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Greek Theatre
Overview
Oedipus the King
Lysistrata
Mythology
Overview of Greek Theatre
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The land
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The stage
The myths
The Land
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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)
The Land
Located in Europe in the
Aegean Sea
The Land
The Stage
The Stage
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
The Stage
The Stage
Where and how were the dramas
performed?
•Once a year
•In an amphitheatre
•Free!
•With a chorus who
described most of the
action.
•With masks
•With all the violence
off stage
•With tragedy first, then
comedy later.
Elements of Greek Theatre
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Storytelling of gods, heroes and battles
would be told by traveling actors.
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Tragic trilogies involved epic myths from
Greek mythology
Priests would organize choruses
Playwrights decided to combine stories
and choruses to create plays (mostly
tragedies, “goat song”)
Dithyramb Festival
A festival in the name of the
god Dionysus (wine, fertility,
theatre and madness)
7 day event:
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1.
2.
3.
4.
7.
Honour of Dionysus’s story; sacrifice
bull
Dythyrambic Competition (choric
hymn/dance) Boys against Men
5 comedies presented (crude and
underdeveloped)
3 tragedies and 1 satire presented in
the course of 3 days
Awards
Performers
Chorus: Group of 25-30
older men to help inform
audience, through chant, of
characters’ actions / motives.
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Actors: All men, wearing
colourful costumes and exaggerated masks to be
easily identified.
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Thespis: Famous actor to first limit chorus to 15,
engage in dialogue with them, and use masks.
Major Greek Dramatists
Dramatist
Aeschylus
Born
524 B.C.
Wrote
Sophocles
496 B.C.
Euripides
480 B.C.
Medea
Aristophanes
(comedy)
411 B.C.
Lysistrata
Seven Against
Thebes
Oedipus
Antigone
Play format
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PROLOGUE (introduction)
PARADOS (entrance of chorus)
EPISODES & STASIMA (dialogue &
chorus interludes)
EXODUS (actors leave stage)
Sophocles (496-406 BCE)
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Wrote 113 plays, only 7 surviving
Tragic playwright believed in recognizing the inevitability of suffering
(fate)
Focus on single individual (tragic hero) who must learn about
himself and the nature of universal justice
Included only the part of the Oedipus myth that allows for this
understanding
Psychological – fallibility of humans who despite nobility, marred by
fatal error
Innovation
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added a 3rd actor, introducing concept of ‘perspective’
reduced and modified chorus to be more inclusive
included dramatic irony
Painted background scenery
Sophocles’s Oedipus the King
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AKA Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus Rex
Written about 430 BCE and performed in
Athens
Set in Thebes (a city in ancient Greece)
The play is read like a ‘whodunnit’ in
which Oedipus is searching for the the
King’s killer (himself)
Sigmund Freud coined the psychological
term “Oedipus complex”
Oedipus’s past
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Oracle prophesied to Laius (King of Thebes) that he would be killed
by his son and his son would marry his own mother.
They ordered the son to be killed, but the shepherd took pity and
took him to Corinth where he was adopted by King Polybus and his
baron Queen.
Upon adulthood, Oedipus saw the Oracle who told him of the
prophesy. He vowed to never return to Corinth. Wandering, he met
and killed Laius, thinking he and his men were robbers. He moved
on to Thebes.
A Sphinx was attacking Thebes until someone solved its riddle.
Oedipus solved it and was crowned King, marrying the widow
Queen (his mother).
Years later (this is the beginning of the play), a plague descended
on the land and would remain until Laius’s murderer be punished.
Oedipus soon discovers he did it, and after Jocasta commits suicide,
he digs out his eyes and eventually flees Thebes with his daughter
Antigone.
Riddle 1
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2 travelers on a path, 1 in front, 1 in back
The one in front is the son of the one in back
But the one in back is not the father of the one
in front
How are they related?
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The one in back is his mother
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Riddle 2
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You’re on a path and come to a fork. One
way leads to town; the other to a forest.
You need to get to town, but don’t know
which path to take.
Two brothers standing at the fork know.
One always lies; the other always tells
the truth.
