"Our Arrows will blot out the Sun!" - "Then we will fight in the Shade."

[aderam]

Just went to see 300 and it was SO VERY AWESOME. The epitome of the Greek Heroic Code.

And now I must finish reading the Bacchae and write a response for my Greek Tragedies course. I think I may be feeling bloody-minded enough for the task at hand. :)

Comments

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

I should pick your brain on potential stuff for my summer reading list. I've read enough Sophocles and a little bit of Aescylus to last me awhile, but I don't know what's a good place to start from other playwrites like Euripides and Aristophanes (eee comedy!) and stuff.

Thoughts? Got any faves? I had a copy of The Seven Against Thebes that I bought for $1.00 at my favorite local bookstore lying around my room but somehow it got lost in my clutter and I haven't been able to find it sense. woe!

[aderam.livejournal.com]

Cool! For this class we've only read Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides and of the three of them I liked Sophocles most and Euripides least. Also we read a few things that I've had to read for other classes as well, so I've only actually read nine different Tragedies, which is unfortunate. I think I might ask my Prof for some other suggestions and I'll pass them along if they seem any good.

Of the plays I liked the Libation Bearers by Aeschylus and Oedipus Tyrannus by Sophcles best. The problem I had with Euripides was that he seemed to me to be overly vague and confusing, both Medea and Hippotylus left me tied up in knots and not knowing what to think about them (and that was even, or especially, after an explainatory lecture). My Prof says that Euripides was not a favourite among the Greeks either. I did like his Bacchae though, it's wonderfully playful and gruesome at the same time.

I also have no idea where to start with Comedies, but I plan on taking a comedies course sometime next year. I really want to read some Roman Comedies because I remember watching A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in my highschool Latin class and laughing my ass off ("He raped Thrace?" "Yes, and then he did it again, and again!" "He raped Thrace thrice?").

This Summer I'm planning to get through the Epics again because I've always been reading them for school where I don't have the time to actually read them and I end up loosing whole books to a tired brain. And maybe I'll try to translate my book of Cicero's orations against Catallina, because he's on fire in those.

[kuwdora.livejournal.com]

Spiff. Thanks for your thoughts!

When I was doign some research for my paper (I'm going to be writing about feminist theologians and the usage of language when conceputalizing God and the female experience...or something like that), I came across a quote from Muriel Rukeyser's poem--so I went and looked up the poem and I think you might get a kick out of it if you haven't read it before.


MYTH

Long afterward, Oedipus, old and blinded, walked the
roads. He smelled a familiar smell. It was
the Sphinx. Oedipus said, "I want to ask one question.
Why didn't I recognize my mother?" "You gave the
wrong answer," said the Sphinx. "But that was what
made everything possible," said Oedipus. "No," she said.
"When I asked, What walks on four legs in the morning,
two at noon, and three in the evening, you answered,
Man. You didn't say anything about woman."
"When you say Man," said Oedipus, "you include women
too. Everyone knows that." She said, "That's what
you think."

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

The epitome of the Greek Heroic Code.

I found it interesting how unabashedly pro-Western civilisation that film was. Iran was quite insulted (http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=3159&sectionid=351020105).

[aderam.livejournal.com]

Um... as much as I love other civilizations and the like, that movie could NOT have been pro Persia. The history, the setting and the nature of story-telling are all opposed to that. If they make a movie about the American Revolution then they cast the Brits as the bad guys. Likewise if you're making a movie about the Napoleonic Wars from the perspective of the Brits, then the French are bad. The main things that were derogatory toward Persia in this movie were the Spartans insulting them (which they would have done since they are sixth century Greeks). We saw very little of the Persians, and most of what we did see was just them being extremely exotic and different from our own culture (something that would be true for the Greeks seeing them for the first time too). The only thing that I didn't really think was necessary or made much in the way of sense, was how many mutilated or deformed people their were. Of course there were both Greek and Persian deformaties, so yeah.

My basic response to that: You can't be PC if you're going to do accurate historical entertainment.

[jetfx.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely, history ain't PC, but nor was that film historical accurate. I still very much enjoyed it and realized that it is a stylized comic book adaption rather than a history lesson. I just thought it was cool that they did a film that had an obvious pro-Western bias. They just don't do those anymore which is rather sad.

Plus Iran's response to the film was quite funny. It would be like the British government complaining about their portrayal in The Patriot.