Reflections and Close Reading

I was suprised that i didnt hear anyone talk about how there was no mention of how Achilleus died in the Iliad. Homer never specified it. I did some research on it and it seems he was killed by Paris with a spear on his ankle (Achilles-ankles). Perhaps homer has a message that follows not mentioning the death of Achileus. Maybe because we knew he was going to die for along that we just didn’t care when he died, which is odd to me because I’ve been curious since the book ended. The constant reminder of his upcoming death must have caused our urge to know how and when he would die to disappear. This is just a thought on the Iliad ended, would like to hear more if it.

it was difficult trying to differentiate the topic of pain and pleasure in real life and in the play. perhaps I'm not understanding the full purpose of the chorus in this play but I would like to know how it is different in the play to real life because i feel like its just simply similar to watching a scary movie. Does the fact a God and a Titan being involved in it have an affect on this difference, or is it that they're being told first hand? i know i was suppose to be answering this but im unsure as to what answers i can provide for that with explanation that makes sense. i would just be repeating myself.

Ive added a quote from Prometheus Bound to my final. The chorus states that " Unfold the whole story and tell us upon what charge Zeus has caught you and painfully punishes you with such dishonor. Instruct us, unless, indeed, there is some harm in telling. " this quote would help me in answering topic 1 since the chorus is gaining pleasure in knowing the story of prometheus and would have simpathy since they are still worried that by Prometheus telling his story would increase his punishment

    I'm going to be discussing the first topic where Prometheus expresses his emotions about Zeus's ways as a God towards the chorus.  I think the act of sympathy is a charitable act because they are comforting Prometheus in this specific scene. After Prometheus says how he feels about Zeus , the Chorus responds ." I mourn your unfortunate fate  Prometheus .Shedding from my eyes a coursing flood of tears and I wet my tender cheeks with their moist streams. For Zeus, holding this unenviable power by self appointed laws, displays towards the gods of an overweening spirit."

In my final paper i will be talking about how Prometheus suffers and the compassion that is brought to him. Prometheus is saying zeus will be overthrown and he knows he suffering. l o suffers more than Prometheus because Prometheus knows that he is suffering for a good cause, while Io is being punished for no fault of her own. The chorus is sympathizing for Prometheus because he’s suffering he feels no compassion for his miseries. The chorus is telling Prometheus that he’s done wrong. 

I have decided to change the topic of my final paper.  Initially, I wanted to approach topic #1 and use Prometheus Bound , however my snow day assignment was on Philoctetes which I found to be much easier (at least for me) to analyze and elaborate on.  I would like to add not only the physical pain Philoctetes feels, but also the emotional and mental effect of this pain that has been put upon Philoctetes.  I have so much context that I know would work so well with my approach to this paper and by using his physical, mental, and emotional state altogether, I can write an essay that is better in writing and analyzation than if I were to solely write about Philoctetes physical state.

I decided to do the last topic about Herald's speech as the final paper. "Were I to tell you of the hard work done, the nights exposed, the cramped sea-quarters, the foul beds ... why must a live man count the numbers of the slain?" (555-569). I believe that these lines are the most important part of Herald's speech. Herald in terms of the plot is important only to deliver the message that Agamemnon is returning home with victory. His excitement for coming back in his home makes him an interesting character. Even though he describes all the troubles they had while they were fighting Trojans he leaves that behind and says that from now on nothing bad will happened to them, which is kind of ironic since we all know what happens next.

For the final paper, I chose the final prompt, Agamemnon's story has always interested me, whether it is in the Illiad or the Agamemnon. The way his psyche is displayed and shown to us is left to much interpretation and his interactions with others, especially those he see's as inferior to himself is, in my opinion, a huge debate topic because of how others perceive him within the story and how we the reader are left to perceive him.

