The Tain: A Quick Overview

Hi, everyone.

I want to give you a quick synopsis of the Tain, since we're not reading the whole thing. A "tain" is a cattle-raid; the Tain Bo Culainge translates to the "Cattle-raid of Cooley." The armies from the province of Connacht, under King Ailill and Queen Medb, raid the province of Ulster to carry off the Brown Bull of Culainge. The men of Ulster have been cursed with debilitating pangs that will strike them when they are in danger, so they cannot fight the army for 9 days. During that time, their greatest hero, Cuchulainn, must hold off the army. Cuchulainn is not cursed with the pangs because his father is not one of the men of Ulster, but the god Lug. He's also still a boy, which could also perhaps be why he's exempt.

There are some notable heroes on each side, especially Fergus on the side of the Connachtmen. Fergus is also the hero of his own series of legends, and it's important that he and Cuchulainn don't actually fight--you can't have your two best heroes try to kill each other! There are also some characters that are actually pagan gods and goddesses--not only Lug (who fights in Cuchulainn's place at one point), but the war-goddess Morrigan, and in some ways Medb. Although Medb (also sometimes spelled Maeve in modern Irish) is more-or-less human in the Tain, in other legends she's a type of the "sovreignty goddess" who grants lordship to the man who marries and/or sleeps with her. This partially explains her unusual sexual ethics, and the nervousness with which the male characters react to her.

We'll probably start discussion on Tuesday with Medb. Look at her character and the way other characters react to her.

Hamartia

The great Greek dramatic critic, Aristotle, suggested that all tragic heroes suffer from a single failure in personality or nature that brings about their downfall. The Greek word for this is hamartia—we call it a tragic flaw. Recent critics have suggested that hamartia is not supposed to be interpreted as a personality flaw, but a lack of knowledge or understanding of an event.

• Does hamartia apply to Antigone? What might her flaw be?
• Does this apply to other characters? Is she actually the hero in this play? What arguments do you see that suggest she might not be? Why wouldn’t she be a good tragic hero?
• Pick a passage, and do some close reading. Look for both hamartia, and dramatic irony in this play.

I'd like everyone to post at least a couple of comments, posting on any of the above topics (or one of your own) and then responding to a classmate's post.