A Greek Tragedy by Sophocles

Copy Link

Antigone A Greek Tragedy by Sophocles Tragedy • A drama or literary work in which the main character is brought to ruin or suffers extreme sorrow, especially as a consequence of a tragic flaw, moral weakness, or inability to cope with unfavorable circumstances. The formation of tragedy was the blend of lyrical and epic poetry combined with ritual dancing. Chorus • The chorus was considered to be the mouthpiece of society and suffered along with the heroes. • After Sophocles, the chorus had 15 members and stood in a circle Ancient Greek Masks • The members of the chorus wore masks, usually similar to each other but completely different from the leading actors Ancient Greek Masks • Because the number of actors varied from one to three, they had to put on different masks, in order to play more roles. • The actors were all men. The mask was therefore necessary to let them play the female roles. Sophocles • A definitive innovator in the drama, he added a third actor, increased the size of the chorus, abandoned the trilogy of plays for the self- contained tragedy, and introduced scene painting. Antigone • A tragedy written in 442 BC by Sophocles • Chronologically the third of the three Theban plays but was written first – Oedipus the King – Oedipus at Colonus – Antigone • After Oedipus is exiled, he leaves the ruling rights of Thebes to his two sons, Eteocles and Polynices who must take it in turns to rule. • Eteocles rules first but the two becomes enemies after Eteocles refuses to give up the throne, and Polynices is exiled. • At the beginning of the play, both brothers are dead, apparently slain by the other's hand. • The current ruler, Creon, has made a decree: Since Polynices fought against Thebes, he shall not be buried. Meanwhile, Eteocles is to be buried with full military honors. • Antigone, the daughter of Oedipus and the sister of the dead brothers, believes this proclamation to be against the gods' orders. • She confides her plan to bury Polynices herself to her sister Ismene. The more timid of the two, Ismene refuses to take part out of fear, but agrees with her motive. Why study Antigone? • Ancient Greek Drama is the basis for all modern drama and film • The story gives many important clues to the Ancient Greek culture and character • Tragedies still contain the basic elements that they originated with in Sophocles’ time. .

Recommended publications

Marginalia and Commentaries in the Papyri of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes

Nikolaos Athanassiou Marginalia and Commentaries in the Papyri of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes PhD thesis / Dept. of Greek and Latin University College London London 1999 C Name of candidate: Nikolaos Athanassiou Title of Thesis: Marginalia and commentaries in the papyri of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes. The purpose of the thesis is to examine a selection of papyri from the large corpus of Euripides, Sophocles and Aristophanes. The study of the texts has been divided into three major chapters where each one of the selected papyri is first reproduced and then discussed. The transcription follows the original publication whereas any possible textual improvement is included in the commentary. The commentary also contains a general description of the papyrus (date, layout and content) as well reference to special characteristics. The structure of the commentary is not identical for marginalia and hy-pomnemata: the former are examined in relation to their position round the main text and are treated both as individual notes and as a group conveying the annotator's aims. The latter are examined lemma by lemma with more emphasis upon their origins and later appearances in scholia and lexica. After the study of the papyri follows an essay which summarizes the results and tries to incorporate them into the wider context of the history of the text of each author and the scholarly attention that this received by the Alexandrian scholars or later grammarians. The main effort is to place each papyrus into one of the various stages that scholarly exegesis passed especially in late antiquity. Special treatment has been given to P.Wurzburg 1, the importance of which made it necessary that it occupies a chapter by itself.
Surviving Antigone: Anouilh, Adaptation, and the Archive