One instance I am dedicating an entire paragraph to is when the chorus was insisting on hearing the pain that Io claims she is enduring or has endured. It seems to be a good point where the chorus sort of wants to know more about her, possibly to understand where she is coming from or just wanting to know more about her. Maybe they feel the need to ask her in order to sympathize with her? I feel this could be where pain and pleasure come in and the act of sympathy and their relationship altogether. The scene where Io meets Prometheus when he is tied up and she asks to hear about his story and his pains can go hand in hand with the relationship between pain, pleasure, and sympathy as well. I feel like I can go in depth with this scene altogether.

Herald: Did ye pine for us, as we for you? Leader: The whole land’s heart was dark, and groaned for thee. These two short lines I feel are the most significant for my paper. In this instance we see the chorus trying to hint to the herald that something is obviously wrong. As a herald, his job is to deliver  messages both ways, however in this crucial moment, the herald failed to pick up on the energy in the “room” and deliver it back to Agamemnon

for the final I have been reading over Prometheus Bound to look for quotes or sections of the story to relate to topic one, howeve it's not going so well since I have no idea what quote to use. Usually I would read stories multiple times till I find a quote to use so im just going to keep looking. In the mean time I have to start looking for research papers that are based on Prometheous Bound or how pain and pleasure is connected to the act of sympathy so I can add them to my outline

I started doing my outline for the final assignment, and it is going very well. I feel like it is much easier than just starting to write my own paper. I chose to talk about topic one; how is pain and pleasure connected with the act of sympathy in the Prometheus Bound. I want to include my own opinion about what I think of pain and pleasure, but I do not want to overdue it. I feel like if I begin to talk about my own opinion, I will stick to that and forget about the actual topic.

For the snow-day assignment I want to talk about Antigone. I am still undecided on which lines to use. For the final paper, I am deciding on choosing topic one. I feel like our class discussion is very helpful to me for this topic.

So with my Philoctetes paper, I'm still finding some evidence to build on. For now, here is an excerpt of what my intro might be. After an incident involving a poisonous bite from a snake, Philoctetes, the wielder of Heracles bow, is left alone on an island (Lemnos) to fend for himself. With no aid or medicine, Philoctetes was in a state of agonizing pain and solitude for ten years straight. This tragic incident has damaged Philoctetes' physical and mental state, hindering Philoctete's ability to trust any being, especially Oddyseus. His inability to trust possibly jeopardizes the Greek's victory, for if they do not get the bow off of Philoctetes' possession, they will not win the Trojan War. Because of Philoctete's injured body, his ability to trust or help his comrades has weakened significantly. If I'm honest, this is all I have so far. Of course, I have a lot more to add on to my intro, but I'm at a plateau. What else should I add here? If anyone...

For my final paper I am still not 100% sure on which topic i'm doing but for now I have chosen prompt #3. The first point that drew me into it was that Hermes is yet another God to say Prometheus has a lack of wisdom. Most of the time when a person is sure of something or is very knowledgeable on a topic, people say they have wisdom so it was interesting to me that even while Prometheus literally knows the future events that will come to pass, most of them are still stating that he lacks wisdom. He knows the impact that his actions would have on the future so no matter what, whatever he does is strategically done. He knew what would happen and still did it anyway.

I'm well aware that I'm late in regards to posting what my final topic is, I published this before but I'm not sure why it didn't go through. My topic for the final will either be the first topic (pain and pleasure with the chorus) or the fourth topic (Philoctetes's body affecting his state of mind). Both topics are very interesting to me, and have a lot of evidence to back it up. Although I do feel as if there is more evidence in regards to Philoctetes, some of the actions the Chorus committed in Prometheus Bound are worth talking. They may not be obvious at first, but after carefully looking through small details one will notice what it is that they are feeling. I will probably stick with Philoctetes though, he is an interesting character to discuss. I will publish my other blog for this week some time tomorrow or Wednesday, I don't know why my blog didn't uploaded last week

I am interested in choosing topic 1 for my final paper. I'm going to discuss how the Chorus experiences pain and pleasure in their act of sympathizing with Prometheus and go more into depth about what Prometheus went through throughout the book.

