guilt by descent moral inheritance and decision making in greek tragedy dec 2007

[...]... this inescapably absorbing genre The Attic tragedians did not work in an intellectual and cultural vacuum, as we remind ourselves in Chapter 1 This chapter considers xii Introduction brieXy, by way of preparation for our approach to tragedy, some aspects of Herodotus It examines some instances in this contemporary author of supernatural causation, moral inheritance within the family, and decision making. .. inherited guilt, curses, Erinyes, and decision making Not all tragedies involve a curse, and curses are not crucial in all the plays in which they do appear The same is true of guilt and Erinyes, which are sometimes crucial, sometimes peripheral, and sometimes quite absent And while many tragedies, not least those of Aeschylus, revolve around a crucial decision, many surviving plays of Sophocles and Euripides... presented as innocent in and of themselves The chapter also considers the functioning of inherited guilt, its place and its workings within the architecture and the emotional and conceptual dynamics of the plays in which it appears Chapter 3, continuing this line of thought, investigates the highly charged and emotive utterance that is the tragic curse and considers its status as a causal factor in those... bear in mind Herodotus picture of the intertwining of fate and inherited guilt, of necessity and downfall His prose narrative of recent events deploys supernatural causation no less freely and no less centrally than tragedy But whereas in tragedy, named divinities are prominent in the workings of supernatural causation, in Herodotus historical narrative the less personalized concepts of fate and the... form of inherited discredit A case of problematized moral inheritance is provided by Neoptolemus in Sophocles Philoctetes: will the young man be true to his fathers open and honest heroism, or will he go against his inheritance by practising the dolos (guile) counselled by Odysseus? 20 Inherited Guilt deiWed justice has many blessings in her gift: where men are just to foreigners and natives alike and. .. divine?2 In any case, the workings of inherited guilt and fate in Herodotus are illuminating for the student of tragedy As we shall see, a crucial diVerence is that Herodotus text is a narrative articulated by a narrative voice, while tragedy is fully mimetic.3 This diVerence is of great importance for the workings both of inherited guilt and of fate, which serve distinct functions in the two genres.4 My intention... exhibits fruitful points of comparison and contrast with the tragedians Having orientated ourselves, we shall turn to tragedy, the main concern of our enquiry My primary intention is to trace the connections within and the workings of a certain constellation of causal determinants that operate in the corrupted and inward-looking oikoi of tragedy, paying particular attention to the Atreids and the Labdacids... tragedies in which it appears? In Chapter 1, I began to ask these questions with reference to the fall of Croesus in Herodotus 1 I now ask them of texts in a very diVerent genre, a genre in which there is no authorial voice, and in which the fractured and the inspissated are at least as important as the coherent and the pellucid In order to investigate the role and functioning of inherited guilt in tragedy, ... Chapters 2, 3, and 4 successively consider inherited guilt, curses, and Erinyes in tragedy, seeking to tease apart these closely connected concepts and to seek out similarities and diVerences in their functioning Chapter 2 pursues a line of enquiry suggested by the consideration of Herodotus in Chapter 1 It asks whether those unfortunate descendants in tragedy who are punished for the sins of their fathers... determinants that drive certain great and doomed Wgures to death or ruin The student of tragedy must never forget that the genre does not exist in a vacuum, and that tragic theology is not entirely isolated and self-sustaining, but has multiple points of contact with the religions 2 Preliminary Studies of other genres and texts Accordingly, in this chapter we shall begin our approach to the workings . theses on Greek and Latin literature, ancient history, and ancient philosophy examined by the Faculty Board of Classics. Guilt by Descent Moral Inheritance and Decision Making in Greek Tragedy N approach to tragedy, some aspects of Herodotus. It examines some instances in this contempor- ary author of supernatural causation, moral inheritance within the family, and decision making. Herodotus,. features of the genre, in particular inherited guilt, curses, Erinyes, and decision making. Not all tragedies involve a curse, and curses are not crucial in all the plays in which they do appear.