The Aegean World

Geography and Politics

The Aegean world, that is, Greece, Eastern Asia Minor (modern Turkey), and the Aegean islands, provide the setting for the stories that lie behind the plays we are reading. Greece is situated at the southern end of the Balkan peninsula; Greece and Asia Minor lie respectively to the west and east of the Aegean sea. In ancient times, Greece proper, along with much of the remaining territory rimming the Aegean, was ethnically, linguistically, and culturally Greek. These territories formed no single political entity, but were divided up into a number of small city-states, or (in Greek) poleis, each made up of an urban center and surrounding countryside. For instance, the Athenian polis equals the city of Athens plus the territory of Attica. (It is as if Binghamton and Broome County formed a separate and completely autonomous unit - no more NY state or USA.)

Poleis were typically either democracies (rule by the people as a whole) or oligarchies (rule by the few). Tyranny counts as yet another form of government. Though the ancient sources vary in their use of the term tyranny (Greek turannis), it typcially will refer to some sort of an extra-constitutional dictatorship - rule by force rather than by law. Many Greek states (including Athens) were at various points ruled by these tyrants. Finally, and related to the topic of tyranny, is the matter of stasis: civic instability, unrest, revolution. To the extent that Greek drama dealt with political issues (and it most certainly did), tyanny, stasis, indeed, political stability and legitimacy in general, figure prominently as themes.

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Historical Background

We should think in terms of three periods: the Mycenaean age, the archaic period, and the classical period. These periods are all BCE, "before the common era" (i.e., before the time of Christ) - in other words, a long, long time ago.

• Mycenaean age: From about 1600 to 1100 BCE, long before Greeks kept historical records or used alphabetic writing, a culture of palaces and kings flourished in Greece. The great cities included Mycenae, Tyrins, Thebes, Pylos, and (not as great as the preceding) Athens. These are also the great cities of Greek myth. For Greek mythology, to the extent that it has any factual basis at all (which it does to a very limited degree), is based on lore handed down by these prehistoric, "Bronze-Age" Greeks
  
• Archaic period: Some centuries after the fall of the Mycenaean kingdoms, Greece recovered and emerged into what we call the archaic (i.e., "old") period (approximately 800-475 BCE). This is the time when alphabetic writing, literature (written poetry, philosophy), and the Greek city-state first appear. It is also a time when Greeks showed heightened interest in their legendary past. Greek colonization flourished during the archaic period, with Greeks settling the far-flung corners of the Mediterranean and Black Seas
  
• Classical period: 475-323 BCE was the time when democratic Athens and oligarchic-monarchial Sparta emerged as important powers and mutual adversaries. Ancient Greek drama, and in particular, the dramatists Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes, came into their own in Athens during the fifth century BCE, also the highpoint of Athenian democracy. The fifth century further sees the birth of history writing (Herodotus, Thucydides) and the heyday of the Sophists, fee-charging teachers of intellectual topics. The fourth century is the age of the philosophers Plato and Aristotle. Menander, writer of boy-meets-girl social comedy (New Comedy), comes to the fore at the end of the fourth century - the dawn of the Hellenistic period
• Peloponnesian War (431-404 BCE): Crucial for Athens during the fifth century BCE was the crushing defeat and loss of empire suffered by the city as a consequence of the war it fought against enemies led by that other great power of Greece: Sparta. At first it looked as if Athens might prevail, at least insofar as it could preserve its empire, source of much of the city's wealth. But when Athens undertook an ill-conceived invasion of the island of Sicily, things took a decided turn for the worse. This war becomes the focus of at least one play surviving from the period: Aristophanes' Lysistrata. Tragedy will never allude to the war directly, but drama produced during the war simply cannot be considered in total isolation from it

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Ancient Greek Religion and Mythology

Greece has been predominantly Christian since about 500 CE (CE, "common era," i.e., after the time of Christ) right down to the present day. But in ancient (i.e., pre-500s CE) times, Greece was polytheistic, that is, the Greeks worshipped many gods. Ancient Greek religion was less about faith or theology or good deeds than about human-divine reciprocity. For the gods were expected to protect human beings and provide for their needs in exchange for sacrifice, the killing of animals offered as gifts to the gods. But stories grew up around these gods and their human offspring, the stories that made up what we call "Greek mythology." These myths formed the basis of a great many - though certainly not all - of the plots of ancient drama.

Unlike the great religions of modern times, ancient polytheism did not necessarily assume that its gods were paragons of moral excellence. The gods of myth exhibit the same foibles as mortal humans, only on a grander scale. Indeed, students are sometimes shocked by the imperfections of the immortals, as were certain Greeks already in ancient times. Still, tragedy often seeks to get beyond traditional notions of Zeus' and other gods' misbehavior. Hence the somewhat halting movement in the ancient tragedies toward a transcendent moral theology, as in the tragedies of Aeschylus - but contrast that with the morally ambiguous gods of Euripides.

