CC 303/352: Lecture Outline, November 20-27, 2001

Mycenae

Reminder: CC 352 papers due 5:00 PM Nov. 21

I. The myths

• Tantalus
• Pelops, Hippodamia, Myrtilus
• Atreus and Thyestes

1. Golden Fleece
2. Atreus feeds Thyestes his children
3. Thyestes sleeps with his daughter and fathers Aegisthus

• Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, and Orestes

1. Agememnon kills Iphigeneia
2. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus kill Agamemnon
3. Orestes kills Clytemnestra and Aegisthus
4. Orestes pursued by Furies
5. Orestes acquitted in Athens, Furies become Eumenides

II. Perspectives

• history: Schliemann's excavations in Mycenae
• functions / recurring elements / folktale motifs
• Aeschylus, Oresteia: note on-line questions on these plays

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