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Plays of Sophocles E A TEACHER’S GuidE TO THE SiGNET CLASSiCS EDITiON OF SOPHOCLES: THE COMPLETE PLAYS by Laura reis Mayer SerieS editorS: Jeanne M. McGlinn and JaMeS e. McGlinn TEACHER’S Guid 2 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Sophocles: The Complete Plays TabLe of ConTenTs introduction ........................................................................................................................3 list of characters .............................................................................................................3 SynopSiS of the oEdipuS triloGy ..............................................................................4 prereadinG activiTies .......................................................................................................5 DURING READING ACTIVITiES..........................................................................................10 AfTER READING ACTIVITiES .............................................................................................14 ABOUT THE AuTHoR OF THiS GUIDE ...........................................................................19 ABOUT THE EDIToRS OF THiS GUIDE ...........................................................................19 Copyright © 2010 by Penguin Group (USa) For additional teacher’s manuals, catalogs, or descriptive brochures, please email [email protected] or write to: PenGUin GroUP (USa) inC. in Canada, write to: academic Marketing department PenGUin BooKS CANADA LTD. 375 Hudson Street academic Sales new York, nY 10014-3657 90 eglinton ave. east, Ste. 700 http://www.penguin.com/academic toronto, ontario Canada M4P 2Y3 Printed in the United States of america A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Sophocles: The Complete Plays 3 INTRODuCTION ABC’s Lost has been a cult television classic for follow are enough to compel and horrify the much of the first decade of the twenty-first most demanding of contemporary audiences. century. The show’s blogs, wikis, and fan pages In the classroom, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at perpetuate its phenomenal popularity even Colonus, and Antigone will serve to connect beyond the airing of its last episode. Why the students to the classic themes of fate, family, critical acclaim and popular success? Much is and free will. Whether students read one or all due to the storyline, including dysfunctional of Sophocles’s plays, they will come away with families and apocalyptic prophecies, as well as an awareness of the internal and external strug- to the show’s philosophical subtext, which gles linking the playwright’s time to our own. includes the conflict between free will and fate and the duality within all men. This guide’s before, during, and post instruc- tional strategies can be applied to any of Fans of Lost will appreciate its striking parallels Sophocles’s dramas and used in any combina- to Sophocles’s Oedipus Trilogy, the tragic tale tion as teachers design their individual goals of a man who believes he can escape his fate, and lessons. A focus on literacy skills chal- only to find that his stubborn refusal to submit lenges students to actively engage in reading. to his fate will have lasting impact on his home Activities are differentiated to appeal to vari- and family. The incestuous relationships, ous learning styles and are easily adaptable to infanticides, fratricides, and suicides that the leveled lessons used by today’s educators. LIST OF CHARACTERS OEDIPUS king of Thebes CHORUS of Theban Elders and Colonus CREON brother of Jocasta Elders CITIZENS TIRESIAS a blind prophet of Thebes COUNTRYMAN JOCASTA wife of Oedipus of Colonus PRIEST ANTIGONE daughter of Oedipus of Zeus OLD SHEPHERD ISMENE daughter of Oedipus PALACE OFFICIALS, ATTENDANTS, POLYNEICES son of Oedipus SERVANTS, and MESSENGERS ETEOCLES son of Oedipus SOLDIERS and BODYGUARDS THESEUS king of Athens HAEMON son of Creon EURYDICE wife of Creon 4 A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Sophocles: The Complete Plays SYNOPSIS OF THe OEDiPUS TRILoGy Oedipus the King opens fifteen years after Oedipus at Colonus continues the story twenty Oedipus solved the Sphinx’s riddle and saved years later, during which time Creon and the city of Thebes. The city is now suffering Oedipus’s two sons have turned against him. from corruption and plague, and its inhabit- Antigone, who has been serving as her father’s ants look to none other than Oedipus, the guide, leads Oedipus to a grove near Athens. King. Oedipus dispatches Creon, the queen’s When he hears they have reached Colonus, brother, to seek direction from Apollo’s the holy place of the all-seeing Eumenides, oracle. Creon returns with the news that Oedipus vows to wander no more, for this is Thebes will be saved only by purging herself the place prophesized to be his “journey’s of the old king’s murderer. Oedipus vows to end.” Sending a message that “a little favor track down Laius’s killer and seeks informa- wins a great reward,” Oedipus summons tion from Tiresias, Apollo’s blind prophet. Athens’s ruler, Theseus. As he kneels in prayer, Tiresias begs