Bachelor thesis | Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (BA)
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This thesis examines the first stasimon of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and focuses on how the opening of the first choir song responds to the first epeisodion. In the first epeisodion Tiresias accuses...Show moreThis thesis examines the first stasimon of Sophocles' Oedipus Rex and focuses on how the opening of the first choir song responds to the first epeisodion. In the first epeisodion Tiresias accuses Oedipus of murdering Laius. Nevertheless, the choir opens the first stasimon by asking who the murderer of Laius is. Why don't they respond to Tiresias' accusation? My analysis suggests that the choir suffers of cognitive dissonance since the accusation of Tiresias, as this accusation forces the choir to choose between either Oedipus or Tiresias. I have tried to explain that the fact that the choir opens by asking who the murderer is can be seen as a form of cognitive dissonance reduction, more specifically by changing a environmental cognitive element, namely time.Show less
Research master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (research) (MA)
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This thesis explores the interaction between pre-Socratic philosophy and the Prometheus Bound, a drama normally attributed to Aeschylus. My aim is to investigate the process whereby the dramatist...Show moreThis thesis explores the interaction between pre-Socratic philosophy and the Prometheus Bound, a drama normally attributed to Aeschylus. My aim is to investigate the process whereby the dramatist incorporates theoretical contents elaborated by early Greek philosophers that are in principle alien to his art. What role do such contents play when transposed onstage? And how does the tragedian contribute, through their re-elaboration, to the intellectual debates of his times? By examining the Prometheus Bound against some of the theological, ethical and epistemological notions of the pre-Socratics, this thesis aims at shedding new light on the interconnection between drama and contemporary philosophical speculation.Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
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Several Greek tragedies revolve around the exposure of corpses and the conflict this creates between characters who support or oppose this lack of burial. Such a conflict is often between a ruler...Show moreSeveral Greek tragedies revolve around the exposure of corpses and the conflict this creates between characters who support or oppose this lack of burial. Such a conflict is often between a ruler who outlaws the burial to punish an enemy and an individual or citizen who tries to protect the body of a loved one from mutilation and dishonour. The opposition of the individual can be construed as a direct challenge of the authority of the ruler. In this thesis, burial conflicts in Sophocles’ Antigone, Sophocles’ Ajax and Euripides’ The Suppliant Women are therefore analysed as power struggles to answer the question why the conflicts arise in the first place and what role power plays in their resolution or escalation. This is done by systematically looking at the motives and justifications of the characters throughout the plays to see how they influence the outcome of the narrative.Show less
