Aim is catharsis of spectators, to arouse in them fear and pity and then purge them of these emotions

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Prologue – opening
Ode – dignified, lyrical verse or choral song chanted by chorus as they enter
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Episode – acts
Exodos – final action

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Festival for Dionysus – 3 Days, 3 poets, 4 plays each, 3 tragedies and 1 satire, winner
Thespis – father of drama, preformed first tragedy
Story lines – from mythology, a collective social, political, and religious history; therefore, the audience was already familiar with them.

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All male
Wore masks – detailed enough so character was identified, generic enough to represent every man robes in symbolic colors platform shoes
Dramatis Personae – list of characters

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Introduce and question new characters
Point out significant events and facts
Voice outlook of citizens
Cover passage of time
Separate episodes
Do not wear masks
Used megaphones

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Author and philosopher
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Man’s external pursuit of knowledge
Knew the story so kept involved using irony and allusions
Expected to learn about motives and forces that moved characters

Aristotelian tragic hero
: Aristotle once said that "A man doesn't become a hero until he can see the root of his own downfall." An Aristotelian tragic hero must have four characteristics.
1. Nobility (of a noble birth) or wisdom (by virtue of birth).
2.
Hamartia (translated as flaw, mistake, or error, a flaw of character).
3. A reversal of fortune (and being stupid) ( peripetia ) brought about because of the hero's Hamartia.
4. The discovery or recognition that the reversal was brought about by the hero's own actions ( anagnorisis ).Flaw is recognized too late to save the hero from his fall.

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Hero must be noble in nature, but imperfect so that the audience can see themselves in him.
Hero must see and understand his doom, as well as the fact that his fate was discovered by his own actions. In other words, the fall is not pure loss. There is some increase in awareness, some gain in self-knowledge, some discovery on the part of the tragic hero.
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He suffers both outwardly (isolation, alienation, attacks) and inwardly (tortured conscience).
Hero's story should arouse fear and empathy.

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Because of his position, his actions usually have far-reaching effects.
Frequently, he makes serious errors in judgment which lead him to committing the deed which begins his downfall.
Often he has a distorted perception of, or is blind to, reality.
Hero must be physically or spiritually wounded by his experiences, often resulting in his death.
Ideally, the hero should be a king or leader of men, so that his people experience his fall with him.
The hero must be intelligent so he may learn from his mistakes.
The hero usually has an unusual birth, was spirited away and raised somewhere else, does not know his background, returns home and saves the day, but has a tragic, unusual death.

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Delphic Morality – This was written on the gates of Apollo’s oracle-Know thyself, nothing in excess, punishment is near.
Know thyself, be a man, don’t act like a god
Nothing in Excess, if you behave in a way that is excessive or have an excessive character flaw…
Punishment is Near, the gods will punish you big time for it.

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OEDIPUS: king of Thebes
PRIEST: the high priest of Thebes
CREON: Oedipus’ brother-in-law
CHORUS of Theban elders
TEIRESIAS: an old blind prophet
BOY: attendant on Teiresias
JOCASTA: wife of Oedipus, sister of Creon
MESSENGER: an old man
SERVANT: an old shepherd
SECOND MESSENGER: a servant of Oedipus
ANTIGONE: daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, a child
ISMENE: daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, a child
SERVANTS and ATTENDANTS on Oedipus and Jocasta
MEROPE – Oedipus’s adoptive mom
POLYBUS – Oedipus’s adoptive dad
Places
THEBES – city of Apollo, city of light
CORINTH – where
Oedipus was raised
CITHAERON – where
Oedipus was “killed”