Wrestling With Chaos

Paper Summary:

This paper studies how ancient Greek art and thought were affected by their sense of chaos in the world. The paper argues that, from at least the time of Homer, the Greeks displayed an anxiety about their chaotic world. The paper charts the evolution of their response to this chaos, both creatively and philosophically, as depicted in their art and writings. The paper then turns to Greek drama, which it asserts is the culmination of this evolution. The paper assesses how drama served as an inquisition into the nature of man and a fusing of humanist expression with religious tradition. The paper quotes from a variety of original texts to support its argument.

From the Paper:

"As an early example of orally presented poetry, the Iliad is clearly an ancestor of drama on a technical level, both as performance art and as verse. The purpose of Homer's epic was primarily to provide a poetic record of an important event in the history of his people from which they could draw a sense of identity and pride after the fall of Mycenean society. In it, however, we can also see "three persistent themes of human interest: the nature of the supernatural, the intervention of the supernatural in human events, and acute observations about the behavior of men toward one another" (Hooper, 60). These themes would continue to influence the development of artistic expression and philosophic thought through Classical Greece and the rise of drama."

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