Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade
Nor lose possession of that fair thou owest;
Nor shall Death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou growest:
So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.
※commentary
This sonnet is certainly the most famous in the sequence of Shakespeare’s sonnets; it may be the most famous lyric poem in English. Among Shakespeare’s works, only lines such as “To be or not to be” and “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?” are better-known. This is not to say that it is at all the best or most interesting or most beautiful of the sonnets; but the simplicity and loveliness of its praise of the beloved has guaranteed its place.
On the surface, the poem is simply a statement of praise about the beauty of the beloved; summer tends to unpleasant extremes of windiness and heat, but the beloved is always mild and temperate. Summer is incidentally personified as the “eye of heaven” with its “gold complexion”; the imagery throughout is simple and unaffected, with the “darling buds of May” giving way to the “eternal summer”, which the speaker promises the beloved. The language, too, is comparatively unadorned for the sonnets; it is not heavy with alliteration or assonance, and nearly every line is its own self-contained clause—almost every line ends with some punctuation, which effects a pause.
Sonnet 18 is the first poem in the sonnets not to explicitly encourage the young man to have children. The “procreation” sequence of the first 17 sonnets ended with the speaker’s realization that the young man might not need children to preserve his beauty; he could also live, the speaker writes at the end of Sonnet 17, “in my rhyme.” Sonnet 18, then, is the first “rhyme”—the speaker’s first attempt to preserve the young man’s beauty for all time. An important theme of the sonnet (as it is an important theme throughout much of the sequence) is the power of the speaker’s poem to defy time and last forever, carrying the beauty of the beloved down to future generations. The beloved’s “eternal summer” shall not fade precisely because it is embodied in the sonnet: “So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,” the speaker writes in the couplet, “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”
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※personify:
to think of or represent (a thing or idea) as a person or as having human qualities or powers
※alliteration:
the use of words that begin with the same sound near one another (as in wild and woolly or a babbling brook )
※assonance: the use of words that have the same or very similar vowel sounds near one another (as in “summer fun” and “rise high in the bright sky”)
※unadorned: not adorned : lacking embellishment or decoration
※explicit:very clear and complete : leaving no doubt about the meaning
※procreation: to produce children or offspring
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List of Homeric characters
Greeks in the Trojan War
Achilles : the leader of the Myrmidons, son of Peleus+ Thetis, and the principal Greek champion whose anger is one of the main elements of the story.
Agamemnon : King of Mycenae, supreme commander of the Achaean armies whose actions provoke the feud with Achilles; elder brother of King Menelaus.
Ajax : also known as Telamonian Ajax (he was the son of Telamon) and Greater Ajax,
was the tallest and strongest warrior (after Achilles) to fight for the Achaeans.
Ajax the Lesser: an Achaean commander, son of Oileus often fights alongside Great Ajax; the two together are sometimes called the "Ajaxes" .
Diomedes
the youngest of the Achaean commanders, famous for wounding two gods, Aphrodite and Ares.
Helen
the wife of Menelaus, the King of Sparta. Paris visits Menelaus in Sparta. With the assistance of Aphrodite, Paris and Helen fall in love and elope back to Troy, but in Sparta her elopement is considered an abduction.
Menelaus
King of Sparta and the abandoned husband of Helen. He is the younger brother of Agamemnon.
Nestor
of Gerênia and the son of Neleus. He was said to be the only one of his brothers to survive an assault from Heracles. Oldest member of the entire Greek army at Troy.
Odysseus
another warrior-king, famed for his cunning
Patroclus
beloved companion to Achilles.
Phoenix
an old Achaean warrior greatly trusted by Achilles, acts as mediator between Achilles and Agamemnon
Aeneas
cousin of Hector, his principal lieutenant, son of Aphrodite, the only major Trojan figure to survive the war. Held by later tradition to be the forefather of the founders of Rome. See the Aeneid.
Antenor
a Trojan nobleman who argues that Helen should be returned to Menelaus in order to end the war.
Glaucus
co-leader of the Lycian forces allied to the Trojan cause with Sarpedon.
Hector
firstborn son of King Priam, husband of Andromache, father of Astyanax, leader of the Trojan and allied armies and heir apparent to the throne of Troy.
Paris
Trojan prince and Hector's brother, also called Alexander; his abduction of Helen is the casus belli. He was supposed to be killed as a baby because his sister Cassandra foresaw that he would cause the destruction of Troy. Raised by a shepherd.
Polydamas
a young Trojan commander.