In Prometheus, the Chorus’s desire to be informed of Prometheus and IO’s sufferings that were done Zeus derives from the individual self first then unforced by group thinking. The individual self  or humans, always have the need to know. Everyone wants to know the most they can as easy as they can, which is just by being told something. Each member of the Chorus individually wanted to hear the rest of their gruesome experiences and seemed to be feeling both pleasure and disgust. It is hard to really figure out what in us wants to always know things no matter how horrible they are, probably the feeling of getting an answer without having to do anything or maybe because we all have a sense that knowledge is power.

For the final assignment I am in doubt between topic number one and topic number five. I feel like I'm comfortable with these two topics. Topic number one has a lot to write about because the chorus has a big part in the book. Also there can be a big comparison between pain and pleasure that chorus experiences. Topic number five also is a good topic that you can go in depth to analyze Herald speech. He is a charismatic character and also different. There's so much you can write on the topic if he fulfilled his duty as a messenger, and give reasons what made him take the action he did.

For my final paper I will be choosing  prompt #1. In my paper I'm going to go into an in-depth analysis about pain and pleasure in the  Prometheus Bound. The tie it with the act of sympathy and sacrifice. I'm also going to talk about the pain   Prometheus went through through out  the book, and then tie that to how sympathetic the chorus becomes to his pain. The Chorus experiences pain by standing in with  Prometheus when Zues comes, also bring up points where they want to hear about the pain someones going through. Lastly i'll bring up instances where they sympathizer  feels pleasure in pain, also why is there pleasure in pain and suffering.

For my final paper, I am choosing prompt #1 because I would really like to go into depth about pleasure in pain being connected to the act of sympathy in Prometheus Bound. I would like to bring up the instances where the chorus is sort of showing that they want to hear about the pain someone has or is going through and why they do so. In doing that, I will tie is to pleasure, as well, and how that is connected. Then, I will tie both instances of pain/pleasure to the act of sympathy the chorus shows and why they seem to only do so with connected to pain and pleasure.

I am interested in choosing topic five for my final paper. I re read the first interaction between the Herald and the Chorus of elders, and visualized the Chorus trying to hint to the Herald that something was wrong, while he was completely unaware of all the signs.

For the winter assignments, im just going to have to reread the three stories that we have read to find 2 pieces of dialogues to talk about. For the final paper, I am thinking of chosing the first topic that the professor has gave us, because I feel that I can provide info on how people makes decisions through pain and pleasue. Maybe I might add some experimants that people have done to see how pain and pleasue changes a persons decision. I would use these reasearch paper to relate to the  act of sympathy in the Prometheus Bound.

In Prometheus Bound, one line that stood out to me was when Prometheus exclaims this statement  “Time in it’s aging course teaches all things” , after Hermes tells him that Zeus does not understand the word “alas” .Alas stands as the exclamation of pity, and this quote brings together the play's emphasis on friendship and time. Pity is sympathy with suffering friends, but Zeus does not know that feeling because he does not honor friendships. Prometheus's rests on the fact that in time Zeus's power will be challenged. This is interesting to me because there are some people that believe they are so powerful that they can beat time , when it is the opposite. Prometheus knows that time is stronger than Zeus.

In Prometheus Bound, one thing that truly strikes me is the ending, where we don’t know if the daughters of Oceanus will actually stand by Prometheus as they said they would. Yes, we are given the lines where they explicitly state that they will stand by Prometheus no matter what his fate is, however we, the audience, do not really know if they will. Even Hermes warns them of the calamity they will be caught in and says they should only blame themselves, yet the daughters still stand their ground, claiming how they hate nothing more than a traitor. I feel as if they do not truly realize the suffering they will endure and they are not taking what Hermes is saying into consideration. This is kind of a cliff hanger in a way because we are told one thing but it seems so off. Will they really stay? We as an audience really do not know. Endings like this is so irritating because it just makes me think and think of what really happens, despite what I  really  want to happen.

