Sophocles’ Antigone

Greek Tragedy: An Overview of

The Golden Age of Greek Tragedy

5th- 4th BC

Unit Questions1. What is a tragedy?

2. What is a tragic hero?

3. Do citizens have a right or responsibility to rebel against an unjust law or leader?

Georgia Performance Standards:Standard: The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of the

themes, structures, and elements of dramatic literature and provides evidence from the text to support understanding; the student:

a. Identifies and analyzes types of dramatic literature (i.e., classical tragedy, history play, modern drama).

b. Analyzes the characters, structures, and themes of dramatic literature. c. Identifies and analyzes dramatic elements, (i.e., unity of time, place, and action; tragic

hero; deus ex machina; recognition; reversal; chorus; aside; dramatic irony). d. Identifies and analyzes how dramatic elements support and enhance the interpretation

of dramatic literature. Standard: The student identifies, analyzes, and applies knowledge of theme in

literary works and provides evidence from the works to support understanding. The student:

a. Applies knowledge of the concept that the theme or meaning of a selection represents a universal view or comment on life or society and provides support from the text for the identified theme.

b. Evaluates the way an author’s choice of words advances the theme or purpose of the work.

c. Applies knowledge of the concept that a text can contain more than one theme. d. Analyzes and compares texts that express a universal theme, and locates support in

the text for the identified theme. e. Compares and contrasts the presentation of a theme or topic across genres and

explains how the selection of genre affects the delivery of universal ideas about life and society.

i. Archetypal Characters (i.e., hero, good mother, sage, trickster, etc.) ii. Archetypal Patterns (i.e., journey of initiation, search for the father, etc.) iii. Archetypal Symbols (i.e., colors, water, light/dark, etc.) iv. Universal Connections (i.e., making choices, winning/losing, relationships, self & other, etc.)

How did drama begin?

• Drama began as a form of religious worship to the god Dionysus.

• Earliest forms of drama included religious chants and songs performed by a group of 15 men called the chorus.

Who was the first actor?

ThespisThespis (525 B.C. - thespians) – known as the (525 B.C. - thespians) – known as the first actor since he stepped out from the first actor since he stepped out from the chorus & spoke to themchorus & spoke to them

• performed in intervals between the performed in intervals between the dancing/singing of the chorusdancing/singing of the chorus

• took several parts, at times have a took several parts, at times have a dialogue with the chorusdialogue with the chorus

• gradually new stories beyond those gradually new stories beyond those concerning Dionysus emergedconcerning Dionysus emerged

Early PlaywrightsAeschylus (approx. 524-455 B.C.)

-added second actor

Sophocles (approx. 497-405 B.C.)

-added third actor

-caused the role of the chorus to decrease as number of actors increased

Dionysian Festival

Dramatists wrote in their spare time (Sophocles was a general)

Playwrights submitted their works to a jury

3 day drama festival each year held in honor of Dionysus

People voted on favorite play by casting stone ballots

Winning dramatist presented 3 tragedies and a satire, a bawdy parody of the gods & their myths

Prizes for playwrights – laurel wreaths

Sophocles won 1st prize at least 20 times

Political & Religious Function of the Plays

“…the state is the king…”

• Plays produced by the state as a function of the state religion

• Plays presented with the mystery and grandeur of a religious experience

• For the Greeks, all art has a moral purpose/performs a function for the good of the state

• Lessons taught through the tragedies: moderation, piety, importance of the state

• Audience had a civic duty to attend; virtually free admission, familiar themes, audience participation

The Greek Theater• Audience sat on the hollowed-out hillside in the open air (theatron)

• Theater in Athens - 17,000 seats

• Audience looked down on a flat round area, at the base of the hill, which was the dancing place of the chorus (orchestra)

• Before the play, sacrifices were made to the god, Dionysus.

• Behind the orchestra was the dressing room for the actors (skene).

• The front of the skene served as the scenery for the play, usually representing the front of a temple or palace; there was no curtain.

• The deus ex machina was a technical feature consisting of a crane on top of the skene from which a dummy representing a god could be suspended. The god seemingly descended from Mount Olympus and resolved all the play's complications

The Stage• Three Main Portions of

Greek Theatre:

• Skene – Portion of stage where actors performed (included 1-3 doors in and out)

• Orchestra – “Dancing Place” where chorus sang to the audience

• Theatron – Seating for audience

Parados – side entrance

Deus ex Machina

Structural Division of TragedyI. Prologue – provides background information

II. Parados – entrance of chorus; chorus chants more background; origin of the word parade

III.Episodes – a series of episodes each followed by choral passages

IV.Stasima - choral passages that develop the main action further

V. Exodus – concluding scene; departure of all characters

Plot Structure of Tragedy

Chorus• Could set mood with poetic

songs• Could represent the

common people, the “man in the streets”

• Sometimes sided with one or another character in the drama

• Sometimes warned a character of impending danger

• Sometimes provided, as needed, poetic interludes which suggest passage of time

Actors• Wore larger than life

masks, which indicated the nature of the character to the audience

• Made only dignified movements

• No violent action

• No women!

Aristotle identified key characteristics of classical

Greek tragedies.

Aristotle (342-322 BC)

This Greek scholar wrote Poetics in which he expresses his theories concerning Greek tragedy, the most important of which are the following:

• Tragedy is a drama which recounts an important and causally related series of events in the life of a person of significance, such events culminating in an unhappy ending.

• Tragedy arouses the emotions of pity and fear, wonder and awe, and culminates in a catharsis of these emotions.

• A tragic hero must be a man or woman capable of great suffering.

• Tragedy explores the questions of the ways of God (Fate) to man.

• Tragedy shows how man is brought to disaster by a single flaw in his own character.

In Poetics Aristotle states

that dramas should follow…

Three UnitiesA. Time (limited to 24-hour period)

B. Place (scene did not change)

C. Action (concentration on one story line at a

time: no subplots or diversions)

In Poetics Aristotle identifies what he considers essential qualities of the …

Tragic Hero• Comes from nobility

• Has a tragic flaw (hamartia) - caused by a simple mistake or a character flaw; may be pride or hubris

• Undergoes a reversal of fortune (peripeteia) falling from high to low

• Has a downfall

• Recognizes his mistakes (anagnorisis) through catharsis or purgation of pity and fear

In Poetics Aristotle analyzes the effects of a

tragedy on its…

Audience• experiences a catharsis or purging of emotions

• feels pity for those in the tragedy who suffer misfortune

• has fear that someone like or greater than themselves suffers misfortune

• learns a lesson about the gods, about citizenship, about leadership

Try to keep in mind….

The Greek View of

the World

Man…• is ruled by fate and the gods

• is nevertheless dignified

• must accept to his own limitations

• must know that even the innocent suffer

• must accept that self-confidence and wisdom are not enough before divine truth

• will lose when divine and human purposes conflict because the gods are supreme

The Gods…The Gods…• occupy the same kind of world as the Greeks

themselves

• send suffering and evil

• bring the downfall of the tragic hero

• create constant tension between free will (men) and necessity (gods and fate)

Suffering…

•brings knowledge

•shows the greater world beyond mere human concerns