those children that are born lie dead on the naked earth
unpitied, spreading contagion of death; and gray-haired mothers and wives
everywhere stand at the altar’s edge, suppliant, moaning; the hymn to the healing God15 rings out but with it the wailing voices are blended.
From these our sufferings grant us, O golden Daughter of Zeus,16
210 glad-faced deliverance.
In the play, it speaks of a disaster that they face with many babies dying and everything is just kind of dead, “spreading contagion of death…” everyone is just kind of sick and they are praying and giving offerings to the gods to help them through this time. I chose this quote because it shows what the people are going through and it paints a picture of how bad it was that they were turning towards the gods for help. It shows that through the suffering they all gathered at the altar to ask for blessings from Athena, “golden daughter of Zeus” to help stop the god of war, Ares as they think it is him that “…burns us” They attributed their suffering to Ares and want the other gods such as Zeus and Athena to help them.
4 thoughts on “Emily Fan Discussion 6”
Hi Emily. You have such a great observation on this passage. You can see the way they are describing the events that are happening that it’s bad. They are suffering as you said. It makes you feel sorry for them. You can tell that they are united begging to be helped because of the wailing voices. This passage is very descriptive and is one of my favorites. This kind of reminds me that when times are turbulent you need to be united.
Hi Emily, this is a wonderful passage to elaborate on the pain and suffering the people of Thebes are going through. Calling to their gods for guidance and savior, hoping that their new king Oedipus can save them and their city through this dark time.
Dear Emily,
Thank you for sharing your post. It was very interesting. I really liked the passage you chose because I think it is one of the very emotional scenes in the story. The scene describes the disaster in which many babies died. “those children that are born lie dead on the naked earth”. The following scene clearly shows and speaks about how people were asking for help from god.
Hello Emily I like the passage you chose and your observations on it. From your response you make it seem like they turned to the gods to seek help because of how bad it was. However, I think that in the time period the story takes place the people always sought help from the gods on any matter big or small. You also say that they pinned their suffering on Ares but, is it in that quote or another part of the story as I don’t remember there being a mention of him.