Aeschylus

Without a doubt, truth and altruism are both noble and revered attributes. When combined, they have the ability to bring forth the champion in an individual who seeks to serve the betterment of society and aid those whose prosperity has been less than fruitful. In Greek society, there was perhaps no greater mark of a man than his ability to pursue truth at all costs and his display of altruistic intent. More specifically, during Greek antiquity, truth and altruism were heralded, displayed,…

there is multiple occasions in which Achilles is attempted to be persuaded into fighting against the Trojans. Because of the hatred Achilles harbors for the king, Agamemnon, he refuses to accept the lavish gifts offered and fight for the good of the city. The two speakers Odysseus and Phoenix take two different approaches to persuade Achilles to stay and rejoin the fight. The first speaker, Odysseus, takes a more impersonal approach to the issue by formulating his speech with more logos rather…

The ancient world is not something everyone ponders about, but do you know what marriage and love consisted of ages ago? Ancient fairytales, such as Prince Charming and Cinderella, lead you to believe at a young age that marriage is a piece of cake and when you see a guy, you are going to have an emotion feeling and know he is the one. Unfortunately, not every guy is a prince charming and not every girl is Cinderella. In the ancient world marriage was not ideal and definitely not a fairytale.…

Ancient Greece was often associated with warfare, mythology, sports, and drama. However, those were just a fraction of the success that the Ancient Greeks experienced between 490 B.C. and 323 B.C. in Classical Greece. It is often considered the Golden Age of western civilization, where the empire experiences peace, prosperity, and happiness. During this period, peace and equality were allowed to prosper by establishing treaties and democracy. There was also economic stability through the use of…

In the Athenian play, Medea, Euripides explores the role of the Chorus and how their ongoing interactions with Medea influence and enhance the audience’s understanding and perception of Medea and her choices. The homogenous Chorus was a widely used technique in Ancient Greek theatre to bridge the gap between the audience’s thoughts and the performers’ actions, and for Medea, Euripides uses the naïve Chorus to observe and comment on characters' behaviours and actions, guiding the thoughts of the…

Many people believe that they achieve the ultimate understanding of things in the universe, until they found the “truth”. In Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex, the limit of human understanding and Oedipus’ rational form of investigation into his father’s murder clearly marked the limit line of human condition. In the play, Oedipus is living in his fantasy where he just starts to awake. In his fantasy world, he believes that he has total control over his fate and identity. He thinks that he has three…

If prophecies were to be real, a person would expect what will happen in the future. This is a world true idea; at least in “Oedipus the King,” a story by Sophocles about the tragic fate of Oedipus the protagonist, that reaches his own doom unwillingly. His destiny stabs him in the back at the end of the story, resulting in him suffering in the dark leaving him with his problems. Destiny is defined as an event that will eventually happen to a specific person in the future. Oedipus’s destiny…

“Farewell, good strato. Caesar now be still: I killed not thee with half so good a will” (5.5.78). “Julius Caesar” is a historic Roman story about the genius scheme Marcus Brutus conspires against Caesar. Brutus conspires to kill Julius Caesar and deals with the consequences in a rather brutal way. Brutus is the definition of a tragic hero and demonstrates the qualities a tragic hero needs. A tragic hero is a character that makes a decision that leads to their fate.The characters actions often…

As the great Martin Luther King, Jr. once said “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.” Martin Luther King, Jr. and Sophocles both had the same idea of selfishness causing destruction Sophocles just wrote a play displaying that idea instead of saying it. In Antigone the famous play written by Sophocles, Antigone and her sister Ismene also Oedipus’s children decide to return to Thebes with the intention of…

Is the play Oedipus about blindness or light? The play Oedipus Rex concerns itself with both blindness and light, it compares their literal and allegorical interpretations to discuss the main theme of the pursuit of knowledge. It is driven by the titular character Oedipus’ thirst for knowledge that ultimately ends up blinding him. In this essay I will bring into attention different interpretations of blindness and light used in the play and how one must be given up for the other to prevail.…