Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Sophocles - One of the many Greek playwrights whose works have survived up until now. Sophocles is mostly known for Oedipus Rex, the play. He was born in 496 BCE and died in 406 BCE, living a total of ninety years.

Oedipus Rex  -

Man - Oedipus Rex was a man that was prophesied to end up killing his father and marrying his mother. He ended up being raised by another family and grew up strong and virtuous. Oedipus wanted to do what was right but eventually, he could not escape the fates.

Play - Oedipus Rex is a play written by Sophocles. Based on the myth of Oedipus, this play is set twenty years after Oedipus had married his mother unknowingly. Dramatic irony plays an important role in this play, as through most of it, Oedipus spends most of the play looking for the murderer of the previous king not realizing that it was he who had been the one to kill him.

Myth - The myth of Oedipus starts out with him being born to the King and Queen of Thebes. His parents went to the oracle and asked for a prophecy for their son, they are told that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother. Frightened, they give the baby Oedipus to a shepherd and tell him to take the baby to the top of a mountain, bind his feet, and leave him there to have him die by the elements. The shepherd takes pity on little Oedipus and takes him to the nearest other kingdom where he is raised by the King and Queen there. Oedipus eventually leaves, thinking that they are his real parents to protect them from himself and unknowingly kills the King of Thebes, his actual father, goes to the kingdom of Thebes, saves them from the Sphinx and marries the Queen, who is his real mother.

Dramatic Irony - Dramatic irony is when the audience know what is going to happen, and the characters in the play, book, or otherwise don’t know. Say, when there’s a woman swimming and a shark lays in wait to eat her and she doesn’t know, like in the movie poster for Jaws.


Greek Tragedy - A traditional tragedy is where the hero of the story dies. Greek tragedies can tend to be where the downfall of the hero is caused by the hero him/herself.

Aristotle - 

Hubris -

Teiresias - Teiresias is the blind prophet of Thebes found in many different Greek myths and plays of the sort. He was turned into a woman by the goddess Hera for seven years. He died after drinking water from a tainted spring known as Tilphussa.

Fate -

Greek Theatre -

No comments:

Post a Comment