Background

1. Background Theban Trilogy

2. Sophocles • Born 496 B.C. • Wrote 113 plays, only 7 have survived • From an area outside Athens, Greece • Won 1st at the Dionysian 18 times • Innovator of drama: painted background scenery and speaking actors • Interested in character portrayal • Concerned with the individual’s struggle with Fate • Died at 90 in 406 B.C- part of the pivotal influence - political, historical, philosophical from Roman Empire to now

3. Origins of Greek Drama-Dionysus • Began through religious worship of Dionysus • Greek god of wine, revelry, and physical pleasure • Not PG-13! • Handsome and vigorous-filled with the joy of life • Father of the Greek Theater

4. Origins of Greek Drama • When grapes were harvested, the Greeks would celebrate in honor of Dionysus • Much dancing and singing • Some people wore masks-How does this change behavior? • At first, everyone took part in the activities. Then, some who danced or sang better than the others would take control of the activities. • The others would gather to watch, thus performance came into existence • A large audience needed a place to see the performance. The people sought out semi-circular hillsides sloping down toward a flat area. This flat area was stomped down and called the “dancing circle” and Western civilization’s first “stage”

5. The First Theatre Acoustics? Placement? What is the focus of the performance?

6. Theatre of Delphi Today What else still functions/exists from 400 BC?

7. Characteristics of Greek Drama • Open to the sky • Seats of stone • Simple props used • No violence represented directly on stage - What? Speculate why. • Rich citizens (patrons) funded the expense of putting on a play • Awesome acoustics and visibility • Tickets were free - changes demographics, which influences content • Only occurred once a year at the Feast of Dionysus- How is this an influence?

8. Characteristics of Greek Drama • Women sat apart from men • Only men were actors or in the chorus: elaborate masks worn • No effects. Not so much about costumes- WORDS! • Lively audience, ate and drank, quarrelled, shouted, hissed, groaned, threw olives, figs, or stones - Is this interactive? • Three days of drama-on each day five plays were presented: 3 tragedies, a satyr play, and a comedy • Winners chosen by a panel of 10 judges

9. Chorus

10. The Chorus • Earliest Greek drama was a group production performed by a chorus - Purpose? • The chorus sometimes sang, sometimes chanted • Separates from narrative • In 535 B.C., a man named Thespis, who was a prominent leader of the chorus, stepped out from the group and recited alone—thus, the first actor • Originally, the Chorus consisted of about 50 people

11. The Chorus • Chorus dwindled to no more than 15 people over the years, as first a second actor was added, and finally, a third • Chorus can function as another character in the play • Chorus sets the mood and atmosphere of the play bridging current cultural climate • Engages in dialogue with the characters through the Chorus Leader • Comments on and emphasizes the main themes of the play • Offers important background and provides summaries so that the audience might better understand the play • Models an ideal audience’s response to the unfolding drama. The Chorus reacts to the events in the play- What would be the result of this? • Foreshadows the outcome of the play

12. Chorus- Discussion pages • 168- 170 • 186-187 • 209-210 • 233-234, 251 • 65-66

13. Things to Look for in the Chorus 244 338-706 707-1007 1311-1684 • Discuss: • dramatic irony • Concept of fate • Characterization of Oedipus Immediately following the Chorus’s first ode (168-244) calling to the gods, Oedipus enters and says that he will answer the Chorus’s prayers • Role of and Belief in the gods • Blindness, Truth, Knowledge

14. Nature of the conflict • Concept of transgression-violation of a law, command, or duty • The Chorus takes the stage, confused and unsure whom to believe. They resolve that they will not believe any of these accusations against Oedipus unless they are shown proof. (338-706) • Nevertheless, the Chorus holds staunchly to the belief that the prophecies of Tiresias will come true. For if they do not, there is no order on earth or in the heavens. (707-1007) • The Chorus comes onstage once more. Oedipus, greatest of men, has fallen , they say, and so all life is miserable, and only death can bring peace.(1311-1684)

15. Character Analysis

16. Oedipus • His name’s literal meaning (“ swollen foot ”) is the clue to his identity - Where are some clues? • — he was taken from the house of Laius as a baby and left in the mountains with his feet bound together. • Limping- Where? • Rex- reigning king, forcibly taken • Immediately following the Chorus’s first ode (168-244) calling to the gods, Oedipus enters and says that he will answer the Chorus’s prayers. • For a moment , Oedipus takes upon himself the role of a god— a role the Chorus has been both reluctant and eager to allow him What is the message of deification to the audience? • At this early moment, we see Oedipus’s dangerous pride, which explains his willful blindness and, to a certain extent, justifies his downfall.

