The conquest of death : some themes in archaic and classical Greek poetry

Koval, John J.

The conquest of death : some themes in archaic and classical Greek poetry

dc.contributor.author	Koval, John J.	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2024-08-14T18:33:52Z
dc.date.available	2024-08-14T18:33:52Z
dc.date.copyright	1976	en_US
dc.date.issued	1976
dc.degree.department	Department of Classics
dc.degree.department	Department of Greek and Roman Studies
dc.degree.level	Master of Arts M.A.	en
dc.description.abstract	This thesis is an examination of sane themes and ideas about death which appear in Greek poetry from Homer to Euripides. My approach is two-fold_ in that I illustrate the skillful technique of poets who treat these themes, and the important Greek moral values which these attitudes towards death reflect. I concentrate on themes that involve two familiar ideas: death is an escape; death is inescapable. The first Chapter deals with poetic expressions of death as a release. I _begin with Homeric examples of the wish to die, and discuss the appearance of this wish in sane fragments of love-poetry. I then move to Greek elegists and their attitudes toward poverty and old age, both painful situations from which death would be sought as an escape. The ensuing section is an appraisal of poetic technique in the use of certain conventional themes on the release of death; it closes with a passage that demonstrates how highly the Greeks valued "honor" and "friendship". A survey of selected Greek tragedies in the Chapter's final section serves to illustrate more clearly the life and death importance of these values; "honor" and "friendship" are worth dying for in Sophocles and, in Euripides, worth living for. Chapter Two is an examination of the manner with which the Greeks came to terms with death: their own, and that of someone dear. The first part concentrates on the persistent poetic expression of the Greek longing for a glorious death, and the effort to avoid "shame"; these attitudes in part explain the soldier's ability to withstand bravely the approach of danger. My primary concern here is the demonstration of the importance of these moral values, and I employ the exhortations and advice in the surviving fragments of the elegiac military protreptic to achieve this goal. F.1nalJ.y, I include a fragment of Archilochus which clarifies the Greek attitude towards fate and also deserves a discussion of poetic technique. The emphasis in the second part of this Chapter is on the poetic treatment of familiar themes of consolation on the death of another. I end with a brief discussion of Euripides' Alcestis, a play that aptly demonstrates the effectiveness with which a skillful poet might utilize traditional themes and also shows human characters face to face with the fact of death, their own and that of others.	en_US
dc.format.extent	92 pages
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/1828/18490
dc.rights	Available to the World Wide Web	en_US
dc.title	The conquest of death : some themes in archaic and classical Greek poetry	en_US
dc.type	Thesis	en_US

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