Euripides, Ion; Apollo's son

Today, I'm listening to The Irish and Celtic Music Podcast while I'm typing. So, I'm just jamming away to these great tunes! My Husband and I have been into Celtic music for a few years now, going right back to our uni days where a penny whistle was a cheap and available instrument for a poor student to afford. I tend to prefer listening to tunes and performing songs. Tunes being music only and songs having lyrics. We were, for a while, regularly going to a session, or Celtic music gathering, one evening a week but life has since got in the way. In saying that, my Husband has just started practicing his Mandolin again, so maybe we will get back to it in the nearish future.

The Story
Ion opens with Hermes giving the background to the story we are about to see. Apollo has visited a woman, Creusa, and raped her. She becomes pregnant, which she manages to hide, and gives birth to a boy, who she abandons in a cradle in the place where she was raped. Hermes is then dispatched by Apollo to collect the infant and take him to the temple of Apollo at Delphi. Here, he is raised at the temple, not knowing mother or father. Creusa and Xuthus, King of Athens, arrive in Delphi to consult the oracle as they have been childless. Creusa arrives first and discusses with Ion his lack of parents and her own loss. Creusa leaves and Xuthus consults with the Oracle. Xuthus is told that Ion is his son. So, he leaves the oracle with gladness and approaches Ion who is a bit taken aback by this development and asks many questions about the life he is to be thrust into. Creusa hears of this and plans to kill Ion who, at this point, she believes is her step son. This is mainly due to him inheriting instead of any of the children she hopes to have later. An omen from Apollo causes Ion to pour out the wine on the floor that Creusa has had poisoned for him, birds come and drink the wine, and the one that drinks his wine falls down dead. The servants tell him who did the poisoning, who wanted him dead, and finds out it is Creusa. He then chases he to the alter, which she clings to for protection. As he threatens to kill her, the oracle comes in and tries to talk him out of it, saying that it will make him unclean. Ion is confused by this, as to kill one who tries to kill him is justified. The oracle then brings out the basket and clothes he was found in. Ion is distracted for a bit, thinking of how this might lead to his mother, when Creusa speaks up declaring he is her son. After quizzing her about the contents of the basket (which she has not seen) he accepts her as his mother, asks about his birth, and why he was abandoned. She explains that Apollo is his father. At first he disbelieves, as the oracle has just said Xuthus is his father. Then Athene arrives and convinces him of his birth, Apollo's plan to give him to the king of Athens, and that he could be with his mother. Also, telling him that he had kept them from killing each other. It is agreed that Xuthus can not know his true heritage.

Reflections
Creusa spends most of the play angry at Apollo. First, for her rape and then, for her infertility. She feels that she has given up her best to Apollo and believes he did not save his son. Because of this, she treats Apollo with despondency. Until she finds out that Ion is that very son, then she changes her tune and praises him for his foresight.
It is interesting that Ion is unnamed until Xuthus gives him a name, showing how seriously the Greek took naming by the father. It is also worth noting that although he has no name he is named in the text as Ion throughout the entire play, the author clearly thinks that the players are aware of the story's end before it starts.
Apollo is both the villain in this piece as well as the hero. He causes all the problems, the pregnancy, the abandonment, and the infertility. Yet, he is also what brings about the reunion and keeps mother and son from killing each other before they know the truth.

Comparisons
Ion is like Iphignia in Tauris and Alcsetis , starting with a god addressing the crowd, but unlike them, the god does not give a summary of the whole play but rather lays out the backstory before the play starts. These plays all taking place in one location, so there is no need for a scene change, as we would do in modern theater.
The play differs to the other pieces of Euripides. So far, we also end the play with a dialogue with a god too, explaining things happening away from stage. Though, surprisingly, it is not Apollo but Athene, on behalf of Apollo. We are also starting to see a trend in Euripides for writing both tragedy and general drama.

