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ANTIGONE
THINK, PAIR, SHARE
You will need a piece of paper and a
pen or pencil
THINK, PAIR, SHARE
If your mother committed a terrible
crime would you turn her in?
THINK, PAIR, SHARE
If your mother committed a terrible
crime would you turn her in?
Would the nature of the crime change your
answer (theft/assault/murder/war crimes)?
Should you be forced to testify against her?
What is more important to you, justice or family?
Oedipus Rex – Crash Course
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj7R36s4dbM
Oedipus Rex – Animated Short
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXyek9Ddus4
Antigone B&W with English subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN4HPDrHJzo
BBC Greatest Show on Earth
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqnBBjC_8no
National Theatre
Introduction to Greek Theatre
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSRLK7SogvE
Introduction to Greek Tragedy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSr6mP-zxUc
Introduction to Greek Comedy and Satyr
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-BvMbfkxcc
GREEK THEATRE
FESTIVAL OF DIONYSUS – CITY DIONYSIA
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Performed on special occasions or festivals for worshipping Dionysus.
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Competitive- prizes awarded (maybe a goat!)
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Choral-singing was very important, Greek Theatre evolved from from a
chorus singing
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Closely associated with religion and worshipping gods.
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The City Dionysia was a festival to honor Dionysus. Men dressed as
satyrs, drank large quantities of wine, sang, danced, and generally were
merry. All the citizens of Athens attended.
•
Three playwrights were chosen to submit plays to the competition. The
contest lasted 3 days – one for each playwright. They had to submit 3
tragedies and a satyr play. The plays were performed back to back.
After the 3 days it was put to a vote to see who won. Judges were
chosen by lot.
FOUR PLAY CYCLE
Greek tragedies were performed in a 4 play cycle: 3
tragedies and a satyr play. The
• A Satyr play – after watching 3 tragedies in a row the
audience needed some comic relief. The last play was a
satyr play where the actors told poop jokes, acted drunk,
played pranks on each other, and bumped into each
other with gigantic phalluses.
GREEK ACTORS
• 2-3 actors to play all of the parts. All the actors were
male. Even female roles were played by men.
• 12-15 chorus members.
• The actors wore large masks with exaggerated features
and high shoes to make them more visible. Each mask
portrayed a different emotion and they were designed to
amplify the voice of the wearer. The masks allowed the
three actors to portray different characters.
ARISTOTELIAN UNITIES OF GREEK DRAMA
In his work Poetics Aristotle wrote about the three “rules” for
drama.
• Unity of Action: The play should have one main storyline
with a beginning, middle, and end and few (or no)
subplots.
• Unity of Time: The play should take place within 24 hours.
• Unity of Place: The play should take place in a single
setting.
GREEK THEATRE
Greek Tragedies followed a basic formula:
• Prologue (where one or more characters introduce the
drama).
• Parodos (the entrance of the chorus)
• Episodes: 3 or more scenes in which the story is told.
(Antigone has 5)
• Episodes are separated by stasima (breaks when the
chorus explain or comment on the drama).
• Ends with the exodus in which the story in concluded.
We will revisit these parts of Greek tragedy once we have
read Antigone.
THE CHORUS
The chorus generally had the following roles in the plays of
Sophocles:
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To explain the action or ask questions
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To interpret the action in relation to the law of the state and the law of the
Olympian gods
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To foreshadow the future
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To serve as an actor in the play
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To heighten the dramatic effect through song and/or dance
•
To present the author's views.
•
To be the ideal spectator: to react as the audience should react to the
action.
•
To create pauses in the action so that the audience can reflect and actors
can prepare for the next episode.
•
In some ways, the chorus is like the narrator of a modern film or like the
background music accompanying the action of the film. It is like text on
screen that provides background information or identifies the time and
place of the action.
ARISTOTELIAN UNITIES OF GREEK DRAMA
In his work Poetics Aristotle wrote about the three “rules” for
drama.
• Unity of Action: The play should have one main storyline
with a beginning, middle, and end and few (or no)
subplots.
• Unity of Time: The play should take place within 24 hours.
• Unity of Place: The play should take place in a single
setting.
THEATRE STRUCTURE
THEATRE STRUCTURE
•
Orchestra: The orchestra (literally, "dancing space") was normally
circular. It was a level space where the chorus would dance, sing, and
interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene. The
center of the orchestra was a sacrificial altar.
•
Theatron: The theatron (literally, "viewing-place") is where the spectators
sat. The theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking the orchestra,
and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra (see the
diagram above).
•
Skene: The skene (literally, "tent") was the building directly behind the
stage. The skene was directly in back of the stage, and was usually
decorated as a palace, temple, or other building, depending on the
needs of the play. It had at least one set of doors, and actors could
make entrances and exits through them. There was also access to the
roof of the skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other
characters could appear on the roof, if needed.
•
Parodos: The parodoi (literally, "passageways") are the paths by which
the chorus and some actors (such as those representing messengers or
people returning from abroad) made their entrances and exits. The
audience also used them to enter and exit the theater before and after
the performance.
THEATRE STRUCTURE
•
Theatres were open to the air and built into natural hillsides. They
used natural lighting and had amazing acoustics.
•
Theatres were often part of larger temple complexes and often
associated with centres of healing.