to be sent away rather than talk, Oedipus is confronted by Elders of Colonus, but when Oedipus accuses him of the murder, who sympathize, but warn Oedipus he is Tiresias identifies Oedipus as the “rotting trespassing on holy ground. Securing their canker” within Thebes, and accuses the ruler protective promise, Oedipus steps forward of being “blind.” In a fit of outrage, Oedipus and identifies himself. Antigone delivers a accuses Creon of murdering Laius and con- compelling plea on her father’s behalf, and spiring with Tiresias, and threatens to have the Elders promise to leave Oedipus’s fate to his brother-in-law killed. Both Queen Jocasta Theseus. Meanwhile, Ismene arrives with and the Chorus of Theban Elders attempt to news that Oedipus’s sons have been fighting calm Oedipus. Jocasta reveals to Oedipus the over the throne, and Polyneices has fled to old oracle that predicted King Laius would be Argos for reinforcements. Ismene further killed by his own son. She explains that she reveals Creon’s plan to place Oedipus’s grave and Laius left their baby boy on a hillside to on the frontiers of Thebes in order for the city die, thereby ending any possibility of the to receive the blessings foretold in a prophecy. prophecy’s success. Oedipus then explains Creon plans to force Oedipus back and bury that fifteen years earlier, he left his hometown his body on the threshold of Thebes to pro- of Corinth after a drunkard questioned his tect his city and his position. Lamenting his parentage and Apollo’s oracle predicted his sons’ lack of character and loyalty, Oedipus incestuous marriage. His journey to Thebes vows to embrace Athens as his new home. was an attempt to escape this prophecy, and Respectful of the prophecies, Theseus grants on the way, he fought with a man at a cross- Oedipus the rights of Athenian citizenship roads. A messenger then reveals that it was and protection. When Creon seizes Ismene Oedipus who was abandoned as a baby and and Antigone, Oedipus calls upon Theseus, saved by a herdsman. Against Jocasta’s advice, who rescues both daughters. Meanwhile, Oedipus calls forth the herdsman, who veri- Polyneices has arrived to convince his father fies the account. Sickened, Oedipus now to return home. Oedipus curses him as a liar, realizes that the man he murdered fifteen disowns him and his brother, and predicts years prior was his father, and that unknow- their bloody fate. Though Antigone begs her ingly, Oedipus has married his own mother. brother not to continue his quest for the Jocasta is overwhelmed with grief and hangs throne, Polyneices is determined, asking his herself in the palace. Oedipus, stricken with sisters to honor his grave. Zeus’s great thun- guilt and disgust, blinds himself with her derbolt announces Oedipus’s impending golden brooches. Cursing fate, Oedipus begs death, and the blinded king offers his tomb as Creon for exile. After reuniting Oedipus with a reward to Theseus and the Athenian people. his daughters, Antigone and Ismene, Creon Theseus, Antigone, and Ismene accompany vows to leave Oedipus’s fate to the gods. Oedipus to the gravesite. Vowing to keep the A Teacher’s Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Sophocles: The Complete Plays 5 gravesite hidden and unmarked, Theseus is Ismene reminds Creon that he is about to put the only one to witness Oedipus’s final to death his own son’s fiancé, Creon still will moments. Theseus promises to return the not be moved. Haemon, Creon’s son, entreats sisters to Thebes, where they hope to stop the his father to listen to his people, who sympa- impending doom. thize with Antigone’s plight. He gently advises Antigone opens one day after the battle Creon that being right and doing the right between Polyneices and Eteocles. Both are thing do not necessarily go hand in hand, and dead. Creon, who supported Eteocles, has his father should admit his mistake. Calling ordered the young man’s body to be properly Haemon a “woman’s slave,” Creon orders buried with all the honors of state. Polyneices, Antigone to be abandoned in a rocky vault. who led Argos against Thebes, has been Lamenting her unmarried and childless status, ordered left for the vultures. Antigone is Antigone marches to the tomb. The blind caught between loyalty to the law and love for prophet Tiresias returns to Thebes, advising Polyneices and decides to defy Creon’s edict Creon to look at the omens and see how the by honoring her brother’s grave. Ismene warns city sickens. Reminding the ruler that damna- Antigone that they would be writing their tion only comes to those who do not repent, own death warrants and entreats her sister to Tiresias echoes Haemon’s plea. When Creon stop the cycle of suicidal actions. Undaunted disregards the prophet’s warning, Tiresias is and defiant, Antigone determines to do it compelled to prophesize Haemon’s death. alone. When a sentry reports to Creon that Creon finally listens, but too late. When he Polyneices’s body has been buried, he orders reaches Antigone’s vault, it is to find Antigone the sentry to find the culprit or risk his own has hung herself and Haemon is grief-stricken.
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