February 18 Test!! Notes

Antigone dies a virgin, and according to Greek tragedy, she dies in the prime of her life without fulfilling that which has the potential to make her happy, that being a wife and a mother. This also continues with the marriage and death relationship. However her fiance dies with her in his arms, of course this after she hangs herself and he stabs himself. In the end though Creon takes full responsibility for the deaths in his family.



65% of the test will be these questions or based on them.

1. What does hubris mean?
   

• Pride or arrogance

2. What happened at the Elucinian Mysteries?

• Done: Reenactment of the abduction of Persephone


• Seen: Stalk of wheat or grain of corn


• Said: Rain Conceive

3. What are Steiner's Five Conflicts (in order)!

• Men vs. Women


• Age vs. Youth


• Individual vs. State


• Living vs. Dead


• Gods vs. Humans

4. What is an epithet?

• a sort of nick name; a handle; give example: trim ankled Persephone, Wily Odysseus

5. Which two characters exemplify the five conflicts?

• Antigone and Creon

6. What is Stichonmithia?

• rapid exchange of one liners

7. What is sparagmous

• the tearing or rendering of living flesh

8. Define Anthropocentric view

• in the Greek tradition, the view that is based on humans

9. Define miasma

• The pollution, specifically in relation to Creon, when the dead are not treated properly

10. Know Antigone's view of politics....The Notion of a Moving target, and the Origin of Creon's Name

• she favors the gods rule rather than the king's decree, and politics in general do not interest her. She stands for her values: family, ceremony and especially the duty of the living to bury their family.


• The play warns against moral complacency. Antigone drives Creon crazy, who drives his Son crazy in consequence, and eventually because they do not do what is right everyone close to Creon dies.


• Creon's name means ruler, and he works to keep the kingdom happy, and order, yet he is not overly ambitious

11. The Myth of the Eternal Return

• Endless repetition of things


• In relationship to Demeter and Persephone, from Winter to Spring etc.

12. Who is Hermes like with relation to the show "Family Guy"

• Stewie

13. Thorough said we should read the __________ rather than the __________.

• eternities, times

14. Who is guilty of taking one from above and tossing them below?

• Creon tossing Antigone


• Zeus tossing Persephone to Hades

15. Define In illo Tempore

• In the great time, ex. we do this because in the beginning they did this...etc.

16. Which 2 mythological figures are poly tropic?

• Hermes


• Odesis

17. Who are the three great tragedians?

• Sophocles


• Euripides


• Aeschylus

18. Who was the God of Crossroads?

• Hermes

19. Define Agon

• Conflict that leads to agony

20. All that is _________ possesses the ______.

• past, present

21. According to the chorus what are the two best things that can happen to you?

• The second best is to die


• The first is to have never been born

22. Define Sarvan Darum, Sarvam Anitium

• All is suffering, all is fleeting

23. What injury did Oedipus have as a babe?

• He had holes drilled into his ankles

24. What does Antigone's name mean?

• Against Birth

25. What is Hermes excuse for his innocence?

• He was just born yesterday.

26. What did Robert Johnson do at the crossroads?

• He sold his soul to the devil so he could play the guitar

27. why do we laugh according to Freud?

• to keep from crying

28. what does it mean to make something Anigogic?

• going in to the heavenly realm, try to use heavenly interpretation

29. What does senex mean?

• Senator

Antigones Passage

One powerful passage that I found in George Steiner's work was the first paragraph on page 273. About midway through Steiner talks about how gods and mortals are drawn together even if the outcome is detrimental. This made me think of Antigone's need to follow the god's laws. It did not matter that the laws may ultimately lead to her death, indeed she embraces it. She believes that no man has power over her, she only listens to the Gods. I wonder if perhaps she has a different outlook on life because she was raised as royalty. As royalty she is given many more privlages and has more rights than most women of her time. Maybe this is why she feels more comfortable defying human laws and following the god's instead. But mortals being drawn to gods is not just one sided. For many many years Zeus dallied with many different women and begot women by them. Through this his "married" life was hell. His father had followed this and dallied with the wrong woman who had a child that killed him. Zeus almost made the same mistake.