THEATRE STRUCTURE
The theatre at Epidaurus
THEATRE STRUCTURE
Theatre of Dionysus on the Acropolis in Athens
THE GREEK POLIS (CITY-STATE)
•
The country of Greece did not exist as we know it today. Ethnic
Greeks were people who lived in a common area, spoke Greek,
and had, broadly speaking, common cultural practices.
•
The land was divided into poleis or city-states.
•
The polis consisted of an urban centre (usually fortified and situated
on an acropolis or natural harbour) and the surrounding rural area.
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Each polis was culturally different from the next. They each had
their own political, judicial, religious, legal, and social institutions.
•
Each polis engaged in trade, alliances, and wars with other poleis
and non-Greek communities.
•
A common language and broad religious views united the Greek
city-states.
THE GREEK CITY STATE
SOPHOCLES
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Sophocles was a famous and successful
Athenian writer of tragedies.
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He was born in 495 BC in Colonus (near
Athens) and died in 405 BC in Athens. He
lived during the classical period.
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Sophocles was born to a wealthy family and
attended the finest schools. He studied
music, sang in the chorus and appeared on
stage.
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Became a poet and a playwright.
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Of his 120 plays, only 7 have survived.
•
Oedipus the King, also called Oedipus
Tyrannos or Oedipus Rex, written around 420
BC, has long been regarded not only as his
finest play but also as the purest and most
powerful expression of Greek tragic drama.
SOPHOCLES
•
In 468 BC he won his first tragedy award at the
yearly Festival of Dionysus. He competed in 30
competitions, won 18, and never placed lower
than second.
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Many Greek playwrights performed in their
own plays. At first, Sophocles did too but he
had a weak voice and eventually stopped
performing.
•
Sophocles was responsible for adding the third
actor which allowed more flexibility for telling
story through the on stage actors and lessened
the role of the chorus.
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He was the first to use painted scenery.
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Sophocles served as a general in the Athenian
army.
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When he died he was celebrated and
worshipped as a cultural hero.
GREEK TRAGEDY
The word "tragedy" refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary
composition written to be performed by actors in which a
centralcharacter called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers
some serious misfortune which is not accidental and
therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune
is logically connected with the hero's actions. Tragedy
stresses the vulnerability of human beings whose suffering is
brought on by a combination of human and divine actions,
but is generally undeserved with regard to its harshness.
ARISTOTLE’S TRAGIC HERO
• Tragedy should evoke a sense of pity and fear in the
audience. The hero is neither completely good nor
completely bad.
• The tragic hero should be highly renowned and
prosperous because the hero must fall from tremendous
good fortune in order to feel pity and fear.
• The hero experiences a downfall because of either their
tragic flaw (a fundamental character weakness, such as
destructive pride, ruthless ambition or obsessive jealousy)
or a single error in judgment.
ARISTOTLE’S TRAGIC HERO
• The hero is on some level responsible for their downfall.
• By the end of the play the hero comes to recognize their
error and accept the consequences as their own fault.
• The real tragic hero is humbled and enlightened by the
tragedy.
• The tragic hero evokes our pity because he is not evil and
his misfortune is greater than he deserves. He evokes our
fear because we realize we are fallible and could make
the same error.
SOPHOCLEAN TRAGEDY
• A tragedy of Sophocles, as well as another Greek
playwright, is a verse drama written in elevated language
in which a noble protagonist falls to ruin during a struggle
caused by a flaw (hamartia) in his character, such as
pride (hubris), or an error in his rulings or judgments. A
Greek tragedy has the following characteristics:
• It is based on events that already took place. The
audience is familiar with these events. The protagonist
(main character) is a person of noble birth and stature.
• The protagonist has a weakness and, because of it,
becomes isolated and suffers a downfall.
• Because the protagonist's fall is not entirely his or her own
fault, the audience may end up pitying him or her.
SOPHOCLEAN TRAGEDY
• The fallen protagonist gains self-knowledge. He has a
deeper insight into himself and understands his weakness.
• The audience undergoes catharsis, a purging of emotions,
after experiencing pity, fear, shock and other strong
feelings. The people go away feeling better.
• The drama usually unfolds in one place in a short period of
time, generally about one day.
THE THEBAN PLAYS
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The Theban plays all concern the fate of Thebes and the
character of Oedipus. The subject matter is a mythological
tale that would have been familiar to Athenian audiences.
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The plays were not written in chronological order.
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They were written over a span of 36 years and they were not
intended to be performed back to back. They are not a true
trilogy.
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Each play can stand alone.
o Antigone
o Oedipus Rex
o Oedipus Colonus
THE THEBAN PLAYS
Here are some characteristics of Sophocles’ plays:
• Emphasis on individual characters
• Reduced role of the Chorus
• Complex characters, psychologically complex.
• Characters subjected to crisis which leads to suffering and
self-recognition
• Common Theme: The choices people make and
consequences
PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL
Pride was considered a grave sin because it placed too
much emphasis on individual will, thereby downplaying the
will of the state and end angering the community as a
whole. Because pride makes people unwilling to accept
wise counsel, they act rashly and make bad decisions. Great
pride, such as that of Oedipus (Oedipus Rex) or Creon
(Antigone), is referred to as hybris or hubris.