17. Oedipus as tragic hero Man of hubris- p. 159, line 7 Foreshadowing p. 161, line 39 While he is helpful, he is harmful, usurping the gods p. 171, line 245 Greek perception: high born, deinos, man of action p. 162 line 81 What is his mistake? It’s not ignoring Tiresias and accusing Creon. He thinks he knows his parentage, so he is rash, thinking he knows what he is doing, punishes the offender (dramatic irony) and heads straight for anagnorisis, Aristotle says the best plot is one where anagnorisis and peripeteia come together at the same time.

18. Jocasta • Jocasta attempts to make peace between Oedipus and Creon, pleading with Oedipus not to banish Creon. • As proof, she offers the fact that the Delphic oracle told Laius he would be murdered by his son, while actually his son was cast out of Thebes as a baby and Laius was murdered by a band of thieves. So what does this mean? What is the implication of an incorrect prophesy? If that is wrong, then... • She rejects Tiresias’s terrifying prophecies as false. 707-1007 Reasoning? • Jocasta solves the riddle of Oedipus’s identity before Oedipus does, and she expresses her love for her son and husband in her desire to protect him from this knowledge. Find it • Jocasta is both careless and maternal. • Jocasta’s mistake is similar to Oedipus’s in the previous section: she confuses conclusions and evidence.

19. Creon • Creon : Oedipus’s brother-in-law So what is his claim to the throne? Does this mar his clarity in thought? • Creon claims to have no desire for kingship. Yet, when he has the opportunity to grasp power at the end of that play, Creon seems quite eager. • Creon never has our sympathy in the way Oedipus does, because he is bossy and bureaucratic, intent on asserting his own authority.

20. Tiresias • Tiresias The blind soothsayerof Thebes • Tiresias tells Oedipus that he is the murderer he hunts, and Oedipus does not believe him. Why not? Is it a riddle or protection? • The literal blindness of the soothsayer points to themetaphorical blindness of those who refuse to believe the truth about themselves when they hear it spoken • Why does allow this train wreck to occur, if he knows the truth?

21. Themes

22. Sight vs. Blind Physical Sight vs. Insight • Oedipus’s metaphorical blindness to the relationship between his past and his present situation that brings about his ruin. • Oedipus frequently alludes to sight and blindness, creating many moments of dramaticirony. • Tiresias is blind but can see the truth; Oedipus has his sight but cannot. • The literal blindness of the soothsayer points to the metaphorical blindness of those who refuse to believe the truth about themselves when they hear it spoken

23. Duality “O light! May this be the last time I look upon you! I was born from one who should not have born me, lived with those I shouldn’t have lived with, and killed those I should not have killed!” Now that there is light, what must Oedipus do? maintain duality. Does it matter who realizes the truth first? Jocasta’s response? Oedipus’?

24. Dramatic irony in theSearch for truth (lines 338–706) • The leader of the Chorus asks Oedipus to calm down, but Tiresias only taunts Oedipus further, saying that the king does not even know who his parents are. • This statement both infuriates and intrigues Oedipus, who asks for the truth of his parentage. • Tiresias answers only in riddles, saying that the murderer of Laius will turn out to be both brother and father to his children, both son and husband to his mother. Dramatic irony again.

25. Pride lines 707–1007 • Chorus enters, announcing that the world is ruled by destiny and denouncing prideful men who would defy the gods. • At the same time, the Chorus worries that if all the prophecies and oracles are wrong—if a proud man can, in fact, triumph—then the gods may not rule the world after all. What is the implication of this?

26. Timing lines 1008–1310 • Jocasta mentions the roads (line 810), new detail, the one eye witness lives line 832 • The messenger, a shepherd years ago, explains he found a baby Oedipus on Mount Cithaeron, near Thebes, from Laius’s servant. p. 218 line 1119. • The other shepherd turns out to be the same shepherd who witnessed Laius’s murder, so... • Jocasta begs him to abandon his search, but Oedipus refuses. Line 1163, 1166, 1170, 1172 He used to listen to her. • Truth above all else. No longer wants Laius’ killer, his parentage • Jocasta turns sharply, seeming to sense some horrible revelation on the horizon. Why does she say nothing? • Chorus has to ask where Jocasta went- he is fixated line 1179, when he does… the bed, the brooch • Torturing old men line 1269 • Oedipus wants to find this shepherd, so he can find out who his natural parents are. Jocasta provides duality to prophecy. • 1. Laius is dead, so ALL prophecies are wrong line 848 • 2. Polybus is dead, by chance, so not real line 1039 • 3. Oedipus believes it’s all worthless then line p. 214 1064 • 4. Jocasta speech p. 215 line 1069 BUT...

