When we look at the story of Agamemnon it’s easy to recall the tragic sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia, the heroic return of the king from a destroyed Troy, the enslavement of Trojan princess Cassandra, and the vengeful murder of Agamemnon and Cassandra by his wife Clytemnestra. However one interesting and recurring theme is the role of women throughout these events. In ancient Greece it would have been fairly strange to have such a fearsome and vigilant female character like Clytemnestra. Thus one would assume that the creation of this character attested to Aeschylus’ protests against female stereotypes. However looking both holistically and closely at each female character and the manner in which she is depicted, it’s difficult to tell exactly what message this story is intending to tell with regards to gender roles.

As a class I would like us to look at the following female characters:
1. Helen – “the face that launched a thousand ships”
2. Iphigenia – the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sacrificed to the Goddess Artemis for better ship sailing weather.
3. Clytemnestra – The wife of Agamemnon, who murders her husband and Cassandra to avenge her daughters death. She has been ruling Argos while her husband is away and maintains an affair with her husbands cousin.
4. Cassandra – Taken captive by Agamemnon but fearless of her circumstances. Prophesies her and Agamemnon’s death.

In an article by Florence Mary Bennett Anderson, the character of Clytemnestra is analyzed. The author discusses whether or not Clytemnestra was “possessed” or in control of her emotions as she went about essentially planning her husband’s murder. Anderson touches upon the psychological and emotional needs of Clytemnestra as a mother and wife, left alone for ten years, and the belittling she undergoes by the chorus, herald, and king for her role as women. And though dramatic, the article establishes that her actions were self-justified and rational given her circumstances.

Understanding all of this, consider the following questions:
Given the context, what message do you think Aeschylus was intending to get across with the creation of these female characters? What message does the text in itself give about women? Does the role of these characters aid or work against female stereotypes? What effect does this have on the overall story?

Thanks,
Manna Samuel

       The play Antigone, is a famous play by Sophocles and it reveals many themes that are relatable to modern day. It emphasizes the themes of war, suicide, the loss of young love, civil disobedience and also capital punishment. Antigone focuses on many elements but; the theme of an absolute power is most interesting.

       Creon is the King of Thebes and is the most powerful person in the city. As a King of Thebes, he has failed to do his job of leading the city. Creon announces that no one should bury Polyneices, Antigone’s brother. The reason that being is because Polyneices it was his turn at the throne and he betrayed the city and he should be left to rot above ground. Antigone, as a female, decides to bury her brother. Creon, and his absolutist ways threatens to kill Antigone, who also happens to be engaged to be married to his son, Haemon. Haemon also tries to convince Creon not to threaten his love. Creon does not listen to his son and he ends up losing everything he had.

Cowell-Meyers, Kimberly. “Teaching Politics Using Antigone.” JSTOR. American Political Science Association, Apr. 2006. Web. 23 Feb. 2014.

             <http://www.jstor.org/stable/20451745>.

Ledbetter, Grace M. “Sophocles, Antigone 1226-30.” JSTOR. Cambridge University Press, 1991. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/639019>.

Imagine if you were Polyneice’s sister, would you bury him and go against the king? Do you feel Creon’s decisions were a rational way to exert his power in order for the people of his city to be fearful of him? Also, do you think Haemon stood up for Antigone as her fiancée? If not, how would you have stood up for her?

Oedipus is the king, Oedipus is the cursed one, Oedipus is the son, Oedipus is the husband, Oedipus is the baby, Oedipus is the murder. Truth is through out this play we see all these sides of Oedipus as he tries to run from the fate that eventually consumes him.

My Discussion Question :

After reading Oedipus what role do you guys think free will and fate play in what eventually happens to Oedipus?

Jacobs, Michael. “Have We Lost Fate?.” Psychodynamic Practice 13.4 (2007): 385-400. Academic Search Complete. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.

Oedipus the King is a tragedy written by Sophocles in the 5^th century BC. The play treats issues that were controversial at the time, themes that still raise debate in the 21^st century. The theme of destiny, defined as foreknowledge by the god, is opposed to the human freewill. Sophocles is challenging the traditional religious view that man is ignorant and knowledge belongs to god. However, in the end turns out that the only human freedom is in deciding whether or not to search the truth about yourself.

