OCTOBER 4/10: GREEK TRAGEDY (ANTIGONE): HUMAN AND DIVINE LAW
READINGS (Wednesday class, October 4): Antigone (The Theban Plays, pp. 59-128).
READINGS (Tuesday night class, October 10): Antigone (The Theban Plays, pp. 59-128); Oedipus Rex (The Theban Plays, pp. 159-251); excerpts from Thucydides' History of the Peloponnesian War: Pericles' Funeral Oration, the Plague in Athens, and the Policy of Pericles (Procopy packet): Be sure to continue to the webnotes for Oedipus Rex and the assigned selections from Thucydides
Summary:
After a short introduction to the setting for the development and performance of Greek drama, we will discuss Antigone, paying special attention to the efforts to understand divine law and relate it to human law, a problem already raised by the conclusion of the Iliad, the lyrics of Solon, and the design of the Greek temple. 

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

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS: THE CITY DIONYSIA
-How are the Greek tragedies “religious” and “political” works?
-How did they have contemporary meanings for their audiences?
-Does the setting of their performance distinguish them from modern works of theatre or film?


THE ROYAL HOUSE OF THEBES:
                       ________________
                      |                               |
   LAIUS - JOCASTA                 CREON - EURYDICE
               |                                                |
        OEDIPUS                                HAEMON

                        Oedipus - Jocasta
    ________________|________________________
    |                             |                               |                 |
 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?
******************************************************************************
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.
******************************************************************************

NEXT CLASS: OCTOBER 9 (Oedipus Rex and the tragedy of Athens)
SCHEDULE OF READINGS
SCHEDULE OF READINGS (Tuesday night)
RETURN TO HUM 2211