Oedipus the King also known by the Latin title
Oedipus Rex, is an Athenian tragedy by Sophocles that was first performed c. 429 BCE

 http://www.aug.edu/~nprinsky/Humn2001/oed-nq.htm
Cadmus- mythical founder and first king of Thebes, a city in central Greece where the play takes place

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Misfortune
1 st citizens devoured by dragon
Cadmus laid him dead.
Sowed dragon’s teeth
Tribe of giants
5 fathers of Thebes
Oedipus- biological parents: Laius and Jocasta

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Life clouded with disaster
Oracle- foretold his future
Destined to kill his father and marry his mother.
Raised as a prince of Corinth
Thinks Polybus and Merope are his real parents
 “Could any mortal be so presumptuous as to try to thwart it?

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Who saves him? Why?
What happens on Oedipus’ journey when he encounters his biological father?
How does this fulfill the prophecy and facilitate the next step set forth by the Oracle?
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 infanticide patricide regicide fratricide
 https://www.msu.edu/~defores1/gre/roots/gre_rts_afx2.htm

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Greek mythology
Sphinx sat outside of Thebes asked travelers a riddle.
Failed to solve the riddle, then death
Correct, then the Sphinx would destroy herself.
 http://www.pitt.edu/~edfloyd/Class
1130/sphinx.html

 "What goes on four feet in the morning, two feet at noon, and three feet in the evening?“ In some accounts the word “legs” is substituted for feet.
 What is your answer?

"Man, who crawls in infancy, walks upright in his prime, and leans on a cane in old age."

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What is a paradox?
What is dramatic irony?
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What does it mean to supplicate?
What then is a suppliant?
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Craft a sentence in which you use the words supplicate and suppliant in a sentence that shows your understanding of these words.
Challenge: Write a sentence using these words that also demonstrates your understanding of the word irony.

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Irony versus Paradox
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtU2Mth86Hc

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Tragedies performed in spring at the annual state religious festival in honor of Dionysus the (god of wine and fertility)
Contest between three playwrights- three days.
Each playwright – one trilogy of tragedies + one comic piece called a satyr play.
At most three actors + chorus
Related to the word satire?
http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=satire
Source: http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tragedy.htm

Tragedians
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Aeschylus
Sophocles (Oedipus Rex)
Euripides
Comedian
 Aristophanes
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Sophocles won first prize for tragic drama defeating Aeschylus in
468.
Sophocles wrote over 100 plays; only 7 of his tragedies survive.

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Greek theatre was in the open air
Performances probably lasted most of the day. Performances were apparently open to all citizens, including women, but evidence is scanty.
The theatre of Dionysus at Athens held around 15,000 -17,000 people.

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Plays were performed amid environment of “high civic splendor” and “religious ritual”.
Performing these plays is described as a “solemn responsibility”
Religious approach to the dramatic theme.

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Audience was familiar with plots.
“Was taken as axiomatic that the play should tell already established story of the legendary or heroic past.”
Attention not held in suspense over what would happen.
 Characterization / variations
 Dramatic irony – a subtle weapon
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Drama was art form that was not a “passing curiosity” but promoted “profound contemplation of eternal truths”. What does that mean?
The “unshirking” quest for truth

 There are no traditional acts or scenes as we are accustomed to seeing them in this play. Please use line number references as you read.
1 st reading task: Page 25- middle of page 31 before Oedipus enters from the Palace

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“inconsistent vacillating mortals that we are…”
“the human instinct for narrative and impersonation, for ritualistic expression and the interpretation of the power of natural forces…”
 What forces?
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The cycle of life and death
The nexus of past, present, and future
Fate and the nature of fate versus free will

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All actors were male and wore masks
Masks may have amplified sound
Masks exaggerated dominant characteristics of the role.

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A Greek chorus chanted, danced and sang (in unison)
Usually 15 in number
Presents background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance
Expresses to the audience what the main characters cannot say - hidden fears or secrets.
Provides characters with needed insights
Comments on important themes
Reflects on the choices of characters and their validity or morality
Entrance and exit sign like a curtain rising or closing

 “The attention of the audience was not primarily to be held by the factor of suspense or the desire to see what happens.
And this was the most fitting condition for the art form which was to invite not a passing curiosity but profound contemplation of eternal truths.”

