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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page essay that argues that while in Greek tragedy, fate and prophecy play pivotal roles in all the plays, the ancient Greek playwrights did not simply portray people as being puppets manipulated by the gods towards meeting a horrendous end. Rather, these ancient writers pictured individuals as being active in creating the situations that lead to their ultimate doom. In supporting this argument, the writer draws on Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, The Bacchae by Euripides, and the Oresteia by Aeschylus. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khgrkres.rtf
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gods towards meeting a horrendous end. Rather, these ancient writers pictured individuals as being active in creating the situations that lead to their ultimate doom. An examination of a
variety of ancient Greek tragedies shows that it is a common characteristic among these playwrights that they all show their principal characters as meeting their downfall due to inherent flaws
in their judgement and/or character. Most often characters earned the wrath of the gods by ignoring the ancient Greek custom of familial loyalty (by killing one of more members of
their own families), or by failing through the sin of hubris. The Bacchae by Euripides From the beginning of The Bacchae, Euripides makes it clear that
Pentheus, king of Thebes, bears responsibility for his own fate. Dionysus has returned to his home city, in the form of an ordinary human being, for the express purpose of
calling Greece to his worship. However, many Greeks are unbelievers and many of the women who knew his mother have doubted her assertion that Zeus was the father of her
child. To teach these women a lesson, Dionysus sends his spirit upon all of the women of Thebes, which sets them into an ecstatic frenzy. They leave their
homes and taking wine, run into the mountains. Two men, the aged prophet Teiresias and King Cadmus, the older monarch who abdicated in favor of his grandson Pentheus, accept Dionysus
and celebrate his rites. Pentheus, however, is shocked that his venerable grandfather would worship his first cousin, Dionysus, whom Pentheus considers to be rather effeminate. Older and wiser
heads than his, i.e. his grandfather and the prophet Teiresias, accept the godship of Dionysus. Yet, Pentheus continues to deny the evidence before him of Dionysus power and imprisons all
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