Priam
king of the Trojans, son and successor of Laomedon, husband of Queen Hecuba, father of Hector and Paris, too old to take part in the fighting; many of his fifty sons are counted among the Trojan commanders.
Sarpedon
co-leader of the Lycian forces allied to the Trojan cause with Glaucus. Son of Zeus.
Family and Servants of Odysseus
Laertes
father of Odysseus.
Penelope
wife of Odysseus, mother of Telemachus, she is clever and loyal to Odysseus, she is contrasted with Clytemnestra
Telemachus
son of Odysseus and Penelope, matures during his travels to Sparta and Pylos, fights Penelope's suitors with Odysseus.
※Suitors of Penelope
Amphinomus
Antinous
Eurymachus
※Mistresses
Briseis, mistress and love interest of Achilles, a woman captured in the sack of Lyrnessos, a small town in the territory of Troy, and awarded to Achilles as a prize; Agamemnon takes her from Achilles in Book 1 and Achilles withdraws from battle as a result.
Helen
daughter of Zeus, former Queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus, now espoused to Paris.[1][2]
※Deities
Aphrodite
goddess of love, beauty, and sexual pleasure. Wife of Hephaestus, and lover of Ares.
Apollo
god of the sun, light, knowledge, healing, plague and darkness, the arts, music, poetry, prophecy, archery. Son of Zeus and Leto, twin of Artemis.
Ares
god of war. Lover of Aphrodite. Driven from the field of battle by Diomedes (aided by Athena).
Athena
goddess of crafts, domestic arts, strategic warfare, and wisdom. Daughter of Zeus.
Hera
goddess of birth, family, marriage, and women. Sister and wife of Zeus, queen of the gods.
Hermes
messenger of the gods, leads Priam into Achilles' camp in book 24.
Iris
messenger of Zeus and Hera.
Poseidon
brother of Zeus, Greek god of the sea and earthquake, curses Odysseus.
Zeus
king of the Gods, brother of Poseidon and Hera and father of Athena, Aphrodite, Ares, and Apollo.
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3 ancient Greek tragedians
I.Aeschylus
Aeschylus was an ancient Greek tragedian. He is often described as the father of tragedy.
Critic's and scholar's 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 allowing conflict among them; characters previously had interacted only with the chorus.
Fragments of some other plays have survived in quotes and more continue to be discovered on Egyptian papyrus, often giving us surprising insights into his work. He was probably the first dramatist to present plays as a trilogy; his Oresteia is the only ancient example of the form to have survived. At least one of his plays was influenced by the Persians' second invasion of Greece . This work, The Persians, is the only surviving classical Greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events (very few of that kind were ever written), and a useful source of information about its period. The significance of war in Ancient Greek culture was so great that Aeschylus' epitaph commemorates his participation in the Greek victory at Marathon while making no mention of his success as a playwright. Despite this, Aeschylus' work – particularly the Oresteia – is acclaimed by today's literary academics.
Aeschylus family was wealthy and well established; his father was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica, though this might be a fiction that the ancients invented to account for the grandeur of his plays.
As a youth, he worked at a vineyard until,
the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep and
commanded him to turn his attention to the nascent art of tragedy
As soon as he woke from the dream, the young Aeschylus began to write a tragedy, and his first performance took place in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old.
In 480, Aeschylus was called into military service again, this time against Xerxes I's invading forces at the Battle of Salamis, and perhaps, too, at the Battle of Plataea in 479. Ion of Chios was a witness for Aeschylus's war record and his contribution in Salamis.Salamis holds a prominent place in The Persians, his oldest surviving play, which was performed in 472 BC and won first prize at the Dionysia.
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who had been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries, a cult to Demeter based in his hometown of Eleusis. As the name usually implies, members of a cult are to gain secret knowledge but this word comes from the Latin word mysterium, and was related to mystai, or initiate, and meant something to be experienced rather than our current view of it as something to solve. Firm details of specific rites are sparse, as members were sworn under the penalty of death not to reveal anything about the Mysteries to non-initiates. Nevertheless, according to Aristotle some thought that Aeschylus had revealed some of the cult's secrets on stage.
