Greek Mythology Views of Creation Essay Example for Free

Greek Mythology Views of Creation Essay The story of the creation of the universe has many different versions. In some cultures it is believed that the universe was created by the procreation of the Deathless Creatures. Other cultures believe that the creation of the universe resulted from a big bang in which all of the elements in the world gathered together to create a huge mass and then burst to create life. Lastly, and the most believed version, is that the creation of the universe came from a God who would create the world and everything in it. In the ancient cultures, the Greeks and Romans had many different versions of how the universe was created but most looked to the versions by Hesiod and Ovid. Hesiod was a famous oral poet in Ancient Greece. He is thought to have lived between 750 and 650 BC, but no one knows for sure. Along with Homer, Hesiod is believed to be the earliest of the Greek poets. But it is hard to prove which one had come first. Not only did his writings serve as entertainment, but they were also used in other aspects of Greek living. He taught them farming techniques and is believed to have been the first economist. Not only was he a businessman but he also was keen in astronomy and ancient time keeping. Hesiod is a very important man in Greek History and his early writings showcase his abilities. Theogony by Hesiod gives a Greek version of the creation of the universe. In this book, Hesiod describes how the entire universe was created from the Deathless Creature, Gaia. But he described that before Gaia came, the only thing that was in existence was Chaos. â€Å"In truth at first Chaos came to be† (Hesiod, Theogony 116). According to Theogony, Chaos suddenly rose out of nothing. Hesiod talks about how me might have been created from the area between Gaia, earth, and Tartarus, a massive pit in the earth below the underworld. After Chaos, Gaia was the next creature to be created. It was created as a place for the Gods and mortals to live in peace and harmony. With Gaia came the terrain of the world. The next Deathless Creature that came was Tartarus, a massive pit in the earth below the underworld. Ironically, Tartarus is where Zeus would banish all of the Deathless Creatures. What interested me is that the next Deathless Creature from Hesiod’s story of creation is Eros. Eros is the personification of love. I started to wonder how all of the other gods were created if there was no such thing as procreation at the time. And then I did some research and learned that before Eros the Gods were created through parthenogenesis. According to Webster’s Dictionary, Parthenogenesis is â€Å"development of an egg without fertilization†. This occurs when a male and female specimen is not needed to create an embryo. Just like the hammerhead or the blacktip shark, which can procreate without a male being. Eros changed the ways of the world with love. Chaos had many children, including Erebus and Nyx. Erebus and Nyx were born roughly around the same. Erebus was the male personification of the darkness while Nyx was the female personification of the night. Erebus and Nyx then went on to have children, Aether, the atmosphere and Hemera, the day. From Chaos came forth Erebus and black Night Nyx; of Night were born Aether being the bright upper atmosphere and Day Hemera, whom she conceived and bore from union with Erebus her brother (Hesiod 11. 116-138). The next lines in Theogony talk about Gaia giving birth to two children, Pontus and Uranus. All of the creatures represent something, this trend continues with Gaia’s children. Pontus represents the sea and Uranus represents the heavens. She created them so that she would be covered. Finally, after all of the deathless creatures were created, Gaia and Uranus came together to make the first real gods, which were known as the Titans. There were twelve Titans in all and are referred to as the second generation. The male Titans were: Oceanus, Hyperion, Coeus, Cronus, Crius, and Lapetus. The female Titans were: Mnemosyne, Tethys, Theia, Phoebe, Rhea, and Themis. Along with the twelve Titans, there were also three Cyclopes and three Hekatonkheires born. In Hesiod’s Theogony, Uranus was so disgusted by his children, the Hekatonkheires, that he banished them somewhere in Gaia. Gaia was so upset that she told her Titans to punish their father. The only one that was willing to do so was the youngest, Cronus. He castrated his father as revenge. From the castration many more creatures were born. For example, the furies were born from the blood that was spread all throughout the Earth and Aphrodite was born when Cronus threw the severed private parts into the Sea. The third and final Generation to be born from the deathless creatures was the children of Cronus and Rhea. It was prophesized to him that one of his children would over throw him. Cronus took preemptive measures and thought out an ingenious plan of swallowing his children after they were born. He had six children