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Title: Please take notes according to the handout I give you.


1
ANTIGONE andAncient Greek TheaterBackground
Information
Please take notes according to the handout I give
you. You will have a QUIZ on this information.
2
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • You will see these slides periodically throughout
    this presentation. Its designed to get you
    talking (instead of just listening) and to help
    you remember the important stuff! ?

3
Basic Overview
  • Antigone is about a woman who disobeys the laws
    of her ruler Creon in favor of the unwritten laws
    that she feels more properly govern society.

4
Key facts and events to know
  • Athenian playwrights often used the traditional
    stories to make points about their own era, and
    they often used mythological conflicts to portray
    contemporary ones to an audience.
  • In Antigone, Sophocles focuses on the possible
    conflicts between ones religion and ones
    politics.

5
Key facts and events to know
  • Pericles, Creon, Athenian democracy
  • Pericles was the great Athenian general who
    dominated the social and political scene at the
    time the play was written.

6
Key facts and events to know
  • Pericles, Creon, Athenian democracy
  • Some believe the character of Creon was modeled
    after Pericles.
  • Pericless career was at its highest point when
    Antigone was first performed in 442 B. C.
  • Creons character may have been a warning to
    Pericles and the Athenians about the dangers of
    dictatorship.

7
Key facts and events to know
  • Pericles, Creon, Athenian democracy
  • Democracy was a relatively new social development
    in Sophocles Athens.
  • After a long period of dictatorship, it began in
    the late 6th century B. C.
  • A system was created in which the city was run by
    ten generals, each from one of the ten tribes.

8
Key facts and events to know
  • Pericles, Creon, Athenian democracy
  • Pericles was one of these generals, and he was
    very popular, even considered the uncrowned king
    of Athens (Wilcoxon qtd. in Antigone 18).
  • Therefore, he did not need to establish a formal
    dictatorshiphe was liked and respected.

9
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • the connection between the historical Pericles
    and the character Creon
  • Who was Creon?
  • Please get quiet when you are finished, so we can
    continue. ?

10
Key facts and events to know
  • Unwritten Laws
  • Antigone claims that unwritten and unfailing
    rules, or her own beliefs and values, led her to
    bury Polyneices (her brother).
  • The subject of how much power such unwritten
    laws had when they came into conflict with civic
    laws was a matter of debate during the 5th
    century B. C.

11
Key facts and events to know
  • Unwritten Laws
  • In Antigone, Sophocles insists that unwritten
    laws are more important than any formal legal
    code created by men.
  • This may be a reaction to what was happening in
    Athens at this time, protesting that their
    priorities were wrong.

12
Key facts and events to know
  • Burial Rites
  • Funerals in Greece were largely the
    responsibility of women during Sophocles time.
  • They washed and dressed the body, adorned it with
    flowers, and then covered it up.
  • Only close relatives participated in this ritual.

13
Key facts and events to know
  • Burial Rites
  • After a death, the prepared corpse was laid out
    for two days in the home and then taken away for
    burial before the dawn of the third day.
  • The funeral processionled by men and followed by
    lamenting womenwound slowly outside the city
    gates to a cemetery, where the body would be laid
    to rest.

14
Key facts and events to know
  • Burial Rites
  • By some accounts, traitors and people who robbed
    temples were not entitled to be buried within
    Athenian territory, but the historical record is
    far from consistent on this.
  • These burial rites and rituals were very serious
    in Greek culture.

15
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • what Sophocles said about unwritten (moral) laws
  • the burial rites of the ancient Greeks (discuss
    the process and who did and did not get buried)

16
The Athenian Theater
  • Sophocles plays were written to be performed in
    public at the great Theater of Dionysus.

17
The Athenian Theater
  • This theater was located in the heart of Athens
    with other important city buildings on the slope
    of the rocky hill of the Acropolis.

18
The Athenian Theater
  • The Theater of Dionysus looked like a
    semicircular football stadium.
  • The seats were carved out of stone on a hillside
    at the bottom was a performance area divided into
    two parts.
  • In the front was a rounded orchestra, a fairly
    large space where the chorus sang and danced
    around the remnant of an altar.

19
The Athenian Theater
  • Behind the orchestra was a platform where the
    actors spoke their lines from behind huge masks.
  • These masks had exaggerated mouthpieces that
    amplified the actors voices.
  • Many were stylized into familiar character types
    that were easily recognized by the audience.