Here follow thumbnails of the principal gods and heroes/heroines of ancient Greek myth and legend:

Gods

• Zeus (aka Cronos' son): King of the gods and lord of the universe, he rules from Mount Olympus, home of the gods. Cheating frequently on his wife and sister Hera, he fathers many heroes and heroines by mortal mothers
• Hera: Zeus' sister and wife. Zeus' girlfriends at times run afoul of her jealousy
• Athena (aka Pallas): Zeus' virgin daughter and right-hand woman. She is a powerful warrior and the patron goddess of Athens

• Delphi, Temple of Apollo

  Apollo (aka Phoibos, Paian, Loxias): Youthful god of prophecy, healing, and light, brother of Artemis, protector of adolescents, and lord of Delphi ("rocky Pytho"), where the Pythia (Apollo's priestess) was his prophetic mouthpiece. The Delphic oracle, located at Delphi (see picture at right), is very important in tragedy
  • Loxias = Apollo as god of prophecy
  • Paean/Paian = Apollo as god of healing
  • Pythian = Apollo as god of Delphi
• Hermes: Messenger god, god of speech, god of travelers, divine guide, god of thieves, Hermes is the ambigious trickster god
• Artemis: Apollo's virgin sister, protector of adolescents, and goddess of the wilds and of the hunt
• Aphrodite (aka Cypris, Cypria, "the Cyprian"): Goddess of beauty and sex (eros), she plays an important role in Greek myths and Greek tragedy
• Hephaestus: Patron of artisans and god of the forge
• Ares: The god of violent, sorrowful war. Contrast Athena, the goddess of honorable, defensive war
• Dionysus (aka Bakkhos, Bromios "Bellower," Bull etc.): The god of wine, drunkenness, ecstasy, fertility. Also, the patron of Greek drama

Some Heroes and Heroines

• Heracles (aka Hercules): Son of Zeus and Alcmene, and the greatest of the heroes
• Agamemnon (an Atreid = "son of Atreus"): King of Mycenae-Argos, husband of Clytemnestra, brother of Menelaus, and commander-in-chief at Troy
• Menelaus (an Atreid = "son of Atreus"): King of Sparta, brother of Agamemnon, and husband of Helen
• Helen: Daughter of Zeus and Leda, sister (1/2 sister?) of Clytemnestra, wife of Menelaus, and lover of Paris. Renowned as the most beautiful of all mortal women
• Clytemnestra: Sister (1/2 sister?) of Helen, wife of Agamemnon, mother of Iphigenia
• Iphigenia: Daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, and a key figure in the launching of the Greek expedition against Troy
• Orestes: Son and avenger of Agamemnon, also brother of Iphigenia and Electra
• Electra: Daughter and avenger of Agamemnon, also sister of Iphigenia and Orestes
• Odysseus: The cleverest of the Greeks, and a war-leader at Troy
• Achilles: The greatest and bravest of the Greek warriors at Troy
• Oedipus: King of Thebes, he is husband to his mother and murderer of his father
• Antigone: Daughter-sister of Oedipus, and princess of Thebes
• Jason: Faithless husband of Medea, he voyages far to get the Golden Fleece
• Medea: A barbaric princess and wife of Jason, she helps him get the Golden Fleece

The Trojan War

Many of the stories that make up Greek mythology center around the Trojan War, the 10-year conflict in which Greeks under Agamemnon destroy the city of Troy in Asia Minor - that as revenge for the theft of Helen by Paris, a Trojan prince.

The Trojan war is the legendary event that famously sends countless heroes, including the peerless Achilles, to an early grave. Even many of those who survive the war die soon after its conclusion - notably, Agamemnon.

The most important dramas stemming from the Trojan War cycle are the tragedies that make up the Oresteia by Aeschylus. Another Trojan War-related drama is Euripides' Iphigenia at Aulis.

The Theban Cycle

The city of Thebes, located not too far from Athens (see the map at top), was also the epicenter of legends important for the dramatists. The sorrows of Oedipus, king of Thebes, form but part of a cycle in which the city, its rulers, and its citizens suffer as a consquence of horrifc sins (fratricide, incest, etc. etc.) committed by various great personages of the city. Rather like Asian Troy, the Greek city of Thebes is eventually destroyed by a band of allied war-leaders, but only after a failed prior effort and the tragic events (Sophocles' Antigone) stemming from that.

Jason and the Golden Fleece

Other tales have to do with Jason's voyage in quest of the Golden Fleece. Sailing with his companions to the easternmost shore of the Black Sea, Jason wins the Fleece with the aid of Medea, a barbarian princess and enchantress. Euripides' Medea is based on Jason's and Medea's parting of ways back in Greece.