Goodness I love your writing - thank you so much for this one. I am married to a soldier who has been in three deployments and Greek tragedies are our solace as we work through the landscape of trauma - it is never easy but always worth it, such grace you can achieve with a depth of labor to understand. If you or your readers have not heard about Theater of War - I highly recommend this. Nurse Antigone was one of my favorites. https://theaterofwar.com
I'm almost afraid to mention the new Netflix series that just dropped: KAOS, starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus and Janet McTeer as Hera, and many others, of course, in a modern day setting. I just watched the first episode and I'm enthralled, but I read the classics, many years ago, and I have plenty of background info already in my head. I can't imagine what you might think of it. But you might take a look. It has received some rave reviews (The Guardian) and some lukewarm ones, too. I'm watching until the end, tragic though it may be. PS. You'll like Prometheus. I'm sure of it.
I came to the comments to say this too. Kaos feels like a Baz Luherman Romeo and Juliet meets What Dreams May Come/Good Omens/American Gods meets Ovid.
I thought Ted would mention it, as Netflix is in the headline and the distributor.
I’m loving it. And I’m glad a new generation might be introduced to the classics. I was introduced at A Level while studying classics, theology and English literature so it was all dripping in these stories and ideas.
At the end of the day this was theatre. It’s good, but it is NOTHING compared to Diana Rigg as Medea in Johnathon Kent’s production in London in the 1980s. I miss affordable, accessible, theatre now I’m not closed to London.
My first Greek tragedy, was seen on television, when was nine years old. It was the truly great tragedy, Medea, with an outstanding cast, and minimalist staging, the actors carried the whole show.
Throughout the first two acts, I think, this was over 60 years ago, could see the story unfold easily.
It was the last act, that introduced to me, an entire new concept, that am pretty sure have not seen anything like it again, outside of some historical movies. Was truly shocked, in a way only one or two other movies or plays have ever done to me since.
America just does not go in for that kind of almost primal shock value, tearing off the veneer of civilization, and looking directly at the ugly underbelly, with its bleeding intestines, falling out and spilling over beyond the body.
Currently reading a trilogy by Euripides, right in the middle of Agamemnon. I found Sophocles easier to read. Picked up both when my local library was giving away free books a couple months ago. Figured it's been a long time since reading the Greek classics in high school and as part of Columbia's core curriculum.
I couldn't finish the Book of Job. Just about the only one in the Hebrew canon I haven't read from A to Z with commentary. Along with some of the Prophets. I mean you talk about repetitive! But no reason to go to the Greeks for those unhappy endings. The Old Testament is chock full of them.
Adam and Even disobey one command, and look at the punishments.
That whole flood story thing, and Noah cursing Ham.
Moses doesn't get to the Promised Land. The Israelites above a certain age all die in the desert.
Poor Saul, and then David doesn't get to build the Temple. Solomon, wisest man who ever lived, doesn't heed God's warnings not to amass too many wives and horses lest he burden his people with taxes to pay for his lifestyle. The kingdom splits in two during his children's tussling over the throne, the northern tribes of Israel, and Judah in Jerusalem. The former soon disappears. the Old Testament is mostly nothing but stories about how the Israelites disappoint God one way or another, so he punishes them. It's fucking bizarre, while being a great collection of stories.
Not many classic songs are happy ones either. Easier to write about breakups, unfaithful partners, and disappointments than kumbaya happy ever after.
A very fine essay on Greek tragedy--with Homer, the most honest literature available in the West. My only nit to pick is your reading of Job--also a deeply honest poem. The ending is not nearly as "happy" as you say. Because there is no evidence whatsoever that the "replacement" children are the same people Job lost, the Lord's attempt to compensate him for the loss he let the Adversary bring upon him is disturbingly inadequate, revealing a God who does not yet understand the distinctness of the person. Jack Miles is very good on Job in GOD: A BIOGRAPHY, a wonderful reading of the Hebrew Bible, much of which, when read carefully, is also courageous. Again, only a nit. A fine essay: thank you!