20
The Athenian Theater
  • All the actors were men, and the choruses were
    well-trained boys.
  • By switching masks, each actor could play several
    roles.

21
The Athenian Theater
  • Plays were usually staged during the festival of
    Dionysus, the god of growth and wine, which took
    place at planting time in March.
  • Crowds of 15,000 people regularly attended the
    performances, and even criminals were released
    from prison in order to see the plays.

22
The Athenian Theater
  • Originally, dancing choruses of worshipers began
    competing for prizes.
  • Tradition has it that a man named Thespis
    transformed the choruss hymns into songs that
    still honored Dionysus but also told a story of a
    famous hero or even another god.

23
The Athenian Theater
  • Then Thespis added another innovation one of the
    chorus members would step away from the others to
    play the part of that hero or god.
  • This individual actor wore a mask and entered
    into a dialogue with the chorus.

24
The Athenian Theater
  • Drama was born when the playwright Aeschylus
    added a second individual actor to the
    performance, thereby creating the possibility of
    conflict.
  • Sophocles added a third actor, introduced painted
    sets, and increased the size of the chorus to
    fifteen actors.

25
The Athenian Theater
  • Attendance at these dramas was perceived to be a
    civic duty, in part because the plays often
    addressed important social and political issues.
  • The dramatic part of the festivals program was
    presented as a competition between playwrights,
    each of whom put on four plays in the space of
    one day.

26
The Athenian Theater
  • The first three plays were tragedies, which dealt
    with religious or mythical questions.
  • The fourth play was a satyr play that poked fun
    at the serious subjects and characters of the
    three earlier plays.
  • The audience made their preferences clear by
    booing or cheering, and the playwrights were
    judged by ten judges, each one selected from one
    of the ten tribes of Athens.

27
The Athenian Theater
  • The ten judges cast their votes into an urn, and
    five of the votes were drawn out at random.
  • From these five votes, the result was announced.
  • This complex system may have been designed to
    discourage cheating since this competition was so
    important.

28
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • How the competition went (how many plays of what
    type were performed, etc.)
  • The significance of
  • Dionysus
  • Thespis
  • Aeschylus
  • Sophocles

29
The Athenian Theater
  • The Chorus
  • The Greek word choros means dance.
  • The chorus, a group of singers and actors who
    either commented on what was occurring in the
    main part of the drama or actually functioned as
    a character in the play, was an important part of
    5th century B. C. drama.

30
The Athenian Theater
  • The Chorus
  • The chorus served as a link between the audience
    and the actors, often portraying a group of
    citizens not unlike the audience themselves.

31
The Athenian Theater
  • The Chorus
  • In Antigone, the chorus is a group of Theban
    elders who keep shifting their loyalty back and
    forth from Creon to Antigone their indecision
    further confirms the complex nature of the issues
    under discussion.

32
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • 496 406 B. C.
  • He came from a wealthy family in Athens.
  • He was well educated and mixed with some of the
    most powerful figures of his day.

33
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • He took an active role in Athens political life.
  • He was elected a general in the Athenian military
    because of the popularity of his work.
  • In 468 B. C. Sophocles entered the most important
    Athenian drama competition of the year for the
    first time.

34
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • He beat Aeschylus, a well-established and
    respected figure, as an unknown playwright at the
    age of 28.
  • Over the next 62 years, Sophocles won first place
    a total of 24 times and second place seven times
    in 31 competitions (the best record of any Greek
    playwright).
  • Hes generally considered the greatest of the
    ancient Greek playwrights.

35
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • He wrote 123 plays but only 7 of them have
    survived to the present.
  • He had huge success with Antigone at the dramatic
    festivals held in Athens.
  • He developed the art of tragic drama from the
    work of the first tragic playwright Aeschylus.

36
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • He was a religious conservative, deeply concerned
    with the individuals need to find a place in the
    existing moral and cosmic order.
  • His plays always contain a moral lessonusually a
    caution against pride and religious indifference.

37
Sophocles, playwright of Antigone
  • Sources
  • Sophocles took the characters for Antigone from a
    well-developed body of Greek stories about the
    tragic family of Oedipus.
  • Sophocles used the familiar characters of the
    royal family of Thebes but changed their actions
    to suit his own dramatic purposes.