SURVIVING ANTIGONE: ANOUILH, ADAPTATION AND THE ARCHIVE Katelyn J. Buis A Thesis Submitted to the Graduate College of Bowling Green State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2014 Committee: Cynthia Baron, Advisor Jonathan Chambers ii ABSTRACT Dr. Cynthia Baron, Advisor The myth of Antigone has been established as a preeminent one in political and philosophical debate. One incarnation of the myth is of particular interest here. Jean Anouilh’s Antigone opened in Paris, 1944. A political and then philosophical debate immediately arose in response to the show. Anouilh’s Antigone remains a well-known play, yet few people know about its controversial history or the significance of its translation into English immediately after the war. It is this history and adaptation of Anouilh’s contested Antigone that defines my inquiry. I intend to reopen interpretive discourse about this play by exploring its origins, its journey, and the archival limitations and motivations controlling its legacy and reception to this day. By creating a space in which multiple readings of this play can exist, I consider adaptation studies and archival theory and practice in the form of theatre history, with a view to dismantle some of the misconceptions this play has experienced for over sixty years. This is an investigation into the survival of Anouilh’s Antigone since its premiere in 1944. I begin with a brief overview of the original performance of Jean Anouilh’s Antigone and the significant political controversy it caused. The second chapter centers on the changing reception of Anouilh’s Antigone beginning with the liberation of Paris to its premiere on the Broadway stage the following year.
Ancient Greek Myth and Drama in Greek Cinema (1930–2012): an Overall Approach

Konstantinos KyriaKos ANCIENT GREEK MYTH AND DRAMA IN GREEK CINEMA (1930–2012): AN OVERALL APPROACH Ι. Introduction he purpose of the present article is to outline the relationship between TGreek cinema and themes from Ancient Greek mythology, in a period stretching from 1930 to 2012. This discourse is initiated by examining mov- ies dated before WW II (Prometheus Bound, 1930, Dimitris Meravidis)1 till recent important ones such as Strella. A Woman’s Way (2009, Panos Ch. Koutras).2 Moreover, movies involving ancient drama adaptations are co-ex- amined with the ones referring to ancient mythology in general. This is due to a particularity of the perception of ancient drama by script writers and di- rectors of Greek cinema: in ancient tragedy and comedy film adaptations,3 ancient drama was typically employed as a source for myth. * I wish to express my gratitude to S. Tsitsiridis, A. Marinis and G. Sakallieros for their succinct remarks upon this article. 1. The ideologically interesting endeavours — expressed through filming the Delphic Cel- ebrations Prometheus Bound by Eva Palmer-Sikelianos and Angelos Sikelianos (1930, Dimitris Meravidis) and the Longus romance in Daphnis and Chloë (1931, Orestis Laskos) — belong to the origins of Greek cinema. What the viewers behold, in the first fiction film of the Greek Cinema (The Adventures of Villar, 1924, Joseph Hepp), is a wedding reception at the hill of Acropolis. Then, during the interwar period, film pro- duction comprises of documentaries depicting the “Celebrations of the Third Greek Civilisation”, romances from late antiquity (where the beauty of the lovers refers to An- cient Greek statues), and, finally, the first filmings of a theatrical performance, Del- phic Celebrations.
Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine

Montclair State University Montclair State University Digital Commons Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects 1-2020 Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine Liz Amato Montclair State University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons Recommended Citation Amato, Liz, "Euripides : Suppliant to the Divine Feminine" (2020). Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects. 333. https://digitalcommons.montclair.edu/etd/333 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Montclair State University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects by an authorized administrator of Montclair State University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract The Euripidean tragedies Hippolytus., The Bacchae and The Medea present us with female characters who have sacred and profcrund interactionrs with the gods. These women havr: powerful ritualistic abilities that move the tragic a,ction. Sirrrilarly, Euripides' versions of Hecuba ancl Electra present us v,rith dynamio female characters who derive their agency from tlhe religio-judiroial need for cosmic ;,rtonement. .tt is up to these heroines to uphold the sacred laws decreed by the gods. Why does l:uripides errLpower these fernales with such direct means of divination? Arguably, Euripides felt it necessary to use these,deistic feminine connections to destroy the titular male characters. The tragedian's implicaticn is clear: divine feminine power supersedes patriarchal power. This divine power is inherent in all women and it compels them act on behalf of cosmic necessity'. The importance of Medea's, Phaedra's and Agave's respective spiritual connections shows us the crucial role that women ptayed in ancient religious worship.
Jocasta and the Sin of Thebes Bernadette Waterman Ward

