Sophocles and Alcibiades

Sophocles and Alcibiades PDF Author: Michael Vickers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317492927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Literary historians have long held the view that the plays of the Greek dramatist, Sophocles deal purely with archetypes of the heroic past and that any resemblance to contemporary events or individuals is purely coincidental. In this book, Michael Vickers challenges this view and argues that Sophocles makes regular and extensive allusion to Athenian politics in his plays, especially to Alcibiades, one of the most controversial Athenian politicians of his day.Vickers shows that Sophocles was no closeted intellectual but a man deeply involved in politics and he reminds us that Athenian politics was intensely personal. He argues cogently that classical writers employed hidden meanings and that consciously or sub-consciously, Sophocles was projecting onto his plays hints of contemporary events or incidents, mostly of a political nature, hoping that his audience's passion for politics would enhance the popularity of his plays. Vickers strengthens his case about Sophocles by discussing other authors - Thucydides, Plato and Euripides - in whom he also demonstrates a body of allusions to Alcibiades and others.

Sophocles and Alcibiades

Sophocles and Alcibiades PDF Author: Michael Vickers
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317492927
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Literary historians have long held the view that the plays of the Greek dramatist, Sophocles deal purely with archetypes of the heroic past and that any resemblance to contemporary events or individuals is purely coincidental. In this book, Michael Vickers challenges this view and argues that Sophocles makes regular and extensive allusion to Athenian politics in his plays, especially to Alcibiades, one of the most controversial Athenian politicians of his day.Vickers shows that Sophocles was no closeted intellectual but a man deeply involved in politics and he reminds us that Athenian politics was intensely personal. He argues cogently that classical writers employed hidden meanings and that consciously or sub-consciously, Sophocles was projecting onto his plays hints of contemporary events or incidents, mostly of a political nature, hoping that his audience's passion for politics would enhance the popularity of his plays. Vickers strengthens his case about Sophocles by discussing other authors - Thucydides, Plato and Euripides - in whom he also demonstrates a body of allusions to Alcibiades and others.

Oedipus and Alcibiades in Sophocles

Oedipus and Alcibiades in Sophocles PDF Author: Michael Vickers
Publisher:
ISBN: 9788323118848
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description


Studies in Fifth Century Thought and Literature

Studies in Fifth Century Thought and Literature PDF Author: Adam Parry
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521083052
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 286

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Book Description
Three children try to catch an escaped cat.

Aristophanes and Alcibiades

Aristophanes and Alcibiades PDF Author: Michael Vickers
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110427958
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
The conventional view of Aristophanes bristles with problems. Important testimony for Alcibiades’ paramount role in comedy is consistently disregarded, and the tradition that “masks were made to look like the komodoumenoi, so that before an actor spoke a word, the audience would recognize who was being attacked” is hardly ever invoked. If these testimonia are taken into account, a fascinating picture emerges, where the komodoumenoi are based on the Periclean household: older characters on Pericles himself, younger on Alcibiades. Aspasia, Pericles’ mistress, and Hipparete, Alcibiades’ wife, lie behind many female characters, and Alcibiades’ ambiguous sexuality also allows him to be shown on the stage as a woman, notably as Lysistrata. There is a substantial overlap between the anecdotal tradition relating to the historical figures and the plotting of Aristophanes’ plays. This extends to speech patterns, where Alcibiades’ speech defect is lampooned. Aristophanes is consistently critical of Alcibiades’ mercurial politics, and his works can also be seen to have served as an aide-mémoire for Thucydides and Xenophon. If the argument presented here is correct, then much current scholarship on Aristophanes can be set aside.

Alcibiades II

Alcibiades II PDF Author: Plato
Publisher: Good Press
ISBN:
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description
Ascribed to the renowned philosopher Plato, this thought-provoking dialogue delves into the complexities of prayer, wisdom, and ignorance. Socrates encounters Alcibiades on his way to pray and challenges his understanding of the gods' response to prayers. Through insightful arguments and captivating examples, Socrates explores the dangers of misguided desires and the importance of self-awareness. As their discussion unfolds, readers are taken on a journey of philosophical discovery, questioning the true nature of knowledge and the consequences of ignorance.

