Sophocles and Tragedy
Sophocles added a great deal to the theatre experience:
•
He was the first playwright to abandon the practice of acting
in his own plays.
•
He added a third actor.
•
He raised the number of men in the chorus from 12 to 15.
•
He began skenographia, the decorating of the skene to represent
the actual setting.
The skene was a wooden box or hut that likely emerged as a
place for actors to change. Eventually, it came to represent the
interior of a palace or temple – whatever the play required. In
Oedipus the King, it would represent the palace of Jocasta and
Oedipus.
Certainly there were ways Sophocles was typical. His actors would wear
masks representing gender and stature. The masks in this picture suggest
a chorus of women (played by men) in a tragedy.
Masks were made of stiffened linen, carved wood and leather.
There were stereotypical forms: long flowing hair for a youth, a
pale face and curled hair for age, horns for a satyr, and various
grotesque masks for supernatural or monstrous figures. Masks
were more easily deciphered by an audience too far removed to
see facial features clearly. Some say the mouths of masks were
fashioned to amplify sound.
Sophocles was born in 496 b.c., and he died in 406 b.c. He was considered
handsome, he was popular, and he was well-born. Throughout his life he
was deeply involved in religion.
Aristotle, the greatest of philosophers, considered
Sophocles the greatest of playwrights, and Oedipus the
King the greatest of plays.
Sophocles was considered “the norm” by many.
Compared to him, Aeschylus was primitive and
Euripides was decadent.
Aristotle
Aristotle wrote Poetics, a work that lays out the basics of tragedy.
He constantly refers to the work of Sophocles when he describes
the highest form of the art.
In Poetics, we come across a number of key terms, and it is important
that you become familiar with them. The first is “hubris”.
Hubris:
An ancient Greek term usually defined as "excessive pride"
or arrogance and cited as a common tragic flaw.
Hamartia
An ancient Greek term usually translated as "tragic flaw." The term
literally translates as "missing the mark," which has suggested to
some scholars that hamartia is not so much a character flaw as an
error in judgment made by the protagonist. During our study of the
play, we will accept the “error in judgement” definition
Peripetia
A reversal of fortune, for better or worse, for the protagonist.
Used especially to describe the main character's fall in Greek tragedy.
This term is usually used in combination with the next:
Anagnorisis
Term for a character's discovery or recognition of someone or something
previously unknown. Anagnorisis often paves the way for a reversal of
fortune (see peripeteia). An example in Oedipus Rex is Oedipus's discovery
of his true identity.
Sophocles investigates the role of fate in the lives of human beings.
The Fates (or Moirae) are the three sisters, robed in white, who decide
on human fate. Lachesis sings of the things that were, Clotho those
that are, and Atropos (or Atropus) the things that are to be. Of the
three, Atropos is the smallest in stature, but the most terrible and
feared.
Even though the Fates are often depicted as old, ugly and unmerciful,
they are most honored among the gods because they distribute justly
and have a share in every home. They give men at their birth their share
of evil and good, and equally they punish the transgressions of both
men and of gods.
Clotho is the "spinner" and Lachesis the apportioner of lots. The thread
of life is spun upon Clotho's spindle, measured by the rod of Lachesis
and finally snipped by the shears of Atropos, the inevitable one. Their
priests and ministers were always oracles, seers and soothsayers.
Fate is not assigned by
the Gods, though they
often know what that
fate might be. As they
are immortal, they exist
outside of time.
Humans,of course,are
trapped in time.
Among the greatest of
the Gods is Apollo.
Apollo
Apollo takes many roles, but among them is God of Prophecy.
The Oracle at Delphi was dedicated to him. Dating back to 1400 BC, the
Oracle of Delphi was the most important shrine in all Greece, and in theory
all Greeks respected its independence. Built around a sacred spring, Delphi
was considered to be the omphalos - the center (literally navel) of the world.
The oracle at Delphi
The picture below is an artist’s reconstruction of the Oracle at
Delphi.
One major character in the play, Tiresias, is a seer, and as such, he
is able to know the future or fate of other human beings. How he
got that power makes an hilarious story.
The most famous account of the origin of his blindness and his prophetic
talent is as follows. When Tiresias was walking in the woods one day, he
came upon two great serpents copulating; he struck them with his staff, and
was thereupon transformed into a woman. Seven years later, she/he passed
by the same place and came upon the same two serpents copulating; she/he
struck them again with the staff and was turned back into a man. Some time
later, Zeus and Hera were arguing over who had more pleasure in sex, the
man or the woman: Zeus said it was the woman, while Hera claimed men got
more pleasure from the act. To settle the argument, they consulted Tiresias,
since he had experienced life as both sexes, and Tiresias sided with Zeus.
In her anger, Hera struck Tiresias blind. Since Zeus could not undo the act of
another deity, he gave Tiresias the gift of prophecy in compensation.
Now you know what
not to do should you
happen to come
across two serpents
who might be about to
… well … you know!
Thus, theatre goers
in ancient Greece
were well prepared to
see any story that
explored the relationship
between a great man
and the inevitable power
of fate. And Oedipus
was a great man, as
this family tree should
demonstrate!
Oedipus, whose name means “swollen foot”, is a figure of myth.
Other than the story we are about to study, his greatest feat is
solving the riddle of the Sphinx.
The guardian of Thebes, she
prevented travelers from passing
by strangling them if they could not
answer a mysterious riddle.
"What," the Sphinx would ask,
"walked on four legs in the morning,
two at noon, and three in the
evening?" Finally one traveler,
who would become King Oedipus
of Thebes, answered her: Human
beings, who crawl as children, walk
upright as adults, and rely upon canes
in age. Her reason for existence having
been destroyed, the Sphinx destroyed
herself.
The Sphinx
Well, as much as I’ve enjoyed putting this together, I think it’s
time to bring it to an end. Too much of this and the powers-that-be
might think that teachers can be replaced. That, of course, would
mean that my act of creating this would be hamartia springing
from my hubris, right?
Hehehe! Bye for now!