Jocasta and the Sin of Thebes Bernadette Waterman Ward ABSTRACT: The tragic victim of Oedipus the King is not Oedipus, who after his sufferings shall be raised to divinity; it is his mother Jocasta. She attempted the death by her torture of her own son. When she discovers that he has survived and is her husband, she seeks even to continue her mother-son incest so as to conceal her misdeeds. Cowardly silence among the citizens of doomed Thebes seals their collusion in evil. An examina- tion of the culture of the fatal city can bring the play more vitally into the world that our students actually inhabit, and serve as a warning against the moral collapse that encourages the killing of children. EDIPUS THE KING, the most famous drama of Sophocles, invites many approaches in the classroom. One can delve into such Oquestions as the proper limits of human knowledge, the relation of fate and freewill, responsibility for inadvertent crime, the proper understanding of piety and the power of the gods, and the relation of kingship and self-sacrifice. One can address hubris – pride, overreaching – and hamartia – the mistake or tragic flaw. One can trace dramatic irony in the images of vision and deliberate blindness, or perhaps, with Freud leering in the background, contemplate sexual taboos. Many scholars investigate the guilt of Oedipus, but rarely does the focus shift from the polluted scapegoat to the deep corruption in the scapegoating city of Thebes. The Thebans cast out Oedipus as impure, but in fact they cause their own destruction. By considering the fate of the city, rather than that of Oedipus, our students can make this play vital in the world that we actually inhabit.
Antigone's Line

Bulletin de la Société Américaine de Philosophie de Langue Française Volume 14, Number 2, Fall 2005 Antigone’s Line Mary Beth Mader “Leader: What is your lineage, stranger? Tell us—who was your father? Oedipus: God help me! Dear girl, what must I suffer now? Antigone: Say it. You’re driven right to the edge.”1 Sophocles’ Antigone has solicited many superlatives. Hölderlin considered the play to be the most difficult, the most enigmatic and the most essentially Greek of plays. This paper treats a matter of enigma in the play, one that is crucial to understanding the central stakes of the drama. Its main purpose is to propose a novel account of this enigma and briefly to contrast this account with two other readings of the play. One passage in particular has prompted the view that the play is extremely enigmatic; it is a passage that has been read with astonishment by many commentators and taken to demand explanation. This is Antigone’s defense speech at lines 905-914. Here, she famously provides what appear to her to be reasons for her burying her brother Polynices against the explicit command of her king and uncle, Creon. Her claim is that she would not have deliberately violated Creon’s command, would not have ANTIGONE’S LINE intentionally broken his law or edict, had this edict barred her from burying a child or a husband of hers. She states that if her husband or child had died “there might have been another.” But since both her mother and father are dead, she reasons, “no brother could ever spring to light again.”2 Reasoning of this sort has a precedent in a tale found in Herodotus’ Histories, and Aristotle cites it in Rhetoric as an example of giving an explanation for something that one’s auditors may at first find incredible.3 To Aristotle, then, Antigone’s defense speech appears to have been “rhetorically satisfactory,” as Bernard Knox says.4 However, such a reception is rare among commentators.5 1.
Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Knox, Bernard M W Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1966; 7, 3; Proquest Pg

Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Knox, Bernard M W Greek, Roman and Byzantine Studies; Fall 1966; 7, 3; ProQuest pg. 215 Second Thoughts in Greek Tragedy Bernard M. W. Knox "IN HUMAN LIFE," says the Nurse in Euripides' Hippolytus (435-6), "second thoughts are somehow wiser." Like many another character in Euripidean tragedy, she has just changed her mind, and, in true Euripidean style, she justifies her action with a generaliza tion. It is not a generalization which would have recommended itself to Aeschylus and Sophocles; before Euripides, change of mind is a rare phenomenon on the tragic stage.! Aeschylus, as Bruno Snell has demonstrated, broke new ground in Greek poetry with his explicit presentation of a conscious human choice between alternatives, a free human decision which commits its taker to a tragic course.2 The responsibility the hero thus assumes, and the complex relation of his choice to the will of the gods and his own heredity, allow little scope for a change of mind. Aeschylean drama is linear; its principal figures, their decision once made, pursue their chosen course to the bitter end.3 In the Persians, which is the tragedy of a whole people rather than an individual, and which furthermore works through retrospect and prophecy rather than through present action, a change of mind is excluded by the nature of the dramatic organization. In the Seven against Thebes, Eteocles, at the end of a slow, almost static, preparation, makes his swift decision to fight against his brother; it is a decision, but not a change of mind-he had already decided to fight in person at one of the gates (282) and the gate where Polynices awaits him is the last remaining assignment.
Antigone Introductory Lecture Notes Greek Drama and the Elements of Tragedy

