GRST 209 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Liminality, Gorgon, Megapenthes

• School: University of Calgary
• Department: Greek and Roman Studies
• Course: GRST 209
• Professor: Peter Toohey

Document Summary

Sophocles" oedipus the king vs. euripides" bacchae: gods are all powerful / gods are all powerful, gods must be obeyed / gods must be obeyed, gods are unknowable / gods are knowable. Rationality (pentheus) vs. irrationality (dionysus) balance (found in marriage) Idea of cause and effect, but not associating them with morality. In these plays, middle carries importance, meaning first half sees main character as good, second half sees them become bad. Theban themes sight / blindness fire water snakes impotence of speech dismemberment liminality (threshold) sexual ambivalence instability of reality childlessness madness. Story tells about human life; greed and violence and interplay between logic and emotions. While on island of serifos, king polydectes wished to marry danae but saw perseus as an obstacle to doing so challenged perseus to kill the gorgon medusa. polydectes believed this task would result in perseus" death.