It seems that mortals and immortals are drawn to each other in a very erotic sense for the most part. Most especially Zeus, but just about every other god or goddess also had a child with a mortal. Even if you do not have a child with a mortal then it seems inevitable that you would seek them out for something still related to the erotic nature. Such as when Hera and Zeus asked Tyressius whether men or women enjoyed sex more. All this led to was him being blinded, after he got to spend time as both a man and a woman.

Even in Christianity we find sexuality between mortals and immortals fascination. The impregnation of the Virgin Mary has fascinated the christian community for years and is a key part of the christian tradition. It seems inevitable that morals will be drawn to god(s) and vice versa.

February 13 Class Notes

Read Deborah's Blog

Symposium
about love, basically guys sitting around drinking are telling love stories.

Blog about:

Assaulting an Old Person
What you think about love
Stealing and Lying
A Dead Pet
A Bad Day
by writing about something that hold pain, it takes away its power to hurt
Find a passage that is powerful from Steiner's work on Rio's blog and write about it

The Chorus

• is usually old people
• offering "old men" views (conservative, traditional)
• their main theme is "Do not Presume" which means don't step over the line and remember the consequences

Creon

Steadies the rocking waves of the state. Everything is in turmoil from the civil war and everything Antigone has done, and he works to right all the wrongs and do what is best for the people he rules over.

Agon= conflict and agony

Which is what Creon is trying to fix.

Stichomythia- In Greek writing, is a rapid succession of one liners, They are what is found in Antigone, that George Steiner believes is so important.

Antigone

Beholds unwritten laws, that being the laws of the Gods rather than the laws of the state. She understands that the Gods below (Hades) must be honored as well as Zeus. She knows that Hades has laws as well and those laws apply to her brother, and in order to make all Gods happy as well as prove her point, she must give her brother a burial.

Which is similar to the case of Baby M in unwritten laws vs. written laws arose in the decision to honor the surrogate mother or the adoptive mother.

Death of Pet...

When growing up on a ranch one becomes accustomed to death. It is a part of "the circle of life" if you will. Yes, it is devastating to lose your animals, no one can love the cattle that you raise the way that you do. You are there with them when they are born, through their entire life, including first pregnancies and every "cold" right up until death. Early in the spring, when there are still occasionally snow storms, it is not uncommon to find a calf in the doorway of your house because it is warmer inside and will have a better chance of surviving that way. Sometimes a mother will die giving birth and the orphan will need to be bottle fed for several months. Sometimes calves are born too early, and are just not able to live.

Just last year we had a similar happening. We had a calf that was born way too early. It's little legs were not long enough for the rest of his body, and he was one of the tiniest calves I had ever seen. We had to bottle feed this little baby to help it keep its strength up. It had the softest black coat, curling just slightly at the ends. Its nose was wet, and despite its deformed limbs was an adorable animal. My dad did not believe he would last the night, but he lasted through the night and was doing well during the week. I became attached to this little creature, would volunteer to go down to the calving barn to feed it even. When it was first born it made the most pitiful crying sound, bawling for his mother. As time went by he grew stronger and he began to recognize people as they would come in to feed and check on him. With each day you could see improvements in his condition. He even got to the point where he could stand up even though his front feet were so much smaller than his back feet. Just when everything seemed to be smooth sailing, nature turned against him. He got sick, and over the course of an hour his condition turned completely around. It became apparent very early on that he would not make it through the week. He continued to fade, until you could only hear a few whisper breathes that seemed to rattle his chest. Finally he closed his eyes and died. He was buried outside our barn the next day. What seemed most tragic about this whole situation was that he had improved so much and seemed to be on the fast track, but unbeknowenst to us, his life was meant to be short.