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Standing aloof
Unifying and commenting
Interpreter of the drama
We like the Chorus are both in the tragedy and spectators of it.
With them we are the citizens of Thebes
We are both in the tragedy and spectators of it
Represent the Theban Elders in Oedipus

(From the introduction in your text…)
 Prosperous
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Complacent in this prosperity
Too confident in his sufficiency
Too ready to take offense or impute blame when rattled by approach of trouble
 See if you see these elements in his character as you read the text.

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What is the problem to which Oedipus is responding?
Who are the suppliants? For what reason and to whom are they supplicating?
Take notes on the characterization of Oedipus, and specifically watch for the use of dramatic irony.
Meet Creon brother to Jocasta and form your initial impressions of him as a character. Always prepare to back up your inferences with a specific detail from the text.
Watch for allusions to the gods and be prepared to paraphrase the words of the Chorus as they sum up the scene.
Where do you see the ideas of irony and paradox emerging in the text thus far?

First, answer the comprehension questions over last night’s reading using socrative.com.
Our class is #541313
Then, answer the short answer question on the half sheet.
Question: Given your understanding that dramatic irony was used as a “subtle weapon” by Sophocles, what would Oedipus say next? Write a paragraph (without using your book) from the perspective of Oedipus responding to the pleas of his people. Don’t repeat the same general idea. Include an element of dramatic irony in your response.

 irony that "Oedipus can only fulfill his exceptional godordained destiny because Oedipus is a preeminently capable and intelligent human being.
Irony versus Paradox
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wtU2Mth86Hc

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Dramatic irony (since we know it is Sophocles’ “subtle weapon”)
Paradox
Word choice
Allusions (to philosophers, to Greek culture, to other stories)
Symbols
Motifs (patterns)

 the “vile Enchantress”
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Allusion to metaphor of a ship
Pythian house of Apollo = Oracle at Delphi
Motif of purification
Motif of light and darkness
Quotes:
“None suffers more than I… my heart bears the weight…”
“Their plight concerns me now, more than my life.”
“I will start afresh and bring everything into the light.”
Phoebus = Apollo

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WS9KJ_bAJLE
What is different about how the play is shown in this film rendition?
Pay close attention to the film’s representation of The Chorus.
What is the role of The Chorus in the opening scenes?

Oedipus has declared his devotion to finding the killer.
Yet, the audience knows what he does not know.
He is the killer!
As we learned from the video, irony is the juxtaposition of intended meaning and unintended meaning, or the interplay of opposites when the audience knows that what a character
“knows” to be true is the opposite of what is true.

 When a character’s intent is the opposite of the outcome, this is irony, but this is not the same as what is unfortunate.
 Alannis Morrisette’s song “Ironic” would be more aptly titled
“Isn’t it a bummer?”
Lyrics to “Ironic” http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/alanismorissette/ironic.html

 Two seemingly contradictory things that coexist simultaneously
 The “puzzling wisdom” present in Oedipus

“Not merely from a fellow-creature will I clear this taint, but from myself.”
 I see both irony and paradox in this statement because both are true. As he “clears this taint” by avenging the death of
Laius, he will also “purify” himself. This is not exactly what he is saying, but the audience knows this because they know he is the killer.
“I will start afresh and bring everything into the light.”
 The juxtaposition of light and darkness may contribute to the language of paradox. Watch for this as you read.

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“Surely there is no strength in wall or ship, where men are lacking and no life breathes within them.”
Ship= community (Remember the relationship between the individual, the philosopher, and the community was an idea that was important to
Plato, especially given the demise of his mentor Socrates.
 The ship of state is a famous and oft-cited metaphor put forth by Plato in book VI of the Republic . It likens the governance of a city-state to the command of a naval vessel - and ultimately argues that the only men fit to be captain of this ship are philosopher kings , benevolent men with absolute power who have access to the Form of the Good .
(Yes, this is Wikipedia. One thing it does well is explain allusions in a concise manner and I know that this is accurate.)

Oedipus:
“I will start afresh and bring everything into the light.”
Chorus:
“Night’s agony grows into tortured day. Zeus, let thy thunders crush, thy lightning slay.”

 What does it mean to be moral?
 What is engineering?
 What might it mean to “engineer” morals?
 What might be problematic about “engineering” morality?

 Moral engineering is the product/intent of a government or some other organized group/system/organization to bring/engineer/develop/lay the ground works for/design/direct the moral education/course/ definition that a society takes.
 In the case of Greek Drama, the dramatists worked hand in hand with the government, doing their part to produce strong, moral citizens in order to produce a morally strong society.

