“There is no clash of brazen shields, but our fight is with the War God” (Sophocles, line 211) is a metaphor to describe the people’s struggle with the blight that was due to a curse born from the past sin of a man.
“a War God ringed with the cries of men, a savage God who burns us”(212) describes the pain and suffering of those who are stricken with the plague.
“grant that he turn in racing course backwards out of our country’s bounds to the great palace of Amphitrite or where the waves of the Thracian sea deny the stranger safe anchorage.”(213-214) is a metaphor using beautiful imagery to describe what the people desire. They wish for a sound victory in which they drive the plague from their lands.
The clever use of metaphor and imagery makes for a beautiful passage. It entertainingly describes the conflict for us and sparks our imaginations.
One thought on “Siu Kwan Eddie Tsui Discussion 6”
Great choices on the passages, Siu!
It is incredible to think about how they used such vocabulary to express many deep situations and myths on that era. Vocabularies which, we barely see today in modern literature or theater. On the passages you mentioned, even though we can definitely feel the rage, fear and emotion in their words, we can also thrive with the beautiful composition of what they are trying to say, and on their beautiful way to describe imagery, that even after many and many years we can still read and emphasize, or be able to use our imagination to picture the situations described by the chorus.
Also, thanks for explaining very clear the literary terms containing on the passages you’ve chosen. It has completely given me so many insights, in which i’ll re-read the script again and analyze it for myself now.