I took four and a half years of Latin starting in eighth grade (and may have been the only Protestant kid in those classes). No one ever gave us any trigger warnings before reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
It should say How to Experience Greek Tragedy. Because all this literature before perhaps Dante was really theatre. As a budding actress I was once enthralled to have discovered Greek drama entirely on my own in an otherwise densely emotional era (mid 1960s) in a crazily oversized theatre called Berkeley. Greek drama created a spectacular semi-circular amphitheater and perhaps required it. You can’t separate that medium from the message. And of course you cannot disassociate the pagan religious roots of this ecstatic experience. Thousands of people came to it as if to Woodstock. It was so powerful as ecstatic religious experience that medieval Christian Europe had developed the Mystery and Morality plays (recreated today at Oberammergau, Germany). Even Shakespeare and his Globe theatre had a similar ritual relationship with audiences. So the texts themselves are hardly above common folk. Today we just lack knowledge of the music, dance, and movement that were essential to experience these texts.
My Come to Berkeley moment was the Freaky Executives at the Greek sometime in the pressurized 80's...as good a live performance as I ever experienced.
Editing to add: that same week I also caught two other shows: The Looters, and the Cramps. I do not remember anything else about that week. It was a good week.
My husband spent 20 years working for the manager of the Freaky Executives and The Looters (also Zulu Spear). It was a time of World Beat music in the Bay Area. But the Greek Theatre in Berkeley was awesome. Even a view of the Bay beyond. I saw the Lovin’ Spoonful there, sunny and reclining on the grassy tier. It was the same week they were busted in San Francisco.
Love this. Another genre where the chorus is often another character (and where tragedy is a common theme) is opera. Coupled with very powerful music, it’s completely addictive once you’ve seen it live. (Sit near the front if you go!)
Not having read Greek Tragedy since uni, many years ago I recently read a modern take: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm quite sure, given the nature and depth of insights offered in this post and comments, the novel may well not appeal.
It serves as a light re- introduction, for me, into the stories of the ancient Greek classics. I enjoyed the novel.
Can I put in a plug for the musical Gospel at Colonus which is based on Oedipus at Colonus. This was such a creative piece of theater and the music is fantastic. https://youtu.be/8ZyQP_zrD2U
I just happened to have a YouTube stream of Mystery Science Theater 3000 running in the background while I read your essay. What would a Greek chorus in modern entertainment look like? Maybe like the silhouetted onlookers in Mystery Science Theater 3000, but sincere and empathic instead of detached and mocking.
I would, in fact, LOVE a chorus to many of the stories that abound not only in literature but in musical fantasy. I think there may be some within the traditional musical but I am not aware as most of the singing is muffled and sacrificed for the lead singer's role. What a great challenge it would be to have such an experience both for the audience and the creator!
Thank you for this, especially now in the run-up to the election, with the whole world falling apart, it's been comforting to read myths and see these larger patterns playing out, and let these harder truths about life sink in.
For me this touches on something of the weakness I find in a lot of contemporary literature; whilst I keep going hoping to find something that stirs me, a great deal wants to teach you something profound, and therefore feels the need to s p e l l o u t h o w p r o f o u n d i t i s.
Maybe as a society that is what people want, or feel they need now, but it certainly shuts down the potentials for a range of forms of engagement. The Greek tragedies still have so much relevance because they do not simplify or reduce their potentials.
I have to disagree with your brief biblical diversion. Ecclesiastes is hands down the gloomiest book of the Bible: meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. And the happy ending of Job isn’t the coda of the restoration of wealth and family, it’s that God shows up and talks with him for three chapters! And just as Job settles the argument between God and Satan by not cursing God to his face, God settles the argument between Job and his friends by declaring that Job didn’t sin. How much happier can you get that God himself declaring you righteous to you and your friends?
My vote would be for Lamentations. Whenever I read that, I can't help but think that there is a real question being raised as to whether God even exists while Jeremiah walks the streets of Jerusalem under siege. The possibility that the Israelites are beyond all divine intervention. The possibility that God has completely abandoned them.
Goodness I love your writing - thank you so much for this one. I am married to a soldier who has been in three deployments and Greek tragedies are our solace as we work through the landscape of trauma - it is never easy but always worth it, such grace you can achieve with a depth of labor to understand. If you or your readers have not heard about Theater of War - I highly recommend this. Nurse Antigone was one of my favorites. https://theaterofwar.com
I'm almost afraid to mention the new Netflix series that just dropped: KAOS, starring Jeff Goldblum as Zeus and Janet McTeer as Hera, and many others, of course, in a modern day setting. I just watched the first episode and I'm enthralled, but I read the classics, many years ago, and I have plenty of background info already in my head. I can't imagine what you might think of it. But you might take a look. It has received some rave reviews (The Guardian) and some lukewarm ones, too. I'm watching until the end, tragic though it may be. PS. You'll like Prometheus. I'm sure of it.