While reading Prometheus, many things looked familiar, because to me it looked like what Zeus was doing was a system related to communism. By looking at things that Zeus didn't allow Prometheus and mortals to do, I picture Zeus as a dictator. In my opinion Prometheus did the right thing that he went against Zeus when he stole the fire. If we analyze it we can say that that was the start of a new era for people, because they learned new things that before they couldn't. They also realized that they didn't need to pray to God to make a change, but now that could do it by themselves.

One of the messages I received from Prometheus was that if one is to plan something, they should plan it as detailed as they can and have solutions of different outcome. throughout the entire play, I sensed that Prometheus was going based off a plan that he made. Although it seemed like he was regretting his actions, he still refused all the help he was offered. The pain he had to endure was not expected at all, meaning his plan was a little vague and the price for that is not having a solution to deal with the torture while staying within plan. But maybe that was his best plan which would contradict my claim here. for someone who can foresee, you can tell he has a plan.

I found it interesting that while all of the other Gods are upset with Prometheus for giving fire to humans, Hephaistos actually feels bad for him and doesn't really want to bound him to the rock but doesn't want to disobey Zeus as well. The fact that Hermes was sent to Prometheus for him to give information on Zeus amazes me. After all Prometheus has said about Zeus and done to defy him, it makes no sense that Zeus would think Prometheus will tell him what Zeus wanted to hear. Prometheus does not support Zeus. Around line 150 he even refers to Zeus as "this new Dictator of the Fortunate" and on page 84 he says "Zeus will learn eat a difference there is: between being a power and being a slave." Threatening him would do no good either because he most likely already foresaw that happening and would have been prepared for whatever came his way.

While reading Prometheus bound, I instantly noticed a parallel between Prometheus and Philoctetes. Both characters suffered some sort of punishment from a god: Philoctetes' wounded foot, and Prometheus who was bound to a rock as a punishment from Zeus. In another way these two characters are also similar by some sort of "power" they possess. Philoctetes had Heracle's bow which led to the victory of the Greeks during the Trojan War. Prometheus on the other hand had the gift of prophecy. Both characters came face to face with a god at the end and had strong traits of being stubborn. Yet, the two differ in the way that Philoctetes was easily persuaded by a god, on the other hand Prometheus stood for his beliefs and did not give in when Hermes demanded information for Zeus.

In the Philoctetes, we would discuss the mindset of Neoptolumus after he was abandond by his squad of soldiers after he was bitten by a venomous snake. Neoptolumus would begin to dispise the achaean army and would go mad after being alone in the forest for a very long time with venom in his blood. however when Odysseus would return to Neoptolumus with the achaean army, Neoptolumus would be happy to return to fight in the army after what they have done to him. I personaly wish to know more about Neotolumus history to know what type of person he was to better understand how he thinks and how he acts. There can also be the reason that Neoptolumus was so deprived of social interactions that he would follow anyone, just to have a type of social interaction.  

     As I read Philoctetes , I noticed a significance in certain objects which symbolized something important . The first object that stood out to me was the bow of Hercules. I think that the bow of Hercules is a weapon that represents power. While it was possessed by Philoctetes , it's power drew in Odysseus so he can return to Lemnos. Also, since the arrows never miss the possession of the bow prevents anyone from forcefully taking Philoctetes , which gave him a certain degree of power over Odyssesus and his will.

While reading Philoctetes there were two things that stood out to me the most. The first things would be the character of Neoptolemus. In my opinion he was in the middle. In one side he wanted to do what Odyseus told him, in the other hand I feel like the story of Philoctetes got to him. In my opinion Neoptolemus changed a lot as the play went through. the second that that stood out to me was when Heracles came at the end of the play. I believe that he should've appeared since the beginning when Neoptolemus told Philoctetes the real reason why he was there. In the end Philoctetes was already on his way to the ship, Heracles just incureged him more to go with Neoptolemus. But would it be the same if Heracles would've entered when Neoptolemus told Philoctetes to go with them.

