Euripides, Helen; A nice ending

Ok so a bit of a disclaimer before you read this weeks post. This post is not my best work. It was written right before my hiatus, and my mental health was not good, and it shows in how terse this post is in places. So why didn't I re-write it you might ask? For two reasons that compound on each other. The first is that I read this over a year ago and do not remember the specifics; the second is that re-reading a book, especially when my lists are as long as they are, represents a time and effort cost that I'm not willing to pay in this case for reasons I have put in the post below. That being said I hope you still get something positive out of this blog post and that it is still illuminating you on the classics.

I'm enjoying getting back into the Greek plays though there is no "canon" as different stories portray the same characters in rather different lights. It is still rather interesting to see these different portrayals. Well we are officially 7 days into spring here in New Zealand but it seems no-one has told the weather. We have just bought a new car which is rather nice, but now I need to clean up the old one to sell and its really cold washing a car at the moment. 

The Story
Helen starts with Helen herself relating her woes. She is at the grave of the previous king of Egypt as a way to escape the advances of the current king of Egypt who wants her as his wife, she on the other hand wants to stay true to her Greek husband who went to Troy in search of her. She explains that it was not her that Hector stole away to Troy but that a god had sent a substitute in her place and that the Trojan war had been for nothing, well at least it had not been for her virtue.
She asks the Kings sister who is a prophetess if her husband Menelaus will ever come to find her and is told that he is coming.
Menelaus then arrives looking much worse for wear as he has been shipwrecked and is wearing only sailcloth. He inquires about seeing the king and asking for aid but is quickly dissuaded of this as the King kills all Greek men on sight. During this he reveals who he is and Helen explains to him who she is and they plot their escape.
It is decided that Menelaus will pretend to be one of his crewmen and announce his death to the King. Helen will then agree to marry the King as long as she can bury Menelaus at sea as is their, somewhat improvised, custom. The King agrees and leaves the preparation to the Greek man (secretly Menelaus). Who includes provisions and weapons as supposed offerings for the dead.
All the preparations for the mock funeral are made and the rest of Menelaus' crew get aboard and once they are out at sea they escape. When the King finds out he is furious as he has also been tricked by his sister who did not tell him of the deception. He instantly wants to kill his sister for her betrayal but is stopped by the messenger who told him of the escape. Then Dioscori appears and tells him he was never to have had Helen and that he should let her go with her husband. He then renounces his anger at his sister and at Helen.

Reflections
To be honest this whole play feels like wish fulfillment on Euripides part (which is a large part of why I didn't think it was worth re-reading). The idea that Helen had not gone to Troy and could then sail off into the sunset with her true husband undefiled seems too good to be true. And whether true or not Helen would still have come home to Greece with Menelaus, whether by recapture in Troy or by this fanciful meeting in Egypt.
Also the idea that Helen has been allowed to deny to marry the King for a long 10 years seems also a little far fetched when he is an absolute ruler. In saying that we do see her clinging to the burial of the previous King for protection so there must have at least been the threat of force.

Comparisons
This play gives a very different view of Helen than we have seen in the actions of other in the Iliad. She there is portrayed as complicit in the marrying and going with Paris to Troy and being the reason for the whole war against Troy. By contrast in this play she is portrayed as the chaste wife waiting for the return of her husband and denying herself to all others. Menelaus is also portrayed here as a rescuer but also as a schemer rather than as a warrior as we see him in the Iliad.

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

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

Augustine, City of God 1B; Why the Philosophers are wrong

First Post Back! And it's great to be here. It's currently Sunday night and I'm just reactivating all the accounts associated with this blog, mainly Email and Twitter. Just trying to get back into the swing of things. Its Fathers Day here today but that doesn't make it that much different from most Sundays, (I know the USA has a different date for Fathers Day, but at least New Zealand and Australia is today. I'm unsure if other countries have different days).

This is the second post in a series of four on Augustine's City of God, feel free to go back and read the first City of God 1A; Why the Pagans are wrong. In hindsight it possibly should have been a 22 part series but that would have taken nearly 2 years to post at one a month! And I didn't feel like getting that bogged down in one book... I will learn from the experience.

The Story

Book VI

In this book Augustine take the Roman idea (as it is published by Varro) that the religious is broken into three parts, the 'fabulous', the 'natural' and the 'civil', and piece by piece shows the folly of it.  First the 'fabulous' or that pertaining to the theater, he show that for the gods to be accepting of the offering of the theater that they must be no gods at all for the plays portray them in scathing light and without dignity for all the people to laugh at and be entertained by. He then moves on to put together a proof that the 'civil' division in fact is no different to the 'fabulous'. He shows that the offerings and rituals make as little sense as the plays as they also do not honour the gods, and that for some they require a man to be out of his mind to partake in them in the first place. He rounds this all off by pointing out that for the multitude of gods none is said to give eternal life and that it is still just the Christian or True God that gives this.