I've been enjoying this show. Very witty and creative.
I came to the comments to say this too. Kaos feels like a Baz Luherman Romeo and Juliet meets What Dreams May Come/Good Omens/American Gods meets Ovid.
I thought Ted would mention it, as Netflix is in the headline and the distributor.
I’m loving it. And I’m glad a new generation might be introduced to the classics. I was introduced at A Level while studying classics, theology and English literature so it was all dripping in these stories and ideas.
At the end of the day this was theatre. It’s good, but it is NOTHING compared to Diana Rigg as Medea in Johnathon Kent’s production in London in the 1980s. I miss affordable, accessible, theatre now I’m not closed to London.
This is such a great post.
The only quibble I have is you say "stories" as if these aren't nonfictional accounts of people I knew.
My first Greek tragedy, was seen on television, when was nine years old. It was the truly great tragedy, Medea, with an outstanding cast, and minimalist staging, the actors carried the whole show.
Throughout the first two acts, I think, this was over 60 years ago, could see the story unfold easily.
It was the last act, that introduced to me, an entire new concept, that am pretty sure have not seen anything like it again, outside of some historical movies. Was truly shocked, in a way only one or two other movies or plays have ever done to me since.
America just does not go in for that kind of almost primal shock value, tearing off the veneer of civilization, and looking directly at the ugly underbelly, with its bleeding intestines, falling out and spilling over beyond the body.
Are you referencing the one where she goes to jail, or the one about her family reunion?
Am referencing the Greek Tragedy where she murders her children as a form of revenge on her husband Jason.
Currently reading a trilogy by Euripides, right in the middle of Agamemnon. I found Sophocles easier to read. Picked up both when my local library was giving away free books a couple months ago. Figured it's been a long time since reading the Greek classics in high school and as part of Columbia's core curriculum.
I couldn't finish the Book of Job. Just about the only one in the Hebrew canon I haven't read from A to Z with commentary. Along with some of the Prophets. I mean you talk about repetitive! But no reason to go to the Greeks for those unhappy endings. The Old Testament is chock full of them.
Adam and Even disobey one command, and look at the punishments.
That whole flood story thing, and Noah cursing Ham.
Moses doesn't get to the Promised Land. The Israelites above a certain age all die in the desert.
Poor Saul, and then David doesn't get to build the Temple. Solomon, wisest man who ever lived, doesn't heed God's warnings not to amass too many wives and horses lest he burden his people with taxes to pay for his lifestyle. The kingdom splits in two during his children's tussling over the throne, the northern tribes of Israel, and Judah in Jerusalem. The former soon disappears. the Old Testament is mostly nothing but stories about how the Israelites disappoint God one way or another, so he punishes them. It's fucking bizarre, while being a great collection of stories.
Not many classic songs are happy ones either. Easier to write about breakups, unfaithful partners, and disappointments than kumbaya happy ever after.
A very fine essay on Greek tragedy--with Homer, the most honest literature available in the West. My only nit to pick is your reading of Job--also a deeply honest poem. The ending is not nearly as "happy" as you say. Because there is no evidence whatsoever that the "replacement" children are the same people Job lost, the Lord's attempt to compensate him for the loss he let the Adversary bring upon him is disturbingly inadequate, revealing a God who does not yet understand the distinctness of the person. Jack Miles is very good on Job in GOD: A BIOGRAPHY, a wonderful reading of the Hebrew Bible, much of which, when read carefully, is also courageous. Again, only a nit. A fine essay: thank you!
Job troubled my children, as it troubles many
I took four and a half years of Latin starting in eighth grade (and may have been the only Protestant kid in those classes). No one ever gave us any trigger warnings before reading Ovid’s Metamorphoses.