Discussion question:  Do you think that Oedipus is a victim of the gods and his destiny was already set, or his free will contributed to his fate by searching the truth? How does Jocasta change his belief about destiny? What is your position?

Today we are going to discuss the thin correlation between poverty and religion, focusing largely on the ancient text of the Babylonian Theocracy. I say “thin” because we can’t really blame destitution on spiritual circumstances. Other factors are more tangible and they play a more significant role in poverty but they will probably not be part of this discussion.

Misery Loves Company: A Comparative Analysis of Theodicy Literature in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel is a journal entry by Benjamin Clarke, who is a Literary Studies scholar. In a summary of the Babylonian Theodicy, he says the Sufferer ultimately wins the debate with his friend, showing the injustice of the gods towards mankind. In a way he’s right because, like the sufferer mentions, a lot of bad people are living decent lives. Some even enjoy the luxuries a poor man can’t even imagine. But the friend makes a critical point in his argument. He says we don’t know what the gods know so we can’t really know why we suffer. The reasons for the destitution and all the suffering is out there with the knowledge people can’t conceive.

The Sufferer in the Babylonian Theocracy talks to his friend about being fed up with the wise (I think he is talking about the gods). His feelings can be described as gloomy, hopeless, and desperate. These feelings are an appropriate reaction to the things he’s dealt with in his life; he says,

“I am finished. Anguish has come upon me.

When I was a child, fate took my father;

My mother who bore me went to the Land of No Return.

My father and mother left me without anyone to be my guardian.” (p. 140)

His friend expresses sympathy for the hard life the Sufferer has lived. But he also tells him that he shouldn’t focus so much on the bad things that has happened to him in his life. This kind of thinking turns the mind “evil” and it can cause you to put the blame on the gods, which is extremely bad for the eternal soul. He also lets him know that human knowledge is nothing compared to the knowledge of a god. He says the mind of a god is remote and like the center of the heavens. Its knowledge is complicated and people can’t know it. If this is true, the gods may let suffering occur for justifiable reasons, and we just can’t know why we suffer the way we do. People have to live with the will of the gods no matter how unfair it seems. But then the Sufferer goes on to make a bold claim. He says,

“Those who do not seek the god go the way of prosperity,

While those who pray to the goddess become destitute and impoverished.” (p. 141)

He’s saying if you follow the path of righteousness, you will live a poor life. But if you do the opposite, your life will be great and you will experience minimal suffering. No one can blame him for thinking this way because the less pious people in his society are doing pretty well for themselves. According to the sufferer, people praise the strong man who has learned to kill. They condone abominations that are considered wicked. And they supply the oppressor with gold. The Friend says mankind is “endowed” with the ability to lie and give twisted speeches and this contributes to the sinner’s success in the world. In addition to this, he says people who are well off, whether they are good are bad, treat poor men as thieves and cast them aside as if they are of no significance. This stereotype portrays the poor man as an outcast to society and adds fuel to their skepticism towards their gods.

Although the Sufferer displays some contempt towards his gods, at the end of the ancient text, he asks them to help him and show mercy, “For the shepherd Shamash (sun god) guides the peoples as a god should.” The Sufferer believes his suffering is unfair, but he stops his blasphemous talk and looks to his Faith to restore his hope.

1)      If you were in the same situation as the Sufferer, would you believe your friend’s words or would you debate them? What if you were just an observer of the debate; who would you side with? Why?

References

1) Clarke, Benjamin. “Misery Loves Company: A Comparative Analysis of Theodicy Literature in Ancient Mesopotamia and Israel.” Intermountain West Journal of Religious Studies. 2.1 (2010): 79-81.

http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1009&context=imwjournal

Rich to Rags

Hey Muma Cam’Ron Feat. Vado W/ Lyrics (NYC Tribute)

This discussion starts off about a man name Job. Job was a blameless individual(according to the bible) who had his God life in check. He was wealthy in spirit, health, and financially. Essentially Job was the epitome of a God fearing man and was reaping the benefits of being one until the devil came through issue a challenge to God on Job faith.  God gave him the ok with a few stipulations taking away Job material things along with his 10 kids. Job remain faithful until round two when his health was place in the line

Rags to Grief

All American Rejects – It Ends Tonight [WITH LYRICS]

After a minute(extended period of time) of suffering Job is depress. He cripple, mocked and ridiculed(yes it redundant I know), and isolated from society with the exception of a few friends. Due to the important Wholeness(Brill, Author: Alec Basson 2nd article) aka having a sound body, mind, and spirit dictated ones social class standings Job was official at the bottom.

