Midterm Essays

1.
The first thing most people think of when they hear "Greek" is "gods", because the gods play such a role in every part in Greek society. In Greek drama, gods were used to explain why things happen the way they do. It was a perfect environment to display how the gods might be interfering with our lives.

For example, the Greek word "dike" means "to point at" and also "justice". These are connected because they believed that whatever Zeus pointed at was justice. In this sense, justice was pretty unpredictable. Instead of talking about this, it was much more easily recognized when it was visually displayed as a drama.

With the use of a chorus in these plays, it creates a scenario where things can be spelled out for the audience in a narration. There is always an explanation for what is happening, whether that be from another character or one of the gods.

We are always looking for answers, or something to put the blame on, and Greek Gods were commonly the scapegoat.


4.

Since the beginning of the time the Greeks have had the desire to tell stories and communicate ideas with one another. Stories and legends were passed down from one generation to the next, told over and over again, and it wasn't uncommon for the tales to turn ascew. It wasn't until the alphabet was created, and brought into practice, that the way the Greeks communicated was more reliable and something tangible. They learned from the mistakes of their past, and being able to record that helped them not repeat history. It influenced the Greeks in both negative and postivie aspects. 

For example, Plato's "The Republic" was originally a dialectic in which he went back and forth communicating his thoughts, receiving insight and being asked questions, and expaining furthur to reaffirm his ideas. If this was a written form originally, his ideas would be less clear to the untrained ear, because the back and forth provides a simpler explanation for the audience.  Written versiouns of communication need to be some sort of a "perfect version" of what has been said over and over again.

Aristotle's ideas and improvements in math and science depended on the medium of written language because it needed to be constant every time.  It altered the way that they learned in this aspect because there can't be consistency of ideas and methods if it only is passed down by word of mouth.