CLASS NOTES: Sophocles' Antigone: Tragedy and Athenian Civic Life (The Ancient Greeks)

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Notes on video lecture:

Sophocles' Antigone: Tragedy and Athenian Civic Life

The Ancient Greeks

Andrew Szegedy-Maszak, Wesleyan University

Notes taken by Edward Tanguay on November 3, 2015 (go to class or lectures)

Choose from these words to fill the blanks below:

theatron, alone, scary, Epidaurus, Cadmus, crimes, morality, Acropolis, festivals, free, vote, spring, cartoons, dilemma, Pericles, young, priest, prosperity, 5th, ritual, medal, danced, millennia, four, political, acoustics, Oedipus, weeping, problem, Eteocles, contests, myth, dead, tensions, entertainment, winter, permission, Sophocles, Thebes, instructive, limits, Lenaia, skene, defray, Dionysus, fathers, tension, sons, support, shape

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the Greek theater in century BC

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today we see theater as , something like television or movies

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in 5th century Athens, theater, particularly tragic theater, was central to cultural, , civic life

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early history is hard to define

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but always connected to

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always connected to the god

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god of wine, changing, masks

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seems to have evolved from choric

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men singing for honorific prizes

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by the 5th century, tragedy involved the entire community

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two great for drama

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1. [Λήναια]

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primarily for comedy

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took place in

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2. City Dionysia

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tragedies

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took place in

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was central in the city

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south slope of the

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a natural bowl in the geography

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wooden benches

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some kind of stage

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probably rebuilt in Rome

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parts of a theater

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building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks and costumes

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orchestra

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where the chorus sang and

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choruses remained important throughout Greek tragedy

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seating area

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where the word theater comes from

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theater in

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in the Peloponnese

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very well preserved outdoor theater

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Theater of Dionysus in Athens

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seated around 15,000

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a good proportion of the population who could

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intended audience was the , adult male

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based on various historical evidence, it is likely that at least some women, slaves, and foreigners in attendance

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relatively few actors

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three in developed tragedy

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all male

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all masked

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when you are that far back in the theater, subtle face gestures couldn't be noticed, but what you had were beautiful

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masks could be a identified easily

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this is why you have cues in the tragedies, e.g. "I see that you are "

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today these kinds of cues are not necessary

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in the Greek theater it was essential to know what was happening

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all chorus members male

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each year, three poets would compete in the tragic festival

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found three wealthy citizens to the expenses

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10 citizen judges, one from each tribe

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began with a processes

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statue of Dionysus was brought in and put in prominent position

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of Dionysus would sit next to him

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then judges and major officials

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by the mid 5th century this procession also included procession of young men whose had died in war the year before

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they were celebrated and promised the of the city

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all 10 generals would convene, e.g. , reelected 17 years in a row

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from 454 BC on, the actual treasure was carried across in the form of bars of precious

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the poets were celebrated, being public figures

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we only have a small fragment of all plays produced

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complete plays by only three playwrights

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the function of the poems were to serve as an resource for the citizens of the city

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the poets took their themes from

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1. especially Homer

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2. also the myth cycle that centered on the city of

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the doomed house of

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the house of and his offspring which included Dionysus (Semele was Camdmus' daughter and Dionysus mother, mated with Zeus to have Dionysus)

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why in Athens at this time that this art form of tragedy developed so fully

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The Tragic Moment

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democracy was still very , 50 years old

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strains among the different factions

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one-man-one-vote ideology

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was coming in the with the old values represented in the myths

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the playwrights exploited these as they used their plays to consider issues

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these are not like political

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investigate and give us ways to think about some of the large issues in Athenian culture

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Antigone by

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first play on the theme of the House of Oedipus

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one of the most revived plays in the Greek canon

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Oedipus the great solver

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solved the riddle of the Sphinx: what walks on legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening

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was not only the great problem solver but the great problem

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committed two of the greatest Greek could imagine: incest and paracide

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exiled from Thebes

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cursed his in a battle against each other in which both are killed

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Antigone begins on the day after that battle

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the regent Creon, the loyal brother be [Ἐτεοκλῆς] be buried, but the attacking brother Polynices [Πολυνείκης] be unburied

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Polynices' sister gives to give her brother burial

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question the play posed

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how does one connect to one's community

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Antigone is loyal to a fault to her brother

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Creon, the new king, identifies himself with the community

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it is not just that Antigone is right and Creon is wrong, no play is that simple-minded, nor is this some sort of play about individual vs. state, female vs. male, powerless vs. powerful, these are only subordinate elements as the Greek tragedians were far too sophisticated and far to skilled to write anything that mechanical.

