Transcript WARM UP

The
land
The myths
The stage
 Greece has thousands of inhabited
islands and dramatic mountain ranges
 Greece has a rich culture and history
 Democracy was founded in Greece
 Patriarchal (male dominated) society
 Philosophy, as a practice, began in
Greece (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)
Look at pg. 768
Let’s fill out the front
page of our packets
 The Theater: Greek drama usually
accompanied religious festivals and was
part of the fanfare. The stage was built into
a hillside and plays were performed during
the day before thousands of onlookers. A
large orchestra, located in a pit between the
stage and the audience, provided music
before, during, and after the performance.
 Greek plays were performed during
religious ceremonies held in honor of
Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and
revelry (altars generally on stage)
 Banks would shut down for days, people
would travel from all around to see the
drama competitions—even prisoners were
temporarily released to see the plays
 Tragedy means “goat song” (relates to
Dionysian rituals)
Three Main
Portions of Greek
Theatre:
Skene – Portion of
stage where actors
performed
(included 1-3 doors
in and out)
Orchestra –
“Dancing Place”
where chorus sang
to the audience
Theatron –
Seating for
audience
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Explained the unexplainable
Justified religious practices
Gave credibility to leaders
Gave hope
Polytheistic (more than one god)
Centered around the twelve Olympians
(primary Greek gods)
 Dionysian cults in ancient Greece were
founded to worship Dionysus, god of
grapes, vegetation, and wine.
The Romans used myths
to create family trees
for their leaders,
enforcing the made-up
idea that the emperors
were related to the
gods and were, then,
demigods.
The Olympians:
The Main Gods of Greece
 King of gods
 Heaven
 Storms
 Thunder
 Lightning
Poseidon
•
•
•
•
Zeus’s brother
King of the sea
Earthquakes
Horses
Hades
• Brother to Zeus and
Poseidon
• King of the
Underworld
• Husband of
Persphone
(Demeter’s daughter)
• Zeus’s son
• God of war
Hera
•
•
•
•
•
Zeus’s wife
Queen of gods
Women
Marriage
Childbirth
Apollo
•
•
•
•
•
God of the sun
Music
Poetry
Fine arts
Medicine
Hephaestus [hi-fes-tuhs]
•
•
•
•
•
Hera’s son
God of fire
Craftspeople
Metalworkers
Artisans
[dahy-uh-nahy-suh ]
s
Dionysus [dahy-uh-nahy-suhs]
• God of Wine
• Partying (Revelry)
 Zeus’s son
 God of messages
 Trade
 Commerce
 Travelers
 Thieves &
scoundrels
Demeter [dih-mee-ter]
•
•
•
•
•
Goddess of Harvest
Agriculture
Fertility
Fruitfulness
Mom to Persephone
Hestia [hes-tee-uh]
• Goddess of Hearth
• Home
• Community
Athena
• Goddess of wisdom
• Practical arts
• War
Aphrodite
• Goddess of love and beauty
Artemis
• Virgin goddess
of hunting and
the moon.
 Actors: All roles were played by men
wearing large masks, extravagant robes,
and platform shoes. Sophocles, the most
popular of Greek dramatists, used three
actors who changed costumes between
scenes.
 I. Prologue: Spoken by one or two
characters before the chorus appears. The
prologue usually gives the
background information needed to
understand the events of the play.
 II. Parodos: the song sung by the chorus
as it makes its entrance
 III. Episodes/Scenes: the main action of
the play
 IV. Odes: songs (and often dances) that
reflect on the events of the episodes,
and weave the plot into a cohesive whole
A. Choragos: the leader of the chorus who
often interacts with the characters in the
scenes.
B. Chorus: the 15 singers/dancers who
remark on the action
1. strophe: the movement of the chorus from right
to left across the stage
2. antistrophe: the reaction to the strophe - moves
across the stage from left to right.
 V. Paean: a prayer of thanksgiving to
Dionysos in whose honor the Greek plays
were performed
 VI. Exodos: sung by the chorus as it
makes its final exit, which usually offers
words of wisdom related to the actions and
outcome of the play
 Ancient Greek tragedies should be thought
of as closer to opera/operetta than to our
spoken, prose dramas.
 Though deviations were possible, most
tragedies had a typical structure, which
derived from the role played by the chorus.
Dramatist
Born
Wrote
Aeschylus
524 B.C.
Sophocles
496 B.C.
Seven
Against
Thebes
Antigone
Oedipus
Euripides
480 B.C.
Medea
 (496-406 B.C.)
 won 24 contests
 never lower than 2nd
 believed to have introduced the
3rd actor
 fixed the chorus at 15 (had been
50)
 emphasis on individual characters
 reduced role of chorus
 complex characters, psychologically
well-motivated
 characters subjected to crisis leading
to suffering and self-recognition including a higher law above man
 exposition carefully motivated
 scenes suspenseful and climactic
 action clear and logical
 poetry clear and beautiful
 few elaborate visual effects
 theme emphasized: the choices of
people
 Oedipus was the son of Laius [ley-uhs] and
Jocasta [joh-kas-tuh], king and queen of Thebes.