Book VII

Augustine continues with his dissection of the Roman religion by further looking into the section civil (which he has already offered proof is the same as the fabulous). He shows by various examples that Verro's explanation of the "select" gods (as he call them) is inconsistent at best and unintelligible at worst. He does so by giving various examples of how the king of the gods Janus should not be considered as king as he is not most powerful or relevant but rather that because the position of "selectness" is one of luck and fortune that fortune herself should be head of the gods.

He continues for there to explain how many gods have been ascribed supposed dominion of a given area and how Verro never finds a satisfactory argument to explain this. Augustine then concludes that the select gods can not be that great as they have their very dominions usurped by "trivial" gods.

Augustine finishes the book by turning back to what he calls true religion, that is faith in Jesus Christ, explaining the need to worship the creator not the created.

Book VIII
This book moves on from Verro to instead delve into the world of philosophy. While over the course of the book Augustine deals with a variety of schools of philosophy he pays special attention to the Platonist as he regards them as the closest to Christianity. They profess that logic dictates a singular creator god but do not go any further than this to arrive at "true" religion.
This then dovetails onto a discussion about demons, first that they can not be by there very nature the messengers of the gods as some philosophers would have it. That is to say if the gods are aloof from humanity they could not intermingle with the demons either. He then posits that even if the gods are in the gods are in the ether and, demons in the air and man in the realm of the ground, it does not follow that demons are above humans because they have no hope of doing or being good which has been established to be the basis of happiness.
Augustine ten surges on into a proof of the gods that the pagans worship especially those they make idols to, are really just demons. He even goes to quote Hermes of Egypt with his view that the man made gods are just an expression of disobedience and incorrect belief from the true God.

Book IX
Augustine continues with his discussion of the demons as mediator between man and God and again refutes it. This time he uses the example of Jesus Christ as the true mediator in that he was divine in character and mortal in body, but that even with the death of his mortal body he was bought back to life. He finds Christ a much better mediator in that his divine nature makes interrelating with God possible and fruitful but also that he understands our struggles. He also goes on to expound on how the demons react to the Christ and how it shows their depravity and incapacity for the mediation that the Platonist claim.

Book X
This book moves onto the writings of Porphyry, one of the later Platonist. Here he focuses on the soul, and its providence. This mainly consists of arguing against the ideas that the soul after death returns as a beast, as Plato himself supposed and of the idea that it returns from paradise to another human. He takes the view that for blessedness to be obtained one must know that it will be eternal so the idea of forgetting the misery of the mortal body and then desiring to return to mortal form seems both ludicrous and ill conceived.
Augustine also continues to discuss the truth of eternal life with God, and of Christ as the mediator and only way to achieve this blessedness. As well as using the final book of Part 1 to summarize the nub of his arguments.

Reflections

Book VI

It is interesting that the Romans conceptually broke down their religious practices. The 'civil' or the practices of the city are the most intriguing, it seems to acknowledge that the practice of the people differ from how the gods are worshiped in their own temples. While Augustine does not compare this directly to Christianity there is this underlying sense that Christian worship is more consistent.

The other thing of note is that even some Romans, and Augustine quotes them at length, disputed the civil and fabulous parts of the religion as unprofitable and over sensationalized.

Book VII

Augustine does a thorough job of pointing out the inconsistencies in the Roman religious pantheon. It is interesting that he chooses to use so many examples to poke not just one hole but many into the rationality of the Roman gods as a whole. He even goes so far as to go back to what Verro took as first principles and in doing so undermines his whole theory of how the pantheon both works and is constructed. From Augustine's focus on Verro I must conclude that Verro's work is both well known, widely know and well accepted in the roman public and academic sphere.

Book VIII
It is interesting to see Augustine argue from the very principles of the pagan philosophers and religious writers, that there is one true creator God and that all other gods are man made and therefor nothing more that carved images possessed by Demons. I wonder if this is the origin of the understanding that the gods of the pagans were just deceiving Demons or if this was already an established idea. It is also interesting to see, at least by reference, a pagan that understands that the pagan gods are man made and as such are a poor replacement for the true God.

Book IX
At first it seems like Augustine is going to repeat parts of the previous arguments, as he repeats some of the disputation of the idea that demons go as a mediator between the gods and man. But as he continues we see that he was just setting up a foil with which to contrast the true mediation of the Christ. In many ways he does not add a lot to his arguments other than this exposition of the mediation of Christ. Everything else of this book he has already proven in greater detail in the previous book.

Book X
Augustine in the act of summarizing the work so far spends a lot more time on the gospel of Christ than we see in previous books. His short introduction of what follows in part 2 shows that there will be a great shifting in focus from arguing against the beliefs of the world to more of a focus on Christianity, though I do not really expect to see an end to his arguments I just expect them to move to false doctrine rather than external beliefs.
It is interesting, and Augustine makes this point, that the later Platonist Porphyry, while seeming to hold Plato in high esteem, still dares to disagree entirely with his teacher on the point of what happens to human spirits after death. He seems to regard the idea that they would become the spirits of beasts to degrading and yet he posits that we come back again as humans from paradise. 
This idea of reincarnation I am used to associating with more eastern thought and religion, it makes me wonder if it was influenced by the thought coming out of the sub continent or if it was arrived at by its own means. And after a little research it seems that the answer to that very question is much debated with one side listing the similarities of the philosophers to the yogis of India and the other stating that we know where Plato traveled and it was further west not east. So I guess this one is a mystery.

