Antigone &
Greek Drama
Greek Drama
Greek drama grew out of
rituals honoring
Dionysus, the Greek god
of wine and fertility.
 Thespis (thespians)
transformed hymns sung
to gods into songs that
told the story of a
famous hero.
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Types of Greek Plays
Tragedies were serious
treatments of religious
and mythic questions.
 Satyr plays (named for
wood demons) were
comic and even unruly
treatments of the same
themes.
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The Theater
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The theater was shaped
like a semi-circular football
stadium that could seat
40,000 people.
Actors amplified their
voices through special
mouthpieces provided in
their masks.
Greek Theater (cont.)
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Actors were all men; choruses
were well-trained boys.
By switching masks, actors could
play several roles.
No scene changes
No complicated plots; the plays
usually took place in one day, in
one place focusing on one event.
Violent action took place off
stage; messengers told the
audience what happened.
Sophocles
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Sophocles is generally
considered the best of the
ancient Greek playwrights.
Born in 496 BC, lived to be 90
years old
Wrote over 100 plays, only
seven remain today
His plays always contain a
moral lesson, usually a
caution against pride and
religious indifference.
Sophocles’ Innovations
Sophocles added a
third actor to the
original two.
 He introduced
painted sets.
 He expanded the
size of the chorus to
fifteen.
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Sophocles’ “Theban” Plays
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His most famous plays are the
“Theban” trilogy. These three
plays tell the story of Oedipus
of Thebes and his family and
took him 40 years to write.
 Antigone (written first)
 Oedipus the King (written
second)
 Oedipus at Colonus (written
third)
Antigone Background
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Since Greek audiences knew
the story, suspense came from
their knowledge of things the
characters did not know:
dramatic irony.
The audience pitied these
characters and wanted to see
how they would be portrayed.
Theme of Antigone
The conflict in Antigone—individual
conscience at odds with established
authority—is eternally relevant.
 When we know that those in power are
morally wrong, do we break their laws,
or do we collaborate with them by
obeying?
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Tragedy
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According to Aristotle, the
function of a tragedy is to
arouse pity and fear in the
audience so that we may be
cleansed of these unsettling
emotions.
This idea is known as
catharsis, a pleasurable
sense of emotional release.
More Tragedy
A tragedy is a work of literature,
especially a play, that results in a
catastrophe for the main character
through some character flaw, error is
judgment, or fate
 Greek Tragedy – usually centered on the
suffering of a major character and ends in
disaster
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Tragic Hero
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This character is not completely
good or bad.
His/her misfortune is brought
about by some error or frailty,
which is the tragic flaw
(Hamartia).
The flaw is often hubris:
arrogance caused by excessive
pride.
Tragic Hero (cont.)
The hero’s fall
must be from a
tremendous height.
 Because of the
tragic flaw, the
hero is responsible
on some level for
his or her downfall.
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Tragic Hero (cont.)
The hero comes to
recognize his error
and accept the
consequences.
 He is not angry; he
is humbled and
enlightened.
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Tragic Hero (cont.)
The audience, though,
feels that the hero’s
punishment exceeds
his crime.
 We see that the hero
is flawed like us, and
fear for ourselves
because he failed.
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Greek Theater Format
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Plays opened with a Prologue
that presented the background
to situate the conflict.
The chorus sang a parodos, or
opening song.
The chorus’s song, an ode,
divided scenes and served
the same purpose as a curtain
does.
The Chorus
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During the odes, a
chorus leader, called the
choragos, might
exchange thoughts with
the group in a dialogue.
During that recital, the
group would rotate left to
right, singing the
strophe.
The Chorus (cont.)
The chorus would move
the opposite direction
during the antistrophe.
 At the end, there was a
paean (song of thanks to
Dionysus) and an
exodos (final exiting
scene).
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Classical Greek Myths &
Themes
1.
2.
3.
A true hero is willing to sacrifice anything
for his/her country, including family &
personal desires.
The causes of war don’t always justify
the tremendous suffering produced by it.
Individual conscience and divine law are
more important than civil law.
Greek Themes – cont.
4.
5.
6.
Tragedy is almost always the result of
pride, stubbornness and anger.
The young are “rash and deaf to
warnings to be moderate.”
Disaster usually follows when humans
attempt to be more than they are, godlike