Download Antigone Introduction

Antigone
Introduction
Sophocles
 Born
around 496 BC
 Family was well off
 As a boy won prizes for wrestling
and music
 Studied poetry, music, dancing,
and gymnastics
 At
16, was chosen to lead the
boys’ chorus
 Founded a club for students of
the arts
 Sophocles acted in and wrote his
own plays. He acted as a girl
because he had a weak voice.
This is also the reason he
stopped acting.
 Sophocles
served as general of
Athens twice (supposedly due to the
success of Antigone)
 He refused invitations from numerous
Kings to go and live elsewhere.
 Had 2 sons by 2 marriages
 One son brought a law suit against
him saying he had gone crazy and
needed to hand over his estate to his
sons.
 He
was extremely religious and
let his house be used for services
while a temple was being built.
 Wrote 123 plays and won 24
victories (96 of his plays won first
prize, as they were always
produced in 4’s)
 Sophocles was an innovator:
 Improved
stage scenery
 Reduced importance of the chorus
 Added a third speaking actor to the traditional
two
 Sophocles
said he wrote men as
they ought to be instead of the
way they really were.
 Only seven of his plays survive in
their entirety today.
 Sophocles died in 406; he lived to
be over 90 years old.
Classical Period
500-400 B.C.
 Sophocles
lived during the Classical
Period
 It was a time of transition for Greece
 Political and cultural events were
changing and shaping Athenian
Culture.
 As a dramatist, Sophocles played an
important part in this creation of a
civilization, which included looking
backward to ancient traditions and the
first epic poetry of Greece.
Greek burials
An elaborate funeral is the last
prerequisite of every Athenian.
 The body is washed in perfumed water,
clothed in white, a crown of leaves is
placed on the head.
 Greeks must have a prompt burial or
cremation.

After war, the victors are bound never to
push their vengeance so far as to refuse a
“burial truce” to the defeated
 It is a doubly unlucky admiral who lets his
crews get drowned in a sea fight, without
due effort to recover the corpses afterward
and to give them proper burial.


A honey cake is placed in the dead’s
hands.
 This
was either a gift to the gods or a treat to trick
the dog “Cerberus,” who guarded the entrance to
Hades.
 The
body is cremated in an open fire while all
relatives stand around and shout their farewells.
Greek Theater
 Attendance
at a drama festival was
more than entertainment; it was
purging of the soul, a union with
goodness and truth.
 Greek drama was based originally in
festivals to worship the god Dionysus
 Dionysus was the god of wine and
fertility
 The
Greek theater was built in the
open air and was generally quite
large. Example: the Theater of
Dionysus had more than 17,000 seats
 Theaters were usually hollowed out
hill sides
 Technical devices were used to
imitate lightening and thunder,
painted scenery
Costumes
 Costumes
were elaborate and
included wigs and make-up
 Colors were used as symbols:
 Green-mourning
 Red-someone
 Purple-
soliciting services
royalty
 Travelers wore hats
 The tragic hero was set apart by gloves,
body padding, and high heeled shoes to
add height and significance to the character

Since only three people were on stage at a
time, multiple masks made possible the
doubling of roles.
Actors
Actors had to be able to sing because
many lines were lyrical
 Actors had to join an actor’s guild and
were exempt from military service because
of their importance in worshipping
Dionysus.
 Because of their importance, they were
well respected and well paid.