and one-by-one he would swallow them. His first-born child was named Hestia who was subsequently eaten. Soon to follow in her path were Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon. Zeus was the last child to be born, but Rhea could not stand to see another one of her children eaten so she replaced him with a stone. The poem does not state how, but Cronus puked up the remaining five children and they all waged war on their father. Zeus would eventually win and become king. He would then do what many of the other gods had done and banish his father. He sent them all to the bottom of Tartarus where they would never be able to escape. Hesiod’s Theogony first starts off the creation process by bringing darkness, Chaos, and creating things from that. Then it gets into the procreation of the brothers and sisters, and mothers and sons. From that point, the Olympic gods mate with each other and mortal humans as well. This is one version of the Greek story of the Creation of the Universe. Ovid is a Roman poet and in his poem, Metamorphoses, it also speaks of the creation of the universe. In his poem, he splits up the human race into Four Ages: Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages. They tell of different times in the universe’s history. At first, there is nothing. Then a god comes and organizes everything and puts it where it’s supposed to be. For example, he puts fire in the farthest part of the universe and so forth. Ovid then gives 3 stories of how mankind was created recreated. First, It then talks about how the god, Prometheus, created the human race as a replica of the God. Then Ovid talks about a war that goes on between the gods and the Giants. During that war the giants stack mountains on top of each other to reach Mount Olympus. But Zeus then knocks over the pile of mountains and all of the Giants are crushed under the rubble. Meanwhile, their blood seeps through the earth. From the blood, humans arose. The final form of creation that Ovid speaks of occurs after the flood. Zeus is upset with the Humans and wants to kill all of them. He sends a massive flood to the earth to wipe them all out. When he comes to a hill he sees two pious people and decided to let them live. The two survivors, Deucalion and Pyrrha, are the ones with recreate the human race. They take the mother bones and throw them over their shoulders. From each bone, a human would sprout up. In the Bible, the story of Genesis talks about the creation of the universe. It states the God created the universe in sex days and rested on the seventh. On each day God creates a different thing. The last thing he creates was the human race. He created them last and they were created as an image of God. According to the two poems and the chapter in the Bible, the story of the creation of the universe happened it three very different ways. In Hesiod’s version, the world and nature around it all came from Mother Earth, Gaia. And the human race came from the love that was spread by Aphrodite and Eros. In Ovid’s version, the world was a chaotic mess and it was an unknown god that restored order into the world. The bible is the only version to give a time of how long it took to create the world and everything in it. Even though there are many differences in the stories, there are also a lot of similarities as well One similarity that all of the accounts of creation hold are the human race was last to be created in all versions. Mankind came after everything in the world was created for them. Another similarity is that the humans were created as an image of God. Lastly, the final similarity that comes from all the versions is; the universe started off as nothing (pure darkness) and then a god came and began the process of creation. In conclusion, Hesiod’s version of creation takes about the promiscuous ways of the gods and titans. Their promiscuity is what created the world and everything in it. According to Ovid’s version, an unknown god created the world and everything in it and gives stories of how the humans were created and recreated. In the Book of Genesis, God created the world in seven days; as well as everything in it. All three versions of creation did have some differences in their stories, but in they all ended with the creation of mankind. Works Cited Hesiod, and Norman Oliver Brown. Theogony;. New York: Liberal Arts, 1953. Print. Hesiods Creation Myth. Women in Greek Myths. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. . Ovidius, and Mary M. Innes. The Metamorphoses of Ovid. Harmondsworth, Middlesex: Penguin, 1985. Print. Separating, By. Xeno. ovid2. Larryavisbrown. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. . SparkNotes: Metamorphoses: Plot Overview. SparkNotes: Todays Most Popular Study Guides. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. . Theogony. Free Book Reviews | Book Summaries | Shvoong Summaries Reviews. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. . The Theogony of Hesiod. Internet Sacred Text Archive Home. Web. 06 Dec. 2010. .