As I read the Philoctetes, I was constantly wondering what Neoptolumus was going to do. I believe that it is evident that Neoptolumus disagreed with Odysseus from the very beginning. As soon as Odysseus granted Neoptolumus the permission to talk bad about him in order to persuade Philoctetes, I knew that Neoptolumus' true colors would be shown. In my opinion there was a lot of truth behind the bad things Neoptolumus was saying about Odysseus, and at this instant I feel that Neoptolumus' stance on this situation was already decided whether or not he knew it.

A theme in Philoctetes is is suffering, and victory. Philoctetes suffers from a wound on his foot throughout the play. He even goes back to Greece after being told if he's not there the Trojans will win. Hercules comes and tells Philoctetes that he will be cured and the Greeks will win the war if he goes to Troy. He went to Greece fought many Trojans and then his foot got healed. Hercules appearing in the play at the end was necessary in my opinion, Hercules helped push Philoctetes to go back to Greece to fight the Trojans  Also another thing is that a theme that I've noticed is fighting for glory, and immortality. Everyone wants to be glorified in these plays.

We have finally finished Philoctetes, and while everyone is mainly focusing on Phil's experiences, I wanted to focus on Neoptolemus. In case if some aren't aware, Neo is the son of Achilleus. Because he is the son of Achilleus, a lot is expected from Neo. Not only does Neo have this duty to protect his reputation, as well as his father's, he also has this obligation to follow his superior's commands. We just finished The Iliad, so we all know how much of a savage he can be in battle as well as his glory from that battle. It is no shock that Neo had a lot on his mind, he was clearly torn from following his duty and protecting his friend. On one hand, he wanted to follow Odysseus' orders to take Phil back to the battle. Yet on the other hand, Neo wanted to keep his promise to Phil. I feel like what Sophocles was trying to do was to teach his readers the valuable lesson of obligation, duty, emotional conflict, and decision making. Neo is clouded by glory, and loyalty a...

One point that I have yet to wrap my head around in  Philoctetes is the moment Heracles comes into the storyline at the very end. At first, I did not think much of it, however I was a little confused. Why would a new character show up at the very end of a story? For what purpose was Heracles added into the very last scene for with his lengthy speech for Philoctetes? I still have absolutely no idea. I thought that it was to kind of reassure Philoctetes, giving him a sense of hope that the gods were actually listening to him and that his pain was not ignored, however I think I was wrong. I don’t find any reason for Heracles to kind of just show up out of nowhere, when it is clear that just because Philoctetes agreed to leave the island and save the Greeks, he will not really change his mentality. The pride he had before, he probably will still have. Moreover, this scene was sort of out of place, and did not make much sense to me. 

In Philoctetes, I was able to see a different outcome than what I had thought when first reading the story. It seemed so evident to me that Neoptolemus would undoubtedly go through with the original plan, despite all the doubts and dislikes he had about doing it. It was obvious that Neoptolemus was not, in any way, happy about practically tricking Philoctetes, knowing that he is vulnerable, injured, and left there for years with scarce food and water. I truly thought that it would just be an easy task for Neoptolemus, however the moment he was given the bow to admire and hold, I knew that it would not be as easy as I predicted. You could sense Neoptolemus’ indecisiveness when he is given the bow and arrow in his hands and surprisingly hands it back to Philoctetes.  In this moment, Neoptolemus could have taken it and ran, especially while Philoctetes was in extreme pain, however he didn’t. It was something that I did not expect, but I enjoyed the fact that a character could so...

Philoctetes has let his pride get in the way of being healed and in the way of making a great name for himself because of past betrayal. In my opinion he pretends to be unaware of the damage his pride is doing. He wants to remain unchanged and have everyone feel sorry for him. It doesn't look like he's learned a lesson or lost his pride, more like he swallowed his pride for this event and will soon regurgitate it and go about his life the same as before. Now "learning" that patience and prayer can be used to get him out of tough situations and to always fight, it gives off the illusion that he's made a change when he's saying goodbye to the land.