You’re allowed one question to find your
way to town. What do you ask?
Ask either of them: “Which path would
your brother say leads to town?” Then
take the opposite path.
Things to Look for in Oedipus
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Dramatic irony
Concept of fate
Characterization of Oedipus
Role of and belief in the gods
Blindness, truth and knowledge
Disease
Nature of the conflict
Concept of transgression-violation of a law,
command or duty
Sophocles’s Antigone
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Set in Thebes (a city in ancient Greece)
Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta
Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles and Polyneces,
took opposite sides in a war because they didn’t
want to share the throne. They end up killing
each other in battle.
Antigone’s uncle, Creon, becomes king of
Thebes and orders Polyneces body to remain
unburied. Antigone buries him in secret.
Copy Only The Boxed
Portion!
Euripides’s Medea
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Medea is a princess from Colchis
Medea marries Jason, who is in Colchis on a
quest for the Golden Fleece
Medea betrays her father and murders her
brother for her love of Jason
Medea has magical powers
Jason takes Medea back to his homeland,
Corinth, where they have children
Jason takes another wife, the king of Corinth’s
daughter
Jason’s Voyage on the Argo
Jason and
Medea meet
Corinth: Where Jason
and Medea settle down
Aristophanes’s Lysistrata
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Comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The
Peloponnesian War (Athens and Sparta – over land)
Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual
privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the
men to negotiate peace.
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Inflames the battle between the sexes in a male-dominated society.
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The older women overtake the Akropolis, the fortress that houses
the treasury of Athens.
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The older men try to smoke them out, but the women carry jugs of
water to extinguish the fires.
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The commissioner orders a battle, in which the women wittingly run
the men off. Lysistrata describes how things ‘should’ run, using a
weaving wool analogy. By the end, they dress the commissioner as
a woman.
After two humorous seduction-gone-wrong skits, the sex-strike
frustrates the men so much so that the Spartans beg the Athenians
for a peace treaty.
The Myths – why they were written
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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)
Explained the Unexplainable
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When Echo tried to get
Narcissus to love her, she
was denied.
Saddened, she shriveled to
nothing, her existence
melting into a rock.
Only her voice
remained.
Hence, the echo!
To justify religious practices
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Dionysian cults in ancient Greece were founded
to worship Dionysus, god of grapes, vegetation,
and wine.
To give credibility to leaders
The Romans used
myths to create family
trees for their leaders,
enforcing the madeup idea that the
emperors were
related to the gods
and were, then,
demigods.
To give hope
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The ancient citizens of
Greece would sacrifice
and pray to an ORACLE.
An oracle was a priest or
priestess who would send
a message to the gods
from mortals who
brought their requests.
Where DID hope come from?
After unleashing suffering, famine, disease,
and many other evils, the last thing Pandora let
out was HOPE.
The Oracle at Delphi
Most famous oracle in Greek mythology.
Mount Olympus…
…Where the
Olympians
lived.
Who are the Olympians?
The Olympians Are the 12 Main
Gods
Temperaments of the
Olympians
Zeus
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King of gods
Heaven
Storms
Thunder
lightning
Poseidon
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Zeus’s brother
King of the sea
Earthquakes
Horses
Hades
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Brother to Zeus and
Poseidon
King of the
Underworld (Tartarus)
Husband of
Persphone
Ares
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God of war
Hephaestus
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God of fire
Craftspeople
Metalworkers
Artisans
Apollo
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God of the sun
Music
Poetry
Fine arts
Medicine
Hermes
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Messenger to the
gods
Trade
Commerce
Travelers
Thieves & scoundrels
Dionysus
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God of Wine
Partying (Revelry)
Hera
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Queen of gods
Women
Marriage
Childbirth
Demeter
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Goddess of Harvest
Agriculture
Fertility
Fruitfulness
Mom to Persephone
Hestia
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Goddess of Hearth
Home
Community
Athena
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Goddess of wisdom
Practical arts
War
Aphrodite
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Goddess of love and
beauty
Artemis
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Goddess of hunting
and the moon.
The End
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