Session 2
- Topics: The Sacred Origins of Civic Order: From Oìkos (Household) to Polis (City-State)
- Reading: Aeschylus, "The Eumenides"
- What are the main roles Athena plays in “The Eumenides”?
- What is the significance of Athena establishing a new court for the trial (i.e. why does she refuse to arbitrate the case herself, appointing a new court with a citizen jury, etc.)?
- What does Athena mean by “worship the mean?” (line 710)
- What new role does Athena offer to “The Furies/The Eumenides” after the court’s verdict? What aspects and previously held moral principles will continue? What aspects are new?
- What contribution does this tragedy make toward the development of the polis ideology? How is justice restored or created? What characteristics of justice arise from this tragedy?
- What are the main political values in “The Eumenides?”
- Clearly, tragedy serves an important political function in 5th century Athens. Do we have similar institutions in our modern society?