 Through tragedy, they showed the audience that all of us were capable of being instrumental in bringing about our own downfall.
 “ I think they used people of consequence to have the fall from happiness, etc., that much more frightening. If that could happen to a rich and powerful man, what hope do I have? Well, if you choose to steer your life away from excessive pride and arrogance and realize that your actions can precipitate your demise, maybe you can avoid developing a tragic flaw and avoid a catastrophe.”

The design and construction of a society in which “moral” behavior is facilitated.
 http://faculty.gvsu.edu/websterm/Tragedy.htm
Link to video on Education Portal: http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/greek-theatretragedy-and-comedy.html#transcript

Who are the supplicants and why have they come?
 Why did the people carry boughs to the twin altars of Pallas?
Why did they place sacred embers of divination beside the river of Ismenus? How does the presentation of boughs to
Oedipus impact the setting of the opening scene?
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What is divination?
Harry Potter class?

(From the introduction in your text…)
 Prosperous
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Complacent in this prosperity
Too confident in his sufficiency
 Too ready to take offense or impute blame when rattled by approach of trouble
Think about these elements as you begin to analyze Oedipus.

 In what ways does he fit the definition of a tragic hero that you read when you researched Aristotle’s ideas about the tragic hero?

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Downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of hubris, fate, and the will of the gods.
Tragic hero encounters limits of human frailty: flaws of reason and hubris.
The gods (through oracles, prophets, fate), or nature factor into the conflict.
http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.h
tml

 in his Poetics , Aristotle considered Oedipus the King to be the tragedy best matched his prescription for how drama should be made
 ACCORDING TO ARISTOTLE – OEDIPUS REX – IS
THE PERFECT EXAMPLE OF . . . .
 Tragedy

 The Poetics is in part Aristotle's response to his teacher, Plato, who argues in The Republic that poetry is representation of mere appearances and is thus misleading and morally suspect.
Aristotle's approach to the phenomenon of poetry is quite different from Plato's. Fascinated by the intellectual challenge of forming categories and organizing them into coherent systems, Aristotle approaches literary texts as a natural scientist, carefully accounting for the features of each
"species" of text. Rather than concluding that poets should be banished from the perfect society, as does Plato, Aristotle attempts to describe the social function, and the ethical utility, of art. http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/

 Aristotle says that the tragic hero should have a flaw and/or make some mistake
(hamartia).
The hero need not die at the end, but he / she must undergo a change in fortune. In addition, the tragic hero may achieve some revelation or recognition (
--"knowing again" or "knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ) about human fate, destiny, and the will of the gods.

the artist gives shape to the universal, not the accidental. Poetry,
Aristotle says, is "a more philosophical and serious business than history; for poetry speaks more of universals, history of particulars."
(catharsis): tragedy first raises (it does not create) the emotions of pity and fear, then purifies or purges them.
http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.html

 The tragic hero is "a [great] man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake.”
 a) a great man: "one of those who stand in great repute and prosperity, like
Oedipus and Thyestes: conspicuous men from families of that kind." The hero is neither a villain nor a model of perfection but is basically good and decent.
 b) "mistake" (hamartia): has also been translated as "flaw" or as "error." The great man falls through--though not entirely because of--some weakness of character, some moral blindness, or error. We should note that the gods also are in some sense responsible for the hero's fall.
http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy.html

 One of the most difficult concepts introduced in the Poetics is catharsis , a word which has come into everyday language even though scholars are still debating its actual meaning in
Aristotle's text. Catharsis is most often defined as the
"purging" of the emotions of pity and fear that occurs when we watch a tragedy. What is actually involved in this purging is not clear. It is not as simple as getting an object lesson in how to behave; the tragic event does not "teach us a lesson" as do certain public-information campaigns on drunk driving or drug abuse.
 http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/

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Hans-Georg Gadamer's attempt to describe catharsis in his study Truth and Method can serve both as a working definition and an introduction into the problem of establishing any determinate definition of this elusive concept:
What is experienced in such an excess of tragic suffering is something truly common. The spectator recognizes himself
[or herself] and his [or her] finiteness in the face of the power of fate. What happens to the great ones of the earth has exemplary significance. . . .To see that "this is how it is" is a kind of self-knowledge for the spectator, who emerges with new insight from the illusions in which he [or she], like everyone else, lives. (132) http://www.english.hawaii.edu/criticalink/aristotle/

