
Euripides knows how many endless misfortunes and bad weather await a person on his life path. Experience shows: "If you sow one misfortune - you look: another will sing."
And still
Good prevails, not evil,
Otherwise, the light could not stand.
Drama as a kind of literature; origin, the role of ritual songs in honor of the god Dionysus in the development of drama; the main types of ancient Greek drama (tragedy, comedy, satyr drama). Aristotle on the origin and development of drama. The mythological basis of the tragedy, the structure of the tragedy and the role of choral parties. Organization of theatrical performances in Athens, the organization of the theater. Tragedy structure, trilogy principle.
The main stages of the Greco-Persian wars; social changes in the Greek polis.
Aeschylus(525 - 456 BC) - "the father of tragedy." The artistic significance of the introduction of the second actor by Aeschylus. Aeschylus, his worldview and creative heritage (the problem of hereditary guilt and personal responsibility of the individual in the work of Aeschylus, the understanding of suffering as a punishment for pride, the attitude of the modern playwright to political and social issues. The development of Aeschylus's tragedy from "The Begging" to "Oresteia". Tragedy "Prometheus" chained" as part of a trilogy and a monument to the archaism of the genre; the functions of choral parties in tragedy; comparison of the images of Prometheus in Hesiod and Aeschylus.
"Oresteia" as an example of a dramatic trilogy. Images of Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Cassandra. The image of Orestes as an unwitting avenger. Erinnia as a vestige of maternal law. The ideological significance of the image of the Areopagus; affirmation of the value of peace and mercy in the trilogy.
The language and artistic originality of the tragedies of Aeschylus: the monumentality of conflicts (maternal and paternal right; man as part of the family; man and rock; democracy and autocracy; static images).
Antique criticism about the strengths and weaknesses of Aeschylus's dramaturgy.
Sophocles(496 - 406 BC). Social changes in Athenian society after the end of the Greco-Persian wars, the state structure and features of Athenian democracy. "Age of Pericles" as the heyday of the Athenian state. Science, art, architecture, education in Athens; social and artistic ideals; the main representatives of scientific and social thought: Empedocles, Anaxagoras (500 - 428), Hippocrates (460 - 370), Protagoras (480 - 411). The beginning of oratory, the first sophistry. Social changes during the Peloponnesian War (431 - 404).
Sophocles and his contribution to the formation of Greek drama. The reflection of his polis ideology in the tragedies of the Theban cycle "Oedipus Rex", "Oedipus in Colon", "Antigone" (manifestation of divine will in the natural course of things, the conflict of "written" and "unwritten" laws, the opposition of Antigone - Creon, the greatness and impotence of man ). Normativity of heroes and principles of social behavior, images of Sophocles' tragedies. The skill of Sophocles the playwright, the art of ups and downs. Aristotle on Oedipus as "an exemplary tragic hero". The role of the choir, the language and style of the tragedies of Sophocles.
Euripides(480 - 406 BC) - "philosopher on the stage." The ideas of the sophists in the tragedies of Euripides (a new look at traditional religion, morality, marriage and family, the position of women, attitude towards slaves). The poet's interest in psychology, especially women's. Problems of the tragedies "Medea" and "Hippolytus". Deheroization of mythological characters in the image of Jason; image of people, "what they really are"; The image of Medea as an artistic embodiment of the thesis "Man is the measure of all things." People and gods in the tragedy "Hippolytus"; means of creating dramatic images of Phaedra and Hippolytus. The role of monologues and stichomyth.
Female images in Euripides ("Alcestis", "Iphigenia in Aulis"). A new interpretation of old stories ("Electra"). Breaking genre stereotypes in the tragedies "Ion" and "Elena". Dramatic innovations and the influence of Euripides on the further development of ancient drama (tragedy of strong passions, everyday drama). Psychologism of the tragedies of Euripides; reduction of the role of the choir, artificial completion of the action "God out of the machine"; free handling of myth and a critical attitude towards the gods. The legacy of Euripides in the European cultural tradition.
Ancient Greek comedy; stages of development and main representatives: Aristophanes, Menander
Origin of comedy Stages of development and structure of comedy. Ancient Attic comedy and its folklore and ritual origins. The originality of the genre, the conservatism of the form, the political orientation and topicality of the content. Political and accusatory orientation of comedies, freedom of invective. Comic devices: hyperbole, materialized metaphor, caricature, grotesque. The composition of the comedy, the role of the agon and the parabas.
Aristophanes(c. 446 - c. 388 BC) - "the father of comedy." The work of Aristophanes, the problems of his comedies: a reflection of the crisis state of Athenian democracy; issues of war and peace ("Aharnians", "Peace", "Lysistrata"), modern politics ("Horsemen", "Wasps"), philosophy, education ("Clouds") and literature ("Frogs", "Women at the Thesmophoria" ). Aesthetic views of Aristophanes in the comedy "The Frogs"; Aristophanes' assessment of the legacy of Aeschylus and Euripides; socio-political and aesthetic ideals of Aristophanes.
Elements of fantasy and utopia ("Birds", "Women in the National Assembly", "Plutos"). The language of comedies and the meaning of Aristophanes' creativity.
Average Attic comedy. The new Attic comedy as everyday, love, family, its difference from the ancient one. Influence of Euripides. Typical subjects and masks. Creation Menander(c. 342 - 292 BC), the safety of his comedies. Humane and philanthropic views of Menander. The problems of the comedies "Arbitration Court" and "Bruzga". The innovation of Menander and the theater of modern times.
