Sophocles

1. Sophocles • b. 496 d. 406 • Served as a general with Pericles (441) • Very active in city politics (413) • First tragedy 468 • First first prize 468 • Won 18 first prizes • Never finished third

2. Sophocles: Author of Antigone • Wrote over 120 plays (seven survive) • The most successful are the Big Three • Challenged conventional ideas about the role of Greek men and women • Introduced more dialogue between characters • Oedipus and Antigoneare two of his bigger works

3. Daily life in Ancient Greece • Men if they were not training in military, or discussing politics went to the Theatre for entertainment. To watch dramas that they could relate to, including tragedies and comedies. These often involved current politics and gods in some form. It is thought that women were not allowed to watch theatre or perform at the theatre, although male actors did play women roles. • Lives of Women in Ancient Greece were closely tied to domestic work, spinning, weaving and other domestic duties. They were not involved in public life or in politics. The live were normally quite confined to the house although one public duty was acting as a priestess at a temple. • Children in ancient Greece usually occupied their time playing with toys and games.

4. The Staging of Tragedy • “Classical theater resembled today’s rock concerts: the audience knew every number by heart, performers wore high heels, loud costumes and heavy make-up, and they relied on background singers, known as the Chorus.” -Howard Tomb

5. Where Was Tragedy Performed? • Almost every Greek city had a theater • Theaters could be very small or huge • Each theater had specific parts • Usually in the center of the city

6. Parts of a Greek Theater • Orchestra: where the chorus would dance, sing, and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene. The earliest orchestras were simply made of hard earth, but in the Classical period some orchestras began to be paved with marble and other materials. • Theatron: The theatron (literally, "viewing-place") is where the spectators sat. The theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking the orchestra, and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra (see the diagram above). • Skene: The skene (literally, "tent") was the building directly behind the stage. The skene was directly in back of the stage, and was usually decorated as a palace, temple, or other building, depending on the needs of the play. It had at least one set of doors, and actors could make entrances and exits through them. There was also access to the roof of the skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other characters could appear on the roof, if needed. • Parodos: The parodoi (literally, "passageways") are the paths by which the chorus and some actors (such as those representing messengers or people returning from abroad) made their entrances and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit the theater before and after the performance.

7. What are Greek tragedies about? • Plot of a Greek Tragedy --The stories used in tragedy were taken almost exclusively from mythology, or stories about how humans came to be --.These ancient myths and heroic legends were important to the Greeks because they considered myths to be the social, political, and religious history of the people and included many profound tales about the problems of human life and the nature of the gods.

8. What does the audience get out of watching Greek tragedies? • Tragedies often warned watchers to not have the same personality flaws as the tragic heroes • The audience then learned from tragedy, especially from looking at what personal motives and outside forces had driven the characters to act as they did. • Because playwrights used plots familiar to their audience, they would have opportunities to use irony and subtle (or not so subtle) allusions.

9. The Staging of Tragedy - Actors • Only males • Wore dramatic masks • Were only 3 actors on stage • Noisy props and heels

10. Structure of a Tragedy • Greek tragedies were performed without intermissions or breaks. • Prologue – the opening scene, in which the background of the story is established, usually by a single actor • Parados – the entrance of the chorus, usually chanting a lyric which bears some relation to the main theme of the play • Episode – the counterpart of the modern act or scene, in which the plot is developed through action and dialogue between the actors, with the chorus sometimes playing a minor role.

11. Structure of a Tragedy, Cont. • Stasimon – the choral ode. A stasimon comes at the end of each episode so that the tragedy is a measured alternation between these two elements. • Exodus – the final action after the last stasimon, ended by the ceremonial exit of all the players • Strophe – stanza that chorus sings as they move from right to left across the stage • Antistrophe – countermovement; stanza that chorus sings as they move from left to right across the stage