Greek Tragedy: The Oresteia and Antigone

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Greek TragedyThe Oresteia and Antigone

• Unit 2 Greece
• Honors 2101, Fall 2006
• Bryan Benham

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Classical Greek Drama

• Written for and performed at dramatic competition
  during Dionysian festival at Athens.
• Tragedies trilogy plus a Satyr play
• Written and performed at the height of Athenian
  glory
• Between end of Persian War and end of
  Peloponnesian War (5th 4th cent. BCE)

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Surviving Greek Plays

• We posses only 3 of tragic texts (often in
  fragments), and even less of comedic texts
  (mostly in fragments).
• Which amounts to 10 of all titles ever produced
  at the Dionysian festival
• Yet, what survives is the origin and defining
  ideal of all (Western) drama in terms of its
  style, structure, and content.

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The Greek Playwrights

• Tragedy
• Aeschylus (525-456 BCE 7/82)
• Sophocles (480-406 BCE 7/123)
• Euripides (495-406 BCE 19/92)
• Comedy
• Aristophanes (448-338? 11/50)
• Menander (342-291 ?/?)
• largest fragments from 63 other names

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Two Forms of Greek Drama

• Tragedy
• About human suffering.
• Associated with religious celebrations, thus
  solemn, poetic, and philosophic.
• Based on myth or characters from myth.
• Main character imperfect but admirable and
  confronted by a difficult moral choice or
  struggle against hostile forces (human and
  divine).
• Main character's struggle ends in defeat and,
  usually, his or her death but happy endings not
  unheard of.

• Comedy
• About human comedy.
• Associated with social commentary by means of
  outspoken farce and baudy actions (Vaudville?).
• Based on contemporary characters or events.
• Main character is parody of contemporary that is
  being ridiculed.
• Satyr plays (brief comic parody of myth)
• New Comedy (a comedy of errors or situation
  comedy)

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Origins of Greek Drama

• Ritual at Rural Dionysia (7th 6th cent. BCE)
• Origins in orations or choral hymns to Dionysis
  during rural festivals
• Chorus and Actors (answerer to chorus)
• Religious celebration
• Performance at City Dionysia (5th 4th cent.
  BCE)
• Lynaias and City Dionysia (Athens)
• Competition supported by polis
• Social-Religious Commentary Entertainment

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• Orchestra dancing space used by chorus often
  included an altar (thymele).
• Skene tent or structure behind the stage, with
  doors and upper levels.
• Parodos passageways by which the chorus and
  actors entered and existed the stage area.
• Theatron viewing-place usually part of a
  hillside overlooking the orchestra.

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Parts of a Greek Tragedy

• Simple Structure After a prologue spoken by one
  or more characters, the chorus enters, singing
  and dancing with additional scenes that alternate
  between spoken sections (episodes) and sung
  sections (choral odes)
• Prologue Spoken by one or two characters before
  chorus appears, usually giving mythological
  background. (Cf. Shakespearean plays)
• Parodos This is the song sung by the chorus as
  it first enters the orchestra and dances.
• First Episode This is the first of many
  "episodes (literally between odes), when the
  characters and chorus talk and main action
  occurs.
• First Stasimon At the end of each episode, the
  actors leave the stage and the chorus dances and
  sings a stasimon, or choral ode which usually
  reflects on the things said and done in the
  episodes. The rest of the play is an alternation
  between episodes and stasima, until the final
  scene.
• Exodos At the end of play, the chorus exits
  singing a processional song which usually offers
  words of wisdom related to the actions and
  outcome of the play.

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The Oresteia

• Aeschylus (525-456) trilogy produced 458 BCE
• Only extant trilogy
• Tragedy of the House of Atreus
• we must suffer, suffer into truth. (from
  Agamemnon)
• Background Trojan War
• Agamemnon sacrifices his daughter Iphigenia
• Clytemnestra kills Agamemnon upon his return
• Orestes kills Clytemnestra upon his return 7
  years later
• Orestes on trial by the Furies (w/ Apollo and
  Athena)

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The Oresteia

• Depicts the movement from primitive retaliatory
  vengeance to a civilized justice.
• From archaic notions of vengeance to the
  formation of Athenian public law.
• Retribution, violence, and the idea of justice
• But, Aeschylus always calls into question the
  meaning of each act.