Historical, philosophical and oratory prose: Herodotus,
Especially the poet Aeschylus, who lived during the Greco-Persian wars, came up with a lot of new things for the theater. The performances began to depict not only myths, but also recent events. Aeschylus, himself a participant in the battle of Salamis, presented in the tragedy "Persians" the flight of the barbarians and the humiliation of the "great king".
To revive the theater, Aeschylus came up with the idea of introducing a second actor. While only one actor left the stage, he could only tell in words about what happened to the god or hero he portrayed. Two actors, especially if they represented opponents, could reproduce the incident itself, could represent the action (drama in Greek). So that the actors could move more freely and still be taller than the choir, Aeschylus stopped taking them to the platform or on the wagon and provided them with high wooden heels or tethered benches. Aeschylus arranged the first scenery. His actors were supposed to play closer to the tent: they began to paint its front wall, giving it, depending on the play, the appearance of an altar, a rock, the front facade of a house with a door in the middle, etc. If in the play it was necessary to represent both people and gods , then the gods entered the flat roof of the tent to appear taller than people.
In the tragedies of Aeschylus, the plot was sublime or sad. The audience watched with bated breath as the goddesses of bloody ghosts pursued the unfortunate Orestes, who killed his mother because she treacherously slaughtered her husband Agamemnon, father of Orestov, when he returned home after the capture of Troy. They were deeply worried, looking at the hero Prometheus, chained to a rock, a noble friend of people, punished by Zeus because he stole fire from the sky for people, taught them work and raised animals above the rough life.
Many citizens took part in theatrical performances. It was not actors by trade who played on the stage, but amateurs who were constantly changing. Even more shifts were needed for the performance of choirs and dances. The play was usually performed only once. The public demanded four new dramas for each big holiday: three tragedies and one play of mocking content in conclusion. The Athenian poets were therefore very prolific. A contemporary of Pericles, Sophocles, wrote over 120 plays. Among the few that have come down to us, there are three tragedies related to each other in content. They depict the suffering of King Oedipus and the misfortunes of his children.
The royal son Oedipus, who, according to his parents, is dead, kills his father, whom he did not know at all, in an accidental quarrel. He then rules happily ever after, until a heavy pestilence sets in among the people. Then the soothsayer announces that this is the punishment for the great sin of the king. Oedipus, horrified by what he has learned, renounces power and gouges out his eyes, but trouble haunts his house: his two sons kill each other in a dispute for power; his daughter dies because she wanted to bury her murdered exiled brother. There is no fault on all these people; they are looking for a better way in their actions; they perish because their condemnation has already been decided and predicted in advance. The idea of this drama is that a person, no matter how he builds his life, no matter how high impulses he has, is still powerless against fate.
In the dramas of Sophocles, the action was diversified by lively pictures. In his play Ajax, the hero of the Trojan War is presented, who fell into a wild frenzy when the armor of the murdered Achilles was awarded not to him, but to Odysseus; Ajax's wife informs the choir of his comrades that Ajax, in a rage and blindness, killed a herd of rams, mistaking them for Odysseus and his soldiers; during these words, the doors of the stage tent open wide: a platform leaves on wheels and on it is the unfortunate, lost Ajax among the figures of the animals he killed; after a few minutes this moving stage is rolled back and the action continues.
During the Peloponnesian War, Euripides* stood out among dramatic writers. As usual, he chose content from myths, but under the guise of heroes he portrayed people of his day. In the dramas of Euripides, the misfortunes and death of a person are presented as a consequence of his character and the mistakes that he made. Various questions are raised in the conversations of the characters: strength or truth triumphs in the world, is it possible to believe in the gods, etc. These conversations sometimes resemble disputes and evidence in an Athenian court.
* Euripides.
Euripides came up with a lot of new things for the theater. His play usually began with a large, lively picture. In order not to cook it in front of the audience and not spoil the impression, they began to arrange a curtain in front of the stage, between its elongated side walls: this is how a quadrangular place turned out between the back decoration, side walls (backstage) and the curtain. This place, which has since been called the stage, was elevated above the orchestra; the actors came out of the back door, and the choir from the sides of the tent; passing around the orchestra, the choir entered the wide steps onto the stage.
In the plays of Euripides, new effects were prepared towards the end: the hero takes off into the air on a winged horse; the sorceress is taken away into the clouds by dragons, etc. The audience is accustomed to looking up at the end of the action. The denouement was usually brought by a god or an enlightened hero who appeared from heaven. For this, a special machine was invented (our word machine comes from the Greek mehane, which means lifting for flight): the wings were stretched up much higher than the tent; ropes were stretched between these wings, along which it was possible to move a basket where actors were sitting, depicting the gods in the air; behind the ropes the wide wall was painted with the blue of the sky; or hooks were attached to the posts at the edges, which held the basket with the actors and turned towards the middle.
The performances differed from ours in that the actors covered their faces with a mask that changed depending on the nature of the figure depicted. Women's roles were played by men. Greek tragedy was somewhat like our opera: the choir sang several songs; the characters, in addition to the usual conversation, still measuredly recited poetry in a singsong voice.
In the Greek theater, only the stage was covered. The audience crowded or sat around the open orchestra. To give them more space, stone ledges were built around the orchestra, rising up in ever wider circles. Below, closer to the stage, they placed the main persons in the city, chiefs, members of the council and guests of honor from other cities.
The theater of the Greeks could accommodate incomparably more spectators than ours: more than 20-30 thousand people. He served not only for performances; in its wide room they converged to listen to music, to listen to the reading of poems and speeches. The speaker (rhetor) chose a subject that could inspire those present, for example, about the fight against the Persians. The listeners watched him as attentively as in the national assembly, appreciated the beautiful turns of speech and rewarded him with warm approval.
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