 Often said to be his "hubris/hybris" (both spellings are acceptable). What is hubris? NOT really "pride"-- a poor translation. Rather, it is the quality of not keeping awareness of your human limitations: the opposite of sophrosyne (=
"moderation"). Compare the meaning of the saying of Thales inscribed above the temple of Apollo at Delphi: gnothi sauton:
"know thyself" = "know that you are not a god, that you have human limitations"
 hamartia = "error“
Hamartia and Hubris http://www.class.uidaho.edu/engl257/Classical/hamartia.htm

 The idea that attempting to avoid an oracle is the very thing which brings it about is a common motif in many Greek myths.
 The degree to which a Oedipus controls his own fate is a subject of debate. Do the gods predetermine his fate or does the oracle simple predict it through an omniscience that comes from knowing him so well.
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Oedipus makes choices which makes it pity and fear= catharsis!
He does not have a choice in his own circumstances but he certainly does choose his own actions.

 “A fig for divination” (49).
 “Where are you now, divine prognostications!” (51).
 “Chance rules our lives, and the fortune is all unknown. Best live as best we may, from day to day” (52).

 It comes up again….
Jocasta page 50:
“We are afraid, seeing our master-pilot distraught.”
Think about how this relates to Aristotle’s concept of the tragic hero. Oedipus is a man who is highly regarded by this people, someone whose fall would likely inspire catharsis.

 “Pride breeds the tyrant”
 “The woman, with more than woman’s pride, is shamed by my low origin. I am the child of Fortune, the giver of good, and I shall not be shamed.”
 “O Oedipus, that proud head!” (59).
 How are the themes of pride and fate intertwined?

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Light and darkness
Seeing and blindness
Purification
“O Light! May I never look on you again, revealed as I am, sinful in my begetting, sinful in marriage, sinful in the shedding of blood!”
“Show me the man whose happiness was anything more than illusion followed by disillusion” (59).
“Yesterday my morning of light, now my night of endless darkness!” (59).

 How does the theme of purification relate to the idea of catharsis?

It is with this theme that we begin the last section of the play from the words of the Attendant:
 Not all the waters of Ister, the waters of Phasis, can wash the dwelling clean of the foulness within, clean of the deliberate acts that soon shall be known, of all the horrible acts most horrible, willfully chosen” (59).

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 b) "recognition" (anagnorisis or "knowing again" or
"knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ): a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate. For example, Oedipus kills his father in ignorance and then learns of his true relationship to the King of Thebes.
Recognition scenes in tragedy are of some horrible event or secret, while those in comedy usually reunite long-lost relatives or friends. A plot with tragic reversals and recognitions best arouses pity and fear.

 a) "reversal" (peripeteia): occurs when a situation seems to developing in one direction, then suddenly "reverses" to another. For example, when Oedipus first hears of the death of Polybus (his supposed father), the news at first seems good, but then is revealed to be disastrous.

 c) "suffering" (pathos):Also translated as "a calamity," the third element of plot is "a destructive or painful act." The
English words "sympathy," "empathy," and "apathy"
(literally, absence of suffering) all stem from this Greek word.

 “Let us pause to note the king's tragic virtue. Though
Oedipus is a man from the ancient myths, Sophocles has him speak with the fervor of an Athenian of his own time, one for whom the city is an object of religious devotion. Were it not for Oedipus' intellectual acuity and restlessness, and his care for the people, the tragedy would not unfold; he would never learn that he himself was the cause of the plague. Nor should we wriggle out of the difficulty by attributing to Oedipus a haughty overvaluing of human knowledge, a refusal to submit to the wisdom of the gods. Here at least we learn that
Oedipus has admitted being stumped and has sent to the oracle of Apollo at Delphi to find out what he can.”

 Willy Loman (The Death of a Salesman)
 Troy Maxson (Fences)

 With a partner, your task is to trace Oedipus’ tragic path by identifying and evaluating the key choices he makes in the play. (This includes things he says). For each passage from the text, label the “moment” with an adjective that describes his emotions or his state of mind. Consider not only the main idea of what Oedipus is saying, but also his diction. What words in particular stand out to you and why? Also consider how the use of allusions, elements of paradox and irony, and the connotation of particular words contribute to the layers of meaning in the text.

 http://www.ohio.edu/people/hartleyg/ref/aristotletragedy
.html