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

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Saint Augustine, The City of God 1A; Why the pagans are wrong

Ok so I'm going back to The City of God. It should have been the first book on my list but I was planning to put it on a Theology list, until my husband told me it was considered the precursor to the novel, so it has been added to this list. This book is huge, even bigger than Herodotus. Hopefully, it's not going to be as much hard work, though. Because of its size, I'm going to break it up. There are two parts in it and I will split each of these in half, so this work is Part 1A.
Also, because it is so large I'm going to break up my synopsis, reflections, and maybe comparisons into the respective books that the work is split into, just to make it more accessible.

The Story
Book I
During the sacking of Rome, Pagans and Christians sought refuge in the churches and places dedicated to Saints. Augustine is arguing against those who are now saying that Christianity is the reason for the sacking of Rome, by pointing to the saving work of Christ in those churches and holy places. He points out that it is anything but normal for an invading army to leave the holy places alone in their sacking of a city.
He also spends time comforting those who were raped in the sack. He argues eloquently that the sin of the man does not contaminate the chastity of the woman involved if, in her heart, she is against the act.
Related to this, he speaks against suicide. The thing to be aware of here is that culturally it was expected for a person to cause their own death if they have lost their chastity or virginity, and other situations considered to be highly shameful. Augustine, rightfully, argues that to take one's own life is to sin against the commandment "thou shall not kill" and, to add another sin on top of what has happened or will happen, is not to be promoted.

Book II
Augustine's main argument in this book is that the Roman gods did not give the people any moral instructions and that this, which is the cause of the decay in Rome, is a big part of why they cannot be gods but rather are demons. He also spends a lot of time detailing the depravity of the theater, which is dedicated to the gods, and uses that to argue again that they must not be very great or big gods.
He again uses Roman sources to lay out the history of the decline from the early days of Rome to his modern day. From these sources, he lays out that the community and commonwealth of Rome is actually already dead, with the moral decay it has come apart and there is, by this definition, no longer a community or commonwealth. He eventually contrasts this with the moral compass and teachings that come with Christianity.

Book III
In a lot of ways this book is a rinse and repeat of book II, but instead of focusing on the moral decay that happened before Christ as an argument against those who want to blame the sacking of Rome, by the Goths, on the worship of Christ, and the decrease of worship in the "Roman" gods: Augustine focuses on the calamity's that have befallen Rome. He runs through these calamities in broad sweeps, including earlier sacks of Rome, civil wars, and wars abroad and points out that, if the roman gods aren't to blame for that, how can Christ be to blame for what has come after the national conversion.

Book IV
This book starts with a recap of the previous three books. After that, Augustine launches into a proof that the Roman gods are false or demons, and that Rome's fortunes are actually blessings from the one true God. He does this by logically questioning the order of the Roman gods and suggesting that the only god it makes sense to worship is Felicity or of being happy. So, it makes more sense to worship the one God who gives good felicity and happiness, rather than worship the fortune itself.

Book V
Augustine reiterates that felicity is not a goddess but a gift from the True God. Then, continues with the debunking of Astrology and star-based divination. He uses the example of twins, especially those that are male and female, to show that the differences are bigger than a small change of stars should indicate. He continues by explaining how the expansion of Rome, and its good fortune, are actually gifts from God and show that the Roman pursuit of glory has no place in the heavenly city.

Reflections
Book I
Augustine uses scripture and history to prove that, even under the old Roman gods, bad things happened. So, it was too much of a stretch to say that the sacking of Rome was due to the disregarding those gods and the rise of Christendom. He points to the moral decay of people being too comfortable, without any more wars, as the reason for the sacking.
The biggest point that stuck with me over the rape, was the argument: the reiteration that, in the case of rape, the woman is blameless. Though, Augustine does add that she is blameless if she did not want it in her heart. This still rings true today and in it's time was a huge departure from the idea that the woman was somehow spiritually sullied by the act. That is not to say that there is no wound that need healing for the woman but that she is blameless when law and order breaks down as in a sack.
With suicide, in the modern context, where there is no societal pressure to suicide, if disgraceful things happen to you, I have a saying "you can believe that suicide is a thing a Christian should not do and still be suicidal." If you are in that place please seek help. I know that knowing it is a sin and that this is probably not much help right now. Also, I think that the early church took it a step too far and decided that because there was no opportunity to repent of your own murder it must be unforgivable but this does not line up with scripture where Christ says that the only unforgivable sin is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit.

