CH.6 - Greek Tragedy Flashcards
Laius, Jocasta and their baby
TRAGEDY OF OEDIPUS
- Lailus married Jocasta, daughter of Menoikeus of Thebes
- childless for a longtime to he went to the Oracle
- oracle told Lailus that his son would kill him
- stayed away from his wife’s bed but he got drunk and had sex with her and she got pregnant
- when the boy was three days old, Lailus bound his ankles together and gave him to a herdsman to kill
- the herdsman took pity on the infant and gave him to a second heardman, who took the baby home to Corinth
- the childless king and queen (Polybos and Merope) adopted the baby
- called him Oedipus (swollen ankle) due to the wounds on his ankles
how does Oedipus find out about the prophecy
- a drunkard taunted him that Polybos and Merope aren’t his parents
- he consulted the oracle of delphi who told him he was destined to kill his father and marry his mother
- still doesn’t know who his parents are
- vowed to never return to Corinth, he traveled towards thebes
how does Oedipus fulfil the prophecy
- when traveling towards Thebes after leaving Corinth, he arrives at an intersection where 3 roads meet
- a man in a chariot tied to force him off the road, hitting out at him with a goad
- struck back in anger and kills him and his attendants (all but one servant)
- the man was Laius
what does Oedipus do when he arrives in Thebes
- found the sphinx was preying on the citizens
- she sat on Mount Phikion and challenged the ppl of Thebes that passed by to answer her riddle
describe the sphinx
she was a monster with a head of a woman, the body of a lion and the wings of a bird
sphinx’s riddle
what is it that has one name that is four footed and twoo footed and threee footed
- who ever solved it would be offered Jocasta’s hand in marriage
why was the sphinx sent
- by Hera because the Thebians has dishonoured her
- they failed to punish Laius for his abduction and rape of the young man Chrysippos
Plague of Thebes
- Thebes has a plague
- Creon comes back with an answer, they will have a cure once the man that killed Laius has been killed or banished
- he puts a curse on the unknown killer
- Oedipus finds out Polybus dies of old age from a messenger, the same messenger that carried baby Oedipus to Corinth
- the messenger tells him the truth about his parents
what happens when everyone finds out the truth about Oedipus’s lineage
- jacosta, his mom, kills herself
- he doesn’t want to kill himself so that he doesn’t get reunited with his mom, who is has slept with , and his dad who he killed
- gouges his eyes out with the golden pins from Jacosta’s robe
- goes into exile under the obedience of Appolo
Antigone’s role in Aeschylus’s “seven against thebes”
- her and her sister Ismene mourn the loss of their two bothers (Polyneikes and Eteokles) at each others hands
- Creon (now the leader of Thebes after Oedipus’s sit.) says that Eteokles (a defender of the city) can receive a proper burial but Polyneikes (a traitor to his country) wll be left lying in the plain asa pray for the birds
- the play is about whether or not she should bury her brother
Antigone’s actions
- both men are her brothers and both deserve a burial
- tries to persuade Ismene to help her bury Polyneikles
- Antigone ends up scatter the sprinkling of earth on her brothers body, will suffice for a token burial
- she is captured in the act and taken to Creon (ruler), he threatens death to her but she doesn’t care
- its his own niece that defied his decree but Creon is still determined to carry out his threat of death
- she is walled up alive in a tomb
How does Ismene react to Antigone’s punishment
- willing to die alongside her sister, even though she didn’t do anything
- Antigone is pissed, don’t try and share my death
Creon’s realization
- everyone, even his sone Haimon (betrothed to Antigone) tried to convince him that the way he is trying to govern is wrong and the gods don’t approve
- he is being stuborn and thinks what he is doing is in the best interst of thebes
- a seer tells him the gods don’t approve of his action and he rushes to the tomb to release her (buries Polyneikles on the way)
- she has hung herself
- Haimon swings his sword at his father, misses, but then turns it on himself. Holds her as he bleeds out
- his wife Eurydice kills herself when she finds out her son is dead, curses Creon in the process
- STORY OF ONES BLINDNESS AND STUBORNESS
