How to Read Ancient Greek Tragedy (Introductory Lecture)

'Pride breeds the tyrant, violent pride, gorging, crammed to bursting with all that is overripe and rich with ruin — clawing up to the heights, headlong pride crashes down the abyss — sheer doom!'

It’s time to begin our appreciation of the tragic masterpieces of Ancient Greek theatre: the Oresteia of Aeschylus, Oedipus Rex of Sophocles, and Medea of Euripides.

Today we're discussing how best to bring ourselves to this curation of sublime plays from theatrical and literary history.

We're discussing how to engage with a play, what theatre was like in Classical Athens, the social utility of tragedy, catharsis, tragic flaws, falls from fortune, the influence of Homer, how tragedy was born from the epic, contest as the lifeblood of art, the theories of Aristotle, Nietzsche, and Freud, and much more.

As always, please do feel free to use the timestamps to navigate to topics you’re most interested in and use the discussion in the way that best suits you.

We touch upon the plots of these plays very briefly in the video, covering what the original audience would have known coming into them. But the focus in this discussion is primarily contextual, historical, and literary with the aim of helping readers who are entering the world of ancient tragedy for the first time. 

Video Timestamps:

0:00 why do we love tragedies? 

2:00 all plays lead to Ancient Greece

4:00 how do you read a play?

6:00 theatre’s relationship to Homer

8:00 evolution of Classical Athens

10:00 war trauma in ancient times

12:00 what was ancient theatre like?

14:00 theatre as powerful civic event

16:00 what was the City Dionysia?

18:00 Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy

19:00 Apollonian-Dionysian duality

20:00 Frazer’s The Golden Bough

21:00 harvest religious fertility rituals

23:00 the social utility of theatre

25:00 ancient theatre’s spirit of agon

27:00 Aeschylus as father of drama

28:00 the function of the chorus

30:00 how the first actors were born

32:00 tragic heroes as masks of Dionysus

34:00 healing, redeeming power of art

36:00 tragedy trilogy competition

38:00 competition at the great festival

40:00 the playwrighting of Aeschylus

42:00 lamenting literature’s lost plays

44:00 how do you read the Oresteia?

45:00 visit the theatre of your mind

46:00 practical advice for reading plays

47:00 Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides

48:00 the tragedies of Aeschylus

49:00 the tragedies of Sophocles

51:00 the tragedies of Euripides

53:00 read the comedy of Aristophanes

55:00 agon of Aeschylus vs Euripides

57:00 talent unfolds itself in fighting

58:00 Harold Bloom’s Anxiety of Influence

59:00 what is Freud’s Oedipal Complex?

1:01:00 how are great artists influenced?

1:03:00 the road of trials for great writers

1:05:00 how to identify a strong writer

1:07:00 clash of titans in great literature

1:09:00 how Homer influenced everyone

1:11:00 Plato’s Socrates banished Homer

1:13:00 how to be like the ancient audience

1:14:00 influence of Homer on Aeschylus

1:16:00 what is the story of the Oresteia?

1:17:00 appreciating the play Agamemnon

1:19:00 favourite translation of Aeschylus

1:20:00 how tragedy arose from the epic

1:22:00 what is the substance of tragedy?

1:23:00 analysing Aristotle’s Poetics

1:25:00 character is a function of story

1:27:00 mimesis teaches us how to live

1:29:00 how tragedy heals our trauma

1:30:00 comedy vs tragedy vs epic

1:31:00 idea of the classical unities

1:32:00 Aristotle’s formula for tragedy

1:34:00 tragedy must have magnitude

1:36:00 fear, pity and change in fortune

1:38:00 pride always goeth before a fall

1:39:00 Oedipus Rex of Sophocles

1:40:00 anagnorisis, ignorance, insight

1:41:00 power of suffering in tragedy

1:42:00 what is Oedipus Rex about?

1:44:00 appreciating Euripides’ Medea

1:46:00 was Euripides a feminist?

1:48:00 sympathy, suffering, catharsis

1:49:00 greek tragedy book club lectures

Resources:

Translations: There are two excellent editions that contain each of the plays we're appreciating and many more. If you would like the plays to have a fresh, modern voice, then go for this powerful collection translated and edited by Mary Lefkowitz and James Romm: The Greek Plays. This one features contemporary translators like Emily Wilson, Sarah Ruden, and Frank Nisetich, with great prefacing essays and appendices from the likes of Daniel Mendelsohn. If you want to experience some classic, poetic translations, then this anthology also makes for a superb choice: The Greek Tragedies. This one features translations from the likes of Richmond Lattimore, Robert Fagles, and Anne Carson. Personally, whilst I have these anthologies on hand, I love having individual paperback translations for each playwright that I can cover in my handwriting and take with me everywhere. For Aeschylus, I'm working from the Robert Fagles translation in Penguin paperback. For Sophocles, I'm also working from the great Fagles translation from Penguin. The quote at the top of this page is taken from his translation of Oedipus the King. And for Euripides, I've got the wonderful Philip Vellacott translation. Feel free to use the edition that comes most readily to hand for you. It's always interesting if we have a mixture of translations as we work through these plays together.

