Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
closed access
Migration is timeless: people leave their native country with different motives to settle themselves elsewhere. Scenes that unfold from such events have occasionally been taken to the stage in the...Show moreMigration is timeless: people leave their native country with different motives to settle themselves elsewhere. Scenes that unfold from such events have occasionally been taken to the stage in the genre of Greek tragedy, in the so-called ‘suppliant tragedies’. In such tragedies, the acceptance of newcomers is discussed in terms of ἱκετεία and ξενία, two social institutions of ritual acts through which ancient Greeks could accept newcomers in their social community. Yet, both social institutions evoke different associations in regard to the people involved in the acceptance of a newcomer. In order to understand this combination of both social institutions in Greek tragedy, I would like to analyse it as a means of framing. This thesis, then, investigates the ways in which the arrival and acceptance of newcomers is framed in the following Greek suppliant tragedies: Aeschylus’ Supplices, Sophocles’ Oedipus Coloneus and Euripides’ Heraclidae and Supplices.Show less
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
Bachelor thesis | Griekse en Latijnse taal en cultuur (BA)
closed access
Antigone komt, in Sophocles’ gelijknamige tragedie, met een opvallende speech op de proppen. Wanneer haar oom Kreon in zijn rol als koning heeft besloten dat ze zal worden opgesloten in een grot,...Show moreAntigone komt, in Sophocles’ gelijknamige tragedie, met een opvallende speech op de proppen. Wanneer haar oom Kreon in zijn rol als koning heeft besloten dat ze zal worden opgesloten in een grot, begint Antigone te oreren. Eerst zijn we getuige van een klaagzang over haar naderende dood. Antigone laat zich hiermee van een heel andere kant zien dan eerder in het stuk. Hierna volgt een nog merkwaardiger passage: de verzen 904-15. Antigone spreekt hier over een zekere wet die haar ertoe bracht om Polyneikes bijzonder te eren. Een gestorven echtgenoot of kind zou ze niet begraven hebben, want beiden zijn volgens Antigone vervangbaar. Echter, er zal geen broer meer geboren worden. Deze passage in de Antigone wordt door velen als uiterst problematisch gezien. Met mijn scriptie hoop ik een aantal problemen met deze passage weg te nemen en een antwoord te vinden op de vraag: Hoe zijn de verzen 904-15 in Sophocles’ Antigone te verklaren?Show less
Master thesis | Classics and Ancient Civilizations (MA)
open access
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