Work
The play Agamemnon details the homecoming of Agamemnon, King of Mycene, from the Trojan War. Waiting at home for him is his wife, Clytemnestra, who has been planning his murder, partly as revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter, Iphigenia, and partly because in the ten years of Agamemnon's absence Clytemnestra has entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus, Agamemnon's cousin and the sole survivor of a dispossessed branch of the family (Agamemnon's father, Atreus, killed and fed Aegisthus's brothers to Aegisthus's father, Thyestes, when he took power from him), who is determined to regain the throne he believes should rightfully belong to him. It is in verse 177 of this work that was born the concept of πάθει μάθος (páthei máthos),which means "knowledge/knowing, or wisdom, or learning, through suffering".
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Iphigenia
----daughter of Agamemnon
※François Perrier's The Sacrifice of Iphigenia
: depicting Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigenia.
In Greek mythology, Iphigenia was a daughter of King Agamemnon and Queen Clytemnestra,.Agamemnon offends the goddess Artemis, who retaliates by commanding him to kill Iphigenia as a sacrifice so his ships can sail to Troy.
Iphigenia as a priestess of Artemis in Tauris sets out to greet prisoners, amongst which are her brother Orestes and his friend Pylades; a Roman fresco from Pompeii, 1st century AD
"Iphigenia" means "strong-born," "born to strength," or "she who causes the birth of strong offspring."
In Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis, it is Menelaus who convinces Agamemnon to heed the seer Calchas's advice. After Agamemnon sends a message to Clytemnestra informing her of Iphigenia's supposed marriage, he immediately regrets his decision and tries to send another letter telling them not to come. Menelaus intercepts the letter and he and Agamemnon argue. Menelaus insists that it is Agamemnon's duty to do all he can to aid the Greeks. Clytemnestra arrives at Aulis with Iphigenia and the infant Orestes. Agamemnon tries to convince Clytemnestra to go back to Argos, but Clytemnestra insists on staying for the wedding. When she sees Achilles, Clytemnestra mentions the marriage; Achilles, however, appears to be unaware of it, and she and Iphigenia gradually learn the truth. Achilles, angry that Agamemnon has used him in his plot, vows to help prevent the murder of Iphigenia. Iphigenia and Clytemnestra plead with Agamemnon to spare his daughter's life. Achilles informs them that the Greek army, eager for war, has learned of the seer's advice and now demand that Iphigenia be sacrificed. If Agamemnon refuses, it is likely they will turn on him and kill him and his family. Iphigenia, knowing she is doomed, decides to be sacrificed willingly, reasoning that as a mere mortal, she can't go against the will of a goddess. She also believes that her death will be heroic, as it's for the good of all Greeks. Iphigenia exits, and the sacrifice takes place offstage. Later, Clytemnestra is told of her daughter's death—and how at the last moment, the gods spared Iphigenia and whisked her away, replacing her with a deer.
↑In this picture we can see the gods replace Iphigenia with a deer
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Aeschylus' Agamemnon
Agamemnon is the first play in a trilogy of tragedies by Aeschylus entitled the Oresteia. When we say it is part of a trilogy, we don't mean like nowadays, when some blockbuster movie makes a ton of money, prompting studio executives to crank out a couple of sequels. In the heyday of Greek tragedy, all three parts of a trilogy were performed back-to-back…to-back, on a single day. Sometimes, these would be followed by a fourth play, called a satyr play, which would provide a goofy contrast. Each series of plays would usually be linked by some overarching story and set of themes; the Oresteia, which talks about a cycle of revenge within three generations of a single family, is no exception.
The Oresteia was first performed in Athens at the Festival of the god Dionysus in 458 B.C. At this festival, tragedies were always performed as part of a contest pitting poet against poet; you'll be pleased to know that, with the Oresteia, Aeschylus took home first-place.
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| ※Theater Of Dionysus The Dionysia, a festival of the Rural Dionysia and the City Dionysia, the central event of which was the performance and judging of tragedies and comedies |
So, that trophy must have meant Aeschylus was set for life, right? Well, yes, but Aeschylus was already a very established playwright, and an old man, by the time he won this victory.According to legend, when Aeschylus was a young man, he worked in a vineyard. One day, when he dosed off, the god Dionysus appeared to him in a dream and said, "Hey, Aeschylus! You should become a writer of tragedies." Then Aeschylus supposedly woke up and said, "Word."
.According to Aristotle, before Aeschylus came along, tragedies only featured one actor and a chorus; Aeschylus was the first person to add a second actor. Thus, you could say that Aeschylus invented dramatic dialogue, making him the originator of all subsequent theater, movies, and TV. Not too shabby.
