LITR 4370 Tragedy
lecture notes
Spring 2017

Lysistrata summary

Lysistrata trailer

Chi-raq trailer (2015)

 

 

 

 

Priapus: Greek God w/ permanent erection

 

 

what get from Nietzsche? > Apollonian and Dionysian

dreams as origins of art (Apollo)

myth and ritual as origins of drama (Dionysian chorus)

 problem last class of what Ezra Manning did to die > absence of myth or legendary story to give depth: Nietzsche ch. 7, p.38

 

Bacchae Presentation Three (lines 333-539): Faron Samford

Tiresias to Pentheus: two things--Earth and wine

355-6 Apart from wine,
there is no cure for human hardship.

360 you mock him. Why?  [him = Dionysus]   
Because he was sewn into Zeus's thigh?
Well, I'll show you how this all makes sense.

377 This god's a prophet, too, for in his rites—
the Bacchic celebrations and the madness—
a huge prophetic power is unleashed.
When the god fully enters human bodies,        380
he makes those possessed by frenzy prophets.

393 Don't be too confident a sovereign's force
controls men. If something seems right to you,
but your mind's diseased, don't think that's wisdom.
So welcome this god into your country.

402 any woman
whose character is chaste won't be defiled
by Bacchic revelry.

409 so Cadmus,
whom you mock, and I will crown our heads    410
with ivy and will join the ritual,
an old gray team, but still we have to dance.

421 You should live among us,
not outside traditions.

424 if, as you claim, this man is not a god,
why not call him one? Why not tell a lie,
a really good one?

436 PENTHEUS: Keep your hands off me! Be off with you—

441 go quickly to where this man,
Tiresias, has that seat of his, the place
where he inspects his birds. Take some levers,
knock it down. Demolish it completely

450 a new disease

468 I'm not saying this as a prophecy,
but on the basis of what's going on.

481 his special office,
to lead men together in the dance,
to make them laugh as the flute plays,
to bring all sorrows to an end,

500 Our life is brief—that's why    
the man who chases greatness
fails to grasp what's near at hand.

528 The god gives his wine equally,
sharing with rich and poor alike.
It takes away all sorrow.
        

537 So I take this as my rule—
follow what common people think—
do what most men do.

 

1.11] LYSISTRATA: Yes indeed, it's big and impressive.    [double entendre]

wit

[1.13] LYSISTRATA: (wearily) Oh! if what I'm talking about were what you're thinking, no one would miss it. No, no, it concerns something I've turned around and about this way and that for many sleepless nights.

[1.14] KLEONIKE: (still unable to be serious) It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned it about so!

[1.102] KLEONIKE: No, Lysistrata, one cannot swear peace over a shield, surely.  [The women's indecision on how to manage the oath is typical of comedy's tendency to repeat actions and make mistakes (without painful consequences)]

ceremony at end of scene 1: narrative as ritual

 

[2.2] FIRST SEMI-CHORUS OF OLD MEN: (singing) What unlooked-for things do happen, to be sure, in a long life!

[2.3] LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN: Come, Philurgus, old man, let's hurry there; let's lay our firewood all about the citadel, and on the blazing bonfires burn with our hands these vile conspiratresses, one and all—and Lycon's wife first and foremost! [incongruity of feeble old veterans of war threatening violence, which is somewhat unpleasant, but since it's a comedy, no real pain will happen.]

2.4 [humor of excess]

2.6 Phew! phew! (Blowing the fire) Oh! dear! what a dreadful smoke!  [Physical humor: Old men were stock comical characters in Greek drama. Their difficulty climbing the hill of the Acropolis and efforts to blow on the fire are standard "low humor" or "low comedy."]

 

 

3.71 wordplay, innuendo

3.80 weaving metaphor for peace-making

3.82 politics and yarn

3.84 extended metaphor

3.90 woman one summer

4.5 women review roles, honors

4.7 [humorous incongruity of naked old men reclaiming youth.]

4.19 ready to desert

[4.22] FIRST WOMAN: I will return immediately, I swear I will by the two goddesses*! I only have just to spread it out on the bed**. [*two goddesses (of fertility): Demeter and Persephone] [*spread it out on the bed: pun (wordplay) & innuendo]

[4.26] SECOND WOMAN: Unhappy woman that I am! Alas for my flax*! I've left it at home unstripped! [*flax: textile fiber from flax plants] [**unstripped: pun (wordplay) & innuendo]

[4.37] LYSISTRATA: No, no, by Aphrodite! nothing of the sort! Why, it feels like something hollow—a pot or a kettle.

(Opening her robe) Oh! you silly creature, if you have not got the sacred helmet of Pallas*—and you said you were with child! [*Pallas = Athena, goddess of wisdom, often depicted wearing a helmet]

[4.51] CHORUS OF OLD MEN: (singing) I want to tell you a fable they used to relate to me when I was a little boy. This is it: Once upon a time there was a young man called Melanion*, who hated the thought of marriage

4.57] CHORUS OF WOMEN: (singing) I want to tell you a fable too, to match yours about Melanion. Once there was a certain man called Timon*,

Scene 5: Kinesias, Myrrhine, and child (variation on mistaken identity)

[5.25] KINESIAS: Not want you? Why, here I stand, at attention with desire!

[5.37] KINESIAS: Everything is falling apart in the house.

