Introduction to
Antigone
and Greek Tragedy
General Information
Classical tragedies were composed within a definite
structural framework, with occasional minor
variations in some plays. Greek tragedy was
performed without intermissions or breaks.
 In the history of Greek drama, early Greek plays
were part of a religious ceremony. They were
enactments of religious celebrations- performed in
Athens.
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Elizabethan vs. Greek Theater
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Much like Elizabethan England, ancient Greece only allowed
men to participate in the plays. It had minimum scenery. Actors
had to provide clues to the setting. As Elizabethans, the
audience was familiar with traditional tales and ancient legends
on which the plays were based. They did not attend to learn
WHAT it was about but HOW a playwright interpreted it.
The main dissimilarity was that the drama was rooted in
religion NOT entertainment. Performances of Greek tragedy
involved a great deal of ritual. Tragic festivals were religious in
nature because they were celebrations of the god Dionysus. In
fact, the theater was a temple.
The plays were performed each year at the Festival of
Dionysus, in which the great writers of the time would compete.
These festivals were dedicated to the Greek god Dionysus, god
of wine and fertility.
Elements of Tragedy
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The subject is serious.
The tragic hero or heroine (protagonist) is of noble birth and
displays a nobility of spirit which the audience admires.
The protagonist is pitted against forces beyond his or her
control.
The protagonist makes decisions that lead to a “no-win”
situation.
The protagonist struggles courageously until his or her fall.
The protagonist, though defeated, usually gains a measure
of increased wisdom, self-awareness, or nobility.
Greek Tragedy
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The style of Greek tragedy was ceremonial. Music played a
great part in the performance; however, since none of this
music has survived, we cannot be certain what it sounded
like. We also cannot be certain how much of the play text
was spoken, chanted, or sung, or what kind of movement
was used by the chorus.
We do know that the Greek theater allowed for tremendous
spectacle, including earthquakes, avalanches, and gods
descending from the sky. Masks and colorful costumes were
worn by the performers. Without a doubt, performances
were vivid and very exciting.
Structure of Greek Tragedy
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Prologue - the opening scene that introduces the conflict of
the play - the background of the story is established, usually
by a single actor or in a dialogue between two actors.
Sophocles' contemporaries often included a monologue in
which a character delivers the necessary background
directly to the audience.
Parodos - the entrance of the chorus, usually chanting a
lyric which bears some relation to the main theme of the
play. The parados is an example of a choral ode. These
odes supply exposition, comment on action, and contribute
to thematic development. Odes also can suggest the passage
of time.
Episode – the counterpart of the modern act or scene - the
plot is developed through action and dialogue between the
actors, with the chorus sometimes playing a minor role.
Structure of Greek Tragedy, Cont.
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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.
Exodos- the final action after the last Stasimon, ended by the
ceremonial exit of all the players.
The chorus is not an uninvolved group in Sophocles' plays.
The group often interacts with principal characters,
engaging in dialogue. The choragos, or chorus leader often
speaks for the entire chorus in these moments.
In Sophocles' plays, these devices meld into a compact
drama. The action is usually limited to one setting and to a
single day. There are few digressions; the play moves
swiftly and directly, and the plot is often compressed.
Structure of Greek Tragedy, Cont.
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Partly as a result for this compression, offstage
action is very important in Greek tragedy. For
example, the Greeks made no attempts to portray
violence onstage. Consequently, the messenger
becomes an important figure in Sophocles' plays and
those of other Greek playwrights. The messenger
acts as a traditional figure of exposition-the witness
who comes to tell others of events that have
transpired elsewhere.
Greek Terminology
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Epithet- an adjective or descriptive phrase which describes a noun,
EX: John “The Great”
Chorus- consists of twelve to fifteen elders (men)
Choragos- the leader of the chorus
Ode- indicates the end of a scene - also used to provide the chorus’s
response to the proceeding scene.
Lyric Poem- verse which focuses on emotions and thoughts
Protagonist-one who plays the first part, chief actor; the main
character (the central or primary personal figure)
Deuteragonist-is the second most important character; sidekick who
accompanies the main protagonist, the main character or hero, in a
narrative; the playwright Aeschylus introduced the deuteragonist
Tritagonist-the third most important character, after the protagonist
and deuteragonist
Function of the Chorus
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To provide background information for
the audience
To talk and give advice to the main
characters
To interpret important events that occur
in drama
Aristotle’s Definition of Tragic Figure
The character must be a person of stature.
 The character must be neither totally good nor
totally evil.
 An error of judgment or a weakness in the character
causes the misfortune.
