Introduction to the Ancient World: Greece

Oedipus revisited; the Olympic Games

I. Detailed analysis: Oedipus received by the gods (1586-1666)

1592: echo of crossroads
good cata-strophes: the blind man leading others (cf. 1518ff., 1548-9, 1589)
his new dimensions: spirituality and loving emotions; 1615-18 in another translation:
" I know it was hard, my children. -- And yet one word
makes all these difficulties disappear:
that word is love. You never shall have more
from any man than you have had from me."

Summary (1565-66):
"Because his sufferings were great, unmerited and untold,
let some just god relieve him from distress!"

II. Relation to the earlier play; click here 

III. Athens again 

A. Theseus as the embodiment of Athenian noble values (551ff., 885ff.)
B. the choral ode about Colonus: olive, Athena, Poseidon (668ff.)
C. endurance (1225ff.)

IV. The Ancient Olympic Games (cf. Amos and Lang, pp. 83-92)

A. The Olympics and modern misconceptions:

Pierre de Coubertin and the revival of the Olympic Games (Athens 1896);
Jim Thorpe (1912) and the pre-Dream Team myth of the aristocratic amateurs vs. Greek realities

B. Olympia - the site 

Temple of Zeus, Phidias' statue (one of 7 wonders of the world); Temple of Hera;
Stadium (1 stadion = 194 yards), Hippodrome (chariot), Gymnasium, Palaistra (cf. Apoxyomenos = Scraper)

C. The Program (cf. Amos and Lang, p. 85) 

Elis; Hellenodikai; hoplitodromos; first prizes only  
Olympic fun and games: wrestling, boxing, pankration 

Syllabus
Images Lect. 19 (under construction)