The Collective

Philoctetes was a great Greek archer who took part of the trojan war. He was the son of Poias of Malis. In this reading, Philoctets was bitten by a serpent on his foot and was abondend by his comarades. Ten years later, they come back for him and try to get him back to fight. Philoctetes is being persuaded and almost forced to come back and fight. Throughout this tragedy, Philoctetes is in agony with the pain on his foot from the bite. All the actions and decisions he makes does not come directly from him, but from the pain itself. His pain acts as if its another character of him. Its taking over his body and speaking and acting for him. 

The other gods follow Zeus' orders not because they want to, but because they would be punished if they didn't. Throughout the tragedy, we see text that describes how Zeus has power over the other gods and how they fear being punished for disobeying the almighty god. In lines 290-340, Oceanus talks about how he respects Prometheus and wishes to free him from this chains. Oceanus is going to talk to Zeus and ask him to grant him this favor. This is evidence that the gods don't follow Zeus out of their own will. In the beginning of the tragedy, it was revealed that Hephaestus also disliked obeying Zeus' will and assist in punishing Prometheus. Zeus, as the new ruler, feels that he is able to do anything because he is the all powerful being.

In Antigone, a tragedy written by Sophocles, we are introduced to a determined and passionate individual, Antigone who risk her life for the sake of others. Antigone and Ismene are the sisters of Polyneices and Eteocles. Prior to the beginning of the play, we learned after their father’s passing, Eteocles and Polyneices battled each other in the war over their father’s throne and tragically killed each other in the midst of it. Despite this, Antigone have a very traumatic family, where their father, Oedipus killed his own father and married the mother and had Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles and Polyneices. After Eteocles and Polyneices’ death, Creon took over the Thebes and had decided that Eteocles will be honored and buried, while Polyneices will be left unburied and unmourned. Creon also claims that anyone who tries to bury Polyneices will be punished with serious consequences. This situation left Antigone in frustration and determination to give make sure both of her brothers get the ri...

Summary of Hermes’ speech lines 944-951 Hermes comes in and calls Prometheus a sinner, and that he did wrong by the other immortals. He tells him that he honors humans, which may imply that he has a false god, or that in doing so, his devotion to Zeus is discounted. And in calling Prometheus a “thief of fire” also suggests that the power wasn’t Prometheus’ to begin with. Therefore, the power must belong solely to Zeus and was being gifted to him this whole time. Hermes then goes on to tell him that he was sent by Zeus who has demanded to know how he is supposedly going to lose power. No tricky business, give it to me straight. The fact that Hermes says that Zeus thinks Prometheus is bragging about this prophesy suggests an image of acting like a small child throwing a tantrum. Hermes is intense about getting a serious response from Prometheus because he doesn’t want to be sent back to Zeus empty-handed because if so, Zeus will probably react with great rage. Summary of Prometheu...

            The connection of pain and pleasure with sympathy is shown throughout the poem. These acts are seen with the Chorus specifically. It is not seen in the beginning as an act of pleasure but more of pain with sympathy. For example, when the Chorus knows what has happened to Prometheus they regardless ask why he was punished. It first seems like they are genially concerned by then it seems as though they get a pleasure for hearing his punishment. The Chorus exclaims, “Revel it all to us: tell us the story of what the charge was on which Zeus caught you and punished you so cruelly with such dishonor” (line 193-195). The Chorus already knows what has happened yet they include, “Tell us, if telling will not injure you” (line 196). They Chorus adds this to secretly in a way to assure Prometheus that they care. But do they truly care? I believe that like some humans, the Chorus is expressing schadenfreude. Which is when someone enjoys pleasure from...

    The Trojan War is a famous ten year war between the Greeks and the Trojans.  It resulted in the Greeks winning, and sailing back to their respective cities with many prizes.  The main concern throughout the war was for the Greeks to return home safely. This was a concern both for the army and for everyone back home.  As time went on, the fear that the Greeks would lose grew among both army and home. When the Greeks sailed back home, the Herald was the first one off the boat.  His job is to relay important information to Clytaemestra, the wife of Agamemnon, as she had been left in charge while her husband was at war. However, the Herald seems distracted and tends to ramble.  Even when the Chorus presses him and warns him that there are still issues despite the war being over, he seems to brush it off. The Herald is traumatized from the war, and he uses denial as a defense mechanism at the suggestion of trouble at home.

