KEY TERMS
THE CITY DIONYSIA AND THE BEGINNINGS OF GREEK TRAGEDY
CITY DIONYSIA or GREAT DIONYSIA: festival held in the
city of Athens in honor of the god, DIONYSUS , promoted by the
tyrant Peisistratos in the 530s.
c. 534 B.C.: THESPIS produced a play with a tragic CHORUS
and a single actor and won a prize at the City Dionysia.
Contests at the five-day festival of the City Dionysia in the middle of
the fifth century B.C.:
Day 1: DITHYRAMBS performed by two 50-member choruses of men
and boys from each of the ten tribes
Days 2-4: presentation of a tragic tetralogy on each day: a trilogy of
three tragedies followed by a SATYR PLAY, all four plays by a
single playwright
Day 5: presentation of five comedies by different playwrights
IMPORTANT GREEK DRAMATISTS
AESCHYLUS (525-456 B.C.): introduced a second actor; seven
surviving plays (of eighty known titles) include the ORESTEIA
(458 B.C.), a trilogy about the murder of Agamemnon by his wife, CLYTAMNESTRA
, upon his return from Troy, the killing of Clytamnestra by their
son, ORESTES , in revenge for his father's death, and the
ending
of the blood feud by a ruling of the Athenian Areopagos.
SOPHOCLES (496-406 B.C.): introduced a third actor; seven
surviving plays (of more than one hundred and twenty known titles)
include Antigone (c. 440 B.C.) and Oedipus Rex (c. 429 B.C.)
EURIPIDES (c. 484-406 B.C.): nineteen surviving plays (of ninety
known titles) include Medea, the Suppliant Women, and the Bacchae.
ARISTOPHANES (comic poet/c. 450-385 B.C.): satirized Athenian
public figures and institutions; his surviving plays include THE
CLOUDS (with a satirical portrait of Socrates) and Lysistrata
THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THEBES:
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LAIUS -
JOCASTA
CREON - EURYDICE
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OEDIPUS
HAEMON
Oedipus - Jocasta
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ETEOCLES
POLYNICES
ANTIGONE ISMENE
ANTIGONE, OEDIPUS REX AND THE LEGENDS OF THE
HOUSE OF
THEBES
Sophocles' plays, the Antigone (c. 441 B.C.)
and Oedipus Rex (c. 429 B.C.), deal with different aspects of the
legends concerning the ancient Greek city of Thebes and its royal
family. The action of the Antigone occurs after
that of Oedipus Rex, but the play was written and performed
more
than a decade before Oedipus Rex. They were not written
as parts of a single trilogy.
The Athenian audience would have been familiar
with the background to the story of Oedipus. Laius and Jocasta,
king and queen of Thebes, had received an oracle warning that their son
would be destined to kill his father and marry his mother. When
their son, Oedipus, was born, they acted to prevent the oracle from
coming true. They gave the baby to a servant with orders that the
child be killed. The servant pitied the infant and gave it to
another shepherd, a servant of the childless king and queen of Corinth,
POLYBUS and MEROPE. They raised Oedipus as their
son...
The action of Oedipus Rex takes place after
Oedipus has unwittingly fulfilled the oracle by killing Laius and
marrying the widowed queen, Jocasta. The play centers on Oedipus'
discovery of his true identity and the painful realization that the
oracles have
been fulfilled.
When the Antigone opens, the city of Thebes
has withstood an attack led by Polynices, the brother of Eteocles, who
led the city's defense. Polynices and Eteocles, both sons of
Oedipus, killed each other in combat, fighting for control of the
city.
Now, their uncle, Creon, is king, and he has declared Polynices a
traitor
and decreed that he is not to be buried. Antigone, the sister of
Polynices and Eteocles, has just received word of the decree...
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: INTERPRETING AND
APPRECIATING THE ANTIGONE
-In their first speeches and dialogues, what principles do Antigone
(lines 1-116) and Creon (179-235) defend? What issues lie behind
their conflict?
-How have Creon and Antigone each been helped or hurt by their
families?
-What do you learn about Creon's view of the gods from his first
two speeches (179-235, 317-56)?
-What role does the chorus play?
-Pay special attention to the choral ode known as the "ODE ON
MAN " (377-416). What does it say? How is it
structured? Is it an optimistic or pessimistic view of man?
-Do you think the “Ode on Man” has a "message" for any of the
characters in the play? How is it related to the action and
imagery in the following scene (417-593)?
-Compare Antigone's confrontation with Creon (495-593) with their
earlier speeches in the play. Have their positions changed?
Is Antigone's view of the gods compatible with Creon's view?
-Compare the next choral ode (656-700) with the Ode on Man. How
is it related structurally and thematically to the earlier ode?
Is its view of the gods consistent with that of the Ode on Man or with
the views of Creon and Antigone? Do you think this ode is aimed
at any of the characters?
-COMPARING WORKS >>> Compare the attitudes expressed in
this ode with those expressed in the Iliad.
-How does Creon view the relationship between fathers and sons?
Is it consistent with his earlier views on law and the state?
-What is the significance of the choral ode on love (lines 879-94)?
-Consider Antigone's last words to the chorus (lines 978-1034).
Does she remain faithful to her principles?
-Who do you think is the central character in the play? How does
your answer affect your interpretation of the play? What are the
causes of the tragic outcome?
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FOOD FOR THOUGHT: The Antigone is often read as a model of the classic
struggle between the individual’s moral conscience and the injustice
perpetrated by an authoritarian state. Compare other conflicts
between conscience and law with the conflict in the Antigone.
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