It should say How to Experience Greek Tragedy. Because all this literature before perhaps Dante was really theatre. As a budding actress I was once enthralled to have discovered Greek drama entirely on my own in an otherwise densely emotional era (mid 1960s) in a crazily oversized theatre called Berkeley. Greek drama created a spectacular semi-circular amphitheater and perhaps required it. You can’t separate that medium from the message. And of course you cannot disassociate the pagan religious roots of this ecstatic experience. Thousands of people came to it as if to Woodstock. It was so powerful as ecstatic religious experience that medieval Christian Europe had developed the Mystery and Morality plays (recreated today at Oberammergau, Germany). Even Shakespeare and his Globe theatre had a similar ritual relationship with audiences. So the texts themselves are hardly above common folk. Today we just lack knowledge of the music, dance, and movement that were essential to experience these texts.
My Come to Berkeley moment was the Freaky Executives at the Greek sometime in the pressurized 80's...as good a live performance as I ever experienced.
Editing to add: that same week I also caught two other shows: The Looters, and the Cramps. I do not remember anything else about that week. It was a good week.
My husband spent 20 years working for the manager of the Freaky Executives and The Looters (also Zulu Spear). It was a time of World Beat music in the Bay Area. But the Greek Theatre in Berkeley was awesome. Even a view of the Bay beyond. I saw the Lovin’ Spoonful there, sunny and reclining on the grassy tier. It was the same week they were busted in San Francisco.
!
2 marks fer yer husband!
Love this. Another genre where the chorus is often another character (and where tragedy is a common theme) is opera. Coupled with very powerful music, it’s completely addictive once you’ve seen it live. (Sit near the front if you go!)
Seeing Madame Butterfly at age twelve, impacted me for life.
Not having read Greek Tragedy since uni, many years ago I recently read a modern take: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller. I'm quite sure, given the nature and depth of insights offered in this post and comments, the novel may well not appeal.
It serves as a light re- introduction, for me, into the stories of the ancient Greek classics. I enjoyed the novel.
I read it (at my daughter’s suggestion) and liked it very much.
Can I put in a plug for the musical Gospel at Colonus which is based on Oedipus at Colonus. This was such a creative piece of theater and the music is fantastic. https://youtu.be/8ZyQP_zrD2U
Thank you so much for posting link to this production. Now I so wish to have seen it live!
Oops – you beat me to it. 1997 touring version in SF.
I just happened to have a YouTube stream of Mystery Science Theater 3000 running in the background while I read your essay. What would a Greek chorus in modern entertainment look like? Maybe like the silhouetted onlookers in Mystery Science Theater 3000, but sincere and empathic instead of detached and mocking.
Lindsay here posted a link to production called Oedipus at Colonus. It was a perfect realization of what a Greek chorus would look like.
If only!!!
I would, in fact, LOVE a chorus to many of the stories that abound not only in literature but in musical fantasy. I think there may be some within the traditional musical but I am not aware as most of the singing is muffled and sacrificed for the lead singer's role. What a great challenge it would be to have such an experience both for the audience and the creator!
Thank you for this, especially now in the run-up to the election, with the whole world falling apart, it's been comforting to read myths and see these larger patterns playing out, and let these harder truths about life sink in.
For me this touches on something of the weakness I find in a lot of contemporary literature; whilst I keep going hoping to find something that stirs me, a great deal wants to teach you something profound, and therefore feels the need to s p e l l o u t h o w p r o f o u n d i t i s.
Maybe as a society that is what people want, or feel they need now, but it certainly shuts down the potentials for a range of forms of engagement. The Greek tragedies still have so much relevance because they do not simplify or reduce their potentials.
I have to disagree with your brief biblical diversion. Ecclesiastes is hands down the gloomiest book of the Bible: meaningless, meaningless, everything is meaningless. And the happy ending of Job isn’t the coda of the restoration of wealth and family, it’s that God shows up and talks with him for three chapters! And just as Job settles the argument between God and Satan by not cursing God to his face, God settles the argument between Job and his friends by declaring that Job didn’t sin. How much happier can you get that God himself declaring you righteous to you and your friends?
My vote would be for Lamentations. Whenever I read that, I can't help but think that there is a real question being raised as to whether God even exists while Jeremiah walks the streets of Jerusalem under siege. The possibility that the Israelites are beyond all divine intervention. The possibility that God has completely abandoned them.