11/22/19 Paulo Xu Period 8

Paulo Xu - Period 8

Modern Mythology 2020

11/22/19

Aim: What are the attributes of Greek Drama?

The Greek myth exam 2 was distributed back to the students and the class started off with a discussion about the exam. There are two main questions which a number of people had misunderstood, or not answered correctly. The first one being the flower myths question in which some wrote down the stories of the flower myths, however the focus of the answer should be on the origins of the myths and not just retelling the story. The second topic was the confusion with the term “female dichotomy.” the answer to that question should have clearly highlighted the two opposing things that are represented in Medusa’s character. For example, she had once been a beautiful helpless woman but her beauty had to be controlled so she got turned into a gorgon becoming a powerful monster.

The lesson then picks up from where it was left off the day before, starting with the chorus.

Attributes of Greek Drama

The Chorus

They can serve as multiple roles and are composed of similarly dressed men on the orchestra. There was always an even number of men in the chorus and they acted as one, observing and commentating on the action of actors. They were also subdivided into strophe and antistrophe.

Strophe

The movement of the classical Greek chorus while turning from one side to the other of the orchestra.

Antistrophe

A returning movement in Greek choral dance exactly answering to a previous strophe.

The Appositive

An appositive is a noun or noun phrase that renames another noun right beside it. The appositive can be a short or long combination of words, for example:

• “The insect, a cockroach, is crawling across the kitchen table.” or “the insect, a large, hairy legged cockroach that has spied my bowl of oatmeal, is crawling across the kitchen table.”

Class activity: Make a positive appositive about someone in the room

• Taison “the funniest and most outgoing person, winston, gave me a firm handshake.”

Dramatic Irony

Irony that is inherent in speeches or a situation of a drama and is understood by the audience but not grasped by the characters in the play.

The class then went on to read aloud “Oedipus The King” of The Greek Tragedies (pages 111-124) with volunteers to read as Oedipus, Priest, Creon, Chorus, and Teiresias. Teiresias is a blind prophet, a blind man with insight, which is an ironic theme we observe with his character. An important vocabulary to know for the reading is suppliant which is a noun for a person making a plea to someone in power or authority. 

Reflection

In today’s lesson I learned about some of the essential parts of a classical greek drama (the chorus, the appositive, and the dramatic irony). In addition to learning these attributes of the Greek drama, they were also put to practice for example I volunteered to be part of the eight people as the chorus. Although it was a lot of fun being part of the chorus and the antistrophe, I soon learned that attempting to speak in fluidity as one entity was a rather difficult task.