Book II
I feel like Augustine spends far to long on this but as a direct rebuff to an opinion, I guess, it is well formulated. In the process of defining his argument, he does reiterate his point a fair bit. I think Augustine's tendency to quote Roman writers (yes and Greek) would strengthen his point to his target audience, but, at times, I find it a little hard to follow, as I haven't finished my BC list yet. This is why I started with my BC list, but as you know, I needed a little more variety.

Book III
Again, this is a well formed argument that steps through the history of Rome from Roman sources.
The first book was just an overview and in these following books Augustine fleshes out his arguments. In this case, he takes a tour through the history of what has gone wrong or the bad that has come against, or to, Rome.

Book IV
Today, in Christianity, most times, when we talk about other religions, the strongest language we seem willing to use is to call them "false gods", and we treat them like they don't exist. Augustine, on the other hand, starts with the idea they are false religions and is not shy about calling their gods, demons. He is very aware that they exist but that they are spirits working in deception for the prince of darkness.

Book V
Sometimes, today, we can look around at what is going on in the world and despair at the bad and good in it. Augustine reminds us that pursuing things other than God, like the good approval of men, is sinful and will lead to eternal destruction. He also reminds us that God lifts up Nations in their time and that this is still a work of his hand, even when it doesn't look like it.

Comparisons
There is not much to compare it to at this point. I think that once I get into the Roman writers, both proceeding and contemporary to this work, there will be more that can be said.  I may end up coming back to it once I have read some of the Roman authors, as, I think, it will be quite interesting to do. I just do not have the background at this point.

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

Want to read The City of God but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Euripides, Iphigenia in Tauris; Finding a lost sister

So, today we took the car for a warrant of fitness, (yearly car inspection to keep it road legal) and they found we need new tires. One wheel failed outright and another only just passed. But, because they are both left-hand side tires, we are probably going to have to change all four. This, of course, is going to be a bit of a shock on the finances, especially with Phil out of work, but fortunately we have enough laid aside. That and our headlights need polishing again. They seem to have this problem every year.

The Story
Iphigenia in Tauris starts with Iphigenia going about he duties as a priestess of Artemis and reveals that the temple offers human sacrifice to Artemis, of any foreigners that arrive. We also see Iphigenia pining to return to Hellene lands, and to her family. Though, also in her lamenting, she informs us that she was going to be used by her father as a child sacrifice but was stolen away by Artemis to Tauris where she has since spent her time as priestess.
Orestes with his friend and companion, Pylades, arrive at the island and leave their boat offshore as they survey the land. Orestes has come as an Oracle told him that if he stole the statue of Artemis, that had come from heaven, and returned it to Athenes, he would be free of the furies haunting and the fits of insanity that went with them.
Orestes and Pylades hide from sight, in a sea cave, until night fall but our found by some herdsmen that take the cattle down to the beach to wash them. Orestes then, temporarily, loses his mind and starts attacking the cattle with his sword. The two are captured and bought to Iphigenia for purification, before they are sacrificed to Artemis.
On talking with the two, Iphigenia finds out they are both from Athenes (though they will not give her their names) and conspires to let one of them go free to take a message from her to her brother. Orestes agrees and say Pylades must go free, so Iphigenia gives him the letter, he asks for her freedom if he is shipwrecked and only escapes with his life. She decides instead to tell him the message, so he can carry it no matter what. She reals off a message for Orestes, not knowing that it is him in front of her. Pylades, on hearing the message, says it will be easy to carry out as that is who he is with. At first Iphigenia does not quite believe him but, with the dissertation of a little family history she comes round and they quickly start planning the steeling of the idol and their escape. She decided to tell the king that the statue has been made unclean by the men who have committed Matricide, and that she needs to purify them and the statue in the sea in a secluded place. The king agrees and the three make their escape with this ruse. The king goes to set men and boats after them but is interrupted by Athena who convinces him to let them go.

