-first performed c. 429 B.C .
• The meaning of
Oedipus is “swollen
foot”. As a child,
King Oedipus was
abandoned with his
ankles and feet bound
and pinned together,
scarring him.
• These scars are
representative of a fate
that he cannot escape.
“What creature walks on four legs
in the morning, on two at noon,
and on three in the evening?”
Oedipus saves the people of Thebes from the merciless sphinx, but ironically
Moreau
Bacon
Why do riddles
intrigue us?
I can sizzle like bacon,
I am made with an egg.
I have plenty of backbone,
but lack a good leg.
I peel layers like onions,
but still remain whole.
I can be long, like a flagpole,
yet fit in a hole.
What am I?
Answer: Snake
There was a green house.
Inside the green house
there was a white house.
Inside the white house
there was a red house.
Inside the red house
there were lots of babies.
What am I?
Answer: Watermelon
What is an
Oedipal Complex?
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian
Founded the psychoanalytic school of psychiatry
The Greek Theatre
Important
Terms:
•Orchestra
•Theatron
•Parados
•Skene
•Proskenion
•The orchestra or “dancing place” is the circular platform where
the chorus performed.
•The audience sat on stone benches in the theatron, “the seeing
place.”
•Extending from the orchestra to each side of the theatron were
two broad aisles, the parados, a term which also identified the
entrance song of the chorus in a tragedy. (Mnemonic = parade,
the procession of the chorus both in and out of the theater)
•Perpendicular to the orchestra was the skene, a rectangular
building with three doors in the front, providing a generic
backdrop fro the action of the play as well as an area into which
actors could exit from a scene in order to change
costumes/masks/roles.
•The proskenion was a small platform in front of the skene which
allowed the actors more visibility and the ability to separate
themselves from the chorus in the orchestra below. We now refer
to this part of a modern stage as a proscenium.
Skene
Proskenion
Orchestra (Chorus)
Doorways into the skene
Ancient Greek theaters were huge, seating up to
20,000 people (a large Broadway theater seats
about 3,000), which necessitated impressive
acoustics from sound bouncing off of the skene
and the stone seats of the audience, as well as
certain features of the actors' costumes.
The actors wore buskins (platform shoes)
which helped not only to make the
characters being portrayed appear larger
than life, befitting their importance in myth
and legend, but also helped project their
voices to the huge audience.
Also, the actors wore large hollow masks
that helped identify to the huge audience who
each character was, magnify the size of the
actor to befit the larger-than-life character or
story being portrayed and also amplify the
actor’s voice by serving as a megaphone
Themes/Conflicts/Motifs
• Free Will vs. Fate
• Predictions and
Prophecies
• Truth vs. Ignorance
• Intuition vs. Policy
• Mortal weakness
when compared to
the strength of the
gods
• Power’s fleetingness
• Pride and Envy
The Chorus:
Aristotle said the chorus should be regarded as one of the actors
-Uses symbolic choreography
-Often fickle, obtuse and perceptive
-Comments on the events witnessed on stage
The Greek tragedy is divided into
five distinct sections:
• Prologue (Prologos): Exposition
• Parados: The entrance song of the chorus
(named after broad aisles which the chorus
uses to enter and exit)
• Episodes (Scenes): Performed by the
actors
• Stasimons (Odes): Choral passage, the
chorus sang and danced these lyric poems
• Exodos: Conclusion ending with the
chorus singing their final lines as they exit
Dramatic Structure of Oedipus Rex
1. Prologos
2. Parados
3. Scene 1
4. Ode 1
5. Scene 2
6. Ode 2
7. Scene 3
8. Ode 3
9. Scene 4
10. Ode 4
11. Exodos
To appreciate the intensifying
effect of the dramatic irony
employed as a result of the
audience’s preexisting
knowledge of Oedipus’ plight, we
must be prepared before
encountering the play.
Before reading Oedipus Rex, you
must be familiar with the legend of
Oedipus, as were the citizens of
ancient Greece.
For homework, please read Edith
Hamilton’s rendering of the legend
of Oedipus before you read the
prologue (pages 3-10).