Monday, May 7, 2012

bleg

it's a risky view of things for the tragic, in a sense, gives up on 
justice. This is what happens in ancient Greek tragedy: the gods get 
away with it. There is no justice for humankind. In place of justice, 
what individual human beings can aspire to is the condition of the 
heroic - a noble embrace of their tragic predicament. It was said that 
the gods envied humans the opportunity to be heroic, as they could not 
be so, never being powerless, and so never victims of injustice. In 
fact, sometimes the gods were shamed by heroes, and so tried to rectify 
the injustice. The tragic, then, does, just about, hold onto the hope of 
redemption, though only at great personal cost. Someone usually has to die.

I came across this in an e-mail I wrote a while back, but I don't know where I first found it. Does anyone know?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Some possibilities?, e.g.

K. Lehrs, “Vorstellung der Griechen vom Neid der Götter und die Überhebung”, in
idem, Populäre Aufsätze aus dem Althertum (Leipzig: Teubner, 1856)

G.J.D. Aalders, “De oud-Griekse voorstelling van de afgunst der godheid”, Mededelingen der Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen, Afdeling Letterkunde 38 (1975)

Some echoed in the last paragraph of this article Guardian? : (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2010/may/29/anglican-communion-williams-religion)

Susan said...

Who is this clever anonymous thingy!?