This is our catalog of courses. We will occasionally adjust the course listing to reflect the addition of new courses and the retirement of others.
Let’s begin by getting to know the Greek stage and theater devices. Then we’ll see what Aristotle says tragedy is about. After that the Oedipus plays and the Oresteia will take you to the heart of the very best of Greek Tragic Drama.
Total classes: 11
Duration per class: 55 minutes
Prerequisite: The ability to read, understand, and enjoy ancient Greek plays
Suggested grade level: 10th to 12th grade
Suggested credit: One semester Literature or Ancient Literature
Description
What do Aristotle and the Greek tragedians mean by tragedy? Is it closely related to the Christian concept of godly justice (and therefore to the Christian concept of comedy)? If Sophocles’ Oedipus is the most perfect tragedy, as Aristotle suggests, then what does that tragedy tell us? And how does Oedipus at Colonus, written twenty years later, come to a completely redemptive ending, 400 years before Christ? Aeschylus’ Oresteia is the only complete tragic cycle that has survived. Its three sequential plays will explore the curse on the House of Atreus and the road to a permanent justice beyond murder and revenge.
Outline
Week 1: Tragedy as the goat song, the Greek stage and its conventions
Week 2: Aristotle tells us about tragedy
Week 3: Sophocles, Oedipus Rex
Week 4: Oedipus Rex
Week 5: Oedipus at Colonus (20 years later)
Week 6: Oedipus at Colonus
Week 7: Aeschylus, The Oresteia: Agamemnon and the Curse on the House of Atreus
Week 8: Agamemnon
Week 9: The Libation Bearers
Week 10: The Libation Bearers
Week 11: Eumenides
Materials and Homework
Course materials:
Aeschylus. The Oresteia: Agamemnon; The Libation Bearers; The Eumenides. Fagles translation. Penguin. ISBN: 978-0-14-044333-2. Use of other texts may make it very difficult to find the passages we are discussing.
Sophocles. “The Oedipus Cycle”: Oedipus Rex, Antigone, and Oedipus at Colonnus. Fitts and Fitzgerald translation. Harcourt. ISBN: 978-0-15-602764-9.
Note: use of other texts may make it very difficult to find the passages we are discussing.
Homework: Students will expect to have two to three hours of reading homework each week. Computer-graded quizzes will be available each week, as well as a Final.