Antigone Introductory Lecture Notes Greek Drama and the Elements of Tragedy Understanding Greek Theatre I. The Festival of Dionysus Dionysus - Festival of Dionysus - II. Conventions of Greek Drama Actors - Chorus - o Functions Costuming Scenery and Action Composition and Structure o Composition . o Structure . Prologue - . Parados - III. Tragedy Tragedy: Aristotle o Aristotle’s Unity of Time, Place, and Action . Time: . Place: . Action: o Action of the play arouses extreme pity and fear in the audience – pity for the protagonist and a sympathetic fear. (Tragedy cont.) o Purpose of tragedy: o Catharsis - Tragic Hero o Hamartia: o Paripateia: The Fall Revelation IV. Sophocles and the Oedipus Myth Sophocles Notes on Greek Burial Traditions: The Oedipus Myth o King Laius rules Thebes with his queen, Jocasta. An oracle prophesies that his son will grow to kill him, so Laius pierces his infant son’s ankles and feet and orders Jocasta to kill him. She cannot, so she sends a servant to do it, who leaves him for dead in the mountains. o The infant is found by a servant of the King of Corinth and is then raised by the King and Queen of Corinth, who name him Oedipus (meaning “swollen foot”). o When Oedipus is a young man, an oracle tells him that he will kill his father and marry his mother so, to try to escape his fate, he flees Corinth. Along the road, he gets into an argument with a stranger and kills him. That stranger is Laius. Part 1 of the prophecy is fulfilled. o Oedipus reaches Thebes, where a sphinx is plaguing the city, but will stop if someone answers a riddle.
Greek Tragedy in Modern Greece

ALL IS WELL THAT ENDS TRAGICALLY: FILMING GREEK TRAGEDY IN MODERN GREECE ANASTASIA BAKOGIANNI The king’s a beggar now the play is done: All is well ended, if this suit be won, That you express content; which we will pay With strife to please you, day exceeding day. Ours be your patience, then, and yours our parts: Your gentle hands lend us, and take our hearts. William Shakespeare, All’s Well that Ends Well What does it take to adapt Greek tragedy successfully for the cinema?’ The debate centres on the issue of authenticity2 as well as the question of the successful integration of tragedy into the cinematic medium. The problematic nature of any attempt to adapt Greek tragedy for the cinema makes it a particularly challenging enterprise for filmmakers.3 In comparison with the cinematic reception of other aspects of ancient Greece and Rome, attempts to film Greek tragedy offer us fewer examples to work but they do attract the talents of some of the world’s best independent film directors,5 who have created some remarkable cincmatic receptions. ’ This is an exciting and ongoing debate and one articlc cannot hope to encompass all the issues concerned. The present article will focus on one aspect of this debate and is indebted to the pioneering work of Professor Marianne McDonnald and Dr Pantelis Michelakis in the field of the reception of Greek Drama on film. The author is also greatly indebted to Professor Mike Edwards and Professor Charles Chiasson for their many helpful suggestions. I am also indebted to Mr.
Americans Use Greek Tragedy: Great Expectations on Stage

Americans Use Greek Tragedy: Great Expectations on Stage MARIANNE MCDONALD Foley has given us a useful, updated account of Greek tragedy in America.* She knows Greek, has taught Greek literature, has seen many plays, has written volumes of interpretations, and obviously has made this study her life’s work. As she shows, this can be a frustrating busi- ness—the reason this review alludes to Dickens’ novel (Great Expectations)—because of the exasperating differ- ence that can arise between what one wants and what one gets, particularly when playwrights who know little Greek, less poetry, and care nothing about choral music and dance seek to “reimagine” Greek tragedy. The results can be tragi- comic, if not tragic. Having taught all of Greek tragedy, having translated it from the Greek (some with J. Michael Walton), and, since 1999, having had performances—in San Diego and around the world—of over thirty versions and translations, I have come to the conclusion that the original masterpieces still surpass all translations and versions, unless written by a true master of the theatre who has lived, eaten, and breathed the- atre—like Racine, O’Neill, Cocteau, Anouilh, Soyinka, Fu- gard, or Friel. The exceptions, then, are those playwrights who have read Greek tragedy (preferably in the original), understood the plays, and have been profoundly moved by them to the *Helene Foley, Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage (Sather Classical Lectures, v. 70; Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 2012; A Joan Palevsky Book in Clas- sical Literature), xv + 375 pages, $95.00, hardcover.
Antigona Van Tommaso Traetta Wo 2, Do 3 April 2003 Om Dramaturgische Redenen Zijn in De Partituur Enige Coupures Aangebracht

