Laura Parker

11/16/06

Greek Tragedy

Document 2

The Role of the Gods in Greek Tragedies

Introduction

The gods play interesting and varied roles in many of the classical Greek tragedies written by Greek tragedians. The gods can sometimes come to solve the problems, but sometimes they also create them. Dramatically, they are often incorporated with the story, but it can be done in drastically different ways.

Hippolytos

In some cases, the gods (or goddesses) make problems for the characters in the tragedies, making the gods the main obstacles against them. In other cases, they come and solve the problems for the characters. In the play Hippolytos, by Euripides, they do both.

Aphrodite becomes jealous of Artemis and so she sets up problems for Hippolytos. Because Hippolytos worships Artemis too much and does not worship Aphrodite, Aphrodite formulates a plan in order to spite Hippolytos and his family. She says in her opening speech, “It’s purely his/ offenses against me which I resent/ and will punish-today” (lines 37-39). Aphrodite makes Phaidra, Hippolytos’ mother in law, fall in love with Hippolytos. Phaidra then hangs herself and leaves a note for her husband, Theseus, telling him that Hippolytos raped her. Theseus then banishes Hippolytos, who then gets hit by his chariot and almost dies. Theseus, when he hears this, asks to see Hippolytos because, “I want to see him face/ the unanswerable argument the gods/ and I use against him-his own death” (lines 1930-1933). Hippolytos then dies, leaving Theseus with the guilt of having asked Poseidon to kill his innocent son.

Theseus only learns of Hippolytos’ innocence because another goddess, Artemis, intervenes. Artemis tells Theseus, “You are a killer, / and the one you killed was your own son” (lines 1953-1954). She explains to him that all of the events that occurred were the doings of Aphrodite because of her jealousy, and thus clearing Hippolytos’ name in the eyes of everyone, including Theseus, the one who condemned him.

Therefore, the gods play very important roles throughout the play, Hippolytos, by Euripides. One goddess is jealous and thus causes all of the action to occur, a god is called upon to punish an innocent man, and another goddess comes to explain the entire fiasco and prove this man’s innocence.

Alcestis

Gods do not always appear to solve all the problems had by the characters. In the tragedy, Alcestis, by Euripides, the god Apollo appears only in the beginning of the play in order to persuade Death to let Alcestis live. He asks, “Let Alcestis grow old. Let her live, / I adjure you, Death” (lines 77-78). When Death refuses, Apollo states that a man will come and, “He will fight with you and break you, Death, / and by brute strength bring Alcestis back” (lines 105-106). This is not an empty prediction, as Death suspects when he says, “Words will get you nowhere/ This woman must go beneath the earth. / She is mine” (lines 111-113). Death later learns the truth to Apollo’s words when Herakles comes to the home of Admetos and then later decides to bring Alcestis back. He says, “Make no mistake: / I’ll force my way below and bring Alcestis home, / and consign her to Admetos’ care” (lines 1101-1103). He does just this and brings her back at the end of the play. It is unknown at the beginning of the play whether or not Apollo is truly sending a strong man to fight Death and bring Alcestis back from his grasp or if he is saying this just to try to convince Death to let Alcestis live freely. Apparently, though, Apollo was not just predicting Herakles would enter, but he was sending him there. This is an example of indirect intervention of the gods, as, Apollo does not re-enter the play after his first exit within the first few pages. So, in the play Alcestis by Euripides, there is an interesting example of intervention of the gods to solve the problems occurring in the life of a character.

Eumenides

In the play, Eumenides, the third installment to The Oresteia, by Aeschylus, Apollo helps a character in a much more direct way than he does in Alcestis. Orestes is put on trial by Athena for the murder of his mother, his own flesh and blood. Apollo testifies on his behalf in order to get him acquitted. He comes to the courtroom and says, “…when this man/ came in supplication to my house/ and hearth, as is the custom, I purged him/ of the blood he shed. And I am also here/ to represent him…” (lines 671-675). Apollo wins his case by proving, using Athena as an example, that mothers are not related to their offspring by blood. The jury is then split half and half in the decision of whether to acquit Orestes or not, so Athena sides with Orestes, causing him to walk away guilt free. This is an example of how the gods can more directly help solve problems for a character.

Bacchae

The play Bacchae, by Euripides, contains a very extreme example of a god’s intervention. In this play, the god Dionysus, in human form, decides to teach the city of Thebes a lesson while also defending the honor of his mother, Semele. Semele had been ridiculed because she said she had a child fathered by Zeus and no one would believe that she slept with Zeus, nor would they believe that her son is some sort of a god. So, Dionysus decides to punish the city and show his power. He drives all the women of the city into madness so that they practice a cult-like religion devoted to him. The men do not worship Dionysus, but Pentheus, the king of Thebes wages war on the Maenads, the women who worship Dionysus. Dionysus, in human form, is arrested as a prophet for the god Dionysus but states that he can get out whenever he wishes because Dionysus will help him. Then he gets out of the ties and there is a bull imprisoned in his place. He then convinces Pentheus to dress as a woman so he can observe the women doing their cult-like rituals. Pentheus’ mother sees him, and possessed to thinking he’s a lion she kills him with her bare hands. This is all done by Dionysus in order to punish the city and the royal family for their lack of reverence and recognition of him as a god. This is another example of a god coming for the sole purpose of making a mess of things for the characters in the mortal world. Dionysus is a very extreme example of this god as a character in the play, Bacchae, by Euripides.

Conclusion

In conclusion, in Greek tragedies, the gods can play many different and varied roles with regard to how they affect the lives of the mortal characters. This has been shown with the examples of Hippolytos by Euripides, Alcestis by Euripides, Eumenides by Aeschylus, and Bacchae by Euripides.

http://www.arthistory.sbc.edu/imageswomen/papers/lombardiaphrodite/aphrodite.html

This is an image of Aphrodite, thought to be dated from about 440 BCE. She is often portrayed with or while riding animals, as shown above. There were many statues created of her, as well as paintings and vase paintings like the one shown above.

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/demo/unit3/artemis.asp

This is an image of Artemis, the goddess Aphrodite is jealous of in Hippolytos, by Euripides.

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Mythology/Images/ThPelikePolygnotosLouvreG37.jpg

This vase is an image of the god, Apollo, present in two of the example stories written about in this paper.

http://web.uncg.edu/dcl/demo/unit3/athena.asp

This is a picture of Athena found on a vase painting. She, as the goddess of wisdom, was the one who decided Orestes’ fate in the Eumenides.

http://www.usu.edu/markdamen/1320Hist&Civ/slides/12cults/dionysus.jpg

This is a photo of Dionysus taken off another ancient vase. Dionysus is known as the god of wine and fertility.