Grief to Bitterness

Heartless Kanye west lyrics

Job goes into a fit against God seeking justification for his suffering but keeps turning up nothing. His friends attempt to tell that whatever the reason could be it can’t be on God so it must so how have to be his fault. However Job crushes all attempts on not pinning this on god until the youngest friends claims that Job is vain and how all of his accomplishment is because of God and not him. Just when Job gets ready to rebuke him an whirlwind  that carries God’s voice appears

Bitterness to Sorry

Linkin Park – What I’ve Done (Lyrics)

God basically hits Job with are you God because if not know your roles boy(boy being refer to as someone under another one levels). After asking Job a whole bunch of question on things Job couldn’t say yes to Job realizes his place and apologizes to God.

Sorry to 1%er(one per center )

GOOD LIFE LYRICS KANYE WEST AND T PAIN

God forgives Job but rebukes Job’s friends for casting blame on Job for his suffering. He then proceeds to get ready to punished then if Job doesn’t forgives them. Fortunately for them Job a real friend and is in a forgiving mood. After a few sacrifices(because the shedding of blood plays a major role in obtain Gods forgives) Job goes from rich to modern day 1% rich. Since Job prays for God to not only forgive his friends but to give them wealth God super blesses Job for his selflessness.  He gets 10 new kids, thousands of sheep and oxen and then lives up to 140 years old

Discusion Question

Why do you think God’s rebuke Job’s friends even though they were defending his honor against Job?(Be prepare to elaborate on your answer)(and not this is not the only question I’ll be asking, bit the rest of the questions will be lite)

Along with The Book of Job, please read, print and bring to class The Babylonian Theodicy posted under course readings.

Go to the library’s website:

http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/library/

Using secondary sources can be incredibly helpful in stimulating your ideas and providing counter-arguments.  They also provide a good way to focus on moving away from plot summary to a more analytic and argument-based paper.  And finally you will have to use an article for your presentation assignment.

Under the “Articles” tab in the search bar, click databases “By Name” in order to search for specific databases rather than specific journals (searching by database will yield a far greater number of results).  This will bring you to a list of databases. Click on “J” for instance and this will bring you to a list of databases that begin with J which is where the database JSTOR is located.  There are other very useful options besides JSTOR, such as “Academic Search Complete” and “Project Muse” also listed under these sets of databases, and I encourage you to utilize any or all of these databases.  Once you click on your database you will need to enter your Baruch ID and password to gain access to the site.

JSTOR, as well as the other databases, collect articles from a huge variety of journals covering an expansive amount of time – so anything you search will probably yield a lot of results.  Once you are in the JSTOR site, searching for specific things is always helpful – for instance “The Oresteia AND justice” or “Odysseus AND fate.”  This will still yield a lot of results, but you can sift through the articles and find something relevant to your topic.  You will gain access to the full article so you can print a PDF version.  All the necessary citation information will be on the article’s title page, including the name of the journal and the date of publication.

Citing journal articles:

Unlike websites such as sparknotes, these are accredited and published journals and therefore legitimate sources.  In other words these articles were reviewed, edited and then published in a circulating print journal.  You can consult the website I will give you about how to cite journal articles, but here are examples as a guide.  Each citation includes (in this order) the author’s name, the title of their article, the title of the journal in which this article was published, the volume and number of the journal, its year of publication and the page numbers of the article.  Be sure to format in this style (known as MLA):

Levin, Susan M. “Subtle Fire: Dorothy Wordsworth’s Prose and Poetry.”

The Massachusetts Review 21.2 (1980): 345-363.

Ehnnen, Jill. “Writing against, Writing through: Subjectivity, Vocation, and Authorship

in the Work of Dorothy Wordsworth.” South Atlantic Review 64.1 (1999): 72-90.

The discussion-leading assignment details and the schedule have been posted under ‘assignments’ ! Please take a look if you missed one or two of our classes this week! Reading for Monday will be posted tomorrow.