ANCIENT GREEK TRAGEDY

CLASSICAL GREEK DRAMA

Origins
Religious rituals honoring
Dionysus, god of wine and
fertility.
Each dramatist presented 3
tragedies as well as a comedy and a satyr play.
Satyr plays were rife with mock drunkenness, sexuality,
pranks, sight gags, and general merriment
Drama was born when Aeschylus added a second actor
to his performances.
6th Century BC

SOPHOCLES, AUTHOR OF ANTIGONE

Greatest of the ancient Greek
playwrights 496-406 BC
Created a sensation when he beat
Aeschylus
Added a third actor , increased the
size of the chorus, and painted the
sets
Out of the 123 dramas he wrote,
seven complete dramas exist
Moral lesson of his plays: Beware of
pride and religious indifference

CLASSIC GREEK DRAMA

Actors and Chorus

Actors

wore masks with exaggerated

mouthpieces which amplified their
voices.
By changing masks, actors could play
more than one character within the
same play.
Chorus gave insight into the message
of the play and represented the
response of ordinary citizens

GREEK TRAGEDY
Tragedy is a form of drama showing the
downfall of an important person who
participates in important events and commits a
violation against society or a wrong.
The tragic hero is the main character or
protagonist

Holds

a respected position
Has some sort of character defect
Dignified acceptance of his or her downfall.

GREEK TRAGEDY

A tragic flaw is an error in judgment or a

weakness of character.
The

tragic flaw causes the tragic heros downfall

even as he or she recognizes that flaw too late.

GREEK TRAGEDY
A catastrophe is the disastrous conclusion of a
tragedy, in which multiple deaths may occur. If
the tragic hero does not die, then s/he suffers
complete ruin.
The chorus in a tragedy observes and
comments on the action through song. Their
responses and values were supposed to reflect
those of the audience.

GREEK TRAGEDY

Fate can best be described as the Greek belief in

the unchangeable preordination of a persons life
by the gods.

Fates - Three goddesses

who determined the length

of a persons life and how
much suffering it would
contain. The Greeks believed
it was impossible to escape
ones fate.

GREEK TRAGEDY

At the end of the tragedy, the audience feels

Pity

for the tragic hero

Fear because they realize that the heros struggles
are perhaps a necessary part of human life
A sense of waste because a person who is in some
way superior has been destroyed.

ADDITIONAL TERMS TO KNOW

Choragusleader of the chorus

Soliloquya long speech in which a character

who is alone on stage expresses private
thoughts/feelings

Hubrisexcessive pride or self-confidence;

arrogance

ADDITIONAL TERMS TO KNOW

Foilcharacters whose personalities are

opposites

The catharsis at the end of the play arises from

the purging or purification of the audiences
emotions through the evocation of pity (for the
hero) and fear (the heros struggles are a part
of human life).

GREEK BURIAL TRADITION

Religious laws called for burial rites to be
performed for the dead.
If not, the soul was forced to wander earth for
eternity.

ANTIGONE

The last of the Theban plays, but written first

Oedipus

Rex
Oedipus at Colonus
Antigone

Dramatic irony
The

audience already knew the story; therefore,

they could understand the importance of words or
events in the play.

THE CURSE
King Laios and Queen Jocasta and the Oracle
Corinth
As a young man, Oedipus hears prophecy
Road rage
Sphinx

KING LAIOS AND QUEEN JOCASTA AND THE ORACLE

The protagonist of the tragedy is the son of King Laios

and Queen Jocasta of Thebes. After Laios learns from
an oracle that "he is doomed/To perish by the hand of
his own son," he tightly binds the feet of the infant
together with a pin and orders Jocasta to kill the
infant.
Hesitant to do so, she orders a servant to commit the
act for her.
Instead, the servant takes the baby to a mountain top
to die from exposure.

KING LAIOS AND QUEEN JOCASTA AND THE ORACLE

In Thebes, a baby is born to Queen Jocasta and

King Laios.

