Sophocles:
Author of Oedipus Rex
“I depict men as they
ought to be.”
“Not all things are to be
discovered; many are
better concealed.”
Sophocles’s Life: Basic Facts
0 Lived from around 496 – 406 B.C. in Athens, Greece (where
Socrates, Plato, & Aristotle were from around the same time)
0 During his life, Athens became a dominant political & cultural
power after the Persian wars
0 But before he died, Athens declined as a result of the 30-year
Peloponnesian Wars and the city’s surrender to Sparta as a
result
0 Sophocles witnessed Athenian culture reach remarkable
heights and also collapse under enormous pressures
Sophocles: Dramatist
0 Was a statesman, general, treasurer, priest, and dramatist
(playwright)
0 Wrote 120 plays, but only a handful survived
0 Known for his careful, subtle plotting and complex
development of character
0 Did not rely on extreme situations or exaggerated actions to
excite audiences; he created powerfully motivated
characters with psychological depth
Sophocles:
Contributions to the Stage
0 Broke the tradition of only using 2 actors
0 He added a 3rd character to create more complicated
relationships & dialogue
0 Individual characters took center stage more often, so the
chorus’s role was reduced
0 The chorus’s role was to comment on the action and establish a
tone, but now more emphasis was on the actors
0 First to write plays with specific actors in mind, a
development that influenced future playwrights like
Shakespeare
Oedipus Rex
0 Many argue that Sophocles greatest contribution to drama
was Oedipus the King, which, it has been argued, is the most
influential drama ever written.
Classical Greek Drama: Origin
0 Developed from religious festivals that honored Dionysus,
the god of wine & fertility
0 The festivals included dancing and singing that celebrated
legends of Dionysus
0 From these songs, stories were created of Dionysus and mortal
culture-heroes
0 These heroes then became the subjects of playwrights
whose works were produced in contests at the festivals
0 The festivals lasted more than 500 years, but less than 50 plays
survived, 7 by Sophocles
Greek Drama:
The Amphitheater
0 Plays were so important that the state partially funded them
0 Drama was associated with religious & community values as
well as entertainment
0 Applauding a play was applauding their own culture
0 The amphitheaters where plays were held were built into
hillsides with rising rows of seats accommodating more
than 14,000 people
0 The seats partially encircled an orchestra or “dancing place”
where the chorus of a dozen or so men chanted lines and danced
Greek Drama: Actors
0 The Greek poet, Thespis with adding an actor who
was separate from the choral singing and dancing of
earlier performances
0 A 2nd actor was added by Aeschylus, and a 3rd by
Sophocles, making possible the conflicts and
complicated relationships that evolved into drama we
know today
Greek Drama: The Skene
0 The 2 or 3 male actors who played all the roles appeared
behind the orchestra in front of the skene, a stage building
that served as dressing rooms.
0 As theater evolved, a wall of the skene came to be painted
to suggest a palace or some other setting, and the roof was
employed to indicate, for instance, a mountain location
0 Sometimes gods were lowered from the roof by mechanical
devices to set matters right among the mortals below
0 This method of rescuing characters from complications
beyond their abilities to resolve was known as Deus ex
machina, a term now used to describe any probably means by
which an author provides a too-easy resolution for the story
Greek Drama: The Chorus
0 If an important event happened somewhere else, it was
reported by a minor character, such as a messenger.
0 Otherwise, everything happened in one place.
0 The chorus also provided necessary background
information.
0 In Oedipus, the chorus act as townspeople, judging the
characters’ strengths and weaknesses, praising them for
virtues and scolding them for foolishness, and giving them
advise
0 The reactions of the chorus provide a connection between the
audience and the actors
0 The chorus indicates changes in the scene or mood
Greek Drama: Costumes
0 Because the audience could barely see or hear the
actors at times, the actors wore large masks that
extravagantly expressed the major characters’
emotions or identified the roles of minor characters.
0 The masks were fitted to amplify the actor’s voice.
0 The actors also wore padded costumes & elevated
shoes to make them appear larger than life.