Sophocles

Sophocles PDF Author: Clifton Wilbraham Collins
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 202

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Book Description


Oedipus at Colonus

Oedipus at Colonus PDF Author: Sophocles
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Pres
ISBN: 0299302547
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Oedipus at Colonus is the third in Sophocles' trilogy of plays about the famous king of Thebes and his unhappy family. It dramatizes the mysterious death of Oedipus, by which he is transformed into an immortal hero protecting Athens. This was Sophocles' final play, written in his mid-eighties and produced posthumously. Translator David Mulroy's introduction and notes deepen the reader's understanding of Oedipus' character and the real political tumult that was shaking Athens at the time that Sophocles wrote the play. Oedipus at Colonus is at once a complex study of a tragic character, an indictment of Athenian democracy, and a subtle endorsement of hope for personal immortality. As in his previous translations of Oedipus Rex and Antigone, Mulroy combines scrupulous scholarship and textual accuracy with a fresh poetic style. He uses iambic pentameter for spoken passages and short rhymed stanzas for choral songs, resulting in a text that is accessible and fun to read and perform.

Alcibiades

Alcibiades PDF Author: Jack Meyer
Publisher: Trafford Publishing
ISBN: 142691833X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 178

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Book Description
Is he just a troublemaker with an attitude? Or will this spunky youth grow up to do something great? The populace of Athens holds varied opinions about Alcibiades, a handsome boy who exhibits a devious and audacious personality. Based on historical record, author Jack Meyer reconstructs the life of Alcibiades, a man who uniquely impacted classical Athens during the Peloponnesian War. An orphan, Alcibiades grew up in the household of Pericles, was Socrates' favorite student, and was immensely handsome and rich. This narrative tells the story of the stunning career of this brilliant tactical military commander, persuasive orator, and consummate traitor who switched sides three times during the war. The city's own favorite son, this product of the Golden Age, was a man as morally corrupt as he was convincingly eloquent. The reconstruction of Alcibiades' story breeds both fiction and farce, and this story of the Greek experience serves as an analogue for a critique of today's American foreign policy.

Nemesis

Nemesis PDF Author: David Stuttard
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674919661
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
Alcibiades was one of the most dazzling figures of the Golden Age of Athens. A ward of Pericles and a friend of Socrates, he was spectacularly rich, bewitchingly handsome and charismatic, a skilled general, and a ruthless politician. He was also a serial traitor, infamous for his dizzying changes of loyalty in the Peloponnesian War. Nemesis tells the story of this extraordinary life and the turbulent world that Alcibiades set out to conquer. David Stuttard recreates ancient Athens at the height of its glory as he follows Alcibiades from childhood to political power. Outraged by Alcibiades’ celebrity lifestyle, his enemies sought every chance to undermine him. Eventually, facing a capital charge of impiety, Alcibiades escaped to the enemy, Sparta. There he traded military intelligence for safety until, suspected of seducing a Spartan queen, he was forced to flee again—this time to Greece’s long-term foes, the Persians. Miraculously, though, he engineered a recall to Athens as Supreme Commander, but—suffering a reversal—he took flight to Thrace, where he lived as a warlord. At last in Anatolia, tracked by his enemies, he died naked and alone in a hail of arrows. As he follows Alcibiades’ journeys crisscrossing the Mediterranean from mainland Greece to Syracuse, Sardis, and Byzantium, Stuttard weaves together the threads of Alcibiades’ adventures against a backdrop of cultural splendor and international chaos. Navigating often contradictory evidence, Nemesis provides a coherent and spellbinding account of a life that has gripped historians, storytellers, and artists for more than two thousand years.

Sophocles

Sophocles PDF Author: Siegfried Melchinger
Publisher: Burns & Oates
ISBN: 9780804464840
Category : Drama
Languages : en
Pages : 194

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Book Description
What was it like to see a play in the Theater of Dionysus, which may have accommodated 17,000 spectators, all of whom could see and hear the play clearly? Siegfried Melchinger brings the ancient theater to life, describing in fascinating detail the stage, the audience, the religious festival for which the plays were written, the use of sets, the function of the chorus, music and dance, the importance of the mask, the language of the play, and the way in which the actors played the parts. -- From publisher's description.