Reflections
This play shows how the Greeks saw the people groups around them as less civilised and uncultured. This is evident in the sacrifice of men and woman to the deity Artemis, which is both something abhorrent to the Greeks and, even though they did have a god, Artemis, it is not how they would have worshiped her or understood it as a type of worship she would have accepted. It is interesting that Euripides stops to make the point that Iphigenia does not do the actual blood letting in the temple, but rather, prepares the men for sacrifice. It is as if it was too much to expect the audience to still like Iphigenia as a character if she had perpetrated the killings.
It is interesting to see Pylades back at Orestes side as we do not see him when Orestes runs from the furies. They both seem, as well as announce, each other as brothers: if not of blood, at least of spirit. We see this play out when Pylades is reluctant to leave Orestes to be sacrificed and him go free, protesting that he should suffer the same fate.

Comparisons
It is interesting to see that even after the trial in Aeschylus' Eumenides, the furies are still chasing and bothering Orestes. Athena explains it a little at the end of the play, saying that, not all the furies were satisfied by the trial and so had continued to hound him.
This is now the second play of Euripides we have seen that is not a tragedy, but rather, we see our hero victorious; the other being Alcestis. Both works have a more uplifting ending, though they are no less full of drama.

Have you read Iphigenia in Tauris? If so what did you think of it?

Want to read Iphigenia in Tauris but haven't? Hopefully this inspires you to take the time to do so.
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Euripides, Hippolytus; Investigate before sentencing

Its the weekend again, and yet again it does not feel long enough. I guess that's just a side effect of working Saturday mornings. It's still a little crazy to realise I'll be working on Euripides for the rest of the year, for the BC list, and because Augustine's city is so big, I'm slitting it into four and that will cover me for the rest of the year as well. In other news, I think I have already said that my hubby has a new three month contract, which is due to start at the start of September, so roll on September!

The Story
Aphrodite opens the play with a taste of things to come and foretells Hippolytus' demise. We then see Hippolytus returning from the hunt, full of life and vigor. We see the queen languishing in her bed. She is in a bad state and has not eaten for several days. Her nurse questions her as to her reasons and she eventually alludes to having erotic desires for Hippolytus, which would be both adulterous and incestuous, seeing that Hippolytus is the bastard son of the king. Her nurse suggests she should just go on and do what she is thinking, but Phaeda, the Queen, refuses. The nurse goes away and confronts Hippolytus about this but he is aggressively against the suggestion and rebukes the nurse. When Phaeda hears of this she is even more disturbed and kills herself. Her husband comes home to find her dead and reads the notes she left accusing Hippolytus of attempting to rape her. Her husband, in a fury, curses Hippolytus (using one of the three curses that Poseidon owed him). Hippolytus is gravely injured by a huge sea wave but manages to make it back to the palace, where he pleads his innocence as a virgin dedicated to Artemis. Eventually, the truth comes out and The king, Theseus, find himself both without a wife and having killed his own son in haste to believe his wife's suicide note.

Reflections
A tragedy perpetrated by Aphrodite, who starts the play by stirring up Eros in Phaeda. Theseus is both understandably distraught and yet overly hasty in Hippolytus' case. It seems nothing Hippolytus says can bend his wrath and Phaeda has left things in a way that she can not be questioned.
Phaeda's suicide is her solution for the great shame that she feels for having such thoughts about her husband's, bastard son. Him, knowing about this feeling, seems to embarrass her more, and drives her over the edge into suicide. We must conclude that the note she left was her attempt to push the blame and shame off herself and onto Hippolytus.