But then, in 468, Aeschylus was given a run for his money by a young upstart named Sophocles, who actually won first prize in his first year competing. Two millennia before the epic battle between the Gillette Mach 3, Schick Quattro, and Gillette Fusion lines of safety razors, Sophocles soon unveiled his new secret weapon: a THIRD ACTOR. Aeschylus knew a good thing when he saw it, though, and in no time he was working three-actor scenes into his own tragedies, including those of the Oresteia. Aeschylus's trick was that he would keep the third actor silent for long periods of time, making him (all Greek actors were male) speak only at climactic moments. The character of Cassandra in Agamemnon fits this pattern.
Written near the end of his life, and incorporating his own innovations and those of Sophocles, Agamemnon and the rest of the Oresteia make up Aeschylus's greatest achievement. It is no coincidence that these plays were revived and re-performed after Aeschylus's death, a rare honor in ancient Athens. Fortunately for us, they continue to be read and performed today.
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Clytemnestra
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| Clytemnestra |
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| Helen |
Upon his return from Troy, Agamemnon was welcomed by his wife. When he went to take a bath, Clytemnestra threw a net on him and stabbed him. Agamemnon's concubine, Cassandra, who was outside the palace, had foreseen the plot, but as she was cursed by the god Apollo, no one believed her and she reluctantly accepted her fate and was slain.
Aegisthus and Clytemnestra took the rule of Mycenae for seven years, until Orestes, the son of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, returned and killed his mother and her lover as revenge for his father's death.
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| Clytemnestra stabbed her husband,Agamemnon |
※concubine:
an unmarried woman who has sex with a man and lives with the man and his wife or wives
※satyr:
one of the forest gods in Greek mythology who have faces and bodies like men and ears, legs, and tails like goats
※goofy :
crazy or silly
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II.Sophocles
Sophocles 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: Ajax, Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King, Electra, Philoctetes and Oedipus at Colonus. For almost 50 years, Sophocles was the most celebrated playwright in the dramatic competitions of the city-state of Athens that took place during the religious festivals of the Lenaea and the Dionysia. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and was never judged lower than second place. Aeschylus won 14 competitions, and was sometimes defeated by Sophocles, while Euripides won 5 competitions.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sophocles' OEDIPUS THE KING
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| blind Oedipus |
Oedipus sent his brother-in-law Creon to ask advice of the oracle at Delphi concerning a plague ravaging Thebes. Creon returns to report that the plague is the result of religious pollution, since the murderer of their former King, Laius, had never been caught. Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for causing the plague.
 |
| prophet Tiresias |
Creon arrives to face Oedipus's accusations. The King demands that Creon be executed; however, the chorus persuades him to let Creon live. Jocasta enters and attempts to comfort Oedipus, telling him he should take no notice of prophets. As proof, she recounts (in a flashback) an incident in which she and Laius received an oracle which never came true. The prophecy stated that Laius would be killed by his own son; however, Jocasta reassures Oedipus by her statement that Laius was killed by bandits at a crossroads on the way to Delphi.
The mention of this crossroads causes Oedipus to pause and ask for more details. He asks Jocasta what Laius looked like, and Oedipus suddenly becomes worried that Tiresias's accusations were true. Oedipus then sends for the one surviving witness of the attack to be brought to the palace from the fields where he now works as a shepherd.
Jocasta, confused, asks Oedipus what the matter is, and he tells her. Many years ago, at a banquet in Corinth, a man drunkenly accused Oedipus of not being his father's son. Oedipus went to Delphi and asked the oracle about his parentage. Instead of answers he was given a prophecy that he would one day murder his father and sleep with his mother. Upon hearing this he resolved to leave Corinth and never return. While traveling he came to the very crossroads where Laius was killed, and encountered a carriage which attempted to drive him off the road. An argument ensued and Oedipus killed the travelers, including a man who matches Jocasta's description of Laius. Oedipus has hope, however, because the story is that Laius was murdered by several robbers. If the shepherd confirms that Laius was attacked by many men, then Oedipus is in the clear.
A man arrives from Corinth with the message that Oedipus's father has died. Oedipus, to the surprise of the messenger, is made ecstatic by this news, for it proves one half of the prophecy false, for now he can never kill his father. However, he still fears that he may somehow commit incest with his mother. The messenger, eager to ease Oedipus's mind, tells him not to worry, because Merope was not in fact his real mother.
It emerges that this messenger was formerly a shepherd on Mount Cithaeron, and that he was given a baby, which the childless Polybus then adopted. The baby, he says, was given to him by another shepherd from the Laius household, who had been told to get rid of the child. Oedipus asks the chorus if anyone knows who this man was, or where he might be now. They respond that he is the same shepherd who was witness to the murder of Laius, and whom Oedipus had already sent for. Jocasta, who has by now realized the truth, desperately begs Oedipus to stop asking questions, but he refuses and Jocasta runs into the palace.
