ANTIGONE THINK PAIR SHARE You will need a

ANTIGONE

THINK, PAIR, SHARE You will need a piece of paper and a pen or pencil

THINK, PAIR, SHARE If your mother committed a terrible crime would you turn her in?

THINK, PAIR, SHARE If your mother committed a terrible crime would you turn her in? Would the nature of the crime change your answer (theft/assault/murder/war crimes)? Should you be forced to testify against her? What is more important to you, justice or family?

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National Theatre Introduction to Greek Theatre https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=a. SRLK 7 Sogv. E Introduction to Greek Tragedy https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=d. Sr 6 m. P-zx. Uc Introduction to Greek Comedy and Satyr https: //www. youtube. com/watch? v=H-Bv. Mbfkxcc

GREEK THEATRE

FESTIVAL OF DIONYSUS – CITY DIONYSIA • Performed on special occasions or festivals for worshipping Dionysus. • Competitive- prizes awarded (maybe a goat!) • Choral-singing was very important, Greek Theatre evolved from a chorus singing • Closely associated with religion and worshipping gods. • The City Dionysia was a festival to honor Dionysus. Men dressed as satyrs, drank large quantities of wine, sang, danced, and generally were merry. All the citizens of Athens attended. • Three playwrights were chosen to submit plays to the competition. The contest lasted 3 days – one for each playwright. They had to submit 3 tragedies and a satyr play. The plays were performed back to back. After the 3 days it was put to a vote to see who won. Judges were chosen by lot.

FOUR PLAY CYCLE Greek tragedies were performed in a 4 play cycle: 3 tragedies and a satyr play. The • A Satyr play – after watching 3 tragedies in a row the audience needed some comic relief. The last play was a satyr play where the actors told poop jokes, acted drunk, played pranks on each other, and bumped into each other with gigantic phalluses.

GREEK ACTORS • 2 -3 actors to play all of the parts. All the actors were male. Even female roles were played by men. • 12 -15 chorus members. • The actors wore large masks with exaggerated features and high shoes to make them more visible. Each mask portrayed a different emotion and they were designed to amplify the voice of the wearer. The masks allowed the three actors to portray different characters.

ARISTOTELIAN UNITIES OF GREEK DRAMA In his work Poetics Aristotle wrote about the three “rules” for drama. • Unity of Action: The play should have one main storyline with a beginning, middle, and end and few (or no) subplots. • Unity of Time: The play should take place within 24 hours. • Unity of Place: The play should take place in a single setting.

GREEK THEATRE Greek Tragedies followed a basic formula: • Prologue (where one or more characters introduce the drama). • Parodos (the entrance of the chorus) • Episodes: 3 or more scenes in which the story is told. (Antigone has 5) • Episodes are separated by stasima (breaks when the chorus explain or comment on the drama). • Ends with the exodus in which the story in concluded. We will revisit these parts of Greek tragedy once we have read Antigone.

THE CHORUS The chorus generally had the following roles in the plays of Sophocles: • To explain the action or ask questions • To interpret the action in relation to the law of the state and the law of the Olympian gods • To foreshadow the future • To serve as an actor in the play • To heighten the dramatic effect through song and/or dance • To present the author's views. • To be the ideal spectator: to react as the audience should react to the action. • To create pauses in the action so that the audience can reflect and actors can prepare for the next episode. • In some ways, the chorus is like the narrator of a modern film or like the background music accompanying the action of the film. It is like text on screen that provides background information or identifies the time and place of the action.

ARISTOTELIAN UNITIES OF GREEK DRAMA In his work Poetics Aristotle wrote about the three “rules” for drama. • Unity of Action: The play should have one main storyline with a beginning, middle, and end and few (or no) subplots. • Unity of Time: The play should take place within 24 hours. • Unity of Place: The play should take place in a single setting.

THEATRE STRUCTURE

THEATRE STRUCTURE • Orchestra: The orchestra (literally, "dancing space") was normally circular. It was a level space where the chorus would dance, sing, and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene. The center of the orchestra was a sacrificial altar. • Theatron: The theatron (literally, "viewing-place") is where the spectators sat. The theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking the orchestra, and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra (see the diagram above). • Skene: The skene (literally, "tent") was the building directly behind the stage. The skene was directly in back of the stage, and was usually decorated as a palace, temple, or other building, depending on the needs of the play. It had at least one set of doors, and actors could make entrances and exits through them. There was also access to the roof of the skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other characters could appear on the roof, if needed. • Parodos: The parodoi (literally, "passageways") are the paths by which the chorus and some actors (such as those representing messengers or people returning from abroad) made their entrances and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit theater before and after the performance.

THEATRE STRUCTURE • Theatres were open to the air and built into natural hillsides. They used natural lighting and had amazing acoustics. • Theatres were often part of larger temple complexes and often associated with centres of healing.

