Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611

  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Acts of Compassion in Greek Tragic Drama: Volume 53

Acts of Compassion in Greek Tragic Drama: Volume 53

Johnson, James Franklin

Hardcover

Series: Oklahoma Classical Culture, Book 53

Literary Criticism

ISBN10: 0806151668
ISBN13: 9780806151663
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: Jul 16 2016
Pages: 320
Weight: 1.20
Height: 1.20 Width: 6.10 Depth: 8.90
Language: English

The ability of human beings to feel compassion or empathy for one another--and express that emotion by offering comfort or assistance--is an important antidote to violence and aggression. In ancient Greece, the epics of Homer and the tragic dramas performed each spring in the Theater of Dionysus offered citizens valuable lessons concerning the necessity and proper application of compassionate action. This book is the first full-length examination of compassion (eleos or oiktos in Greek) as a dramatic theme in ancient Greek literature.

Through careful textual analysis, James F. Johnson surveys the treatment of compassion in the epics of Homer, especially the Iliad, and in the works of the three great Athenian tragedians: Aischylos, Euripides, and Sophokles. He emphasizes reciprocity, reverence, and retribution as defining features of Greek compassion during the Homeric and Archaic periods. In framing his analysis, Johnson distinguishes compassion from pity. Whereas in English the word pity suggests an attitude of superiority toward the sufferer, the word compassion has a more positive connotation and implies equality in status between subject and object. Although scholars have conventionally translated eleos and oiktos as pity, Johnson argues that our modern-day notion of compassion comes closest to encompassing the meaning of those two Greek words. Beginning with Homer, eleos normally denotes an emotion that entails action of some sort, whereas oiktos usually refers to the emotion itself. Johnson also draws associations between compassion and the concepts of fear and pity, which Aristotle famously attributed to tragedy.

Because the Athenian plays are tragedies, they mainly show the disastrous consequences of a world where compassion falls short. At the same time, they offer glimpses into a world where compassion can generate a more beneficial--and therefore more hopeful--outcome. Their message resonates with today's readers as much as it did for fifth-century Athenians.

Also in

Literary Criticism

View All