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Oedipus Rex

Oedipus Rex. Most likely began as part of a religious ritual – a Dionysian ceremony with dancers dressed as goats pantomiming the suffering or death and rebirth of a God or hero. Origin of Tragedy. Origin of Comedy.

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Oedipus Rex

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  1. Oedipus Rex

  2. Most likely began as part of a religious ritual – a Dionysian ceremony with dancers dressed as goats pantomiming the suffering or death and rebirth of a God or hero Origin of Tragedy

  3. Origin of Comedy • Most likely began with fertility festivals where people would sing and dance around the image of large phalluses

  4. Tragedy depicts the downfall of a basically good person through some fatal error or misjudgment producing suffering and insight on the part of the protagonist and arousing pity and fear in the audience. Definition of Tragedy

  5. Definition of Comedy A comedy depicts the rise in fortune of sympathetic characters

  6. TRAGEDY Sad ending Ends in death Focuses on the ideal human Focuses on the individual – there is one hero Struggle against the inevitable dominated by fate Struggle between man and destiny Plot moves from freedom to rigidity Hero is of high status and is noble and highly moral COMEDY Happy ending Ends in marriage Focuses on the real human Focuses on society and many characters Struggle against the unpredictable dominated by fortune (chance) Struggle between man and other people Plot moves from rigidity to freedom Hero is an ordinary mortal Differences

  7. The History • Also called Oedipus the King (“rex” = king) • Written by Sophocles (496BC – c.406BC) – he wrote between Aeschylus and Euripides • The story of Oedipus was very well-known to Sophocles’ audience; what made this version unusual was Sophocles’s focus on how Oedipus learned the truth – through his own persistence to identify the criminal

  8. Sophocles • Lived through the height of the Athenian civilization • Wrote over a hundred plays for the Athenian theater; only seven of his tragedies have survived in their entirety, fragments of other plays • His name comes from the Greek words oida (“I know”) and pos (“foot”); Sophocles repeats these words frequently

  9. Oedipus • King of Thebes

  10. Jocasta • Wife of Oedipus • Queen of Thebes

  11. Creon • Brother of Jocasta

  12. Chorus • Thebian citizens

  13. The Priest • Priest of the god Zeus

  14. Tiresias • A blind prophet

  15. The Messengers • Two messengers: One of Corinth, the other from the palace of Oedipus

  16. Antigone and Ismene • Daughters of Oedipus and Jocasta

  17. The Beginning… • Oedipus has been king of Thebes for many years – he solved the riddle of the Sphinx and was awarded the throne and Jocasta for saving Thebes from the Sphinx’s plague; now, there’s another plague in Thebes.

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