Ancient Greek Drama: Aeschylus - Sophocles

This course intends to introduce students to ancient Greek drama (e. g. its origin). We discuss the available information on Aeschylus' life, as well as his work (dating and plot of the extant dramas). Regarding Sophocles, except for his biography and work, we study the new ideological circumstances, in which drama was composed. The main text used in the course is Sophocles' Ajax (myth, divergences from the iliadic Aias), with emphasis on translation, grammatical, syntactical and ideological comments. Finally, we study Sophocles' Antigone, in order to confute the circulated fallacies regarding its interpretation and present modern interpretative approaches.

Objectives

The aim of this course is to acquaint students with the work of the two great poets, Aeschylus and Sophocles.

Prerequisites

No prerequisite.

Syllabus

This course intends to introduce students to ancient Greek drama (e. g. its origin). We discuss the available information on Aeschylus' life, as well as his work (dating and plot of the extant dramas). Regarding Sophocles, except for his biography and work, we study the new ideological circumstances, in which drama was composed. The main text used in the course is Sophocles' Aias (myth, divergences from the iliadic Aias), with emphasis on translation, grammatical, syntactical and ideological comments. Finally, we study Sophocles' Antigone, in order to confute the circulated fallacies regarding its interpretation and present modern interpretative approaches.