Antiquity by Cantor Norman F

Author:Cantor, Norman F. [Cantor, Norman F.]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
Published: 2015-10-12T16:00:00+00:00

Aeschylus’ purpose was not to describe a series of interesting events nor to portray the character of Orestes. He took for his subject the problem of justice, the cessation of the destructive and never-ending series of retributions for murder with more murder. His answer to this problem was the divinely ordained but essentially human institution of law.

Sophocles was younger than Aeschylus but still his contemporary, and, often, his rival at the annual contest. In his earliest extant play, Ajax, the Sophoclean conception of tragedy is evident. In the play, the army of the Achaeans has voted to give the armor of the dead Achilles to Odysseus rather than to Ajax. Overcome with anger born of injured pride, Ajax decides to murder all the leaders of the army. But the goddess Athena diverts him with madness, and he kills the army’s animals, thinking they are the generals. A failure, and debased by his action, Ajax commits suicide. Agamemnon and Menelaus, the leaders of the army, forbid the burial of the body. It is Odysseus, Ajax’s archenemy, who convinces the generals that the greatness of Ajax requires that he be properly buried in spite of his crimes. This Odysseus is not the clever man found in Homer but a truly wise and just hero. He recognizes his common humanity with Ajax, his enemy:

I think of him, yet also of myself;

For I see the true state of all us that live—

We are dim shapes, no more, and weightless shadow.

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