Oedipus - Pre Quiz Flashcards
Genre: Greek Tragedy
-Tragedy originate from“tragos”, which means “goat”.
~Winners of festivals would receive a goat as a prize
Tragedy focused on:
Myths and legends
Ex: (Oedipus, Hercules, Perseus)
and the gods and goddesses
Tragedy examined=
- Consequences of individual actions
- the relationship of people to gods
- and of the role fate place in life
Best known writers
~Aeschylus
~Euripides
~ Sophocles
Genre characteristics
• A tragedy is a serious drama featuring a tragic hero, often noble, he strives to achieve something and, because of their own fault, is ultimately defeated
Prologue
Characteristics
The opening scene of the play
Parados
Characteristics
The first of the Chorus’s lyric Songs, or coral odes
Dialogue
Characteristics
Conversation of the plays characters.
Choral odes
Characteristics
Lyrics songs are Choral Odes Example: Sophocles treated his chorus as collective “actor”
Exodos
Characteristics
The concluding scene of the play
History
•Plays were part of festivals to honour the gods.
- Sometimes up to 15,000 people
- The end of the festivals, judges voted the best play
Sophocles
- Considered the greatest playwright from Ancient Greece
- Believed to have won 18 times
- Involved in politics and military affairs
- ”Oedipus Rex” is part of a trilogy
- life= 496-406 BCE
Sophocles (continued)
- added 3rd actor
- reduce chorus size to 15 men
- Never showed violent scenes on stage
Tragic Hero
- Hamartia
- Hubris
- Catharsis
Catharsis
Self-realization + self-awareness
Hubris
Excessive pride or arrogance
Hamartia
Weakness or flaw in a character
Background to Play:
•King Laius and Queen Jocasta learn from oracle that King is doomed to be killer by his son
Bckgnd:
•Jocasta cannot kill her own child so she orders the servant to take care of it
In Corinth: (background)
This is told by the Oracle that he’s doomed to kill his father and marry his mother
Background (run away):
Oedipus runs away after hearing the oracles prophecy
-He runs into his father and kills him on the road
Sphinx
- Oedipus hears that Thebes has troubles with the sphinx
- he must solve it’s riddle to save Thebes
Save Thebes (background)
He saves Thebes= then receives the throne and the queen as a reward
~fulfilling the prophecy
Play Opens to:
- Oedipus married to his mother
- has 4 kids
- King of Thebes
~Thebes suffers a Plague
Sophocles (accomplishments)
- wrote 123 or + plays during his life
- for almost 50 years, he was the main competitor of ancien Athens
- (not certain) 1st victory was 468 BCE
Sophocles trilogy
- Oedipus the King
- Oedipus at Colonus
- Antigone
