EXEMPLAR OF EXCELLENT STUDENT WRITING

Abstract Greek tragedy essay 11/07/07 In the Greek tragedies we have read and studied in class, a reoccurring theme is that of the juxtaposition of the realm of the divine and the realm of mankind. Humans are the youngest beings and fated, as understood from Prometheus Bound, to eventually take over the Olympians (just as they had the Titans, in a supposed cycle). The gods themselves, in their necessary dealings with mankind, are often the catalysts of the tension between the divine and the human; their anathemas upon mankind are dramatic and ingeniously cruel. In Oedipus Rex, Oedipus suffers a most terrible fate, commiting the great sins of incest and patricide. Oedipus goes through this ultimate disgrace not because of his own actions, but because of the actions of his father, Laius. Laius went against the saying of oracles when he fathered children and betrayed xenia. Apollos anathema, however, is not only upon Lauis himself, but on his entire bloodline. It is as such that Oedipus, himself innocent, must suffer for his fathers transgressions at the hands of Apollo. Dionysus, in The Bacchae, unleashes an anathema upon Pentheus: the young king is brutally killed by his own mother, mad under Dionysus influence, leaving her grief stricken, and his family without a male heir for Thebes. Dionysys is perhaps more merciful than Apollo in that he gives Pentheus several chances to turn back on his words, but Pentheus stubbornness and unwisdom (amathia) in his denial of the god leads him to fate just as miserable as that of Oedipus. Dionysuss punishment, too, is most terrible, seemingly far more vicious than the actions of Pentheus could reasonably have warranted. Why are the gods anathemas so extreme, and why do the gods go to such great lengths (if that is even the case; do the gods exert themselves in their actions?) to punish man? In this essay I will attempt to discern the meanings, purpose and actions behind the punishments of Oedipus and Pentheus at the hands of the gods, and the significance of these conflicts in regards to the morals of society and the role of tragedies in ancient Greece.