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Agamemnon

• Clytemnestra, with the help of her lover
  Aegisthus, kills her husband Agamemnon (and
  Cassandra) upon his return after ten years from
  the Trojan War. She declares it is justice for
  sacrificing their daughter Iphigenia ten years
  earlier. The people look forward to Orestes
  revenge.

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Discussion Questions for Agamemnon

• What are we to understand from the watchmans
  announcement regarding conditions at Argos? (pp.
  305-306)
• Are we to understand the Agamemnon made the right
  decision to sacrifice Iphigenia? (pp. 306-309)
• Why blame Helen for the suffering of the war?
  With whom should we sympathize? (pp. 309-312)
• How does Clytemnestra justify her killing of
  Agamemnon and Cassandra to the chorus? (pp.
  312-315)

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The Libation Bearers

• Clytemnestra dreams ill- omens and Orestes
  returns to avenge his father. After revealing
  himself to Electra, his sister, Orestes kills
  Aegisthus and Clytemnestra, only to be chased by
  the terror of the Furies.

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Discussion Questions for The Libation Bearers

• Why does Orestes hesitate to kill Clytemnestra?
  What spurs him on? (pp. 317-319)
• How does Orestes justification for his act of
  revenge compare to his mothers? (pp. 317-319)
• Discuss the significance of Orestes vision of
  the Furies at the end of the play. (pp. 320)
• E.g., Why does only he see them? How are they
  described? Why are they after Orestes?

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The Eumenides

• Orestes flees to Athens under the protection of
  Apollo. The Furies catch up to Orestes, but
  Athena insists on a trial to determine the
  propriety of Orestes killing of his mother.

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Discussion Questions for The Eumenides

• What function do the Furies (Erinyes) perform?
  (pp. 322-325)
• Why do the Furies warn that if Orestes wins his
  case, anarchy will rule? (pp. 325-327)
• What exactly are the competing claims on trial?
  And why does it come to a tie vote? (Intro pp.
  327-328)
• When Athena transforms the Furies into the
  Eumenides, does their essential
  character/function change? What are they now?
  (pp. 329-334)

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General Questions for The Oresteia

• What ideas of justice are demonstrated throughout
  The Oresteia? Are these in conflict?
• Is Aeschylus claiming that fear of the Furies is
  essential in making citizens law-abiding? Do you
  agree?
• Is the (criminal) justice that is meted out by
  courts based on vengeance? If not, what is it
  based on?
• Consider Salt Lake Tribune story Orem Horror
  (Oct. 18,2006) After witnessing a man kill his
  mother, The older boy yelled, That bastard? He
  shot my mother in the back. Im going to kill the
  son of a bitch, said neighbor (p. A1)

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More Questions for The Oresteia

• Do our mothers and fathers have different claims
  on us as their children?
• Does Aeschyluss trilogy illustrate a type of
  sexism (or gender identity) in carrying out
  criminal justice?
• Is suffering necessary in order for individuals
  and societies to learn and evolve?
• What are you led to believe about the view of the
  killings by the other characters, chorus, or
  audience? What is your judgment of these various
  killings? Justified or not? Why?

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Sophocles (480-406 BCE)

• Successful Playwright
• Legend Antigone reason for election as general.
• Challenges fundamental assumptions about justice.
  An interesting tension
• Themes
• Background
• Structure

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Themes in Antigone

• Justice
• the laws of gods vs. laws of men, individual vs.
  state authority, reverence vs. obedience.
• Pride
• A complex character trait that is both needed and
  leads to ruin, but requires a certain wisdom or
  sense of judgment.
• Gender Conflicts
• Men vs. women, and the proper social position
  attributed to both.

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George Steiner (p. 360)

• Antigone is the one literary text that
  exresses all the principal constants of
  conflict in the condition of man. These constants
  are fivefold the confrontation of men and women
  of age and youth of society and of the
  individual of the living and the dead of men
  and of god(s).

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Discuss the Encounters

• Antigone and Ismene
• Creon and the Chorus
• (1st Choral Ode on Man)
• Antigone and Creon
• Creon and Haemon
• Creon and Tieresias
• Creon and the death of everyone

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Background to Antigone

• Oedipus cycle
• Story of Oedipus, fate, and hubris
• Theban civil war
• Polynices vs. Eteocles
• Antigone and Ismene
• Tyranny and State Power
• End of civil war
• Needs for order and authority

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Structure of a Greek Tragedy

• Prologue
• Spoken by one or two characters before chorus
  appears, usually giving mythological background.
  (Cf. Shakespearean plays)
• Parodos
• This is the song sung by the chorus as it first
  enters the orchestra and dances.
• First Episode
• This is the first of many "episodes (literally
  between odes), when the characters and chorus
  talk and main action occurs.
• First Stasimon
• At the end of each episode, the actors leave the
  stage and the chorus dances and sings a choral
  ode which usually reflects on the things said and
  done in the episodes.
• Exodos
• At the end of play, the chorus exits singing a
  processional song which usually offers words of
  wisdom related to the actions and outcome of the
  play.

