The ancient Greeks

According to Walter Burkert (1999) the Greeks

created the very concept of "nature." The Greeks had a word for it, physis, . . .physis is a form of "being"--the verbal root is identical with the English "be." The word mainly referred to the growth of plants. . . Growth occurs on its own, undisturbed, but according to a predetermined and repetitive course. Physis is the opposite of "manipulation." It occurs outside the conscious efforts of peoples and nations, their decrees, conventions, actions, and coercions. There exists a basic department of reality which keeps to its course and which develops by its own laws, and which sustains the life we share (p. 185).

The gods were representative of this independent l

. . .
s to a lion cub, brought in from the wild - an animal of nature -- and raised as one of the sheep. He then breaks the laws of hospitality by slaughtering the sheep, or in Paris' case, carrying away Helen (lines 717-36). Clytemnestra frequently uses imagery from nature. As female head of household, she is in charge of the sacrifices made to Hestia, goddess of the hearth, and even discusses this when trying to convince Cassandra to come into the palace. After Clytemnestra has killed Agamemnon, she calls his blood "sanguine dew" and says that she "rejoiced just as the newly sown earth rejoices,/when Zeus sends the nourishing rain on the young crops" (lines 1390-2), thus comparing herself to the mother of all nature -- Earth. In The Libation Bearers, the Chorus laments the passing of the king stating that "There is no sun, only hateful gloom,/desolate darkness envelopes the House,/where a master was brutally killed" (lines 51-53). Later on, Orestes invokes the sun, and Zeus, to return to the home that had been deserted to witness his deed, "Let the father see, not mine, but the one that sees all,/let Helios the sun gaze at my mother's foul work./He will be my witness on the judgment day/and testify that I was right to kill my mo
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Polynices Eteocles, Oresteia Antigone, Fire Water/swore, Walter Burkert, Bearers Chorus, Death Death, , Gatherer Rain-god, Knox Fagles, Oedipus Rex, oresteia antigone, hamilton 1942, knox fagles 1984, wild animal, fagles 1984, knox fagles, human culture, gods chorus, threshing floor, nature --, nature humans,
Approximate Word count = 1586
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page)