I chose to analyze Herald's speech in Aeschylus' Agamemnon because in comparison to the Iliad and the other short epics we covered in class, I found this epic to be the most understandable to me. Instead of choosing a more popular paper topic to write on, I chose the one I felt most comfortable with since I also used Agamemnon for the snow day assignment. I will answer the questions first that the professor is asking of us as an outline, then I want to really look at the text closely for specific terms used, similes, metaphors and ask myself why the character  speaking chose this specific word or text. Speaking of the Chorus character in general, for some reason I think of them as intruders sometimes, or what I mean is a group of elders that never mind their business. They are always there in the background to give their feedback, which not in all cases is beneficial or necessary.  The Chorus does not always allow the characters to speak their mind fully when they always inte...

1) Introduce the tragedy & identify thesis statement  2) Explain how Philoctetes loses himself to the pain in his foot.     - Give examples 3)  Identify the correlation of Philoctetes's physical pain and his character changes through out the tragedy.  4) Identify how relevant is philoctetes's body to his character 5) Conclusion Give an over analysis of my thesis statement

Thesis/Argument The Herald is traumatized from the war, and he uses denial as a defense mechanism at the suggestion of trouble at home. Body Paragraph 1 The Herald comes off the ship and cries with joy  The first thing he does is recount tales of Agamemnon slaying the Trojans  This seems weird as the first thing he'd tell his people after returning home for 10 years  Body Paragraph 2 He then laments about the struggles of war  Quickly after the grim story of what they endured at war, he brushes it off with a "such is the past" attitude - this is off-putting Body Paragraph 3 The Chorus asks him about Menelaus  Herald reveals that Menelaus' ship has gone missing, and that he could possibly be dead  He also says that he doesn't want to ruin the day with the bad news   Body Paragraph4 Analysis of the Herald's actions It is clear that he is traumatized - he drifts into tales of what happened despite him having an important job...

The dialogue taking place in the excerpt from Antigone in  ( lines 15-68) is between the characters Antigone and her sister Iseme.  Antigone has pulled Iseme aside to relay to her the news that the current king has ordered that only one of their brothers be buried honorably and their other brother will not be buried at all but will be left above ground to decay and for vultures to feed on. Antigone tells Ismene of her plan to bury their other brother and ask her sister if she will assist her ( lines 25-31). From the text I’ve interpreted that Antigone has a stronger sense of family pride and that Iseme has a strong fear of the government. Antigone is passionate about  giving her brother a honorable burial, despite the looming consequences from their government. While Ismene has allowed the her fear of the government to seize her family loyalty. Antigone has more warrior like qualities, I think that Antigone being the one to bury her brother her is significant because...

Intro: Prometheus starts talking about how “All human arts come from Prometheus,” (line 506) and those noble deeds were an act of compassion. However, towards the end, Prometheus starts to argue with Hermes about how he is withholding information about Zeus, and he will only tell Zeus who will overthrow him if Zeus would come down himself and free Prometheus from his chains. And he basically doesn't care if Zeus destroys earth and humankind. Topic: D id Prometheus help humanity out of sympathy or for the sake of his ego? Outline: Prometheus talking to Chorus vs Prometheus talking to Hermes. Maybe: Include Io passage?

I. Intro -Give a description of how Philoctetes found himself stranded as a result of his physical condition II. Physical trauma -Describe the physical evidence of Philoctetes suffering III. Mental effects of injury -Describe the changes in Philoctetes before and after the injury -Cite changes in his personality, such as refusing to go back and leave the island -Describe how quickly he turned to trusting a stranger as a result of being isolated IV. -Effects of shared hatred vs morals and beliefs that someone had for a long time -Explain how the physical trauma of his injury affected his decision as a result of both physical and mental shifts V. Conclusion -Tie in both physical and mental changes and how they relate to Philoctetes personality and beliefs 

Hephaestus responds to Might’s opening monologue, telling Might and Violence that they don’t have anything else to do now that they carried out Zeus’ wishes of bring Prometheus to the Caucasus (11-13). Now Hephaestus must take over. But he can’t bring himself to tie up a fellow god (13-15). This implies that he has a conscious and believes that something that Zeus is ordering him to do is inherently wrong. But he is required to do it and he can’t disrespect Zeus (16-18). Hephaestus tells him that he doesn’t want to do it and that he knows Prometheus doesn’t want it done (18-19). He goes on to tell him that he’ll never see or hear another person, and he’ll be burned by the sun. Night might be alright, but the sun will always come the next day (23-26). He describes how he will be worn down every day and always be in pain (25-27). Then he drops the cryptic message that someone who hasn’t been born yet will save Prometheus from this situation (27-28) Hephaestus claims that he brought all ...

