Tragedy: is a form of
drama based on
human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or
pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke
this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific
tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in
the self-definition of Western civilization.
Three ancient
Greek tragedian:
(1)
Aeschylus: (/ˈiːskɨləs/ or
/ˈɛskɨləs/) was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is also the first whose plays
still survive; the others are
Sophocles and Euripides.
He is often described as
the
father of tragedy
: critics and
scholars' knowledge of the genre begins with his work
, and
understanding of earlier tragedies is largely based on inferences from his
surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he
expanded
the number of characters in theater
to allow conflict among them,
whereas characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.
(2)
Sophocles: (/ˈsɒfəkliːz/)
is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first
plays were written
later
than those of Aeschylus
, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides. Sophocles
wrote 120 plays during the course of his life, but only seven have survived in
a complete form.
The most famous tragedies of Sophocles feature Oedipus and also Antigone. Sophocles influenced the development of the drama, most importantly by adding a third actor , thereby reducing the importance of the chorus in the presentation of the plot. He also developed his characters to a greater extent than earlier playwrights such as Aeschylus.
(3)
Euripides: (/jʊəˈrɪpɨdiːz/
or /jɔːˈrɪpɨdiːz/) was a tragedian of classical Athens.
Euripides is identified with theatrical innovations that have profoundly influenced drama down to modern times, especially in the representation of traditional, mythical heroes as ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances . This new approach led him to pioneer developments that later writers adapted to comedy, some of which are characteristic of romance. Yet he also became "the most tragic of poets" , focusing on the inner lives and motives of his characters in a way previously unknown.
He was also unique for the sympathy he demonstrated towards all victims of society, including women . His conservative male audiences were frequently shocked by the 'heresies' he put into the mouths of characters, such as these words of his heroine Medea:
Detachment (2011)人間師格(movie)
→ A substitute teacher who drifts from classroom to classroom finds a connection to the students and teachers during his latest assignment……
----we must learn to read. (double think)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOJiah2eD-shttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KOJiah2eD-s
"Youth" by Samuel Ullman
Youth is not a time of life; it is a state of mind; it is not a matter of rosy cheeks, red lips and supple knees; it is a matter of the will, a quality of the imagination, a vigor of the emotions; it is the freshness of the deep springs of life.
Youth means a temperamental predominance of courage over timidity of the appetite, for adventure over the love of ease. This often exists in a man of sixty more than a boy of twenty. Nobody grows old merely by a number of years. We grow old by deserting our ideals.
Years may wrinkle the skin, but to give up enthusiasm wrinkles the soul. Worry, fear, self-distrust bows the heart and turns the spirit back to dust.
Whether sixty or sixteen, there is in every human being’s heart the lure of wonder, the unfailing child-like appetite of what’s next, and the joy of the game of living. In the center of your heart and my heart there is a wireless station; so long as it receives messages of beauty, hope, cheer, courage and power from men and from the Infinite, so long are you young.
When the aerials are down, and your spirit is covered with snows of cynicism and the ice of pessimism, then you are grown old, even at twenty, but as long as your aerials are up, to catch the waves of optimism, there is hope you may die young at eighty.
Dionysus (/daɪ.əˈnaɪsəs/) is the god of the grape harvest, winemaking and wine, of ritual madness,
fertility, theatre and religious ecstasy
in Greek mythology. Alcohol,
especially
wine,
played an important role in Greek culture with Dionysus being an important
reason for this life style.
The Dionysia: (/daɪəˈnaɪsiə/) was a large festival in
ancient Athens
in honor of
the god Dionysus
, the central events of which were the theatrical performances of dramatic tragedies
and, from 487 BC, comedies.
It was the second-most important festival after the Panathenaia. The Dionysia
actually
consisted
of two related festivals,
the
Rural Dionysia
and the
City Dionysia
, which took place in different parts of the
year. They were also an essential part of the Dionysian Mysteries
The dithyramb: was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus,
the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god:
Plato, in The Laws, while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the
birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb." Plato also remarks in
the Republic that dithyrambs are the clearest example of poetry in which the
poet is the only speaker.
The Pythia: (/ˈpɪθiə/), commonly known as the Oracle of Delphi, was
the name of any priestess throughout the history of the Temple of Apollo at
Delphi, located on the slopes of Mount Parnassus, beneath the Castalian Spring
(the new priestess was selected after the death of the current priestess). The
Oracle of Delphi was
always a woman. The Pythia was widely credited for her
prophecies inspired by
Apollo.
The Delphic oracle was established in the 8th century BC, although it may have
been present in some form in Late Mycenaean times, from 1400 BC and was
abandoned, and there is evidence that Apollo took over the shrine from an
earlier dedication to Gaia.
生字
*Oracle: (noun)
→(especially in ancient Greece) a female priest who gave people wise but often mysterious advice from a god, or the advice given
女祭司；神諭
*Prophet: (noun)
→a person who is believed to have a special power which allows them to say what a god wishes to tell people, especially about things that will happen in the future.
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