Prophecy: He will kill father and marry mother.

They give baby away to be killed!

CORINTH

A shepherd rescues the infant

and names him Oedipus (or
"swollen feet"). The shepherd
carries the baby with him to
Corinth, where Oedipus is
taken in and raised in the
court of the childless King
Polybus as if he were his own.

CORINTH

Baby Oedipus is rescued and

raised King Polybus in Corinth,
a neighboring city.

OEDIPUS HEARS A PROPHECY

As a young man in Corinth, Oedipus hears a rumor that

he is not the biological son of Polybus and his wife
Merope. When Oedipus questions the King and Queen,
they deny it, but, still suspicious, he asks the Delphic
Oracle who his parents really are. The Oracle seems to
ignore this question, telling him instead that he is
destined to "Mate with [his] own mother, and shed/With
[his] own hands the blood of [his] own sire".

Desperate to avoid his foretold fate, Oedipus leaves

Corinth in the belief that Polybus and Merope are indeed
his true parents and that, once away from them, he will
never harm them.

OEDIPUS HEARS A PROPHECY

Oedipus hears rumors that Polybus and

Merope (dead) are not his biological parents.

He consults the oracle and learns about his

birth prophecy.

He flees Corinth. He does not want to kill the

man he thinks of as his father, Polybus.

ROAD RAGE

On the road to Thebes, he meets Laios, his true father.

Unaware of each other's identities, they quarrel over
whose chariot has right-of-way.
King Laios moves to strike the insolent (disrespectful)
youth with his sceptre, but Oedipus throws him down
from the chariot and kills him, thus fulfilling part of the
oracle's prophecy. He kills all but one of the other
men.

ROAD RAGE

On the road, he fights with a group of men and kills

King Laios, his real father.

THE SPHINX
When Oedipus approaches Thebes he
encounters the Sphinx. She guarded the
entrance to the city.
She posed a riddle to all travelers
and devoured them when they failed to solve it.

THE SPHINXS RIDDLE

What creature
goes on four legs in
the morning, two
legs in the
afternoon, and
three legs in the
evening?

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

To this riddle, Oedipus replies, "Man" and the

distraught Sphinx throws herself off the cliff side.
Oedipus' reward for freeing the kingdom of Thebes
from her curse is the kingship and the hand of Queen
Jocasta, his biological mother.
The prophecy is thus
fulfilled, although
none of the main
characters know it.
(Dramatic Irony!)

RIDDLE OF THE SPHINX

Oedipus solves and riddle and marries the Queen of

Thebes, his true mother, fulfilling his birth prophecy.

BACKGROUND CONTINUED
Oedipus Marries Jocasta and has 4 children with
her
Years laterA plague strikes Thebes
Oracle says that murderer of King Laios must be
punished
Oedipus discovers the truth
Creon exiles Oedipus
His sons take over Civil war results
Brothers die, Creon takes over.

ANTIGONES
(DYSFUNCTIONAL) FAMILY TREE

MENOECEUS
LAIOS JOCASTA
Are told their son will kill father, marry mother

OEDIPUS JOCASTA (Mother)

Grows up in Corinth
kills father
marries mother
has four children
Jocasta kills herself
Oedipus blinds himself

CREON EURYDICE
Queen Jocastas brother and sister-in-law

Haemon

NEXT GENERATION. . . .
Children of Oedipus and Jocasta

ETEOCLES POLYNEICES
ISMENE ANTIGONE
Twin brothers fight over who will
be king; they kill each other.
Eteocles is buried with honors;
Polyneices is left to rot.
Ismene and Antigone are
daughters left to defend the
honor of their brother
Plot Twist: Antigone is engaged to
Haemon, son of Creon

ANTIGONE

Theme has to do with the individual conscience

at odds with the established authority.

THEME

To what extent are tragic heroes responsible for what

happens to them?
To what extent do tragic heroes try to avoid fate?
To whom or what do you owe your ultimate loyalty?
http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/fun/somenights.html