Comparisons
Like we see in the Alcestis, also by Euripides, we see a god at the start of the play almost foretell the story. Though, it seems to take the idea of foreshadowing and goes a step further into a straight telling. At first, this seemed rather odd to me but on further reflection, I guess, it is no different than having the synopsis on the back of the book or the blurb in the papers for a movie.
It is the first time we see Aphrodite in a negative light or at least in the part of troublemaker. Previously, we have seen her in battle in the Iliad or being called to by her own oracle.

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

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Euripides, Alcestis; Hercules saves the day

And I'm back to writing as I read the books. And wow, this is quite different. I just sat down and read the play in one sitting and I'm already writing about it. I might manage to rebuild a buffer yet!
In other news, I've sat down and written the list of books and the dates that I need to publish their blogs and it looks like we are going to be working through Euripides for the rest of the year on the BC list.

The Story
Apollo starts by discussing with death, the upcoming death of Aclestis and trying to convince death not to take her. He has previously convinced death to take her rather than Admetus, her husband. This was a deal they struck on: death would pass over Admetus, if he could take someone else in his place. His parents refused, but his wife accepted that role and so knows that her life is coming to an end.
Admetus is with his failing wife to the end, with their two young children. After she passes, but before she is buried, Admetus' father turns up with burial gifts. Ademetus turns him away saying that if his father had had a bit more courage it would be him dead instead of his wife. His father hits back with the accusation that Ademetus is the coward for letting his wife take his place in death. His father then leaves.
Hercules then arrives and asks for hospitality, though he does ask Ademetus who has died, Ademetus does not want to turn him away and so lies and says it is a stranger. He puts Hercules in the guest wing and then goes to bury his wife. Hercules is feasting and drinking but the servants are all down cast. He asks them why they are so down cast and it comes out that it is Ademetus' wife that has died and Hercules takes it on himself to go and wrestle her back from death.
Ademetus returns to the palace to find Hercules, having just returned and fitted for war, rather than feasting. Hercules has with him a young woman who he tries to give to Ademetus. He tries to refuse but is eventually forced into it. At which time, he recognises her as his wife, back from the dead. Hercules offers little explanation and heads off on his way to perform one of his labours.

Reflections
I think is the first Greek play we have come across that is not a tragedy and actually ends on an upbeat, with Aclestis being returned alive to Ademetus. Although it is clear that Hercules has fought with death and won, we do not see the fight itself being played out on stage. He just goes away and comes back with her. This is more of Hercules, the hero, as I had expected to see play out in the plays.
Apollo states in the very beginning, Hercules would fight with death and return Aclestis to life, it is only as the play progresses that we see why: as a repayment for the hospitality given at such a time of grief. The 'how', however is only alluded to by Apollo in the beginning and, again, by Hercules before and after returning with Aclestis.

Comparisons
This is the first really positive story we have seen of Hercules. In contrast, the Shield of Heracles just focuses on a single battle and we see a lot more of Hercules' positive character. We see this in how he responds to the hospitality he is given after he realises that his host's wife is dead.
Alcestis also has a much happier ending to the story than we see in Women of Trachis as we see Hercules successful, rather than writhing in pain.

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

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Herodotus, The Histories: A Plethora of Side Tracks

So, I finally finished The Histories. It has taken a day short of a year from start to finish, though I have taken a couple of big breaks in that time. It is a large, 600 page, 9 section work and in a lot of ways is easier in the seconds half. I did not get stuck with it in the same way I did with the Upanishads, it was just slow and steady going.
I'm not writing these in order at the moment. I've written this just after restarting the blog and, boy, is it good to be back! I'm excited to get more writing done, as well as a bit more reading!