Illegal Global Trade Essay -- Crime and Punishment

Though rarely given enough attention in the press, the global network of counterfeited goods such as prescription drugs, watches, and handbags have become a serious problem in the world. This economic network impacts transnational economies than almost any other force because... The film Illicit: the Dark Trade draws attention to this growing problem that affects our now globalized economy. Also, the movie is an adaption to Illicit the novel written by Dr. Moisà ©s Naà ­m. The film explores a maze of illegal activities and provides evidence supporting the idea that the sale of counterfeited goods results in government instability, money laundering, corruption and a host of other problems around the world that globalization has brought upon today’s society. The wealthier countries exploit innocent people for economic growth and create unequal distribution of wealth, which leads to a decrease in over economic productivity and slows economic growth. Low-skilled workers in deve loped countries who will see a decrease in wages due to the competition that they face from low-skilled workers in developing countries who will see an increase in wages. Economists have come up with an idea that trade liberalism is the force behind the rise of inequality in the United States and Western Europe, because of the boost in trade with poor countries and fragmentation of means of production, that has caused low-skilled jobs to be outsourced. Where treatment of the workers are inhumane and the unequal distribution of wealth will lead to an increase in poverty because the inequality leads to harmful for development that is generated because too he pressure that is created by inequality, this is directed the states having to adopt to redistributive polici... ... of individuals competing for low-skilled jobs. At the same time, developed countries have decreasing birthrates and are not able to replace the labor force and as Westernized civilizations focus unskilled labor has moved to industrializing nations in Asia. Tell me what can happen in the future/long-term effects of this†¦ However restrictive immigration policies play a major role in the reduction in the movement of jobs to countries to fill the void. The demand remains high as a result in developed countries for low waged labor, and immigrants who are desperate for work turn to smugglers to get them into developed countries. The risks and costs of smuggling people into developed countries are very high; however, smugglers take this risk. Some smugglers become traffickers who sell the immigrants and force them work to recover the expensive costs of smuggling.

Deontology Should Govern Decision Making in Business

TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. Introduction 2 2. Decision making in business   2 3. Characteristics of deontology .   3 4. Arguments in favour of applying deontology in business   4 5. Arguments against applying deontology in business   6. Conclusion   9 References   9 â€Å"Deontology should govern decision making in business†. Discuss. 1. Introduction Boylan (2000: 2) refers to ethics as â€Å"the science concerning the right and wrong of human action†. Teleology and deontology are the two major schools of thought that dominate ethical decision-making in the context of business.Teleology refers to consequences and is founded on the principle of utility maximisation. This concept judges behaviour by its effects on the overall welfare of all stakeholders. Deontology, on the other hand, views consequences as secondary. Under this philosophy, decisions and acts are evaluated in terms of their intrinsic worth. Deontology is more demanding than teleology, because it rates decisions and acts in absolute terms. For example, even if a decision or action satisfies the rule of the majority, deontology would reject that articular option if, as a result of it, a minority of stakeholders are likely to suffer. 2. Decision making in business When business firms are charged with infractions, and when there is legal investigation on the managers of those firms, there is a concern raised about moral behavior in business. Hence, the level of trust, which is one of the foundations of the business environment, is threatened. In fact, managers often have to make decisions under economic, professional and social pressure. The decision-making process will always present ethical challenges. Is this the right thing to do?This question is the essence of the ethical dilemma for any decision maker in today’s corporations. A collection of factors will be taken in consideration in answering to this question. Is it right for the company? Is it right for the shareholder s? Is it right for the society? For the customers? For the decision maker himself? Indeed, business people have many sources of ethical theories to choose from when making decisions. Each moral system gives a unique perspective on different situations. Managers and business owners use these guidelines to act in fair and socially responsible ways.The ground rules about which a decision maker will care are hence highly dependent on the moral approach. 3. Characteristics of deontology Deontology bases itself on the intrinsic worth of the decision or act. No allowance is made for unethical conduct under this philosophy. A business manager, who accepts deontology, will hold that some moral principles are binding, regardless of the consequences. Deontological ethics is the opposite of consequential ethics. The moral person does his duty regardless of the consequences.If a manager takes a deontological approach to ethics, he defines his duty by asking â€Å"What is the universal principle to be followed? † Deontological ethics refers to an established source of ethics guidance, such as industry standard or an official code of company conduct. In fact, Immanuel Kant refined deontological ethics and posited that the nature of morality is to do one’s duty even when we are not inclined to do it, and not because we are afraid of the consequences of not doing it. Kant referred to deontology as the categorical