Sophoclean Humanism

Reverence
“Ode to man”
Thucydides
Phusis

Anthropology: Science of the Human

 At what point do at times human beings turn their backs on their essential nature and are not
considered human any longer?
 Roots in 5th century
 Homeric Humanism
 Euripides Humanism
 Thucydides-History of war between Trojan war
o In which Sophocles lived
Hector-the Trojan
 He is the talisman, the hero of the Iliad.
 The Iliad seems to be centered around Achilles.
 The Iliad is not about Achilles, or the Greeks, the Iliad is about The Greeks vs. The Greeks, and all
along Hector is the background to which the inhumane is compared.
 Hector makes mistakes and he dies. Achilles thinks of himself as an animal, as a wolf
 Hector lives in a city. Gods live in Olympus, beasts dwell in dens. Achilles who’s mother is a
goddess lives in a den
Line 417-Divine son of Zeus, Dionysus
 Hates the man who does not try to live a flawless life
 Explanation of what is human is in terms of the divine
 Human reverence is done in terms of how Dionysus responds to the reverent and irreverent
1. Gods exist
2. Gods pay attention to affairs
3. Relationship between gods and man is actively reciprocal

Homeric Humanism: The Play is about the humanity of the play, humanism is the work of human
philosophy and literature.

Ananke
Eikos

Thucydidean Humanism:
 Gods don’t exist, but there is reverence
 Reverence to the human condition, that we don’t do inhumane things during difficult times
Sophocles:
Wrote 120 plays, 20 victories in the city Dionysia, only 7 plays survive

The most famous passage of Sophocles: Ode to man