After having been married some time
without children, his parents consulted the
Oracle of Apollo at Delphi about their
childlessness. The Oracle prophesied that if
Jocasta should have a son, the son would
kill her husband Laius and marry her.
 In an attempt to prevent this prophecy's
fulfillment, when Jocasta indeed bore a son,
Laius had his ankles pinned together so that
he could not crawl, and gave the boy to a
servant to abandon on the nearby
mountain.
 However, rather than leave the child to die of
exposure, as Laius intended, the sympathetic
servant passed the baby onto a shepherd from
Corinth and then to another shepherd.
 Oedipus the infant eventually comes to the
house of Polybus [pol-uh-buhs], king of
Corinth and his queen, Merope [mer-uh-pee] ,
who adopt him as they are without children
of their own.
 Many years later, Oedipus is told by a drunk
that Polybus is not his real father but when he
asks his parents, they deny it.
 Oedipus seeks counsel from the same Delphic
Oracle. The Oracle does not tell him the
identity of his true parents but instead tells
him that he is destined to kill his father and
marry his mother.
 In his attempt to avoid the fate predicted by
the Oracle, he decides to not return home to
Corinth. Since it is near to Delphi, Oedipus
decides to go to Thebes.
 As Oedipus travels he comes to the place
where three roads meet, Davlia. Here he
encounters a chariot, driven by his
(unrecognized) birth-father, King Laius.
 They fight over who has the right to go
first and Oedipus kills Laius in self
defense, unwittingly fulfilling part of the
prophecy. The only witness of the King's
death was a slave who fled from a caravan
of slaves also traveling on the road.
 Continuing his journey to Thebes, Oedipus
encounters a Sphinx which would stop all
those who traveled to Thebes and ask them a
riddle. If the travelers were unable to answer
correctly, they were killed and eaten by the
sphinx; if they were successful, they would
be able to continue their journey.
 Oedipus was the first to answer the riddle
correctly. Having heard Oedipus' answer, the
Sphinx is astounded and inexplicably kills
itself by throwing itself into the sea, freeing
Thebes.
 Grateful, the people of Thebes appoint
Oedipus as their king and give him the
recently widowed Queen Jocasta's hand in
marriage.
 The marriage of Oedipus and Jocasta fulfilled
the rest of the prophecy. Oedipus and Jocasta
have four children: two sons, Eteocles and
Polyneices, and two daughters, Antigone and
Ismene.
 Many years after the marriage of Oedipus
and Jocasta, a plague of infertility strikes
the city of Thebes; crops no longer grow to
harvest and women do not bear children.
 Oedipus, in his hubris, asserts that he will
end the pestilence. He sends Creon,
Jocasta's brother, to the Oracle at Delphi,
seeking guidance.
 When Creon returns, Oedipus hears that
the murderer of the former King Laius
must be found and either be killed or
exiled.
 In a search for the identity of the killer,
Oedipus follows Creon's suggestion and
sends for the blind prophet, Tiresias, who
warns him not to try to find the killer.
 In a heated exchange, Tiresias is provoked
into exposing Oedipus himself as the killer,
and the fact that Oedipus is living in shame
because he does not know who his true
parents are.
 Oedipus becomes unnerved as he begins to
think that he might have killed Laius and so
brought about the plague.
 When a messenger arrives from Corinth
with the news that King Polybus has died,
Oedipus is relieved concerning the
prophecy, for it could no longer be fulfilled
if Polybus, whom he thinks is his father, is
now dead.
 Nonetheless, he is wary while his mother
lives and does not wish to go. To ease the
stress of the matter, the messenger then
reveals that Oedipus was, in fact, adopted.
Jocasta finally realizes Oedipus' true
identity, and begs him to abandon his
search for Laius's murderer.
 Oedipus misunderstands the motivation of
her pleas, thinking that she was ashamed of
him because he might have been the son of
a slave. Jocasta then goes into the palace
where she hangs herself.
 Oedipus seeks verification of the
messenger's story from the very same
herdsman who was supposed to have left
Oedipus to die as a baby.
 From the herdsman, Oedipus learns that the
infant raised as the adopted son of Polybus
and Merope was the son of Laius and Jocasta.
 Thus, Oedipus finally realizes in great agony
that so many years ago, at the place where
three roads meet, he had killed his own
father, King Laius, and as a consequence,
married his mother, Jocasta.