imperative.Under this principle, a moral imperative must be categorical or absolute, providing a lasting motive to adopt a particular course of action, categorized as ‘right’ or ‘ethical’. The rationale behind the principle of deontology is that each action has intrinsic worth and unconditional value. Ferrell et al. (2008) refer to deontology as non-consequentialism, ethical formalism, or ethics of respect-for-persons. The principle of deontology states that decisions should be judged on the circumstances in which they are made, rather than by their consequences.Deontology is the study of duty. In philosophy, it means specifically ethics based on duty regardless of consequences. Deontological ethics refers to rules stated in terms of other features of the courses of action, notably whether they represent fulfillment of an agreement or other duty or right, and/or involve the treatment of others with due respect. Since human beings have free will and thus are able to act from laws required by reason, Kant believed they have dignity or a value beyond price. Thus, one human being cannot use another simply to satisfy his or her own interests.This is the core insight behind Kant’s second formulation of the categorical imperative: â€Å"Always treat the humanity in a person as an end and never as a means merely. † What are the implications of this formulation of the categorical imperative for business? 4. Arguments in favour of applying deontology in business The deontological theory states that peo ple should adhere to their obligations and duties when analyzing an ethical dilemma. This means that the person will take into consideration his obligations to other people involved and the society at large when taking a decision thus fulfilling his duty which is considered ethically correct.A deontologist will never break a promise made to other parties. He will never to do something that is against the law. Thus a deontologist will be very consistent in his decision making which will be based on duty of the individual. Deontology provides the basis for special duty towards other individuals like your family members. For example, older children have a special duty of protection and care for their younger siblings, in the absence of parents older children are expected to take due care of the younger ones preventing them in doing things that may cause harm to themselvesDeontology also praises those who do an act of supererogation; this is when someone exceeds his duties and obligatio ns towards other persons or the society at large. For example, in case of a fire in a building, someone may go inside the building on fire risking his own life to save the lives of others. His duty would have been to call the fire services where fireman are equipped to handle this situation but instead of waiting for the firemen , he exceeds his duty by saving other people himself. It should be pointed out that the â€Å"respect for persons† principle does not prohibit commercial transactions.No one is used as merely a means in a voluntary economic exchange where both parties benefit. What this formulation of the categorical imperative does do is to put some constraints on the nature of economic transactions. Another concern about contemporary business practice is the extent to which employees have very limited knowledge about the affairs of the company. In an economic view, a Kantian approach to business ethics terminology, there is high information asymmetry between managem ent and the employees.Wherever one side has information that it keeps from other side, there is a severe temptation for abuse of power and deception. A Kantian would look for ways to reduce the information asymmetry between management and employees. In practical terms, a Kantian would endorse the practice known as open book management. The adoption of practices like open book management would go far toward correcting the asymmetrical information that managers possess, a situation that promotes abuse of power and deception. Open book management lso enhances employee self-respect. For a Kantian, meaningful work: * is freely chosen and provides opportunities for the worker to exercise autonomy on the job; * supports the autonomy and rationality of human beings; work that lessens autonomy or that undermines rationality is immoral; * provides a salary sufficient to exercise independence and provide for physical wellbeing and the satisfaction of some of the worker’s desires; * enab les a worker to develop rational capacities; and * does not interfere with a worker’s moral development. . Arguments against applying deontology in business Management, by definition, is the planning, leading, organizing and controlling available resources to achieve goals and objectives. Hence, one of the basic functions of management, controlling, is according to Harold Koontz, â€Å"the measurement and correction of performance in order to make sure that enterprise objectives and the plans devised to attain them are accomplished†. Consequently, it is largely based on outcomes and accountability of the business.Managers are therefore required to be accountable towards achieving their objectives and one of the ways to achieve this is by analyzing whether their actions are in line with expected outcomes and henceforth modify their future decision making process accordingly. In fact, this function is considered as one of the fundamental aspect of management and deriving from this will give rise to a major shortcoming in management decisions. Relying on universalism and good will of managers will not be enough in management decision making to achieve the vision, goals and objectives set by the organisation.Deontology requires that managers’ decisions be based on duty instead of consequences and must be followed for its own sake irrespective of the outcome. Such stance is considered as inflexible. It should be noted that norms vary from culture to culture, society to society and even people to people. Consequently having a rigid stance in respect of decisions may not be the best initiative for managers. The definition of right and wrong