38
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • The function of the chorus
  • Significant points about Sophocles (say at least
    3)

39
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, was the first
    to define tragedy, and critics have argued about
    it ever since.
  • Aristotles definition of tragedy
  • to arouse pity and fear in
  • the audience so that we may
  • be purged, or cleansed, of
  • these unsettling emotions

40
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • Catharsis
  • emotional purging
  • a strangely pleasurable sense of emotional
    release we experience after watching a great
    tragedy
  • for some reason, we usually feel exhilarated, not
    depressed, after a tragedy

41
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • According to Aristotle, we can only feel pity and
    fear after a tragedy if there is a tragic hero or
    heroine.

42
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • For pity is aroused by unmerited misfortune,
    fear by the misfortune of a man like ourselves .
    . . There remains, then, the character between
    these two extremesthat of a man who is not
    eminently good and just, yet whose misfortune is
    brought about not by vice or depravity, but by
    some error of frailty . . . (from The
    Poetics)

43
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • Tragic hero/heroine
  • A character who is neither completely good nor
    completely bad but rather somewhere in the
    middle. He/she does have good intentions.
  • Someone who is highly renowned and prosperous,
    which in Aristotles day meant a member of a
    royal family or someone who holds a high or
    elevated place in society.

44
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • Tragic hero/heroine continued
  • The character must possess a flaw (tragic flaw)
    in his/her personality that is taken to an
    extreme and impairs his/her judgment.
  • This tragic flaw leads to the heros/ heroines
    own downfall (a major catastrophe).
  • By the end of the play, the tragic hero
    recognizes his/her own error, accepts its tragic
    consequences, and is humbled.

45
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • Critics question what that error or frailty of
    a tragic hero is.
  • Is the heros undoing the result of a single
    error of judgment?
  • OR
  • Does the hero have a tragic flaw?
  • Tragic flaw a fundamental character weakness,
    such as excessive pride, ambition, or jealousy

46
Aristotles View of Tragedy
  • As the audience, we feel
  • PITY the heros punishment is too harsh for his
    crime, and he is a suffering human being who is
    flawed like us
  • FEAR the hero is better than we think and still
    he failed, so what hope do we have?

47
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • The definitions of tragedy (who developed the
    definition) and catharsis (as well as its
    function/purpose)
  • The five major requirements for a tragic
    hero/heroine

48
Structure of a Drama
  • Exposition
  • Exciting or Inciting Force
  • Rising Action
  • Turning Point
  • Falling Action
  • Moment of Final Suspense
  • Catastrophe

49
Structure of a Drama
  • Exposition
  • Basic information
  • Whats going on
  • Characters, setting, conflict

50
Structure of a Drama
  • Inciting or Exciting Force
  • An event or character that moves action forward
    (usually a key decision)

51
Structure of a Drama
  • Rising Action
  • A series of events that lead to the turning point

52
Structure of a Drama
  • Turning Point
  • Things start to work against the protagonist
    because of a shift in fortune

53
Structure of a Drama
  • Falling Action
  • Events after the turning point that lead to a
    catastrophe
  • The results of the turning point

54
Structure of a Drama
  • Moment of Final Suspense
  • The moment when it looks like tragedy may be
    avoided

55
Structure of a Drama
  • Catastrophe
  • The effects of the tragedy are full
  • The death or complete downfall of the tragic hero

56
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Tragedy - Scene
  • Catharsis - Strophe
  • Chorus - Antistrophe
  • Choragus - Ode
  • Tragic Hero - Tragic Flaw
  • Hubris - Paean
  • Prologue - Exodos
  • Parodos

57
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Tragedy
  • According to Aristotle to arouse pity and fear
    in the audience so that we may be purged, or
    cleansed, of these unsettling emotions
  • Catharsis
  • Purging of emotions of pity and fear that leaves
    the viewer both relieved and elated

58
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Chorus
  • Groups of dancers and singers who comment on the
    action of the play in ancient Greece, their
    songs used to make up the bulk of the play
  • Choragus
  • The leader of the Chorus

59
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Tragic Hero
  • A character who
  • Is neither completely good nor completely bad but
    has good intentions
  • Is of royal birth or holds an elevated place in
    society
  • Possesses a tragic flaw
  • Has a downfall because of the tragic flaw
  • Recognizes his/her own error, accepts its tragic
    consequences, and is humbled

