CLASSIC 45C Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Practical Reason
22 May 2017
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Document Summary
Medea and hippolytus produced around same time. Abandonment of the female by the male. From greek mindset, unsupervised women are up to no good. Belief that they need to have a man. Doesn"t feel the need to have sex. Hippolytus is wrong because he doesn"t want descendants which was important in ancient greece. His crime is excessive chastity/abstinence from sex. Complication bc artemis is a maiden goddess. Moral: wisdom is taking the middle path, balance between lust and chastity. The heavens are framing the action of the play. Divine epiphany, issues of divine intervention and limited human responsibility. Greek religious system forces u to be moderate. This play is about the suffering that the gods can inflict for disrespecting them. Aphrodite feels slighted, she"s going to make h suffer. Strategies for conquering love and her life-principles. Reveals that hippolytus is going to die. In beginning, keeps suffering to herself bc she"s ashamed of falling in love with her stepson.