[5.79] KINESIAS: (pointing) Believe me, something's up already!  [pun, double-entendre]

 

Scene 6: humor / action continues to build from scene 5 to appearance of another sexually excited man (Herald)

[6.13] HERALD: Why, everything is turned upside down at Sparta; and all the allies are cracy with unfulfilled desire. We simply must have Pellene*. [*Pellene: both the name of a contested city and a famous courtesan; pun or wordplay]

[pun / wordplay as superiority, sense of understanding that others may not get]

[6.20] LEADER OF CHORUS OF OLD MEN: There is no wild beast, no flame of fire more fierce and untamable than woman; the leopard is less savage and shameless. [cf. women as "panthers" & "tiger moms"]

6.29-31 just one kiss [romantic comedy]

6.32-33 let's sing a choric song [unity]

 

[7.2] SPARTAN AMBASSADOR: No need for many words; you can see what a state we are in.   ["state" as wordplay or pun on "city-state" and "state of excitement"; wit or "high comedy"]

[7.12] MAGISTRATE: Oh! what a terrible state we are in! Greeting to you, Laconian fellow-sufferers.

 

[7.8] MAGISTRATE: Yes, and dreadful, miserable torture it is! Unless peace is made very soon, we shall find no recourse but to make love to Clisthenes*. [*Clisthenes: name for a "pathic" or "man or boy who is the passive partner in homosexual intercourse" (OED)]

[7.20] LYSISTRATA: It will be an easy task—if only they refrain from mutual indulgence in masculine love; if they do, I shall know the fact at once.

 

First I must bring a reproach against you that applies equally to both sides. At Olympia, and Thermopylae, and Delphi, and a score of other places too numerous to mention, you celebrate before the same altars ceremonies common to all Hellenes; yet you go cutting each other's throats, and sacking Hellenic cities, when all the while the barbarian yonder is threatening you! That is my first point.

[7.25] LYSISTRATA: And now a word to the Athenians. Have you no memory left of how, in the days when you wore the tunic of slaves, the Laconians came, spear in hand, and slew a host of Thessalians and partisans of Hippias the tyrant? They, and they only, fought on your side on that eventful day; they delivered you from despotism, and thanks to them our nation could change the short tunic of the slave for the long cloak of the free man.

[cf. Athena at end of Euminides]

[7.28] LYSISTRATA: Bound by such ties of mutual kindness, how can you bear to be at war? Stop, stay the hateful strife, be reconciled; what hinders you?

[7.45] LYSISTRATA: Well said, indeed! Now go and purify yourselves for entering the Acropolis, where the women invite you to supper; we will empty our provision baskets to do you honor. At table, you will exchange oaths and pledges; then each man will go home with his wife.

[7.53] MAGISTRATE: It's only natural, to be sure, for sober, we're all fools.  (compare Tiresias in Bacchae)

A perjury or two into the bargain, why! What does that matter to merry companions in their cups?  [Dionysian unity?]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Discussion Questions:
1. Compare and contrast Lysistrata as a comic narrative genre with Oresteia and Mourning Becomes Electra as tragedy.

2. Compare Lysistrata to later comedies by Shakespeare or to modern film comedies or TV sitcoms.

3. What upsides and downsides to teaching and reading Lysistrata?

Upsides: feminism in ancient Greeece; peace instead of war

Downsides: ribald sexuality on verge of obscenity

4. Identify elements of humor, wit, and comedy as comic narrative. (Comedy as genre; Wit & Humor; Comic theory)

5. What different appeals of comedy and tragedy? What impact on audience? How “timeless” are comedy and tragedy, comparatively?

 

 

1. Compare and contrast Lysistrata as a comic narrative genre with Oresteia and Mourning Becomes Electra as tragedy.

 

define narrative

Aristotle on plot as soul of tragedy, character second

character easier, and not entiriely separate from narrative or plot

character appears more often when we discuss tragic flaw later in semester

 

 

 



2. Compare Lysistrata to later comedies by Shakespeare or to modern film comedies or TV sitcoms.

 

conspiracy moment by women (c. Lucy) or men (King of Queens)

scheme is hatched, leading to deception (mistaken identity) and showdown

"battle of sexes" with one side winning temporarily before reconciling at end. (comedic conclusion as unity)

conclusion: couples re-united and heading off to bed? or at least rest.

 

edgier, grosser qualities: "gross-out comedy"

 

 



3. What upsides and downsides to teaching and reading Lysistrata?

Upsides: feminism in ancient Greeece; peace instead of war

Downsides: ribald sexuality on verge of obscenity

 

main reason for including: comedy example, but also Greek

scandalizes, but from foundations of Western civilization--a classic piece of literature from Classical Athens!

Greeks didn't just stand around in togas spouting wisdom

 

 

 

4. Identify elements of humor, wit, and comedy as comic narrative. (Comedy as genre; Wit & Humor; Comic theory)

[1.11] LYSISTRATA: Yes indeed, it's big and impressive.    [double entendre]

wit

[1.13] LYSISTRATA: (wearily) Oh! if what I'm talking about were what you're thinking, no one would miss it. No, no, it concerns something I've turned around and about this way and that for many sleepless nights.

[1.14] KLEONIKE: (still unable to be serious) It must be something mighty fine and subtle for you to have turned it about so!

 

 

[1.102] KLEONIKE: No, Lysistrata, one cannot swear peace over a shield, surely.  [The women's indecision on how to manage the oath is typical of comedy's tendency to repeat actions and make mistakes (without painful consequences)]

 

ceremony at end of scene 1: narrative as ritual

 

 

[7.2] SPARTAN AMBASSADOR: No need for many words; you can see what a state we are in.   ["state" as wordplay or pun on "city-state" and "state of excitement"; wit or "high comedy"]

[7.12] MAGISTRATE: Oh! what a terrible state we are in! Greeting to you, Laconian fellow-sufferers.

 

 

 

5. What different appeals of comedy and tragedy? What impact on audience? How “timeless” are comedy and tragedy, comparatively?

wit decays

physical comedy endures b/c body doesn't change, always funny and source of animal weakness

tragedy endures because of power of plot (Aristotle's #1)