 Herald comes in announcing that the war is over. Agamemnon and his army landed on the beach and herald was told to tell the elderly a message . The herald tells the elders that he is happy to be home again and speaks about how hard the war was to the nation, and that finally it was over. He speaks about the destruction of Troy, and how the army who won destroyed the temples of the other city. The elders are so happy with heralds news. But there are problems in argos, and the elders hope the returning soldiers will help with that issue. 

“Yes Indeed; for those two brothers of ours, in burial has not Creon honored the one dishonored the other? Eteocles, they say he has used justly with lawful rites and hid him in the earth to have his honor among the dead men there. But the unhappy corpse of Polyneices he has proclaimed to all the citizens, they say, no man may hide in a grave nor mourn in funeral, but leave unwept, unburied, a dainty treasure for the birds that see him, for their feast’s delight (22-29). Here is this hand. Will you help lift the dead man? Would you bury him, when it is forbidden the city? at least he is my brother and yours, too, thought you deny him. I will not prove false to him" (Line 43-46) In the moment that happened between Antigone and Ismene, it seems reasonable to assume that both Ismene and Antigone have very different view on the situation. Antigone is very determined and straightforward on what she wants to do. She is not afraid of the consequences that comes along with her action. ...

My final paper will be analyzing Philoctetes and his foot condition, and how it affects him throughout the tragedy. After being left alone for so many years, the lack of human interaction and constant pain caused his decision making to become extremely poor. This is shown several times, such as how he let go of his prized bow, with seemingly no regard for his safety, after seeing someone after being alone and in pain for so long. Clearly, he should have put more thought into who he was meeting and what his intentions were, but the pain caused by his foot physically incapacitated him, and prevented him from making good decisions. This shows that physical pain can manifest itself into mental negligence of seemingly obvious issues.

The Quality of Zeus’ Reign At the top of the play, Might tells Hephaestus right off the bat that it his job to carry out Zeus’ orders, no questions asked. The orders have been placed upon Hephaestus, and Might is acting as the strong man here, the intimidator, starting off by laying down the law. His next tactic seems to be that of riling him up, exclaiming how his precious immortal power of fire was was stolen from him, and also using flattery in saying that it was he who was responsible for all of Art. These tactics make me think there is great fear in power being taken away from the gods, and I wonder if the fear stems from Zeus, or if he is confident and it’s the servants who are in a more tense state because they are under the mighty hand of Zeus and will ultimately face consequences if they mess up themselves. Might sounds like a person stuck in a cult, worshiping and obeying the cult leader and following every order to play out his wishes. Let it not be forgotten that ...

Antigone is a very driven and determined character to pursue her goals. In this case, her goal is to give her brother Polyneices a proper burial. Despite the fact that she knows she would possibly be punished or killed by Creon if she goes against his law. What is driving Antigone's determination of risking her own life for the burial of her brother? Is it because he is family? Or is it because pride? “At least he is my brother and yours, too, through you deny him. I will not prove false to him” (line 45-46). “So for such as me, to face such a fate as this is pain that does not count. But if I dared to leave the dead man, my mother’s son, dead and unburied, that would have been real pain” (line 465-468). “If my husband were dead, I might have had another and child from another man, if I lost the first. But when father and mother both were hidden in death, no brother’s life would bloom for me again” (line 909-912). Is Antigone's determination causing her ...

Antigone's idea of doing the right thing versus Ismene's idea of doing the right thing. Ismene wants to abide the law and not put herself in the same row as her family's ill fate whereas Antigone wants to make things right by burying her brother. At the end of the day, they both end up on the same boat, when Creon also blames her for aiding her sister, even if she had no hand in it. Their fate has ended up being the same no matter which type of "right" path they have chosen. 

The servants of Zeus have no choice but to obey him, since he is the most powerful god.  Although Hephaestus was hesitant to chain Prometheus to the rock, he had no other choice because Zeus would have punished him too for disobeying. Might talked about how Prometheus is the traitor to all gods and how he should be punished for it. Chorus and Oceanos feel pity for Prometheus, but disobeying Zeus would be too dangerous since he was the new ruler and acts like a dictator. Zeus is fit to sit on the throne because in a way he saved the other gods. Kronos feared being overthrown by his children, so he ate them. However, Zeus was able to avoid being eaten. After saving his siblings, he overthrew Kronos and the other titans and sent them to Tartarus. The other gods willingly obey Zeus because they fear being punished like Prometheus was. Zeus' rule resembles that of a dictatorship. He is able to do whatever he wants because he is the mightiest god.