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Structure of Antigone

• Prologue (p. 360)
• Parodes (p. 363)
• First Stasimon (p. 371)
• Second Stasimon (p. 378)
• Third Stasimon (p. 384)
• Fourth Stasimon (p. 388)
• Fifth Stasimon (p. 394)
• Exodus (p. 400)

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Antigone, Prologue

• What is the background to the play? Consider the
  gravity of the situation as the play opens.
• Who do you most sympathize with, Antigone or
  Ismene?
• Consider Ismenes claim Remember we are
  women, p. 362.
• Why is Antigone so concerned with glory? Should
  she be?

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Antigone, Parodos through 1st Stasimon.

• What is the topic of the Parodos? (entrance song
  for chorus)
• Both Creon and Antigone speak of traitors. Are
  they using the term in the same way? Are there
  other terms they use differently?
• Why is Creon so upset about the report by the
  sentry that someone has buried Polynices body?
• Reading the First Stasimon, what does it tell us
  about humans?

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Antigone, End of 1st Stasimon thru 2nd Stasimon

• Describe the conditions in which the sentry
  reports finding Antigone. Does this mean anything
  for the play?
• Describe the dialogue between Creon and Antigone
  (pp. 374-376)
• How does Antigone respond when Ismene is brought
  on the scene (p. 376-378)
• Describe the topic of the 2nd Stasimon. What does
  it tell you about how to react to the play thus
  far?

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Antigone,End of 2nd Stasimon thru 3rd Stasimon

• When Haemon first comes on the scene how does he
  respond to his father?
• What is the gist of the argument that leads to
  Haemon to leave his father?
• The 3rd Stasimon (p. 384) talks of love. What
  kind of love friendship, romantic, familial?

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Antigone,Through 4th Stasimon

• Antigone returns to the stage and pleads with the
  chorus what is the gist of their dialogue?
• How do Antigone and Creon end up arguing?
• Why does Creon accuse her of loving death?
• What are the allusions to the various myths in
  the 4th Stasimon meant to convey to the audience?

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Antigone,through end of 5th Stasimon

• What warning does Tiresias bring to Creon?
• Why does Creon dismiss it?
• What changes Creons mind?

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Antigone,End of 5th Stasimon to end

• Describe the final scenes of the play. How does
  it end?
• Compare the Romeo and Juliet image of the death
  scene with Antigone and Haemon. (See also
  Deucalion and Pyrrha, pp. 759ff, NBCL)
• Why does Creon blame himself for the death of
  Haemon and his own wife?
• Why did this tragedy happen? Should we try to
  determine responsibility?

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Antigone, Exodus

• Wisdom is by far the greatest part of joy,
• and reverence toward the gods must be
  safeguarded.
• The mighty words of the proud are paid in full
• with mighty blows of fate, and at long last
• those blows will teach us wisdom.
• (Antigone, 1348-1352)
• What is the message Sophocles is conveying here?

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Suggested Paper TopicsNote the following
suggestions focus only on the plays assigned, but
you may wish to develop a thesis that includes
discussion of other texts we have read you need
not limit yourself to just these plays for these
topics.

• Compare Creons speech to Pericles funeral
  oration keep in mind that Creon is represented
  as a tyrant in the play. What does the speech
  tell us about the authority and role of the
  rulers?
• Both the Oresteia and Antigone deal with notions
  of justice. What are the conceptions of justice
  in each play and how, if at all, are they
  transformed? In the end, what are we, the
  audience, supposed to understand about justice?
• Describe the role and representation of women in
  the plays we have read. Are women heroes in these
  plays, or something else? How do they compare to
  the other male characters in this regard?
• Pride is a predominant theme in Greek drama. What
  is the nature of pride in the plays. Describe the
  importance and dangers of pride in these plays.
  How does this conception of pride compare to
  modern dramas (plays, TV, movies, etc.)?