 Oedipus goes in search of Jocasta and
finds she has killed herself. Using the pin
from a brooch he takes off Jocasta's gown,
Oedipus gouges his eyes out.
 Oedipus asks Creon to look after his
daughters, for his sons are old and mature
enough to look after themselves, and to
be allowed to hold them one last time
before he is exiled.
 His daughter Antigone acts as his guide as he
wanders blindly through the country,
ultimately dying at Colonus after being
placed under the protection of Athens by
King Theseus.
 His two sons, Eteocles and Polyneices,
arrange to share the kingdom, each taking an
alternating one-year reign.
 However, Eteocles refuses to cede his
throne after his year as king.
 Polyneices brings in an army to oust
Eteocles from his position, and a battle
ensues.
The Tale in 8 Minutes
 In the battle for the throne of Thebes,
Antigone's brother Eteocles has died
defending the city, while her brother
Polyneices has died attacking it. Creon,
the king of Thebes, has sworn that
although Eteocles has been given a soldier's
funeral, Polyneices' body will remain
unburied.
 Antigone defies the decree and buries her
brother, even though her sister, Ismene,
refuses to help her. Creon then condemns
both Antigone and Ismene to death. He
changes his mind about Ismene, but locks
Antigone away in a stone vault.
 Later, after the blind prophet Teiresias
predicts doom, Creon decides to free
Antigone, only to find that she has
committed suicide.
 Antigone's death leads to the suicide of
Creon's son, Haemon, who was betrothed
to her, and then to the suicide of Creon's
wife, Eurydice.
 Families torn apart by
political/moral differences
 Gender bias
 Death penalty
 Suicide
 Divine law
 Crime and Punishment
 Fate/Prophesy
 Leadership
 Vengeance
 Pride
 Respect for the Dead
 The Tragic Hero: A tragedy recounts
the downfall of a tragic hero. A tragic
hero is:
 A dignified character, usually of
noble birth.
 A person who possesses a tragic
flaw, or hamartia (usually pride, or
hubris) which leads to a
catastrophe.
 A tragic hero is someone well-known &
prosperous, usually royalty – who suffers a
downfall due to their own flaw(s)
 A hero’s flaw or weakness is called a tragic
flaw
 Modern Examples: Britney Spears, Lindsay
Lohan & much of the NFL
 Tragic Flaw is oftentimes caused by “Hubris”
 Hubris is…
 Excessive Pride
 Examples: politicians, movie stars, athletes
 What actually happens is the opposite of what is expected
 General Life Examples:
 A fire station burns down
 A police station gets robbed
 A child runs away from someone throwing a water
balloon but falls into a pool
Literary Examples:
 In Romeo & Juliet Romeo finds Juliet drugged and
assumes she is dead; when she awakens she sees that
Romeo is dead and kills herself
Oedipus killed his father and married his mother unaware
of the relationship due to his being left to die by his father
because of a prophesy
 Speaker says one thing but means another
(like sarcasm)
 Example: “Woah, nice haircut!” (you mean
the opposite)
 The reader or audience knows something
that the character does not know
 Example: In a movie where the audience
knows the bad guy is around the corner
 Character who serves as a contrast to another
character
 Examples:
 Pretty sweet Cinderella compared to her
selfish, ugly stepsisters
 Dr. Watson & Sherlock Holmes
 Huck Finn & Tom Sawyer
 Dumbledore and Lord Voldemort (Harry Potter)
 Antigone and her sister Ismene
Antigone THEMES
 Is life determined by destiny (already written
in the stars) or do people have free choice?
 What is more important to obey?
Divine laws (based on Religion)?
or Human laws (based on Government)?
For Example: What if your religion demands you shave
your head but local government (like your school)
forbids it?
 What is more important – to follow your own
conscience (sense of right vs wrong) or to obey
authority?
 For example: During WWII, it was against the law
to help Jews escape…what would you do?
Obey your conscience & risk being arrested (or
worse!) to assist the Jews or play it safe and obey the
law?
 Oedipus’ two sons Polyneices and Etiocles were
supposed to take turns being the King of Thebes.
Etiocles takes his turn first, but won’t give up the
throne at the end of his term.
 Polyneices goes to Arogs and hires an army to attack
Thebes
 In the battle, Polyneices and Etiocles kill one another
 Creon (Jocasta’s brother/Oedipus’ brother-in-law
uncle) becomes king and rules that Polyneices is a
traitor and won’t be buried
Greek religious beliefs:
The holy laws demand that all people be buried properly,
or their souls won’t be able to rest
The conflict in the play revolves around this decision.
Creon remains determined that Polyneices remain
unburied.
Antigone wants to make sure that her brother is properly
buried