CLA 48 — Euripidean Tragedy: Power, Passion, and Punishment
Quarter: Fall
Instructor(s): Marsh McCall
Date(s): Sep 28—Oct 26
Class Recording Available: Yes
Class Meeting Day: Mondays
Class Meeting Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Tuition: $385
Refund Deadline: Sep 30
Unit(s): 1
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Quarter: Fall
Day: Mondays
Duration: 5 weeks
Time: 7:00—8:50 pm (PT)
Date(s): Sep 28—Oct 26
Unit(s): 1
Tuition: $385
Refund Deadline: Sep 30
Instructor(s): Marsh McCall
Recording Available: Yes
Status: Registration opens Aug 17, 8:30 am (PT)
Euripides was the 5th-century BCE tragedian most beloved by the Athenians, yet they rebuffed him again and again. He was invited to compete for the annual prize for tragedy on more than 20 occasions but won the prize a mere handful of times. His plays challenge one conventional Athenian belief after another: the innate superiority of Greeks over non-Greeks, the innate superiority of men over women, the justice of the gods, the fairness of divine punishment. In this course, we will read and discuss three unforgettable Euripidean tragedies: Medea, Hippolytus, and the Bacchae. Profound—and confounding—interpretive issues will inundate us at every stage. Does Euripides actually want us to sympathize with a mother who kills her sons? Is there any way to explain why the innocent Hippolytus is so mercilessly wiped out? How can we worship Dionysus, the god of tragedy, after we see his pitiless vengeance against Pentheus? We will try to experience the action and staging of these transforming dramas as closely as possible to the ways in which they were experienced in the Athenian Theater of Dionysus in the last third of the 5th century BCE.
MARSH MCCALL
Professor of Classics, Emeritus, and Founder and Dean of Continuing Studies, Emeritus, Stanford
Marsh McCall has taught at Stanford since 1976. He has received the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education, the annual Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize, the Alumni Association’s Richard W. Lyman Award for exceptional volunteer service to Stanford, and the Dean’s Award for Lifetime Achievements in Teaching in the School of Humanities and Sciences. Textbooks for this course:
(Required) Euripides, David Grene(Ed), & Richmond Lattimore(ED) , Euripides, Vol. 1, Alcestis, Medea, Children of Heracles, Hippolytus, 3rd Edition(is required) (ISBN 978-0226308807)
(Required) Euripides, David Grene(Ed), & Richmond Lattimore(Ed), Euripides Vol 5, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Cyclops, Rhesus, 3rd Edition(is required) (ISBN 978-0226308982)
(Required) Euripides, David Grene(Ed), & Richmond Lattimore(Ed), Euripides Vol 5, Bacchae, Iphigenia in Aulis, The Cyclops, Rhesus, 3rd Edition(is required) (ISBN 978-0226308982)