THEATRE STRUCTURE The theatre at Epidaurus

THEATRE STRUCTURE Theatre of Dionysus on the Acropolis in Athens

THE GREEK POLIS (CITY-STATE) • The country of Greece did not exist as we know it today. Ethnic Greeks were people who lived in a common area, spoke Greek, and had, broadly speaking, common cultural practices. • The land was divided into poleis or city-states. • The polis consisted of an urban centre (usually fortified and situated on an acropolis or natural harbour) and the surrounding rural area. • Each polis was culturally different from the next. They each had their own political, judicial, religious, legal, and social institutions. • Each polis engaged in trade, alliances, and wars with other poleis and non -Greek communities. • A common language and broad religious views united the Greek citystates.

THE GREEK CITY STATE

SOPHOCLES • Sophocles was a famous and successful Athenian writer of tragedies. • He was born in 495 BC in Colonus (near Athens) and died in 405 BC in Athens. He lived during the classical period. • Sophocles was born to a wealthy family and attended the finest schools. He studied music, sang in the chorus and appeared on stage. • Became a poet and a playwright. • Of his 120 plays, only 7 have survived. • Oedipus the King, also called Oedipus Tyrannos or Oedipus Rex, written around 420 BC, has long been regarded not only as his finest play but also as the purest and most powerful expression of Greek tragic drama.

SOPHOCLES • In 468 BC he won his first tragedy award at the yearly Festival of Dionysus. He competed in 30 competitions, won 18, and never placed lower than second. • Many Greek playwrights performed in their own plays. At first, Sophocles did too but he had a weak voice and eventually stopped performing. • Sophocles was responsible for adding the third actor which allowed more flexibility for telling story through the on stage actors and lessened the role of the chorus. • He was the first to use painted scenery. • Sophocles served as a general in the Athenian army. • When he died he was celebrated and worshipped as a cultural hero.

GREEK TRAGEDY The word "tragedy" refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a centralcharacter called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers some serious misfortune which is not accidental and therefore meaningless, but is significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the hero's actions. Tragedy stresses the vulnerability of human beings whose suffering is brought on by a combination of human and divine actions, but is generally undeserved with regard to its harshness.

ARISTOTLE’S TRAGIC HERO • Tragedy should evoke a sense of pity and fear in the audience. The hero is neither completely good nor completely bad. • The tragic hero should be highly renowned and prosperous because the hero must fall from tremendous good fortune in order to feel pity and fear. • The hero experiences a downfall because of either their tragic flaw (a fundamental character weakness, such as destructive pride, ruthless ambition or obsessive jealousy) or a single error in judgment.

ARISTOTLE’S TRAGIC HERO • The hero is on some level responsible for their downfall. • By the end of the play the hero comes to recognize their error and accept the consequences as their own fault. • The real tragic hero is humbled and enlightened by the tragedy. • The tragic hero evokes our pity because he is not evil and his misfortune is greater than he deserves. He evokes our fear because we realize we are fallible and could make the same error.

SOPHOCLEAN TRAGEDY • A tragedy of Sophocles, as well as another Greek playwright, is a verse drama written in elevated language in which a noble protagonist falls to ruin during a struggle caused by a flaw (hamartia) in his character, such as pride (hubris), or an error in his rulings or judgments. A Greek tragedy has the following characteristics: • It is based on events that already took place. The audience is familiar with these events. The protagonist (main character) is a person of noble birth and stature. • The protagonist has a weakness and, because of it, becomes isolated and suffers a downfall. • Because the protagonist's fall is not entirely his or her own fault, the audience may end up pitying him or her.

SOPHOCLEAN TRAGEDY • The fallen protagonist gains self-knowledge. He has a deeper insight into himself and understands his weakness. • The audience undergoes catharsis, a purging of emotions, after experiencing pity, fear, shock and other strong feelings. The people go away feeling better. • The drama usually unfolds in one place in a short period of time, generally about one day.

THE THEBAN PLAYS • Theban plays all concern the fate of Thebes and the character of Oedipus. The subject matter is a mythological tale that would have been familiar to Athenian audiences. • The plays were not written in chronological order. • They were written over a span of 36 years and they were not intended to be performed back to back. They are not a true trilogy. • Each play can stand alone. o Antigone o Oedipus Rex o Oedipus Colonus

THE THEBAN PLAYS Here are some characteristics of Sophocles’ plays: • Emphasis on individual characters • Reduced role of the Chorus • Complex characters, psychologically complex. • Characters subjected to crisis which leads to suffering and selfrecognition • Common Theme: The choices people make and consequences

PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL Pride was considered a grave sin because it placed too much emphasis on individual will, thereby downplaying the will of the state and end angering the community as a whole. Because pride makes people unwilling to accept wise counsel, they act rashly and make bad decisions. Great pride, such as that of Oedipus (Oedipus Rex) or Creon (Antigone), is referred to as hybris or hubris.