Litsy

A fair amount of reading was done in March. While many books are in the 3-star range, I did really enjoy The Odyssey (read over two months). I finished ny #BookSpin and #DoubleSpin, read a couple of books for #192025, read two books set in big cities for #FictionalTraveler, a couple of #1001Books, and I even got a Bingo.

Suet624 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼 23h

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Robotswithpersonality

Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays | Robert Willoughby Corrigan

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It is done! Or at least as done as it's going to be from me. I picked up this collection for Euripedes' Medea, was happy to get Sophocles' Antigone in the bargain, and a bonus second Medea by Seneca. Euripides' Bakkhai is a wild time, The Oresteia is pretty familiar ground given the link up to Illiad characters. I wish there was more of Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, but what there is extant of it is good. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I did Sophocles ' Oedipus the King, and didn't feel in the mood to do Seneca's Oedipus later. I did give the associated essays a try, but they focused more on the plays/play mechanics/playwrights than the stories/myths behind the plays, which are more my interest. Will definitely be seeking more scholarship on Greek myth, (only took 17 years after the Greek and Roman studies degree for me to recover my desire to do research on that topic) 2w

Robotswithpersonality 3/? especially through a modern feminist lens. Antigone and Medea's stories stand out because they exhibit female agency (Clytaemnestra's in The Oresteia is pretty short-lived 😬), and Medea in particular because she 'gets away with it'. Major themes (don't fuck with the gods, expect your family lineage's curse to haunt you in some way, nothing could be more heinous than killing family - except perhaps sleeping with them 🤢) exist throughout. 2w

Robotswithpersonality 4/4 Medea makes for an interesting case because one seems to trump the other - her divine lineage is part of what makes it possible for her to kill and survive - for once no mention of the Furies...will definitely be looking up further modern retellings of her story. Don't get me started on Jason. 🙄
⚠️mentions of SA, suicide, gore, child death 2w

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Robotswithpersonality

Classical Tragedy, Greek and Roman: 8 Plays in Authoritative Modern Translations Accompanied by Critical Essays | Robert Willoughby Corrigan

Ah, yes, because knowing he's the arbiter of his eternal torment is definitely the way to get Prometheus to see Zeus in a more favourable light. 🫣

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Birdsong28

Odyssey | Stephen Fry

#UkKindleDailyDeal

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Jehonzy

Thousand Ships | Natalie Haynes

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„Sing Muse, he said. Now do you hear me? I sang“ ~ Muse of epic poetry

Haynes spoke through Calliope and gave a voice to the broken women of Troy. It was nice to read the voice of the women in this war, I can only recommend it.

#mythology #greek #haynes #emotional

7 likes

Andrea313

The Illiad | Homer

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Emily Wilson's translation gets a HUGE standing O from me, and Audra McDonald's audiobook narration is unbelievably moving and deeply emotional. It's a long listen (took me 4 weeks to get through), but it's worth the commitment. And the quote here from Wilson's introduction could not be more true. The loss throughout the story is staggering in scale, brutal and overwhelming- yet the grief described is so human and so cathartic. Bravo all around.

willaful Oh interesting, they use this same theme in “Hadestown.“
(edited) 2mo

Andrea313 @willaful Another piece of art I love!!! 2mo

25 likes2 comments

Robotswithpersonality

Medea | Euripides

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Felt the need for a reread after reading Glorious Exploits, was not disappointed. Euripides' version is shorter than I remember, but I did enjoy the modern feel to the language in Michael Townsend's translation (the version I read came from Classical Tragedy Greek And Roman: 8 plays edited by Robert W. Corrigan). 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I appreciate the nuance and conflict Euripides introduced around Medea's seemingly unfathomable choices, while still emphasizing the morality of his time. Medea seems pre-condemned as a family destroyer, emphasizing her involvement in her father's and brother's deaths, yet those same actions can form part of the sins heaped at Jason's feet, adding to the list of reasons he deserves punishment. 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? Similarly convoluted messaging around the children: to be exiled or abandoned, shamed by their father's actions and displaced by his ambition, like Medea, they no longer have a home, and so Medea can find moments of justification beyond her own thirst for vengeance in determingintheir fate. Jason is an odd figure, at first the self-aggrandizing villain identity is obvious, whatever he says, his actions are to further his own interests, 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? no thought for his wife and children, unless you believe the like that his new marriage will better their station, even as he moves to have a family with the princess. Yet his remorse at this childrens' murder seems genuine - is it's only purpose to allow Medea to have her full sense of revenge, or, even as she promises to bury them where he cannot reach them, is she protecting them from him still? (edited) 2mo

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Robotswithpersonality 5/? Medea's othering is also briefly touched on, the idea that she has power, due to her lineage and her collaboration in violent acts previously, and her vicious cursing of the royal family her husband has now switched his allegiance to, her being a 'foreigner', both in Jason's homeland and her sought asylum in Athens. The chorus admonishes her for her blood-thirsty plans, 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 6/? and while that falls in line with some tenets of ancient Greek morality on display: Aigeus swears an oath as a future host having answered Medea's supplication, Medea's broken family bonds by murder and is cursed by it, it also leaves one wondering if anyone is on her side. The othering continues when she and Jason both emphasize women's 'failings' when it suits them, the difficulties inherent in motherhood and how that may clash with other 2mo

Robotswithpersonality 7/7 goals, other sides of a child-bearer's identity.
A bit of a nostalgic read because it got me thinking about analysis from college course, and also a masterful snippet exploring the dark side of 'what would you do' feminine rage and pride versus more traditional feminine roles, the bonds of love and loyalty to family. It's no wonder the tale has lasted this long.
⚠️ misogyny, child death 2mo

11 likes6 comments

BookmarkTavern

D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths | Ingri D'Aulaire

Watching the nibling for the afternoon, and they‘re doing a Greek mythology thing at school, so it‘s time to bring out the book I got for Christmas when I was their age. ❤️

RamsFan1963 I loved this book as a kid, the beginning of my love for Greek Mythology, and mythology in general. I checked it out from the library so often I felt like I owned it. 2mo

74 likes1 comment

Rome753

The Fall of the Roman Republic | Plutarch

"So all considerations of humanity were swept away by their rage and fury; or was this, rather, a demonstration that no wild beast is more savage than man when his passions are armed with power?"
Plutarch, "Fall of the Roman Republic"

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