Greek Drama

Oedipus Rex and Antigone

By Sophocles

The Beginnings of Drama

• Began as a part of an Athenian religious festival honoring Dionysos, the god of wine and festivity.

• They gathered in large, outdoor theaters.• Plays were performed including tragedies,

comedies, and satyr plays.• Satyr: wild, humorous plays dealing with

ridiculous situations. Characters were dressed as half human/half goat.

Format of Greek Drama• Prologue: how a play opens and it introduces a

situation• Exodus: an exiting scene• Scenes are divided by odes spoken in unison by

a chorus. A chorus has about 15 people with a leader called the choragos. The chorus speaks to the audience directly.

• A choral ode has alternating stanzas called the strophe, the antistrophe, and sometimes the epode. The chorus dances in one direction for the strophe, the other for the antistrophe, and stands still for the epode.

• Parados: an ode chanted at the opening of the play.

Greek Tragedy

• Usually centered on the suffering of a major character and ends in disaster.

• Was a highly developed dramatic form, strongly linked with both religious ritual and artistic performance.

• Tragedies were usually presented as part of a trilogy.

• Content was based on myths familiar to ancient Greeks.

What is TRAGEDY?

• a drama that recounts the downfall of a dignified, superior character.

• That character is called a TRAGIC HERO.

• The tragic hero usually has a TRAGIC FLAW, an error or weakness that may contribute to the character’s ruin.

Sophocles Great Trilogy

Oedipus the King

Oedipus at Colonus

Antigone

The Story of Oedipus Rex• Setting: the city of Thebes, which was founded by

Cadmus.• Cadmus angered the god Apollo who placed a curse on

the city.• Oedipus was the unborn son of King Laius and Queen

Jocasta.• Apollo’s curse prophesized that Oedipus will kill his

father and marry his mother.• To protect their new child, Laius ordered his feet to be

pierced, abandoned him and then left to die. A servant, however, couldn’t let that happen so the child was taken to King Polybus of Corinth.

• He lived there for 18 years not knowing his true family or of the horrible prophesy bestowed on his life.

• The childless couple named him Oedipus. (Oedipus means “swollen feet”)

Oedipus Rex (con’t)• When he was an adult, Oedipus, the Prince of Corinth,

left Corinth to seek his fortune.• He hears a rumor that this is not his real family so he

travels to Delphi to consult the oracle and learns of his fate. Because of this, he stays away from Thebes.

• Near Thebes, he encounters an old man in a chariot. The old man insults Oedipus and strikes him.

• Oedipus, in turn, kills the man. Ironically, he killed his real father, King Laius not knowing. He fulfilled the first part of the prophesy with out knowing it.

• He continued on to Thebes.• In Thebes, he became a hero by solving a riddle and

defeating a Sphinx that was terrorizing the city.• His reward was the hand of the widowed Queen Jocasta,

the sister of Creon. He married her, also unaware that he had just married his mother! Prophesy Part 2!

Oedipus Rex (con’t)• Oedipus ruled Thebes for 20 years and had 4 children with Jocasta.

– Antigone– Ismene– Polynices– Eteocles

• A plague struck the city causing infertility because of what Oedipus has done. That man he killed was his FATHER!

• The people beg Oedipus to find out who killed Laius in order for the plaque to be lifted. Oedipus then figures out what he has done and realizes, by remembering the man he killed and the oracle at Delphi, that has caused the plague!

• He learns from a messenger that the King and Queen or Corinth are not his real parents! He searches for the shepherd that gave him to them.

• When he comes back to the palace, Jocasta (in other words, his wife, but really his mother) has hung herself.

• In horror of what he has done, he gouges out his eyes with the pins from her dress.

Oedipus and Antigone• Antigone is Oedipus’ daughter• Antigone led her father into exile where he died.• His sons Eteocles and Polyneices kill each other

while fighting for control of the kingdom, leaving Creon as King once more.

• The play Antigone begins with Jocasta’s brother Creon as the new ruler of Thebes.

• Antigone and her sister Ismene are haunted of these past tragedies.

• Antigone struggles to have BOTH of her brothers buried in the respectful way they deserve.