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instead, Sophocles has presented us with a which has to be resolved and a variety of approaches to it

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it does end up with Antigone being proven right, but at what cost?

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the Sophoclean hero, again and again, is a character, in this case a woman, who takes a position and sticks to it no matter what cost to herself

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by the end of the play Creon, the new king, is left utterly , Antigone is dead, his own son Haemon is dead, his wife has killed herself, and what Creon has at the end is this lonely status of somebody who has come to wisdom through suffering

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famous chorus line from Antigone: "Many are the things that are wonderful and , but none so wonderful and scary as man." which is followed by a catalog of human achievements

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but they also remind the audience and those who are reading it two later that there are things we don't have control over

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in this way Sophocles was instructing his audience at a time when they were riding high, at a time of enormous in Athens

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one of the morals we can take from the Antigone is that there are, after all, on all of us

Vocabulary:

skene, n. [σκηνή] In ancient Greek theater, a building behind the playing area that was originally a hut for the changing of masks and costumes but eventually became the background before which the drama was enacted. First used c. 465 BC, the skene was originally a small wooden structure facing the circle of spectators. It developed into a two-story edifice decorated with columns, with three doors used for entrances and exits and the appearance of ghosts and gods; it was flanked by wings (paraskēnia). By the end of the 5th century bc, the wooden skene was replaced by a permanent stone structure. In the Roman theater it was an elaborate building facade. The modern concept of the theatrical scene, which is an integral and functional part of the play, evolved from the Renaissance. In the ancient theater the skene was merely a conventional background. ⇒ "You had a stage building called a skene, which had a low stage in front of what was a simple square building which could function in the play as anything from a cave to a palace."

Spelling Corrections:

paracide ⇒ parricide

Ideas and Concepts:

From the places-to-visit department via this morning's Ancient Greek History class: "There is a beautifully preserved theater in the Peloponnese at Epidaurus built in the fourth century BC. One of the remarkable characteristics of this theater is the acoustics. If you sit in the highest seats, the figures of people on the stage appear tiny, but you can hear them perfectly. A common tour guide demonstration is to send their group up to the top row and then do something like drop a small coin or strike a match in the middle of the stage area, and sitting in the top row, you'll hear it as if it's next to your head, it's quite uncanny. The planning and construction of this theater is obviously an example of applied mathematics known by ancient Greek theater engineers."

On the importance of sophisticated theater in a healthy democracy via this morning's Ancient Greek History class:

"Why was it in Athens at this time that the art form of tragedy developed so fully? One argument often referred to as The Tragic Moment, is that Athen's democracy was still very young, 50 years old, and there were strains among the different factions as the society came into tensions with the old values represented by the conservative myths. Tragic playwrights exploited these tensions as they used their plays to consider issues that were important for their culture to consider and resolve.

The tragic plays were not like political cartoons or sarcasm, but were used to investigate and give Athenians ways to think about some of the large issues developing in Athenian culture. For instance, Antigone is loyal to a fault to her dead brother, while Creon, the new king, identifies himself with the community. It is not just that Antigone is right and Creon is wrong, no Greek playwright would be this simpleminded, nor was this some sort of morality play about individual vs. state, female vs. male, powerless vs. powerful, these were just subordinate elements, and the Greek tragedians were too sophisticated and skilled to write anything so mechanical.

Instead, Sophocles presents us both a dilemma which has to be resolved, as well as a variety of approaches to resolving it. The play does end up with Antigone being proven right, but at what cost? The Sophoclean hero, again and again, is a character, in this case a woman, who takes a position and sticks to it no matter at what cost to herself. But by the end of the play, Antigone is dead, Creon, the new king, is left utterly alone, his own son Haemon dead, Creon's wife commits suicide, and what Creon has at the end is this lonely status of somebody who has come to wisdom through suffering."