Stavropoulou, Effimia (2020) 'Metal materiality and divine agency' : towards a new reading of Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

Preview

PDF WRAP_Theses_Stavropoulou_2020.pdf - Submitted Version - Requires a PDF viewer. Download (1860Kb) | Preview

Request Changes to record.

Abstract

My PhD thesis offers insight into the ways in which the themes of metal and metallurgy dramatise divine agency in Aeschylus’ Seven Against Thebes. Metals and metallic objects have a prominent place in the Greek literary imagination as symbols for ekphrasis and divine creation. In this thesis I argue that both of these aspects are explored in depth in the Aeschylean play, where the motif of weapons becomes the main dramaturgical tool for the representation of the play’s divine agent. Examining the theatricality of the props through the lens of posthumanism and the theories of vibrant materialisms, my study observes the unfolding of the motif of weapons as clanging metals (78-263), imagined shield emblems (375- 676) and, finally, as stage props (677-719). I show that through their gradual visualisation onstage, the weapons represent Oedipus’ Erinys and its gradual effect on Eteocles and Polyneices. In doing so, my work offers a new interpretation to the questions about divine agency and human responsibility in the Seven Against Thebes in which boundaries of ethical responsibility and freedom of choice are utterly blurred.

Cosmological contemplation cannot be seen separately from the means through which it is explored and the genre in which it is expressed. Following the large-scale appearance of weapons in the Homeric tradition, I show that Aeschylus’ reconfiguration of the motif’s auditory and visual representation in the Seven Against Thebes, is the means for the implicit demonstration of tragedy’s superiority in the world of Greek literature. Finally, although the primary intention of my thesis is to shed new light into the significance of weapons in the Seven Against Thebes, my study is an equal contribution to the existing literature on metal, its anthropological and religious significance, and also its literary identity as a cross-temporal metaphor for literary creation.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PA Classical philology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Aeschylus. Seven against Thebes, Aeschylus -- Themes, motives, Greek drama -- Themes, motives, Metallurgy in literature, Metals in literature
Official Date:	December 2020
Dates:	Date Event December 2020 UNSPECIFIED
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Classics and Ancient History
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Bakola, Emmanuela ; Fearn, David, 1975-
Sponsors:	University of Warwick. Department of Classics and Ancient History ; Foundation for Education and European Culture
Format of File:	pdf
Extent:	227 leaves
Language:	eng

Request changes or add full text files to a record

Repository staff actions (login required)

View Item