The Story

The Histories centres around the story, from both sides of the two Persian invasions of the Greek city states. The first, under Darius, proceeds into the peninsular, only as far as Marathon and stopped short of the goal of Athens. The Second, under Xerxes, the son of Darius, sacked Athens but was turned back after the defeat of his maritime force at Salamis. A smaller contingent was left in Greece, after the retreat of the main army. This smaller army fought in the battle with the 300 Spartans, at Thermopylae. This gives us the great quote, where Leonidas replied "Won't it be nice, then, if we shall have shade in which to fight them?" about the threat of the Persians arrows blotting out the sun. After this battle, the army moved inland and sacked Athens again (not that there was much to sack). This army was eventually defeated at Plataea.
Though these are the two main thrust of The Histories, Herodotus spends a lot of time on side tracks and hearsay. Some of these are fanciful stories which he often notes as hearsay (ants that collect gold for the Indians) and others are other historical stories. These historical stories are always to the best of Herodotus' knowledge but that is, at times, misguided, for example, when he states that cinnamon is made from a certain bird's legs. He lays out, as best he can, what can be known of the Mediterranean world, at the time.

Reflections

This text is known as the first time someone tried to record the realities of a war, as well as its causes, and also to work in prose. Therefore, he is sometimes described as the father of western history, though Cicero calls him the father of lies due to the more fanciful parts of his work.
I know there is some debate on the numbers of Persians in Xerxes invasion, with many noting that there would not have been enough water on the peninsular to support as large an army, as is reported by Herodotus. And, in the retreat, we see some of this as the land struggles to supply the army in retreat. I think the main argument against a deliberate over numbering is Herodotus' precision in his reckoning of the army's numbers. I would believe he rounded these number up but I would not go so far as to say that I think they are not accurate.
Herodotus' progression around the Mediterranean world in the first parts of the book has a great many interesting stories and it surprised me just how wide of a world was known, at least in part, to Herodotus. His stories even included a circumnavigation of Africa (Libya) by a party sent from Egypt and gold mining ants in India. This, with his knowledge of Greece, gives quite a large sphere of  knowledge, even if some of it is a little misguided.   

Comparisons

Because this is the first history and the first prose text it may at first seem that there is little to compare it to, but I think there are still some worth while things to say.
Like the Iliad, there is a multitude of names that it is easy to get bogged down in, in the Iliad it is the listing of the names during combat. Thankfully, Herodotus only lists name when describing the gathering of troops and graciously saves us from more confusion. By contrast, the Iliad is about the Greek forces facing each other, where as, The Histories accounts for both the Persian and Greek forces. The descriptions of battle in both are mainly broad strokes, with the occasional addition of a named character who does specific, great things.

Have you read the The Histories? If so what did you think?
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Dante, Vita Nuova; Lovesick fool

My hubby and flatmate are busy watching My Hero Academia, which makes for a lot of background noise while I try and type but, oh well, that's the joy of the lounge being my only work space. My husband has an assessment, for the job he wants, in a couple of weeks, so hopefully he won't be out of work too much longer.

Story
Vita Nuova (The New Life) is mainly a collection of Dante's poems about Beatrice and documenting his infatuation with her. Dante spends a lot of time venerating Beatrice as, above all other ladies. For a short while, he has everyone convinced he is in love with another woman but he is just using it as a cover. Eventually, the truth comes out and everyone knows how he feels about Beatrice. He can not bring himself to speak to her though, or even acknowledge her greeting, and yet he pines after her. Then, suddenly, she dies and he laments this bitterly, even writing two poems for her brother to mourn her with. He starts to get over her and fixates on another woman but eventually he scorns himself for moving on and goes back to morning Beatrice.

Reflections
Dante is a lovesick fool. He pines for Beatrice and yet cannot even bring himself to see her or talk to her. He, in doing so, paints himself as weak and vacillating. We never see him really take charge of the situation and constructively do anything both before and after her death.
This isn't really a story as we will come to expect from later novels but rather a collection of poems written in and around a series of events.

Comparisons
The New life is a book of a young man in foolish love, by comparison Dante's The Banquet is an older man's thinking, with a little love thrown in for good measure. Dante does not lose his high opinion of love, and of his love, but rather it becomes tempered with other things that are greater, or at least, of similar importance.
The new life also gives a bit of background into the veneration of Beatrice that we see in the Paradiso, though neither explains exactly why he believes her to be such a Paragon of virtue.

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

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