Antigone essay

Introduction to Greek Tragedy

BC=BCE=Before the Common Era AD=CE=the Common Era

Timeline:                  3000 BCE Island of Crete settled                         1440 BCE Exodus of Moses                                    Homer of Athens (1200-800 BCE) storyteller                     First Olympics 796 BCE Birth of Buddha 500 BCE                     Sophocles near Athens (496-406 BCE) dramatist                          Socrates of Athens (470 - 399 BCE) teacher of Plato - Ethics                             Plato of Athens (427-348 BCE)  teacher of Aristotle - Politics                                 Aristophanes (445-380 BCE) dramatist/social satires                                     Aristotle (384-322 BCE) teacher of Alexander the Great - Philos                 Fall of Athens 404 BCE                 Birth of Christ                 Library of Alexandria burned 391 CE -- only 7 plays of Sophocles survived

Socrates > Plato > Aristotle (though he rejected Plato's ideas) > Alexander the Great

Alexander the Great is the reason we in the Western world know more Greek mythology than any other mythology, even our own.

I. Ancient Greece -- BC -- polytheistic

gods both benevolent and malevolent, had human emotions and behaviors (anger, jealousy, favoritism, revenge) Festivals of Dionysus -- Greek God of wine and fertility     Required to attend -- civic & religious duty     4 days long     14-15K in attendance     play competition         masked performances         <3 actors         comedy & tragedy -- humanity pushed to extremes         all males attitudes toward women, female children: liability, legal status of slaves, leave female babies out to die     Aristophanes' theory in Plato's Symposium the 2-sided creature the gods split in half: Whether M/M, F/F, or M/F, you spend your life seeking other half. thus homosexuality not taboo, just another way of being in the world mentoring from an older man was a complete education in religion, politics, public speaking, sex, etc         

II. Literary Elements in Tragedy

Theme: state universally, but not tritely     No -- what goes around, comes around (Universal, but trite)     No -- Creon should not have made a law that defied religious law (not universal)     Yes -- It is possible to push people to their emotional limits, forcing them to do something             out of  character.

Plot: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, denouement     Shakespeare vs Greek Tragedy             [see diagram]

  __/--\__

Conflict: man vs man, man vs society, man vs himself, man vs nature,     Polis vs oikos (city vs family), reason vs emotion, religious law vs secular law

Characterization: watch for motivation = sometimes good people do bad things for good reasons     Protagonist -- good guy     Antagonist -- bad guy         But frequently more in common than different (ie: Snape, Magneto)

III. Defining tragedy Aristotle's Poetics (Aristotle's lecture notes became bible of Renaissance Classicism)

1. characters must get worse than they deserve 2. must have an identifiable tragic hero     a. Tragic Hero         1. live extremely         2. reach a height         3. do a deed which is an act of hubris         4. display an hamartia (strong character in an exposed position)         5. serve as a pharmakos (could be hereditary)         6. disturb a balance in nature         7. fall from height         8. have a recognition point

 

Keep these things in mind as we read the play Antigone.