Comparisons

At this point the only real comparisons to be made are with different parts of the City of God with itself. As I mentioned in the previous post on this book I have not got far enough through my BC list to have read the Philosophers being referenced by Augustine in this work. As such I look forward to reading Plato and Socrates and getting my own read on their philosophy and how it is flawed or well thought out in places.
The second half of this part seems far removed from the content of the first half which focused more on Christian thought and around what was happening in the empire at the time of its writing, while this half has been entirely focused on the religions, and I count Philosophy as one of them, of the secular Romans of the empire.

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.
Get a copy of The City of God.

Another new start

 

Hello again, to all of you who are still here. I know it has been a while, but this is a project that, while it may get put down from time to time is burnt into my brain and something I always want to come back to.

So here we go back into these crazy lists of literature, mainly ancient but intermingled with the only the slightly less ancient AD literature list. The plan is still to post the  AD literature list once a month and weekly book updates from the BC list. So tomorrow there will be a post from the AD literature list, ongoing this will be the first Monday of the month but for this first one its tomorrow.

A few changes you will notice, my husband and I have decided that due to both cost and space restrictions I am going to start working with ebook copies of these classics. This means no more pictures of the books in the blog posts as I will no longer have books to photograph. I still like to have a picture at the top of the post so you will be seeing a lot more of my owl avatar which was put together for my by my good friend and artist Anna O'Dea.

Just to update you all, my husband and I have moved to Tokoroa (New Zealand). It was sad to say good bye to Hamilton, which for both of us was our university town, in saying that, it is only a little over an hours drive and we keep finding reasons to drive back, it's something we are working on. With this move and job change my hubby is no longer driving trucks but rather planning truck loading and scheduling for his new employer.

That's about it for an update, and re-commencement. Wish me luck, I do not have as big of a buffer as I would have hoped for but at least I've finished City of God.

Hiatus

So far I have been coping with a schedule of a book a week along side my day job. OK, coping is probably to strong of a word. I have been managing to keep up with the schedule. But The City of God has me beat! There is no way I can get through a 1/4 of that in a week, just none. It something of the order of 200 pages a week and it is rather dense.

Also to add to this I just don't read for fun anymore and I read more because I have to to keep my schedule than because it's what I want to do. So I will be going on hiatus starting with last weeks missed post and running until New Years. Thank you to all who have been diligently reading. I will come back early next year refreshed and rearing to go.

I thought this was going to be a longer post but that about covers it!

Euripides, The Trojan Women; Complaining about the outcome of the War

It's a quiet Sunday and I've done most of my chores. I mean, what else is the weekend for but catching up on chores or, at the absolute least, buying food :D... Anyway, it's nice and quiet as I write this, for a change. I bought some discount marshmallows too and now there is cornflour all over my keyboard and mouse.

The Story
The Trojan Women starts with a conversation between Poseidon and Athena, in which they plot the Greek forces downfall at sea. Poseidon does this, as he was patron of the Trojans that have been defeated, and Athena does it as she was slighted at he temple in the city of Troy by the conquerors when they took the city.
Priam's wife, Hecabe, enters and start bemoaning that Troy has fallen and that she will now be a slave. A messenger enters and tells the gathered women who their new masters will be, none are too happy about this.
Hectors wife, Hecabe's daughter-in-law enters, clinging to her young son. She is slightly happy that, at least, her son will survive. Then, the news comes that the boy is to be killed by being thrown off the walls of Troy. His mother wails and hopes she can give him a burial. The Greeks allow the boy to be buried on his father, Hector's, shield.
The play ends with the woman being sent to their given masters to start their voyage. And with Hector's wife swearing revenge against her master.
I know I've written a lot less about this play but it seems to me that there is not really so much going on.

Reflections
To be honest, I'm finding it hard to find things to comment on in such a strait forward play.
Hecabe's lament at the fall of, not just the city of Troy, but also of it's high houses, with Priam and both of his sons dead, shows how the Ancient Greeks and Trojans saw a man's legacy as only succeeding through his bloodline. This seems a little odd to the modern reader who is used to the idea that a man's legacy is through his work and that the remembering of that work is now equated with remembrance of the man himself. Following that, the death of the child seems so unnecessary to the modern reader, but to the Greek or Trojan it was the only way to keep the name from rising again and keeping the son from seeking revenge at a later date.

Comparisons
This is the first play where we see the Trojan horse actually mentioned as the trick that got the Greeks into Troy. By comparison, the Iliad finishes well before the end of the war and so we do not see it and in Agamemnon, although the war is finished, we do not hear how the war was won.
Also, we see the death of the young son of the fighting men of note, in this case Hector. By comparison Orestes escapes alive and comes back when he comes of age for his revenge.

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

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

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?

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

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.
Get a copy of The City of God.