2. Sophocles
• 496-406 B.C.
• Athens, Greece (Golden Age of Athens
– center for democracy)
• He won 24 times out of 30 tries at a
story-telling competition honoring Greek god Dionysus
• Focused on the fates of individual characters and their
struggle for self-knowledge
• Wrote 123 plays
• Worshipped as a hero after his death
• First Tragedy writer to use scene painting
3. Greek Theater
• Theatron: literally, the “watching place”
• Orchestra: the “dancing place”
• Skene: scene or backdrop
-Plays were performed in an amphitheatre, with a chorus describing
most of the action, and with masks.
-Greek theater was part of a religious festival.
-Every citizen attended.
4. What is drama?
• Drama – a literary composition written to be
performed by actors
*drama is from the Greek word for doing, rather
than telling
• Central character – tragic hero who suffers
from serious misfortune
• This misfortune is connected to the
character’s actions
5. How important was Drama?
• In Ancient Greece, theater
flourished between 550-220
B.C.
• Athens, Greece was the center
• It was part of a festival called
the Dionysia, which honored
the god Dionysus (god of wine
and revelry – lively festivals)
• Dionysia was contest for
dramatists (3 dramatists
presented their plays in 3 days)
• Tragedy literally means “goat
song” relating to the Dionysian
sacrificial ritual
6. Different types of Greek Drama
• Comedy
• Satyr (short plays played between acts of
tragedies making fun of characters in tragedy)
• Tragedy
*Comedy and tragedy were the most popular
types of plays in ancient Greece
7. The “Chorus”
• About 15 people *ONLY MEN* (in Oedipus they are
citizens and a Theban elder – town leader)
• Trained and costumed at the expense of a wealthy
citizen who chose this job as his way of paying taxes
and gaining respect of his community
• Chosen out of the general population as unpaid
volunteers
• Intensify the emotion and establish a lyric mood
through rhythmic chanting and dance
• Their job: to bridge the gap between the audience and
the actors (provide background and commentary)
8. Masks
• Why masks?
-enable actors to play several different
roles
-help the audience to distinguish the
sex, age, social status, and change in
character’s emotions or appearance
-use megaphones to amplify their voices
-exaggerated facial features made it
easier for viewers to identify
characters
Made of cloth, leather, and wood with
animal hair
Famous actors had bejeweled masks
9. Oedipus the King
• Main themes:
Fate vs. Free Will
Sight vs. Blindness
•
•
Play
Tragedy – examines the consequences of
an individual’s actions, the relationship of
the people to the gods, and the role fate
plays in life
•
Main characters:
Oedipus (king of Thebes)
Creon (brother of Jocasta)
Chorus
Tiresias (blind prophet)
Jocasta (queen, wife of Oedipus)
10. Dramatic Irony
• Oedipus the King revolves around two
different unsuccessful attempts to change the
course of fate
• Dramatic Irony: occurs when the reader or
audience knows something important that a
character does not know
• Why?
-adds to enjoyment to literary work, much as
one might enjoy knowing a secret in real life
