Variation 5 on the Urge / Theme of "Imperishability": "Closeness to the Gods" or "Justifying the Ways of Gods to the Ways of Men"
The class in general is about
"Imperishability
Specifically this week we focus on how what we call "closeness to the gods" operates as a dramatic action (or "theme" or "ideal" or "urge") in one text, the ancient Greek drama by Aeschylus,Orestia Trilogy
Summary:
Keeping with our semester-long theme-and-variation format, for this fifth lesson module we will mostly focus on the ancient Greek dramatistAeschylus, specifically his variation on the urge / theme of imperishibility --which we understand this week as "closeness to the gods" and/or as "theodicy."
Aeschylus deposits the dramatic action of "theodicy" or "closeness to the gods" into the history of literary aesthetics in both individual and universal ways, such that the dramatic action will be borrowed and re-appropriated by subsequent imaginative-creative writers through the millennia.
Indeed tragedy of the kind created by the creator Aeschylus addresses the tensions, choices, destinies, fates of individuals with whom the destiny of the entire community is bound up-- so in turn, both individual and community stand in "close relation to the gods."
In the Greek civilization of Aeschylus' time, personal (psychological), social (sociological), religious and indeed mystical concerns and situations were fully integrated into a whole that we will understand at once as a "theodicy," as "theodramatic" and/or "theocratic" -- all terms which communicate what we understand as destiny (or "providence") unfolding in literature precisely in the context of "closeness to the gods."
Indeed, Theodicy -- i.e., the justifying of the ways of gods to the ways of men -- was central to Aeschylus business as an imaginative artist, though it might be truer to say that he aimed through dramatic conflict and action to illuminate something intensely important about the nature of..
divine justice...
Aristotle (in his workPoeticsreminds that Aeschylus and the dramatists who were his Greek contemporaries believed that the gods were in a sense jealous of human greatness and sent infatuation (passionate obsessions) on a given hero of a drama precisely at the height of his / her success, thus bringing a given hero to some measure of crisis and/or disaster.. a "turning point."
Man’s passionated act, his passionate obsession was imaginatively figured in Greek art as one of impiety or pride (hubrisin Greek). Hubris in turn precipitates a theo-dramatic downfall which could be seen as a just punishment, a divine punishment...
divine justice...
For Aeschylus and for his artistic contemporaries, divine jealousy and eternal justice -- this theo-dramatic arc of artistic narrative -- formed the common fabric of a moral order of which Zeus, supreme among the gods, was the guardian.
In any case, as we move forward this semester, we will again revisit and comprehend this dramatic action, this quality of "closeness to the gods" as one of the variations on the theme of imperishability that give to our semester’s so-called “classics” their quality of being a "classic."
Learning Goals:
1. Goal:to understand "closeness to the gods" -- or "theodicy" -- in one literary classic, Aeschylus'Orestia Trilogy, as one variation of the theme ofimperishabiltythatgives to a classic its quality ofclassical-ness
2. Goal:
to put this learning module's variation on the theme ofimperishability -- "closeness to the gods"/ "theodicy" -- in conversation with one prior variation on the same theme -- "Achilles' closeness to his mother," the goddess Thetis--which we addressed in our last learning module.
Questions:
This is a simple one page assignment in which I ask you to just tell me about your favorite or least favorite module this semester -- what specifically struck you about your favorite or least favorite module this semester. Approximaly500 words. Either use quotes or paraphrase from memory. This is an informal assignment.
You also use this link :https://www.ancient-literature.com/greece_aeschylus_oresteia.html
NB You already this part as homework(order 111766) before , for this part you just have tell why this module is a favorite. Thank you