 The character must be responsible for tragic events.
 Action involves a change in fortune from happiness
to misery.
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Greek Theatre
The arena would seat 15,000 to 20,000 spectators.
Parts of the Theatre
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Theatron - the area in which the audience
sat. It was shaped like a horseshoe and had
rows of stone seats rising upward and
backward in tiers. In the first row were stone
thrones for the principal citizens and the
priest of Dionysus.
Orchestra - The circular area at ground level
which was enclosed on three sides by the ushaped theatron.
Thymele - an altar to Dionysus on which
sacrifices were made and which was
sometimes used as a stage prop during
plays.
Parts of the Theatre, Continued
Parodos - entrance passage
 Skene - a wooden structure, the
dressing room
 Proscenium - the level area in front of
the skene on which most of the play's
action took place
 Eccyclema - a wheeled platform
which was rolled out of the skene to
reveal a tableau of action that had
taken place indoors (mainly scenes of
violence )
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A. Theatron-audience
B. Orchestra- where the actors and chorus perform
C. Altar-for Dionysos (god of wine and fertility)
D. Skene-dressing room
E. Proskenion-side of the skene that acts as a backdrop
F. Parados-entrance to the theater
Sample Greek Theatre Masks
Sophocles
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496-406 B.C.
Sophocles, (about 496-406 B.C.), was the second of the three great Greek
writers of tragedy. The others were Aeschylus (28 yrs older)—the earliest
of the three—and Euripides (12 years younger). He was considered the
greatest of the ancient Greek playwrights.
Sophocles' plays deal with a struggle of a strong individual against fate. In
most of the plays, this individual chooses a course of action that the chorus
and the lesser characters do not support. This course costs the individual
suffering or even death, but it makes the individual nobler and somehow
benefits humanity. Sophocles did not create ordinary characters who could
be used to criticize conventional morality as Euripides did. The Greek
philosopher Aristotle said that Sophocles portrayed people as they should
be and that Euripides portrayed people as they are
Sophocles was known for his musical, poetic, and dramatic talents
At the age of seventeen, he was the choragos, or chorus leader, in a
dramatic celebration of Greece's victory over Persia
Sophocles, Cont.
When he was twenty eight, he caused
a sensation by winning first prize for
tragedy at the festival of Dionysus,
defeating Aeschylus, the leading
playwright of the day.
 Over the next sixty-two years,
Sophocles went on to win twentyfour first prizes and seven second
prizes in thirty-one competitions--the
best record of any Greek playwright.
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Sophocles, Cont.
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Wrote more than one hundred and twenty tragedies, of
which only seven survive today . These are Ajax, Antigone,
Trachinian Women, Oedipus Rex, Electra, Philoctetes, and
Oedipus at Colonus. Part of a play called The Trackers was
found in 1907. Sophocles wrote one of his greatest plays,
Oedipus at Colonus, when he was nearly 90.
His plays always contain a moral lesson--usually a caution
against pride and religious indifference.
also a great technical innovator: He added a third actor to
Aeschylus's original two, introduced painted sets, and
expanded the size of the chorus to fifteen.
Sophocles, Cont.
Sophocles wrote the three tragedies about King
Oedipus of Thebes and his family over a forty-year
period
 began with the third part of the story, Antigone, first
performed in 442 B.C
 Twelve years later, Sophocles backtracked and
wrote the first part of the story, Oedipus the King.
 The last year of his life Sophocles wrote the middle
segment, Oedipus at Colonus.
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GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
SOPHOCLEAN DRAMA
Sophocles created the form of tragic drama that has become dominant
in Western literature. Instead of the explicitly theological concerns and
cosmic scope of his great predecessor, Aeschylus, he focuses his plays
on one or two protagonists of heroic proportions and engrossing,
complicated character. While retaining Aeschylus' mood of deep
religious seriousness, Sophocles deals with the question of divine
justice and the problem of suffering in a more naturalistic way. He
depicts the moral and emotional issues of credible, if grandiose, human
beings, rather than cosmic themes. His focus remains clearly on the
human rather than the divine world.
Sophoclean Chorus
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"The chorus," Aristotle says in the remark mentioned previously,
"should be included as one of the actors and should be a part of the
whole and share in the dramatic action, not as in Euripides, but as in
Sophocles." This assessment of the Sophoclean chorus seems to fit the
plays that have survived. In all of them the chorus takes its full share in
the events onstage. It can even be deceived or misled, either by the
protagonists (Ajax) or by the same delusions or lies that blind major
protagonists (Oedipus Tyrannus, Trachinian Women, Electra). It can
also act as the agent of deception and even become temporarily at odds
with the protagonist, as in Philoctetes. It can be at odds with or hostile
to the main hero, as in Antigone and, initially, in Oedipus at Colonus.