The sisters

Professor Sexton mentioned the difference between Antigone and Ismene. One being the strong sister and the other being the weak sister. Antigone is the one that everyone wants to be with. When he mentioned this I immediately started comparing my sister and myself.

I always want to make everyone happy, and I constantly worry. I think through every situation, so as to predict the outcome. I study constantly to make sure I get good grades. I was in 4-H for 11 years, and was president of SADD and my class for several years. I participated in basketball, volleyball, golf, and drama. I strove to be the goodie girl that everyone makes fun of.

My younger sister, is a bad ass, she puts her finger to her world, and dawns her devil may care attitude. True she gets good grades, but they don't mean anything. She gets in trouble, and she is not afraid to start a fight, especially with the parents.

If I had to put us in as certain characters my sister would be Antigone, and I would be Ismene. But there is an extreme difference. My sister and I stand by each other through the thick and thin. We will work with each other to make sure we have the best outcome.

There are so many things everyday sister's have in common with Antigone and Ismene but the essential difference i feel that exists now is that sisters now will stand by each other through whatever may come. Nothing can separate them and some are even the true and as close to ideal as possible. I would like to think that my sister and I have a good relationship, and if it isn't perfect, at least it will stand the test of our time.

What would you do?

Antigone defies the state to do what she feels is right and buries her brother. This made me wonder what I would do in her situation. I have a younger and an older brother, both are very important to me, would I really do what is necessary so they could make it to heaven.

If my brother's fought it out and one of them were to die and our government said one of them was declared a traitor, it would be a devastating blow to my family. We have always been a patriotic family, and my family loves both of them. I naturally want to please as many people as possible, and I very rarely break the rules.

If my brother were to die, I would want to save him, but first I would try to reason with the government show all that he had done for the country and what a wonderful person he was. During the time while I was trying to defend him I would have guards making sure nothing happened to his body.

If my first plan didn't work I would then take his body home and manipulate everything in a James Bond type of way so that he could have a proper burial. No one would search Broadus, there are too many loyalties in my hometown and in the middle of no where it would be difficult to find a body.

In short, I would do whatever it took to make sure my brother got a proper burial, but i would want it to be a burial that the country acknowledged first, because since my brother is so patriotic it would mean something to him.

February 11 Class Notes

Don't forget to engage material in blogs, especially with your imagination. Check Christina's for examples.

Of all the different translations by:
Shamus Hanie
Yelt Walty
Robert Fagles
Woodrolfe

Woodrolfe's translation best describes the first sentence of Antigone:
"Ismene, dear heart, my true sister"

• committing the importance of sisterhood
• mystical association of sisterhood
• shows they are the only ones left of the house of Thebes
• They are the most dysfunctional family...easily...

Oedipus blames Jocasta for the problems in his life, because if she had not given birth to him then none of this would happen.

Curses that which gave him life. The Book of Job (from the Bible) "I wish I had never been born" 3:1-26

The second best thing is to die, the first...to never have been born. believed by Hamlet, Oedipus and Antigone.

Gon= birth,

He blames the source of the birth, but it turns out he cannot blame anyone but himself. And it begs the question Who Am I? Anagnorisis: means discovery....His Discover of his plight is his fault.

Samuel Beckett womb to tomb

When Antigone and Oedipus first came out there was very little gore, the servants were the Messengers, the ones who brought bad news. The first real gore in theatre was in Shakespeare's King Leare.

Both Creon and Antigone have valid points, however most people side with Antigone because she is defying the state, and seems more heroic.

Most people love to be in love with Antigone, she is the stronger female, the bad ass, the forbidden woman, the woman your parents couldn't believe you took to prom.

Creon is very practical, he does what he believes is necessary to take care of his people and his country.

"zed to knots" all about decomposition, education for all, religious desecration as well.

The Greater your suffering the greater your salvation....