 I don't believe Philoctetes missed out on a lesson in this story, in fact I think its the lesson we wanted him to learn that he missed out. We all learn something after doing something. In Philoctetes' case, he might have lerned that patience and prayer can get him out of though situations or to always fight. However, the lesson we wanted him to learn was how too much pride has negative consequences, basically to be aware of his pride. Also, I believe the claim that Philoctetes did not learn a valuable lesson can very much vary from a religious person and people who are more into reality or social interactions. A religious person would say Philoctetes learned a valuable lesson, hope, faith etc. A person who thinks more like a sociologist would say Philoctetes missed the valuable lesson, pride.

Odysseus is coming off as a jerk in this play. After leaving his fellow comrade stranded on a island alone for 10 years to suffer... he wants to return to take his only prize and possession away from him.  The bow was Phils only way to capture food, and Odysseus gives him the worse ultimatum ever. Either go to troy and help them (boo) or stay on the island to basically die. 

As of now, I'm almost done with Philoctetes. This play so far is very tragic, with the constant lying and the fear of trusting someone without any kind of betrayal. It really makes one wonder who is a true friend, who is faithful, and who is malicious. Philoctetes only trusts the young Neoptolemus, he still doesn't trust the older comrades since he still has trauma over being betrayed and abandoned in a cave. With his constant struggle of trust, it made me see just how deep his (Phil) wounds are. To see Neoptolemus follow Odysseus' cruel orders of deceiving and lying to Philoctetes, it really painted an image of what people would do to gain glory. At the end of the day, It is honor that every character wants, no matter what the cost is.  This ultimately shows readers in the modern day what the world in Homer’s time was like, what was labeled as “important” and what a common goal was for everyone.

My favorite part of Agamemnon is the scene where Cassandra is having this sort of premonition of what is going to happen and how nobody really believes it, yet they still have this underlying suspicion about the entire thing. They have this suspicion because they have been dealing with this fear that Clytemnestra has placed in them. Something about the entire thing seems so weird to me. I just enjoyed the fact that Cassandra literally walks into her own death knowing exactly what is going to happen and nobody could even stop it. It shows how great a woman’s, especially a mother’s, vengeance can be and to what lengths she would go to seek revenge. In all, the entire plot was kind of predictable in a sense that I knew what Clytemnestra  was going to do in the end, it seemed quite obvious to me. The entire play was extremely dramatic, but I did enjoy it.

     In the beginning of book 22 of the Iliad, Achilles gets into an altercation with Priam’s son Lycaon and proceeds on killing him.   The Trojans comes along and approaches Achilles about his madness but, Achilles isn’t too fond of what the Trojans have to say at this point. So, without any remorse, Achilles kills him. Achilles felt this way because then Trojans didn’t have any remorse when killing Patroklus. Now, at this point Achilles raised hell and the river god now has a problem with him. Achilles is overflowing the river due to all of his killings. Because of this, Achilles and Apollo gets into a fight when in reality Apollo is really disguised as someone else so he can give the Trojans time to flee. As time progresses on it seems like no one is on Achilles side and he is fighting all his battles by himself with the help of nobody.

In book twenty-four of The Iliad , the part that moved me most was the scene when Priam goes to Achilles and asks for Hektors body back. I feel like this is the first scene since Patroklos’ death that we have seen Achilles show any emotion other than anger. Achilles shows compassion and can ultimately see his own father in Priam, which in turn makes him emotional to the point where he begins to cry with Priam. Achilles realizes that both him and Priam have endured losses –Priam having lost Hektor and Achilles having lost Patroklos. Furthermore, it was enlightening to see that Achilles managed to have some sort of empathy towards another person who is practically the father of his enemy, the person who killed his best friend. I think this part of Achilles was a great way to sort of end the book altogether, as well, sort of giving the audience somewhat of a decent closure.