will depend on the culture, individual or historical period.Decisions taken in particular societies might be considered as ethical while in others as non-ethical. In this context, it is easier to understand why, when faced with the requirement to select a model of how we ought to live our lives, many people ch oose the idea of ethical relativism, where that ethical principles are defined by the traditions of their society, their personal opinions, and the circumstances of the present moment. The idea of relativism implies some degree of flexibility as opposed to strict black-and-white rules.From this perspective, it is better for managers to base their decision as a result of interactions with individuals and social institutions. Moreover, by definition an organization comprise a group of people with common objectives. No organization would be able to survive without its â€Å"people† such as owners who risk their money in the business, employees who provide the mental and physical efforts required for successful working of the business or managers who are involved in the daily operations of the organization.Managers know that without its people there won’t be any organization. Hence, recognizing the stakes of such stakeholders is sometimes fundamental for the survival of th e company. Sticking to a â€Å"rule based† approach as proposed by deontology might not help in certain cases where human resource for instance is involved. Care based-theorists seek solutions to ethical challenges on a case-by-case basis. To do otherwise means applying a blunt instrument across all situations (Hovland & Wolburg, 2012).They recognize that their approach requires stepping out of a comfort zone of â€Å"infallible† rules, but because it is grounded in human relationships, their approach is more likely to find solutions based on fairness (Hovland & Wolburg, 2012). Care-based theorists assume that humans are interdependent and need others for survival (Tronto 1993), that moral reason involves the interplay between emotions and reason (Noddings 2003; Held 1993), and that moral solutions must work for people within the context in which they live (Slattery et al. n press). In 1970, Nobel Prize winning economist, Milton Friedman published an article under the provocative title ‘The social responsibility of business is to increase profits’ where he posited that the managers’ fiduciary responsibility is to make profits since it is the main reason behind the setting up of firms. He added that distancing from such objectives would simply mean a theft towards shareholders(Crane and Matten 2004).Hence, he vigorously favoured the philosophy that firms should only aim towards profit maximizing and any other responsibility can only be considered if firms achieve their main objective. If we look at the ethical egoism principle which stipulates that it is necessary and sufficient for an action to be morally right that it maximize one's self-interest, we can see that there is link between these two philosophies. Egoism differs in content from deontological theories such as Kantianism which give weight to the interests of others (Stanford Encyclopedia, 2012).Abiding to deontology in decision making and favouring any other consider ations than that of the shareholders own interests would simply mean drawing away from ethical egoism and hence would considered as a theft out of their pocket. On the other hand, Edward Freeman, who was one of the founding fathers of the stakeholder theory, challenged the idea of Friedman that the main responsibility of business was to maximize profits without any considerations for the interests of all those affected by the business, including customers, suppliers, employees, and, of course, stockholders.There are two principles underlying the stakeholder theory (Crane and Matten 2004): * Principle of corporate rights which requires that a corporation should not violate the rights of others to achieve theirs; and * Principle of corporate effect which requires that business should be accountable of the effect or impact on other parties. However, if we analyze the second principle, it is clear that it is drawn from the utilitarianism philosophy which considers morality on the basis of consequences of actions and the maximization of good to all sections of the society (Greenwood and De Cieri, 2005).Based on this principle of corporate effect, making decisions only on a sense of â€Å"duty† or universal principles may not necessarily give rise to the greatest good to the greatest number of parties and will be in contradiction to the Stakeholder Theory. 6. Conclusion The perceived weaknesses of deontological theories have lead some scholars to consider how to eliminate or at least reduce those weaknesses while preserving deontology's advantages. One way to do this is to embrace both consequentialism and deontology, combining them into some kind of a mixed theory.Given the differing notions of rationality underlying each kind of theory, this is however a difficult task. References: Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Center for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford  University, Stanford,  CA  94305 http://www. bio. davidson. edu/people/kabe rnd/indep/carainbow/Theories. htm http://atheism. about. com/od/ethicalsystems/a/Deontological. htm http://www. ehow. com/about_6686029_role-business-ethics-decision- king. html#ixzz2AatMlvUJ

The Greek Of Greek Tragedy - 1514 Words