ANTIGONE Prologue
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Antigone was actually the earliest of the plays Sophocles devoted to the Theban cycle of myths. It was first produced about 442 BCE, when the
playwright was in his fifties. Oedipus the King was produced about 429 BCE, and Oedipus at Colonus was written in the extreme old age of Sophocles
and produced sometime after his death near the end of the fifth century.
Story of Oedipus and his family: Cadmus, founder of the city of Thebes, was an ancestor of Oedipus (see genealogy). When Laius, one of the Theban
kings, asked Apollo, through his oracle at Delphi, whether he and his wife Jocasta would have a son, the oracle replied that they would, but that this son
was destined to kill his father. After the child was born, Laius pierced his ankles, bound them together with a leather thong , and gave the baby to a
herdsman to expose. Pitying the infant, the herdsman instead gave the baby to another shepherd, who took the child back to his native city, Corinth, and
gave him to the Polybus and Merope, the childless rulers of that city. The royal couple named him Oedipus (“swollen foot”) and raised him as their own
son.
When Oedipus was grown, some companions taunted him, saying he was a bastard, not the legitimate son of Polybus. Troubled, Oedipus traveled to
Delphi to consult the oracle, which prophesied that he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother. Odeipus left Delphi swearing never to return
to Corinth, seeking in that way to avoid the awful fate predicted by the oracle. However, at a cross-roads where three roads came together, he met an
entourage led by a haughty aristocrat who refused to make way for him. Enraged, he killed the older man and all his servants except for a lowly
herdsman. Oedipus soon arrived at Thebes, which was suffering terribly from a Sphinx, a monstrous winged lion with the head of a woman who posed a
riddle to all travelers and devoured them when they failed to solve it. When the Sphinx confronted Oedipus with her riddle—“What animal goes on four
legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”—he solved it with the answer “Man, who crawls as a baby, walks on two legs in
his prime, and walks with the aid of a stick when old.” Defeated, the Sphinx cast herself from the cliff. Having saved the city, Oedipus was proclaimed
king to replace the slain Laius and married the queen, Jocasta. When the Theban herdsman finally made his way back to the city, he saw that the man
who had killed his master was now king, so he asked to be assigned to an outlying pasture far from the city.
After many prosperous years during which four children were born to Oedipus and Jocasta, a terrible plague ravaged the population of Thebes (the
plague in Oedipus the King may allude to the devastating plague that swept through Athens in 429 BCE, killing many, including the statesman Pericles;
some modern scientists claim that the symptoms described for this plague resemble those caused by the ebola virus). The Delphic oracle proclaimed that
Thebes was harboring a pollution, the murderer of Laius, and the sickness would not leave until this pollution was cast from the land. Oedipus’ efforts to
discover who this murderer was ultimately reveal that he was the land 's pollution; seeking to avoid his fate, he had unknowingly killed his real father,
married his mother, and produced four children who were also his siblings. When the truth is revealed, Jocasta hangs herself and Oedipus takes her
brooch and stabs his eyes until he can no longer see. A rare vase painting depicts masked actors enacting the scene when the Herdsman discloses the
truth to Oedipus as Jocasta silently listens.
Oedipus’ two daughters, Antigone and Ismene, accompanied him into exile, while his two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices remained in Thebes, where
Jocasta's brother Creon was ruling as regent. When the boys were grown, they agreed to rule Thebes alternately. Eteocles ruled first, but when his year
was up he refused to relinquish the throne to Polyneices. Polyneices, who had married the daughter of the king of Argos, led the Argives and six other
cities in an assault on Thebes (The Seven Against Thebes). Thebes drove off the attackers, but in the course of the battle the two brothers killed each
other. Their uncle Creon assumed the throne and decreed that Eteocles was to be buried with honors but his brother Polyneices was to be left unburied,
to rot in the sun and be eaten by scavengers.
The Oedipus Myth
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Characters and Terms:
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King Laios
Queen Jocasta
Thebes
Oracle at Delphi
Oedipus
Corinth
Sphinx
Chorus
Choragos
The Oedipus Myth
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Characters and Terms, Cont.
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Polyneices
Eteocles
Antigone
Ismene
Creon
Teiresias
Haimon
Eurydice
Sentry
Map of Corinth
Map of the Mediterranean
Antigone’s Family Tree