Antigone
-ORAnd you thought your family had
problems…
Greek Drama/Tragedy Terms
 Drama – written to be acted out for an
audience
 Chorus – made up of elders whose age and
opinions would be respected
 Choragus – leader of chorus; gave opinions
on the story
 Ode – follows each scene; separates scenes
(there was no curtain); provides a place for
the chorus to respond to the previous scene
 Parados – first song chanted by
chorus
 Strophe/antistrophe – part of the
ode that the chorus chants as they
move across the stage
 Tragedy – a work that involves
serious and important events; main
character comes to an unhappy end
The Tragic Hero
 According to Aristotle’s Poetics, a
tragic hero is, “"a [great] man who is
neither a paragon of virtue and justice
nor undergoes the change to
misfortune through any real badness or
wickedness but because of some
mistake."
The Tragic Hero- here are the
characteristics
1. Noble or high-ranking
2. Hamartia- aka the tragic flaw (can be
part of the character’s personality, an error
in judgment, or a physical flaw)
3. Oftentimes the tragic flaw involves
hubris: arrogant pride or overconfidence
4. Fall from power- this is usually the
character’s own fault (due to hamartia)
The Tragic Hero- here are the
characteristics
5. The punishment for the character’s crime is
usually worse than the actual crime
6. The fall is not pure loss. The hero learns
something…
Tragedy- why?
 Tragedies are meant to make you depressed- let’s
just face it. Aristotle argues that one function of
tragedy is to arouse the "unhealthy" emotions of
pity and fear and through a catharsis cleanses us
of those emotions.
 Catharsis - the purging of the emotions or
relieving of emotional tensions, especially
through certain kinds of art such as tragedy or
music (dictionary.com)
Greek Drama
 Grew out of ancient
religious rituals honoring
Dionysos (the god of wine
and fertility).
 Thespis transformed hymns
into songs that told the story
of a famous hero or another
god.
 Thespis has been
immortalized in our word
thespian - meaning actor or
actress.
The theater of Dionysos
 Looked like a semicircular
football stadium.
 Seats were carved out of
stone on a hillside.
 In the front was the
orchestra; behind the
orchestra was a platform
for the actors.
The theater
(continued)...
 Actors wore masks
with exaggerated
mouthpieces to
amplify their
voices.
 All the actors were
men.
The story
of Oedipus
 King Laios and Queen Jocasta
learn from an oracle that their
son will kill his father and marry
his mother.
 They give their baby to a
shepherd with orders to leave
him on a lonely mountainside to
die.
 The shepherd takes pity on the
infant and gives him to a
Corinthian shepherd.
 Who in turn gives the infant to
the childless king and queen of
Corinth.
Oedipus’s story
(continued)...
 The infant is named Oedipus, which
means “swollen foot” or “club foot”.
 When Oedipus is a young man, he
learns of the oracle’s prophecy and
leaves Corinth, believing the king
and queen are his birth parents.
 On his journey he runs into an old
man who tries to run Oedipus off the
road - they fight, and Oedipus kills
him.
 Before reaching Thebes, Oedipus
encounters the Sphinx - a monster
with the wings of an eagle, body of a
lion and the breasts and face of a
woman.
And the saga
continues
 In order for Oedipus to pass on
to Thebes, he must answer a
riddle.
 Riddle: “What creature goes
on four legs in the morning,
two legs in the afternoon, and
three legs in the evening?”
 Answer: Man
 Oedipus answers the riddle
correctly, the Sphinx leaps into
the sea, and Thebes is saved
from the horrible monster.
A Hero’s
Welcome
 People of
Thebes welcome
Oedipus as their
savior.
 Since the king
had recently
been killed, they
offer the throne
and the
widowed queen
as a reward.
Oedipus & Iocaste
 Oedipus and
Jocasta marry and
have four
children: 2 sons Polynieces and
Eteocles; and 2
daughters Antigone and
Ismene.
A Dark Cloud Looms...
 All went well for
Oedipus and Jocasta
until a plague struck
Thebes - desperate to
learn the cause,
Oedipus sends
Iocaste’s brother,
Creon, to the oracle
at Delphi.
A Horrible Discovery,
or The Big “Oh Schnap”!
 The oracle warns that the plague will
continue until Thebes punishes the
murderer of King Laios - who is
living among them unnoticed.
 Oedipus vows to save Thebes - and
discovers that the man he had killed
years ago was King Laios.
 He also learns that the king and
queen of Corinth are not his
biological parents - he was the son of
King Laios and Queen Jocasta.
Priestess of Delphi (1891) by John Collier;
the Pythia was inspired by pneuma rising
from below
“We Did What?”
 When Oedipus and
Jocasta discover the
truth, she kills herself
and he gouges out his
eyes - to punish himself
for having been blind to
the truth.
 Creon takes over as
acting ruler of Thebes
and exiles Oedipus accompanied by
Antigone he wanders the
countryside as a beggar
and dies in Colonus.
God’s Law or Man’s?
 On returning to Thebes,
Antigone finds that her 2
brothers have agreed to
rule on alternating years.
 Eteocles rules first, but
refuses to step down
after a year.
 Polynieces flees to Argos,
raises an army, and
attacks Thebes.
 The Theban army is
strong, but during the
battle Eteocles and
Polynieces kill each
other.
A Terrible Punishment
 Creon now becomes King of
Thebes
 As his first law - he considers
Polynieces a traitor, so
therefore his body should be
left to rot unburied outside
the city gates.
 He gives Eteocles a hero’s
burial.
 This goes against what the
Greeks believe - their holiest
laws demand that certain
burial rites be performed, or
else the soul of the dead
person would be condemned
to eternal unrest.
Which Side Will You Take?
 Is it right to follow
man’s law even when
you know it’s morally
wrong?
 Would you have the
courage to disobey
man’s law - even if the
consequence was
death?
 Who is right and who
is wrong? You
decide...