I. The finale of the Olympics: the pankration
II. Greek philosophy: definition and development; mythos - logos
III. Contributory factors
a. curiosity
b. the polis1. individual
2. absence of religious dogmatism
3. assumption of order (cosmos)
IV. The Pre-Socratics
a. Thales - water; Hippodamus of Miletus (urban grid plan)
b. Anaximander -the "Infinite"
c. Anaximenes - air
d. Xenophanes - the "One"
e. Heracleitus - "everything is in flux"
f. Anaxagoras - "mixtures" and the "mind" (nous)
g. Democritus - atoms (a-tomos)
V. The Sophists
a. definition
b. the "old" education
c. nomos vs. physis
d. effect on the polis
e. Protagoras and relativism: "Man is the measure of all things, of the things they are, that they are, and of the things that are not, that they are not."
For
Monday, please read Euripides' Electra and bring texts to
class.
Some obvious questions:
How is this "tragedy" different from those of Aeschylus and Sophocles? Specifically, in what ways are Electra, Orestes, and Clytemnestra characterized differently than in the Oresteia? It's been said that the Farmer is the only decent charactert in the play - true? The influence of the sophists: do Electra and her mom really communicate with one another in 1010ff. or do they simply talk past one another? Finally, we've got a deus ex machina: the Dioscuri (Castor and Pollux). How believable is their "solution"?