60
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Tragic Flaw
  • A fundamental character weakness, such as
    excessive pride, ambition, or jealousy
  • Hubris
  • Arrogance or overweening pride that causes the
    heros transgression against the gods usually,
    the tragic flaw

61
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Prologue
  • Introductory speech delivered to the audience by
    one of the actors or actresses before a play
    begins
  • Parodos
  • The first ode, or choral song, in a Greek
    tragedy, chanted by the Chorus as it enters the
    Orchestra

62
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Scene
  • One of the series of structural units into which
    a play or acts of a play are divided

63
Literary Terms for Antigone
  • Strophe
  • The part of the ode that the Chorus chants as it
    moves from right to left across the stage
  • Antistrophe
  • The part of the ode that the Chorus chants as it
    moves from left to right across the stage

64
Literary Terms
  • Ode
  • Each scene is followed by an ode. These odes
    serve both to separate one scene from the next,
    since there were no curtains, and to provide the
    Choruss response to the preceding scene.

65
Literary Terms
  • Paean
  • A choral hymn in praise of a godin Antigone, the
    Chorus is praising Dionysus
  • Exodos
  • The final, or exit, scene

66
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • The structure of drama (review the parts and
    whats included in them)
  • Literary terms for Antigone (3 you did not know
    before)

67
Antigones Family Tree
  • Labdacus Menoikeus
  • Laios m Jocasta Creon m
    Eurydice
  • Oedipus m Jocasta
  • Megareus Haimon
  • Eteocles Polyneices Ismene Antigone

68
Background Oedipus the King
  • King Laius and Queen Jocasta
  • Prophecy from oracle
  • Give baby away
  • Oedipus means swollen foot or club foot
  • Learns prophecy
  • Runs from Corinth

69
Oedipus Myth (continued)
  • Old man tries to run him off the road
  • Oedipus kills old man
  • Oedipus encounters Sphinx
  • Oedipus answers riddle and saves Thebes
  • Welcomed into Thebes as savior
  • Oedipus was made king (their king recently died)
  • Plague strikes ThebesOedipus asks brother in
    law, Creon why
  • Creon asks oracle
  • Thebes must be cleansed from death of Laius

70
Tragic End to a Tragic Tale
  • Oedipus vows to find the murderer
  • Oedipus discovers that HE killed Laius
  • Laius and Jocasta are his parents
  • Jocasta commits suicide
  • Oedipus gouges out his eyes to punish himself for
    blindness to the truth
  • Creon takes over as ruler of Thebes
  • Exiles Oedipus
  • Oedipus accompanied by daughters Antigone and
    Ismene until he dies

71
STOPPut the following events in order with your
partner
  1. Oedipus learns the prophecy his parents knew
    about when he was born
  2. Jocasta kills herself, and Oedipus gouges out his
    eyes
  3. Laius and Jocasta learn that their son will kill
    his father and marry his mother
  4. Oedipus and Jocasta have four children
  5. Oedipus flees Corinth, and kills an old man on
    the way to Thebes
  6. Baby Oedipus ends up in Corinth
  7. Oedipus learns that it was Laius he killed, and
    its his fault Thebes is now in a terrible
    situation
  8. Oedipus solves the riddle of the Sphinx and ends
    up in Thebes, marrying the queen

72
Answers
  • 3, 6, 1, 5, 8, 4, 7, 2

73
Antigones Story
  • Antigone returns to Thebes
  • Her brothers, Eteocles and Polynices agree to
    rule alternating years
  • Eteocles refuses to give up power
  • Polynices flees to Argos and raises up an army
  • Returns to Athens to attack
  • Polynices and Eteocles kill each other

74
  • Creon becomes king of Thebes
  • Gives Eteocles a heros burial
  • Polynices traitor, and his body is left
    unburied to rot outside

75
Whats the big deal to the Greeks?
76
Conflict
  • Antigone believes spiritual laws must be obeyed,
    whatever the consequences

77
Major Themes
  • Suffering
  • Wisdom
  • Pride
  • Power
  • Higher Law
  • Justice

78
STOPDiscuss with your partner
  • What happened to Oedipus and Jocastas children
    after Oedipus died
  • The six major themes of the play
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