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Introduction to Antigone and Greek Tragedy

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Title: Introduction to Antigone and Greek Tragedy

1
Introduction toAntigoneand Greek Tragedy
2
Greek Tragedy Background

-When were plays performed?
-Were intermissions or breaks part of Greek
Theatre?
-Greek Plays were usually performed as a
religious ceremony in competition with each other
to what god?
- This is the god of what?
-What gender, specifically, was allowed to
participate in the plays?

3
Structure of Greek Tragedy

Prologue - the opening scene - the background of
the story is established, usually by a single
actor or in a dialogue between two actors.
Parodos - the entrance of the chorus, usually
chanting a lyric which bears some relation to the
main theme of the play.
Episode the counterpart of the modern act or
scene - the plot is developed through action and
dialogue between the actors, with the chorus
sometimes playing a minor role.

4
Structure of Greek Tragedy

Stasimon- the choral ode. A stasimon comes at the
end of each episode so that the tragedy is a
measured alternation between these two elements.
Exodos- the final action after the last
Stasimon, ended by the ceremonial exit of all
the players.

5
Elements of Tragedy

The subject is serious.
The tragic hero is pitted against forces beyond
his or her control.
The tragic hero makes decisions that lead to a
no-win situation.

6
Aristotles Definition of Tragic Figure

The character must be a person of noble birth.
The character must be neither totally good nor
totally evil.
An error of judgment or a weakness in the
character causes the misfortune.
The character must be responsible for the tragic
events.
Action involves a change in fortune from
happiness to misery.

7
Exploration of the tragic hero

1. Tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear,
wonder and awe.
Two purposes 1. The reader turns his thoughts
inward to ponder their own fate 2. The reader is
moved to consider momentarily the fate of all
human beings.
2. A tragic hero must be a man or woman of
capable of great suffering. (usually kings,
queens, or nobles)
3. Tragedy explores the question of the ways of
God to man. (Why do people suffer?)
4 Tragedy purifies the emotions. (Catharsis-
emotional release is the climax of the play)
5. Tragedy shows how man is brought to disaster
by a single flaw in his own character. (The
Tragic flaw)

8
The Chorus

Chorus- consists of twelve to fifteen elders
(men)
Choragos- the leader of the chorus
Ode- indicates the end of a scene - also used to
provide the choruss response to the proceeding
scene.
Lyric Poem- verse which focuses on emotions and
thoughts

The Three Functions of the Chorus
To provide background information for YOU- the
audience!
To talk and give advice to the main characters!
To interpret important events that occur in drama

10
Greek Theatre
11
Greece
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Parts of the Theatre

Theatron - the area in which the audience sat. It
was shaped like a horseshoe and had rows of stone
seats rising upward and backward in tiers. In the
first row were stone thrones for the principal
citizens and the priest of Dionysus.
Orchestra - The circular area at ground level
which was enclosed on three sides by the u-shaped
theatron.
Thymele - an altar to Dionysus on which
sacrifices were made and which was sometimes used
as a stage prop during plays.

15
Parts of the Theatre, Continued

Parodos - entrance passage
Skene - a wooden structure, the dressing room
Proscenium - the level area in front of the skene
on which most of the play's action took place
Eccyclema - a wheeled platform which was rolled
out of the skene to reveal a tableau of action
that had taken place indoors (mainly scenes of
violence )

16
(Thymele)
17

A. Theatron-audience
B. Orchestra- where the actors and chorus
perform
C. Altar-for Dionysos (god of wine and
fertility)
D. Skene-dressing room
E. Proskenion-side of the skene that acts as a
backdrop
F. Parados-entrance to the theater

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Sample Greek Theatre Masks
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30
Sophocles

496-406 B.C.
considered the greatest of the ancient Greek
playwrights
Sophocles was known for his musical, poetic, and
dramatic talents
At the age of seventeen, he was the choragos, or
chorus leader, in a dramatic celebration of
Greece's victory over Persia

31
Sophocles, Cont.

When he was twenty eight, he caused a sensation
by winning first prize for tragedy at the
festival of Dionysus, defeating Aeschylus, the
leading playwright of the day.
Over the next sixty-two years, Sophocles went on
to win twenty-four first prizes and seven second
prizes in thirty-one competitions--the best
record of any Greek playwright.

32
Sophocles, Cont.

wrote more than one hundred and twenty tragedies,
of which only seven survive today
His plays always contain a moral lesson--usually
a caution against pride and religious
indifference.
also a great technical innovator He added a
third actor to Aeschylus's original two,
introduced painted sets, and expanded the size of
the chorus to fifteen.

33
Sophocles, Cont.

Sophocles wrote the three tragedies about King
Oedipus of Thebes and his family over a
forty-year period
began with the third part of the story, Antigone,
first performed in 442 B.C
Twelve years later, Sophocles backtracked and
wrote the first part of the story, Oedipus the
King.
The last year of his life Sophocles wrote the
middle segment, Oedipus at Colonus.

34
The Oedipus Myth