0 As a result, words were emphasized with formal,
passionate speeches, more than physical actions
Greek Tragedy
0 Typically divided into five parts:
0 Prologue
0 Opening speech or dialogue
0 Parados
0 Chorus makes its 1st entrance and gives its perspective on what the
audience has learned in the prologue
0 Episodia
0 Several episodes in which characters engage in debates dramatizing the
play’s conflicts
0 Statsimon
0 Follows each episode where the chorus responds to and interprets the
preceding dialogue
0 Similar to an opera, the chorus provided a musical element as they
chanted or sung
0 Exodus
0 Last scene where the resolution occurs & the characters leave the stage
Literary Tragedies
0 Present courageous individuals who confront
powerful forces within or outside themselves with a
dignity that reveals the breadth and depth of the
human spirit in face of failure, defeat, and even death
Protagonists of Greek Tragedies
0 A protagonist is someone regarded as extraordinary
rather than typical: a great man or woman brought
from happiness to agony.
0 They have a mythic significance
0 Oedipus, for example, are not just human beings, but they
are legendary figures from a distant, revered past
0 The tragedy is public, not private:
0 The fate of the community – the state – is often linked
with that of the protagonist
Protagonists Continued
0 The protagonists of Greek Tragedies (and
Shakespeare) and often rulers of noble birth who
represent the monarchical values of their periods
0 Although Greek tragic heroes were aristocrats, the
nobility of their characters was more significant than
their inherited titles & privileges
Harmartia: The Tragic Flaw
0 The tragic hero always has some error or frailty,
according to Aristotle, that brings about his or her
misfortune.
0 This weakness is called hamartia, or the tragic flaw
0 i.e. excess of pride, ambition, passion, or some other
character trait that leads directly to disaster
0 It would be wrong to reduce a complex character and
their fate to a simple adjective, but the tragic flaw can
lead to a simple understanding of the complexity
The Reversal/ Peripeteia
0 "reversal" (peripeteia): The point when the hero’s
fortunes turn in an unexpected direction (usually a
result of an action the hero that has an opposite effect
of his intention)
The Recognition
0 “Recognition" (anagnorisis or "knowing again" or
"knowing back" or "knowing throughout" ): a change
from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate.
0 A messenger or other character reveals previously
unknown information
0 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.
The Catharsis
0 Protagonists always accept their downfall and accepts
responsibility for it, displaying greatness of character
0 As a result, the audience does not feel hopeless at the
end; they feel relief
0 This is called catharsis, the purging of the emotions of
“pity and fear”
Irony
0 Dramatic Irony is also known as Tragic Irony
0 The meaning of the character’s words of actions is
understood by the audience but not by a character
0 Audiences often shared with the playwrights a
knowledge of the stories on which many tragic plots
were based, so they were aware of what was going to
happen before the characters were
Video Recap
Oedipus Background: Important!
0 In opening scene, Oedipus appears with a “telltale limp”
0 As an infant, he had been abandoned by his parents, Laius &
Jocasta, king of queen of Thebes, because a prophecy had
warned that their son would kill his father and marry his
mother.
0 He was supposed to be taken to a mountain by a servant and
left to die; his feet were pierced & pinned together
0 But the servant didn’t do that  out of pity, he gave him to a
shephard, who in turn presented the boy to the king & queen
of Corinth.
0 They named him Oedipus for “swollen foot” & raised him as
their own son
Oedipus Background: Important!
0 When he reached manhood, Oedipus learned from an
oracle that he would kill his father & marry his
mother
0 To avoid this fate, he left Corinth forever.
0 In his travels, he was blocked by a chariot at a
crossroads; in anger, he killed the servants & their
passenger, who, unknown to Oedipus, was his real
father
Oedipus Background: Important!
0 When Oedipus arrived to Thebes (where he was
born), he successfully answered the riddle of the
Sphinx, a winged lion with a woman’s head.
0 The reward for destrorying the monster was both the
crown and the dead king’s wife.
0 Oedipus & Jocasta had four children and prospered
0 When the play begins, Oedipus’s rule is troubled by a
plague that threatens to destroy Thebes, and he is
determined to find the cause of the plague in order to
save the city again