When the shepherd arrives Oedipus questions him, but he begs to be allowed to leave without answering further. However, Oedipus presses him, finally threatening him with torture or execution. It emerges that the child he gave away was Laius's own son, and that Jocasta had given the baby to the shepherd to secretly be exposed upon the mountainside. This was done in fear of the prophecy that Jocasta said had never come true: that the child would kill his father.
Everything is at last revealed, and Oedipus curses himself and fate before leaving the stage. The chorus laments how even a great man can be felled by fate, and following this, a servant exits the palace to speak of what has happened inside. When Jocasta enters the house, she runs to the palace bedroom and hangs herself there. Shortly afterward, Oedipus enters in a fury, calling on his servants to bring him a sword so that he might cut out his mother's womb. He then rages through the house, until he comes upon Jocasta's body. Giving a cry, Oedipus takes her down and removes the long gold pins that held her dress together, before plunging them into his own eyes in despair.
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III.Euripides
Euripides was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Greece (the other two being Aeschylus and Sophocles). Largely due to an accident of history, eighteen of Euripides' ninety-five plays have survived in a complete form, along with fragments (some substantial) of many of his other plays. He is known primarily for having reshaped the formal structure of traditional Greek tragedy by showing strong female characters and intelligent slaves, and by satirizing many heroes of Greek mythology. He is considered to be the most socially critical of all the ancient Greek tragedians, and his plays seem quite modern in comparison with those of his contemporaries.
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| Euripides |
Euripides' Medea
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| Medea |
Euripedes' Medea opens in a state of conflict. Jason has abandoned his wife, Medea, along with their two children. He hopes to advance his station by remarrying with Glauce, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth, the Greek city where the play is set. All the events of play proceed out of this initial dilemma, and the involved parties become its central characters.
(The first scene)Outside the royal palace, a nurse laments the events that have lead to the present crisis. After a long series of trials and adventures, which ultimately forced Jason and Medea to seek exile in Corinth, the pair had settled down and established their family, achieving a degree of fame and respectability. Jason's recent abandonment of that family has crushed Medea emotionally, to the degree that she curses her own existence, as well as that of her two children.
Fearing a possible plot of revenge, Creon banishes Medea and her children from the city. After pleading for mercy, Medea is granted one day before she must leave, during which she plans to complete her quest for "justice"--at this stage in her thinking, the murder of Creon, Glauce, and Jason. Jason accuses Medea of overreacting. By voicing her grievances so publicly, she has endangered her life and that of their children. He claims that his decision to remarry was in everyone's best interest. Medea finds him spineless, and she refuses to accept his token offers of help.
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| Creon |
Appearing by chance in Corinth, Aegeus, King of Athens, offers Medea sanctuary in his home city in exchange for her knowledge of certain drugs that can cure his sterility. Now guaranteed an eventual haven in Athens, Medea has cleared all obstacles to completing her revenge, a plan which grows to include the murder of her own children; the pain their loss will cause her does not outweigh the satisfaction she will feel in making Jason suffer.
For the balance of the play, Medea engages in a ruse; she pretends to sympathize with Jason (bringing him into her confidence) and offers his wife "gifts," a coronet and dress. Ostensibly, the gifts are meant to convince Glauce to ask her father to allow the children to stay in Corinth. The coronet and dress are actually poisoned, however, and their delivery causes Glauce's death. Seeing his daughter ravaged by the poison, Creon chooses to die by her side by dramatically embracing her and absorbing the poison himself.
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| Medea's poison plan |
A messenger recounts the gruesome details of these deaths, which Medea absorbs with cool attentiveness. Her earlier state of anxiety, which intensified as she struggled with the decision to commit infanticide, has now given way to an assured determination to fulfill her plans. Against the protests of the chorus, Medea murders her children and flees the scene in a dragon-pulled chariot provided by her grandfather, the Sun-God. Jason is left cursing his lot; his hope of advancing his station by abandoning Medea and marrying Glauce, the conflict which opened the play, has been annihilated, and everything he values has been lost through the deaths that conclude the tragedy.
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※attentiveness
: thinking about or watching something carefully : paying careful attention to something
※coronet
: a small crown
※ostensibly(=superficially)
: seeming or said to be true or real but very possibly not true or real
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