27. What had to happen to learn the truth? • Jocasta mentioned the minute detail about the roads • The shepherd still lives; the messenger happens to be in town again • Oedipus threatens him so that the shepherd answers: the baby came from the house of Laius, Jocasta gave it to him to destroy because of the prophecy but the shepherd gave the baby to the other shepherd to be raised as a prince in Corinth. • ALL the pivotal players had to be in the same room at the same time- it was not probable- ever, but it happened. Fated? Or chance?

28. Jocasta’s response P. 236-237 line 1365, 1379 Word play Oedipus’ reaction, the brooches symbolism 1402 This is pathos: Digs, raking- self-inflicted Sight= ignorant, so knowledgeable= blind Chorus says “cursed by gods” p. 239 line 1438, but is he? Who did this? 1471 Oedipus looks beyond himself to the city and his daughters p. 247 line 1599

29. Accept the Tragedy, 1311–1684 • Creon agrees to exile Oedipus from the city, but tells him that he will only do so if every detail is approved by the gods. • Oedipus embraces Antigone and Ismene since they will be excluded from society, and no man will want to marry the offspring of an incestuous marriage. His concern is that he destroyed their futures. • The Chorus comes onstage once more. Oedipus, greatest of men, has fallen, they say, and so all life is miserable, and only death can bring peace.

30. Chorus’ Analysis • Creon ’s earlier protestations that he lacked the desire for power are proved completely false by his eagerness to take Oedipus’s place as king, and by the cutting ferocity with which he silences Oedipus at the end of the play. • At the end of the play, one kind of pride has merely replaced another, and all men, as the Chorus goes on to say, are destined to be miserable.

31. Oedipus vs. Creon • Contrasted with Creon, Oedipus becomes a tragic figure rather than a monster. • Though throughout the play Oedipus has behaved willfully and proudly, he has also been earnest and forthright in all of his actions. • His punishment of blindness and exile seems just, therefore, because he inflicted it upon himself. Creon, on the other hand, has the outward trappings of Oedipus’s candid, frank nature, but none of its substance.

32. Theme- The Willingness to Ignore the Truth • This is perhaps why Jocasta feels she can tell Oedipus of the prophecy that her son would kill his father, and Oedipus can tell her about the similar prophecy given him by an oracle, and neither feels compelled to remark on the coincidence. Do we choose to be blind? • Oedipus can hear the story of Jocasta binding her child’s ankles and not think of his own swollen feet. Are we that blind? • While the information in these speeches is largely intended to make the audience painfully aware of the tragic irony, it also emphasizes just how desperately Oedipus and Jocasta do not want to speak the obvious truth,

33. Theme Insight and blindness • Human beings can demonstrate remarkable powers of intellectual penetration and insight, and they have a great capacity for knowledge, but… • even the smartest human being is liable to error, that the human capability for knowledge is ultimately quite limited and unreliable.

34. Symbol The Three-way Crossroads • A crossroads is a place where a choice has to be made, so crossroads usually symbolize moments where decisions will have important consequences but where different choices are still possible, but... • In this play, the crossroads symbolizes fate and the awesome power of prophecy rather than freedom and choice.

35. Fate or Free Will? • Discuss the conflict between fate and destiny on one hand and free will. Can they both exist? Which is real? • How does Oedipus grapple with his limited free will? How does Oedipus see himself? How is this similar or different from how he is perceived by others? • What are some examples of dramatic irony (when we know things the character doesn’t yet realize) in Oedipus the King ? Find them- so many.

36. Antigone, the first play, completes the story. Creon declares his order of a death penalty for anyone caught violating his order. When exactly does Antigone act? Does she wait? What exacerbates her decision. Antigone attempts to bury her brother twice- is she caught and sentenced to death, or does she show her hand, wanting to be caught?

37. Antigone raises discussion... justice: divine vs. human family vs. society personal values vs. abstract ideals male vs. female weak vs. strong authorities vs. outcasts