Muziektheater Transparant Antigona van Tommaso Traetta wo 2, do 3 april 2003 Om dramaturgische redenen zijn in de partituur enige coupures aangebracht. redactie programmaboekje deSingel en Janine Brogt druk Tegendruk duur van de voorstelling: deel 1 1 uur pauze 25 minuten deel 2 1 uur spreektaal Italiaans . boventiteling Nederlands bediening boventiteling Bart Boone gelieve uw GSM uit te schakelen! Muziektheater Transparant Antigona van Tommaso Traetta dirigent Paul Dombrecht assistent-dirigent Ewald Demeyere regie Gerardjan Rijnders regieassistent en voorstellingsleider Remi Beelprez muzikale uitvoering orkest Il Fondamento repetente Noémi Biro koor La Sfera del Canto verantwoordelijke dramaturgie Janine Brogt licht- en standenplan Tom Verheijen decor Paul Gallis verantwoordelijke belichting Luc De Vreese kostuums Rien Bekkers productieleiding Veerle Francke licht Reinier Tweebeeke technische leiding Roel Ghesquière beweging Bambi Uden lichttechnici Koen Ghesquière, Dag Jennes podiumtechnici Anton Devilder, Koen Ghesquière, rolverdeling Maarten Streefland Antigona, prinses van Thebe Raffaella Milanesi rigging Jan Hooyberghs Ismene, haar zuster Giorgia Milanesi coördinatie orkest en koor Philippe Severyns Creonte, haar oom Markus Brutscher vertaling libretto Janine Brogt Emone, Creonte’s zoon Maartje de Lint assistentie dramaturgie Bart Boone Adrasto, een Thebaans edelman David-Erich Fankhauser kleedsters Viviane Coubergs, Reintje Daens orkest kap en grime Sylvia Hiel, Leen Samyn viool Dirk Van Daele, Marianne Herssens, Maia Silberstein,
The Story of Oedipus: Prequel to Antigone

The Story of Oedipus: Prequel to Antigone • LAIUS is left an orphaned minor by his father Labdacus • AMPHION AND ZETHUS rule Thebes (Build the Cadmeia) and exile Laius • Laius goes to live in Elis (PISA) with King Pelops (son of Tantalus son of Zeus) • Laius becomes very good friends with young Chrysippus, youngest child of King Pelops • Laius and Chrysippus run away together (or Laius rapes Chrysippus). Pelops curses Laius. • Laius returns to Thebes and becomes King • Laius marries his cousin Jocasta, but they are childless • Laius goes to Delphi and intends to ask Apollo's advice; Apollo announces that Laius will have a child who will kill him • Laius and Jocasta have a baby son (Oedipus) whom they plan to kill. The royal shepherd is ordered to dispose of the child on Mt. Cithaeron. Instead he gives Oedipus to the royal Corinthian shepherd. • The Royal Corinthian Shepherd takes the child back to the childless king and queen of Corinth (Polybus and Merope), who adopt him. • At about the age of 18, at a dinner party, one of Oedipus' friends makes a rude remark about his not being a real Corinthian but only adopted. Oedipus is shocked and shamed, and goes off to Delphi to ask Apollo about the truth. • Apollo tells Oedipus he is doomed to kill his father and sleep with his mother. • Oedipus unknowingly kills his father Laius (within hours, at The Three Ways) • Oedipus kills the SPHINX on the way from the Three Ways to Thebes • Oedipus is received at Thebes as a national hero, and invited to marry the recently widowed queen Jocasta.