Transcript Sophocles and Oedipus the King

Sophocles and KING OEDIPUS
AN INTRODUCTION
Sophocles
 496 B.C.-406 B.C.
 Greek playwright and poet
 Wrote tragedies
 Wrote Theban plays (The Oedipus Cycle)
 Concern the fate of Thebes during and after the reign of King
Oedipus
 Introduced third actor
 Reduced importance of the chorus

Group of minor actors who provide background and summary
information to help the audience follow the performance
Thebes
 Ancient city in Greece
 Setting for many tragedies, including Sophocles’
Elements of Tragedy
•U N I T I E S
•T E R M S : A S P E C T S O F T R A G E D Y
•T H E M E S
•T R A G I C H E R O
Three Unities
 Unity of action- play has one main action it follows
 Unity of time- play takes place within 24 hours
 Unity of place- play takes place within one physical
space
Terms: Aspects of Tragedy in Greek Drama
Crisis of feeling - painful or harmful experience that
may upset or depress the audience.
 Catharsis - the audience cleanses their emotions. For
example, they may feel uplifted.
 Reversal - the hero/heroine goes through a significant
change in fortune for the worse. Reversal may happen
after a discovery of something previously unknown to the
hero/heroine.

Themes
 Blindness vs. sight
 Self-knowledge
 Pride
 Truth
 Responsibility
 Fate/destiny vs. choice
Aspects of the Greek Tragic Hero
 Tragic hero/heroine - the protagonist, or main
character, in the play.

He/she must be of noble birth or hold an important social
position
 He/she
is generally good and has a desire to do
well
 He/she
dies in the end of the play
Aspects of the Greek Tragic Hero
 The hero/heroine seems "better" than the other
character(s), but there is a fate which overpowers this
"good" character.
 Poor judgment by the hero causes a fall from grace and
social ranking.

Poor judgment is a tragic flaw, or error, called hamatria. It leads
to personal catastrophe and unintended harm to others.
 Hubris, which means excessive pride or arrogance, is the
most common type of hamatria.
 A hero/heroine's misfortune is an example of human
fallibility (human's tendency to fail).

Audience fears and pities character- punishment does not fit crime
Oedipus Rex
 Oedipus Rex is a play written by Sophocles that is
divided into certain sections.
 Prologos: an introduction or preface, especially a
poem recited to introduce a play
 Parados: is a song sung by a Greek chorus as it first
enters the theater. It is named for the corridors at
the front of the stage of a Greek theater from which
the Chorus enters.
 Episodes: a section of a classic Greek tragedy that
occurs between the two choric songs
Oedipus Rex continued
 Choric Ode: A classical Greek poem that has a three
part structure consisting of a strophe, antistrophe
and an epode
 Exodus: In Greek Drama, this is the final scene; in
tragedy, it is the action following the final stasimon
(choral ode); in comedy it is the final rejoicing
following the last episode