Sophocles, Philoctetes; We need your bow

It's Saturday afternoon and the sun is out, though it has been a little showery. Phil's busy talking to his Dad on the phone, leaving me to my own devices. Work is going well, though I have been struggling with a cold this week and have appreciated my days off all the more. That being said, I have not got a lot done and that includes work on this blog.

The Story
The play starts with Philoctetes stranded on an island. It is thought he was stranded there because of a snake bite on his foot which has festered. The other bit of backstory that is good to know, is that other sources state that Hercules, after the events of the women of Trachis where he is put in agony by acid burns, that he wanted to be burnt alive to stop the pain and the only one who would light the fire was Philoctetes and so, he gave him his legendary bow.
Odysseus and Achilles' son, Neoptolemus, arrive on the island in search of Philoctetes. They have come because it has been prophesied that they cannot win, and finish, the war at Troy until Philoctetes joins there side with Hercules' bow. Odysseus hides as Philoctetes is angry with him for stranding him on the island. Neoptolemus builds a friendship with Philoctetes based around his hatred of Odysseus, which Neoptolemus is faking. Neoptolemus convinces Philoctetes to go to Troy. When Philoctetes find out that he has been tricked, he rebels but is eventually persuaded to join the fight at Troy.

Reflections
At first, the thought that Philoctetes has been marooned on an island seems rather harsh. But, if you consider that had they taken him to war they would have had to feed him and he would have been a liability, it makes sense, though it is no less harsh.
Philoctetes' wound is not the only thing that has festered on the island. His attitude has also disintegrated and become septic. We see this in how he reacts to Odysseus and the hatred he has for the man.

Comparisons
We come back to the Trojan war, that we first see in Homers Iliad. This time, however, we are not at Troy but on a side quest that is meant to end the war. We see Odysseus again,though in a less heroic role and more as a commander, making the hard decisions that no one really likes.
Nowhere else, so far, do we see such a surly character as Philoctetes, or a story so driven by someone's misery.
Technically speaking, it is not a tragedy, as we do not see a string of deaths of characters at the end of the play. But, it still has a very somber and negative tone.

Have you read Philictetes? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Philictetes but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of Philictetes.

Sophocles, Women of Trachis; Stay True to me

So I'm multitasking and cooking dinner while doing some typing. I often don't spend the time it takes to cook dinner in the kitchen but rather set things going and put on a timer. Sometimes it doesn't work out as planned, but I'm no good at standing around in the kitchen waiting.

Story
The Women of Trachis is a story about the consequences of Hercules' roaming, yet it is a more domestic story.
Hercules' wife laments how much he is away and how little he seems to care for his family at home so, she sends her son to find him, to see if he can get Hercules to head home for a while.
Hercules' herald returns to his home to tell of his exploits ahead of Hercules himself returning, telling the story of how Hercules sacked Oechalia, after being insulted, and that he brings home the town leader's daughter as a prize. His wife sees through the deception and knows Hercules has taken another lover. She thinks back to when she was rescued by Hercules from a centaur and his words on how to keep Hercules faithful. She prepares a potion for him of the centaurs blood and the poison of the hydra as a love potion and sends it to Hercules. Feeling guilty about the gift, she throws the remainder into the sunlight and it reacts like acid: the centaur had lied. she receives the message that her potion has killed Hercules and her son rebukes her angrily. She reacts badly and kills herself. Hercules returns home in agony and furious at being poisoned by his wife. His son informs him that she had not meant to kill him but rather was trying to make him faithful and that he had been killed by the centaur from beyond the grave as it was his instructions and blood that caused so much pain.

Reflections
The thing I first noticed was, how trusting Hercules' wife was of what the centaur had told her all those years earlier and how she can't have known the prophecy that he would kill Hercules. I just can't see any other way you would be willing to take the centaurs advice, even before knowing what it would do to Hercules, it seems like a rather unwise plan.
I also marvel at the arrogance of Hercules, to take another woman, when he has a wife and family at home but this seems to be common in these Greek plays.

Comparisons
We have seen Hercules before in the Shield of Heracles, but here we see him in less heroic and more domestic terms. We see the end of his life rather than one of his triumphs.
In some ways it also parallels Agamemnon in death being caused by the wife but it differs in that in Agamemnon his wife deliberately kills him because, he has take another to bed, where as, in the Women of Trachis, we see the wife is the one cheated on and the death was almost accidental or, at least, his death is an unforeseen consequence. We see in this play the wife's remorse compared to Agamemnon wife's lack of remorse.

Have you read Women of Trachis? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Women of Trachis but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of Women of Trachis.

Sophocles, Electra: A daughters anger

Trying to put my buffer of posts back together is proving a little more difficult than I had hoped, but we seem to be getting somewhere now. Work is progressing well enough and I am still happy to have my part time hours. My Hubby is looking for work at the moment and is considering going back to milk tanking, which has some pretty antisocial hours but it does pay well. Oh well! We will see how the process goes.

