Sophocles and KING OEDIPUS

1. Sophocles and KING OEDIPUS An Introduction

2. Sophocles • 496 B.C.-406 B.C. • Greek playwright and poet • Wrote tragedies • Wrote Theban plays (The Oedipus Cycle) • Concern the fate of Thebes during and after the reign of King Oedipus • Introduced third actor • Reduced importance of the chorus • Group of minor actors who provide background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance

3. Thebes • Ancient city in Greece • Setting for many tragedies, including Sophocles’

4. Elements of Tragedy Unities Terms: Aspects of Tragedy Themes Tragic hero

5. Three Unities • Unity of action- play has one main action it follows • Unity of time- play takes place within 24 hours • Unity of place- play takes place within one physical space

6. Terms: Aspects of Tragedy in Greek Drama • Crisis of feeling - painful or harmful experience that may upset or depress the audience. • Catharsis - the audience cleanses their emotions. For example, they may feel uplifted. • Reversal - the hero/heroine goes through a significant change in fortune for the worse. Reversal may happen after a discovery of something previously unknown to the hero/heroine.

7. Themes • Blindness vs. sight • Self-knowledge • Pride • Truth • Responsibility • Fate/destiny vs. choice

8. Aspects of the Greek Tragic Hero • Tragic hero/heroine - the protagonist, or main character, in the play. • He/she must be of noble birth or hold an important social position • He/she is generally good and has a desire to do well • He/she dies in the end of the play

9. Aspects of the Greek Tragic Hero • The hero/heroine seems "better" than the other character(s), but there is a fate which overpowers this "good" character. • Poor judgment by the hero causes a fall from grace and social ranking. • Poor judgment is a tragic flaw, or error, called hamatria. It leads to personal catastrophe and unintended harm to others. • Hubris, which means excessive pride or arrogance, is the most common type of hamatria. • A hero/heroine's misfortune is an example of human fallibility (human's tendency to fail). • Audience fears and pities character- punishment does not fit crime

10. Oedipus Rex • Oedipus Rex is a play written by Sophocles that is divided into certain sections. • Prologos: an introduction or preface, especially a poem recited to introduce a play • Parados: is a song sung by a Greek chorus as it first enters the theater. It is named for the corridors at the front of the stage of a Greek theater from which the Chorus enters. • Episodes: a section of a classic Greek tragedy that occurs between the two choric songs

11. Oedipus Rex continued • Choric Ode: A classical Greek poem that has a three part structure consisting of a strophe, antistrophe and an epode • Exodus: In Greek Drama, this is the final scene; in tragedy, it is the action following the final stasimon (choral ode); in comedy it is the final rejoicing following the last episode