Antigone—An Introduction
We will cover:
Greek Drama and Tragedy
Sophocles
Oedipus Rex
Terms to know
Greek Drama—Religious Origins
 Also called ______________
 Started in _____in honor of the
Greek God __________
 In the 6th century B.C.
individual actors began using
dialogue with a _____to tell a
story.
 Heavily tied to the Greek
____________________
worshiped by the culture
Greek Drama—The Theater
 It began as, for lack of a better
term, a big Grecian
________(or religious festival)
 Thousands attended…and the
________was the main form of
_______________.
 The theater was out doors,
during the _____, and at the
bottom of a hill
 Each year at the festival of
Dionysus playwright's
competed for the
“____________” of the Grecian
times.
Greek Drama—Mythological Sources
 The subjects of Greek tragedy are
________and __________
 Myths are
_____________________—
legends are
___________________________.
 Gods and goddesses are often
characters in the Greek ________.
Usually a tragic hero’s
_________is a result of having
____________the gods.
Tragedy and the Tragic Hero
 A Tragedy is a
_______that recounts
the _______of a
_________, superior
character who is
involved in
_________or socially
____________events.
 _________was the first
to define tragedy.
Sophocles
 ____________was to become
one of the great playwrights of
the golden age
 The son of a wealthy ________,
he would enjoy all the comforts
of a thriving Greek empire. He
studied all of the ______.
 At a young age he competed in
the _____________--a festival
held every year at the Theatre of
Dionysus in which new
_______were presented
Sophocles Continued
 In his first competition,
Sophocles took
______prize.
 More than 120 plays
were to follow. He
would go on to win
_______first prizes, and
he would never fail to
take at least second.
Oedipus Rex—Story time!
 Sophocles's Oedipus Rex is probably the most famous tragedy ever
written. Sophocles first produced the play in Athens around 430
B.C. at the Great Dionysia, a religious and cultural festival held in
honor of the god Dionysus, where it won second prize.
 In the play Oedipus, King of Thebes, upon hearing that his city is
being ravaged by fire and plague, sends his brother-in-law Creon to
find a remedy from the Oracle of Apollo at Delphi. When Creon
returns Oedipus begins investigating the death of his predecessor,
Laius, and discovers through various means that he himself was the
one who had unknowingly killed Laius and then married his own
mother, Jocasta. Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself,
takes leave of his children, and is led away.
 Oedipus and Jocasta had four children: two boys and two girls. All
four star in his next play Antigone.
Oedipus Rex
Terms to know:
 1. Prologue: Spoken by one or two characters
before the chorus appears. The prologue usually
gives the __________information needed to
understand the events of the play.
 2. Parodos: the _______sung by the chorus as it
makes its __________
 3. Episodes/Scenes: the main _________of the play
 4. Odes: a song (and often ______) that reflects on
the events of the _______, and puts the ______into
some kind of larger ____________framework
More Terms to know:
 Choragos: the leader of the _______who often
interacts with the ________in the scenes.
 Chorus: the singers/dancers who _______on the
action
 strophe: the __________of the chorus from right to
left across the stage
 antistrophe: the reaction to the strophe, which
moves across the _______from left to right.
Last of the Terms:
Paean: a prayer of ___________to Dionysos
in whose honor the Greek plays were
performed
Exodos: sung by the _____as it makes its
final ____, which usually offers words of
_________related to the actions and outcome
of the play