Greek Sculpture | Medea, part 2

Reading: Greek Sculpture, Strickland 12-13.

Viewing: Greek Sculpture:

• Athena Parthenos, ~440BCE. Attributed to Phidias, a gigantic figure of the Goddess erected in the Athenian Parthenon to the city’s tutelary deity. Now destroyed, the photo shows a 200CE copy made at roughly 1/12 scale.
• Lapith fighting a Centaur, ~446BCE. A metope created in the workshop of Phidias for the Athenian Parthenon.
• The Artemision Bronze, 470-400 BCE. Likely a sculpture of Zeus or Poseidon, found in 1926 in a second-century BCE shipwreck.
• Discobolos, ~450BCE. Attributed to Myron, a masterfully kinetic work in bronze. Now lost, this full-size marble copy dates to the Roman era (~200CE).
• Winged Victory of Samothrace, ~190 BCE. Also known as the Nike of Samothrace, an 18 foot votive offering (i.e. placed in the sanctuary as an act of devotion, presumably in celebration of a major victory in war).
• Laocoon and his sons, 27BCE-68CE. Attributed by the ancient writer Pliny to three sculptors from the Greek island of Rhodes.

Reading: Euripides, Medea, pp 44-77.

Writing: Respond to ONE of the following prompts. Keep your response short, posting as a reply under the appropriate heading in the comments section:

1. Choose two of the sculptures and point out something they share in common—or a crucial contrast. Be sure to cite visual details.
2. Euripedes’ play climaxes in the heroine’s almost unthinkable act of vengeance. Why does she do it? Or is her unthinkable act also inexplicable? In answering, be sure to quote a key line.
3. What do you think of the Chorus in this play? In explaining your emotional reaction, point to a key line or moment.