Luke Allis, Greek Theatre Ancient Greek tragedy is still relevant today because the themes and issues expressed within it are still present in the 21st century such as undeserved suffering, death and relationships. The greeks produced many great works of art and theatre as well as revolutionising politics, ethics, aesthetics and philosophy with philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle and their theories such as their theories on form and Catharsis. Many people suggest that modern day theatre and performance is derived directly from Ancient Greek Theatre and Myths. Just life we do with politics, ethics, aesthetics and philosophy look to the greeks as the founders and while it is possible that this is true this itself is also a myth. The ancient greek empire ended almost 150 years BC, about 2066 years ago. In that time a lot of information regarding it and it’s theatre has been lost or distorted (such as the destruction of The Library Of Alexandria) and thus we can’t be certain that the information is 100% correct which means that this itself is a myth, we have evidence that points towards theatre originating from Ancient Greece but we can’t be certain because there is also evidence pointing toward it originating from various other cultures from around the world such as the Egyptian Coronation Festival Play 3100 BC (History of theatre timeline, Glencoe.com) or primitive tribal dances and religious rituals dat ing even earlier than that. As mentioned previously otherShow MoreRelatedThe Tragedy Of The Greek Tragedy912 Words   |  4 PagesGreat Tragedy Results in Deeper thinking Throughout the history of ancient literature, tragedy was one of the most famous and significant literary forms. Especially, Greek tragedy literature was a popular and influential form of drama performed in theatres across ancient Greece from the late 6th century BCE, and formed the foundation upon which all modern theatre is based (Cartwright). I will look for not only the reasons why Greek writers composed such tragedy, but also focus on what made the audienceRead MoreGreek Tragedy And The Morality Of Greek Culture Essay2193 Words   |  9 PagesGreek Tragedy and the Morality of Greek Culture Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival;Read MoreThe Nature Of Greek Tragedy1581 Words   |  7 PagesI believe the nature of Greek tragedy is suffering. In most, if not all, plays written by Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides implies some sort of suffering. Whether it is through love, war, revenge, honor, fate or an answer from the God’s suffering is inevitable. I will attempt to prove my point by using Euripides â€Å"Medea† to show how suffering is the nature of Greek tragedy. Before I begin, it is important to understand my definition of mythological. I break the word into two parts, Myth meansRead MoreGreek Tragedy and Modern Drama1107 Words   |  4 PagesGreek Tragedy Modern Drama Tragedy as a form works differently than modern drama when compared to the ancient Greeks. When it comes to modern drama, the main character is usually an ordinary person, someone who is middle class. Where as with Greek tragedy, the main character is someone important and noble, such as a king or queen. Modern drama revolves around everyday problems such as social, economical, or personal conflicts. Greek Tragedies seem to be very linear. It’s mostly about theRead MoreGreek Tragedy By Euripides Medea1646 Words   |  7 Pages Discuss the ways Greek tragedy authors addressed such topics as duty, honor, kingship, gender roles, and the other. Greek tragedy authors tend to use their writings as a means of social, political, and religious commentary. Both of the authors we read of, use their characters and the storyline development to test their reader’s moral boundaries. On the one hand, Euripides’ Medea emphasizes Greek thoughts concerning foreigners, and denounces Athenian social bases through his character’s traitsRead MoreSophocles Greek Tragedy And The Chorus863 Words   |  4 PagesSophocles’ Greek tragedy, Oedipus Rex, has a voice beyond the main characters. The chorus plays a major roll in this tragedy. In Greek plays, there were a select few main characters and the chorus was the rest of the cast. (INSERT). To completely understand the tragedy, it is important for the read to read the whole play including the chorus. The chorus is valuable to the play with their knowledge and cultural awareness of the time. Not only did the chorus provide extensive context, but also theirRead MoreThe Greek Tragedy of Oedipus the King 971 Words   |  4 PagesA Greek tragedy is one with a tragic outcome that is an inevitable result of the key characters personal flaws. It is a calamity he or she was destined to. However, is it possibl e that a hero’s laudable qualities could lead to his or her catastrophic fate? Oedipus demonstrates several admirable qualities that are portrayed throughout Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Compassion, diligence, and justness are three qualities that contribute to the internal struggles that Oedipus faces resulting in hisRead MoreSophocles The Classic Greek Tragedy1242 Words   |  5 PagesIn the classic Greek tragedy, Antigone, by Sophocles, Creon portrays the characteristics of a tragic protagonist. As a tragic protagonist, Creon is faced with a very difficult dilemma. He has to choose either to abide by his law and punish Antigone, or to abide by the laws of the gods and forgive Antigone and let her bury Polynices. His councilors did everything in their power to advice him. However, when he realized the outcome of his decisions, it was too late. Creon’s choices brought him fromRead MoreGreek Theater: Tragedy Essay941 Words   |  4 PagesGreek theatre is based on religious and political performance with prestige playwrights. The roles are always played by men who wear masks and costumes and the performance were always outdoors. Greek theatre has had comedy and tragedy where comedies the heroes are ironic and disengaged to the situations. With the tragedy, heroes often respond with emotions such as pride, rage, lust, envy or grief. This essay will focus on the tragedy side of Greek theatre. Aristotle says that tragedy â€Å"is not theRead MoreThe Era of Greek Tragedy Essay2487 Words   |  10 PagesThe Era of Greek Tragedy In Athens, during the final thirty years of sixth century B.C. playwrights began creating the earliest drama in all of Europe, Greek tragedy (Sifakis, â€Å"Greek Tragedy†). Though now the products of the movement are seen as pieces of literature to be read, they originated as theatrical pieces meant to be performed on the stage. The tragedies were mostly derived from stories about their gods, such as Hades, Zeus and Nyx. In that time period, tales of these immortals were