Story
Electra is Sophocles' version of the return of Orestes and the death of his mother. It starts with Electra and her younger sister, who has never spoken out against their mother for killing their father, meeting at their father's grave. Electra is there to mourn and wish their mother's demise, where as her sister is there to bring a grave offering from their mother. Their mother is not remorseful about what has happened but is worried about a dream she had, prophesying the return of her, now grown, son, Orestes, and his vengeance.
A messenger arrives at the Palace announcing Orestes' death. Electra is inconsolable but her mother is mildly smug as she now thinks she is safe.
We see Electra again at her father's grave site and a stranger approaches looking for the palace. They do not initially recognise each other but Orestes, the strange, eventually realises he is talking to his sister. Together they plot the downfall of their mother, their father's murderer. The play ends with Orestes killing their mother and her new husband.

Reflections
This is a story we see a few times in the early Greek plays. The real difference with this telling is the focus on Electra's anger. Electra has basically been demoted by her mother to the position of a servant and spends her free time mourning her father. This focus bring Electra to the fore of the story and makes Orestes seem more like a bit player. It is interesting to see this story without the previous play and I think it loses a little bit, if you wasn't familiar with the over-arching story.

Comparisons
This is the same story we see in the The Libation Bearers by Aeschylus, but with the focus shifted from Orestes to Electra. As such it is again a generic tragedy and it is suggested that both plays are based on an older lost text. When compared to Sophocles' other work, it seems a little softer, maybe that's just my foreknowledge of the story, but it feels a little less hard hitting and gritty, though it is still a tragedy.

Have you read Electra? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Electra but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of Electra.

Dante, The Banquet; Knowledge and discourse for the common man

It's midweek and I should probably be cleaning but instead I'm Tipity-Typing on the computer, putting together another post. And it seems I will shortly be running out of books I have already read in the BC list. It has taken a few months, but I only have until the start of August to increase the amount I'm reading if I want to continue producing content at this pace. It has been a Godsend to have this buffer, especially over the last few months starting a new job. But, now it's time to up the anti and I've got to say, I'm both excited and apprehensive.
To my disgust I have to write most of this post twice as there was a saving error on blogger and I lost most of it.
So now I'm coming to the less known works of Dante with The Banquet. And I must say, it has been easier to read than the divine comedy as it goes down fewer rabbit holes.

Synopsis
Book 1
In the first book of Dante's The Banquet, he spends most of his time laying out his (for lack of a better way of putting it) rules for himself, as he works through the following three books. The latter half does tend to focus on his reasons for writing in Italian or, as he calls it, the "Vernacular tongue" rather than in Latin, which mainly boils down to not wanting to translate the poems to Latin for fear they will lose their poetic form. Once that decision is made, it follows that, to write the discourse in Latin would not work. He also points out that, only scholars would understand the Latin and he wants to write for a broader audience.
Book 2
This poem is mainly about love. Dante first waxes lyrical on his love for his Beatrice and he spends a lot of time proving she is in heaven with God. He then spends time on the concept of What Is Love and its parts. He ends with, how God Is Love, and how this is the Perfect Love. He spends some time on how Wisdom, which he also relates to his lady, is split into two parts, Love and Knowledge.
Book 3
Dante devotes most of the literal part of his discussion to his beloved Beatrice. The Allegorical reading that Dante proposes, centres around the Layers of the heavens. He takes the traditional seven layers and adds in an eighth as God's place or the place beyond. These layers would not be familiar to the modern reader but Dante has them relate to the aspects of the Lady and even compares her directly with the sun.
Book 4
Dante spends most of this much longer book on the definition of the noble man. First, correcting the idea that those born to power and wealth are automatically Noble as in the Nobility. He postures that it is a mix of the mans actions and a gift from God that make a man Noble, that is, not base. He spends a lot of time trying to understand the position that a man's birth makes him noble but ultimately he rejects it as unfounded. The book continues with an exposition of what good works make a noble man and what vices are missing. And finally, he looks through the ages of a man's life and what nobility looks like in each of them.

Reflection
Book 1
There is not too much to say about this first book, as, in it, Dante just lays out the rules for himself for the rest of the expositions, he puts with his poetry.
Book 2
Dante's exposition of love and how it is only by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of love that we truly know what love is and can give it out to the world around us, rings true with the general understanding held of scripture. In some ways, though it is a rose in a quagmire of Christianity mixed with Philosophy, as Dante also holds the philosophers in the same high regard, it seems, as scripture in fact he quotes them far more often than scripture.
Book 3
Dante's exposition about the levels of heaven is very interesting. First, he, as would have been common at the time of writing, thinks the sun orbits around the Earth. Second, he divided the stars into levels based on how much they move in the night sky and relates that to how close to the observer they are, which, while not exactly wrong, does oversimplify how far away the stars are.
Book 4
Dante proposes 4 stages in a man's life: adolescence, youth, old age, and advanced old age. I found a few things interesting. First, that he says adolescence doesn't start until a man is 8 months old, what he is before that, I do not know, as Dante does not explain. The other is just how late the idea of youth goes, in the modern day, we suggest youth ends around 30 but Dante states it to be 45; in saying that he also says that that is the end of the upward growth of life and the start of the downturn of old age. These words have come to mean something quite different in the modern usage.

Comparison
As I said earlier, there are a lot less rabbit trails in The Banquet than we find in the Divine comedy. Though, we do see a continuation of the veneration of Beatrice that we see in The Paradiso. I think that having read more of the philosophers would illuminate this text a bit more as they are often mentioned but I am not that far through my BC list yet. It doesn't read like a story, as we see in the
Song of Roland, and it paints a very different picture of Christianity as well.

Have you read The Banquet? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read The Banquet but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
Get a copy of The Banquet.