Criticism: If you read just one work of non-fiction before diving into these tragedies, make it Aristotle's Poetics. I've broken down the majority of it in the above video, but, as it's super slim, you might find it rewarding to run your eyes over it or read it slowly alongside the plays. You might even like to try talking to Aristotle in the margins with your pen. Another deeply informative work for appreciating tragedy is Friedrich Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy. As are the chapters dealing with Oedipus Rex in Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams. If you want more of my thoughts on Freud and Nietzsche, then we have lectures here and here. If you were interested in our discussion about ritual and myth, then Sir James Frazer's The Golden Bough is always great to dip into. And, of course, as we're thinking about the agonistic and Oedipal side of great art, Harold Bloom's The Anxiety of Influence offers a very interesting framework for literary appreciation. We also have a discussion breaking down that work available here. We ran through these works in the video, so you can get an idea of which one you're most pulled to explore at this moment.

Non-Fiction: If you'd like even more recommendations for complementary reading material, then I'm a huge fan of Edith Hall's writings. She has a splendid introduction to the world of Ancient Greece, with chapters that hit upon Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, called Introducing Ancient Greece: From Bronze Age Seafarers to Navigators of the Western Mind. For a concise, yet comprehensive, evaluation of the mythology behind these great stories, then Edith Hamilton's Mythology: Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes is great, as are the retellings of Stephen Fry. For a profound exploration of how tragedies can help heal trauma, I recommended Bryan Doerries' The Theatre of War.

Homer: The most leveraged reading for contextualising the plays of Ancient Greece would be the epics of Homer. The stories of the Iliad and the Odyssey were implicit knowledge for the theatre audience at the time of the great playwrights. Writers like Aeschylus were intensely influenced by Homer and tragedy was born out of the epic. If you read Homer's epics with us last year, you'll find engaging with works like the Oresteia to be deeply rewarding. But, if Homer is new to you, we have a video that goes into the tradition, who this great bard was, and the broad-sweeps stories of the two epics here. We have a series of lectures for the Iliad and the Odyssey, but I'll be filling in the Homeric influence where necessary during our current reading.

Progression: We'll begin with an appreciation of the Oresteia, a prize-winning trilogy by Aeschylus, which is comprised of the plays Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and Eumenides. After that, we'll appreciate Oedipus Rex by Sophocles, and then Medea by Euripides. We're alternating between our theatre appreciation and our current Big Read. That means this coming weekend, we'll be back to discussing Lonesome Dove. And the weekend after that, we will have our lecture on the Oresteia, which gives us a fortnight to digest each of these playwrights. So you have plenty of time to procure your copies, fit your appreciation around the rest of your reading, enjoy an adaptation, and watch the recommendation below. One word of encouragement: these playwrights may all be writing tragedies, but they offer us very different experiences from one another. You will find some more challenging, and some more immersive, than others. Pretend you are at your own City Dionysia and these are the works being judged. Keep a look out for your favourite play and which passages, themes, and characters resonate the most with you. Which playwright will you award top prize?

Adaptation Appreciation: You might find it interesting to watch the great Sir Peter Hall's staging of Tony Harrison's adaptation of the Oresteia at London's National Royal Theatre from the early 1980s, which is available on YouTube. You can find the first part Agamemnon here, the second part The Libation Bearers here, and Eumenides. This modern interpretation gives us an approximation of classical theatrical conventions (complete with masks and choral chants) that is very impressive, but don't be surprised if you find watching this a real challenge. If you find it easier to engage with the texts via reading, then try to flex your imaginative powers, read like a Romantic poet, and stage your own production in the Theatre of Your Mind. Or you could utilise a hybrid approach that uses listening, watching, and reading. For a contemporary radio production, BBC Three have a fresh adaptation with great sound design and concert orchestra available here. If you're interested in listening to the kind of music you'd find in the Ancient Greek theatre, take a listen to the aulos, or double pipes, here and here.

Reading Assignment:

The Oresteia by Aeschylus is our first ancient tragedy appreciation, which is a trilogy comprised of Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and Eumenides. This coming weekend, we're returning to Lonesome Dove, so our discussion on Aeschylus will be the following weekend.

So grab yourself a copy of the works, treat yourself to an adaptation, engage with the world of the story at the pace that best suits you, and note down any themes, ideas, or passages that personally resonate with you.

Questions for You:

1) What is your current relationship with the Ancient Greek tragedies?

2) What was your best experience in the theatre? And worst?

3) What elements make a tragedy compelling for you?

Happy reading, everybody!