Fact:

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Fact In ancient Greece there was was no cable or
satellite.
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Instead they created something called drama. (A
term still used today)
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In Fact, the Greeks gave us the terminology we
use today

• drama comes from the word dran meaning "to do"

• theatre comes from the word theatron meaning
  "seeing place"

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The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from
religious rites which date back to at least 1200
BC. At that time Greece was populated by
primitive tribes. In northern Greece, in an area
called Thrace, a cult arose that worshipped
Dionysus, the god of human and agricultural
fertility.
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The Cult of Dionysus practiced ritual
celebrations which included intoxication human
and animal sacrifices, and hysterical rampages by
women called maenads.
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The cult's most controversial practice involved
uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that
created an altered mental state. This altered
state was known as ecstasis, from which the word
ecstasy is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and
catharsis also derive from Greek words for
emotional release. Ecstasy was an important
concept to the Greeks, who would come to see
theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions.
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By 600 BC they were practiced every Spring
throughout much of Greece.
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A key part of the rites of Dionysus was the
dithyramb. The dithyramb was an ode to Dionysus.
It was usually performed by a chorus of fifty men
dressed as satyrs -- mythological half-human,
half-goat servants of Dionysus. They played
drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as they
danced around an effigy of Dionysus.
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Amphitheatres During this time, major theatres
were constructed, notably the theatre at Delphi,
the Attic Theatre and the Theatre of Dionysus in
Athens. The Theatre of Dionysus, built at the
foot of the Acropolis in Athens, could seat
17,000 people. During their heyday, the
competitions drew as many as 30,000 spectators.
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In one of these competitions Sophocles
introduced Oedipus the King.
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The play was awarded second place.
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It was based on an old story familiar to people
throughout Greece.
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Heres the story
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The story of Oedipus the King does not start at
the beginning of the story. It starts in the
middle. Yet the Greek audience would be familiar
with the old story. Here is a bit of background
information so that you too can have the insight
the Greeks had as they watched the drama unfold.
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The story is old, strange, and terrible. Laius
and Jocasta, the childless king and queen of
Thebes, were told by the god Apollo that their
son would kill his father and marry his mother.
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A son was born to them, and they tried to make
sure that the prophecy would not come true. Laius
drove a metal pin through the infants ankles and
gave it to a shepherd, with instructions to leave
it to die of exposure on the nearby mountain,
Cithaeron.
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The shepherd took the child up to the mountain,
but pitied it and gave it to a fellow shepherd he
met there, who came from Corinth, on the other
side of the mountain range.
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This shepherd took the child with him and give it
to the childless king and queen of Corinth,
Polybus and Merope. They brought the child up as
their own son, and named him Oedipus, which in
its Greek form Oidipous means "swollen foot" (his
feet had been injured by the metal pin).
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So Oedipus grew up in Corinth as the kings son,
with no idea of his real parentage. And Laius and
Jocasta believed that their child was dead and
the prophecy of Apollo false.
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After Oedipus became a young man, he was told, by
a man who had drunk too much at a banquet, that
he was not the real son of Polybus. He was
reassured by Polybus and Merope, but a lingering
doubt remained and rumors were spreading abroad.
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He went, on his own initiative, to Delphi, in the
north of Greece, to the oracle of Apollo, to ask
the god who his parents were. All he was told was
that he would kill his father and marry his
mother.
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He resolved never to return to Corinth, to
Polybus and Merope, and started out to make a new
life for himself elsewhere.
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He came to a place where three main roads met,
and in the narrow places was ordered off the road
in a rude and insulting manner by an old geezer
riding in a chariot. Words were exchanged, a
fight started, and Oedipus, in self-defense,
killed the old man and all of his attendants (or
so he thought)--all except one, who escaped and
took the news to Thebes.
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The old man in the chariot was Laius, king of
Thebes. And so the first half of the prophecy of
Apollo was fulfilled. Oedipus, though he did not
know it, had killed his father.
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Oedipus continued on his way and came to Thebes.
He found the city in distress. A monster, the
Sphinx--part bird, part lion, part woman--was
killing the young men of Thebes and refused to go
away until someone answered her riddle. Many had
tried, but all had failed, and anyone who failed
was doomed to die.
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The Thebans offered a great reward to anyone who
could answer the riddle of the Sphinx--the throne
of Thebes and the hand of Jocasta, the widowed
queen, in marriage. Oedipus volunteered to answer
the riddle
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"There is a creature two-footed, and also
four-footed, and three- footed. It has one voice.
When it goes on most feet, then it goes most
slowly."
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Oedipus answered the riddle correctly. The answer
is Man, who goes on all fours as a child, on two
feet as an adult, and on three as an old man,
since he has a stick to help him along.
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Oedipus married Jocasta and became king of
Thebes. The prophecy was fulfilled, but he did
not realize it.
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For many years he ruled Thebes well, an admired
and just king. He had two daughters and two sons.
And then a plague broke out in Thebes. The people
of the city died, the cattle died, the crops
rotted.
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The Thebans thronged the temples, and a
delegation of priests went to the palace to beg
Oedipus to save them.
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These are the priests who come onstage at the
beginning of the play, and as they enter, the
stage door opens and a masked actor comes out and
addresses them. The play Oedipus the King has
begun.
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The promise

• Oedipus promises to save the city once more

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Plagues, however, are caused by pollution which
is caused by sin, and only the gods can reveal
its cause.
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Thus

• Oedipus sends his brother-in-law Creon to consult
  the oracle at Delphi once more.

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Creon consults the Oracle at Delphi yet again!
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The answer

• The plague is caused by an unpunished murder.

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The assumption

• The only unpunished murder in Thebes for many,
  many years has been that of the former king, Laius

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The irony

• Oedipus places a terrible curse on the killer,
  whoever he may be, and turns for help to
  Teiresias, the respected prophet.

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You asked!

• Teiresias tells Oedipus that he is the killer and
  hints at even worse crimes!

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How dare you!

• Oedipus is enraged, believing that Teiresias and
  Creon have concocted this story to dethrone him
  and seize power for themselves

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Teiresias departs with threats and warnings,
while Creon tries to argue his innocence.
Oedipus rejects his pleading, and would have had
him executed but for the intervention of Jocasta,
who has close ties to them both.
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How sweet!

• Hearing that their quarrel was about an oracle,
  Jocasta reassures her husband by saying that
  oracles are nonsense. After all, she and her
  Laius were given one telling them that their son
  would kill its father. The father, however, was
  killed by robbers at a place where three roads
  meet, and the son died an innocent baby.

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De ja vu!!!!

• Oedipus remembers killing a man at such a place.
  What if he was Laius? He himself would be the
  cursed polluter of Thebes.

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Oh Honey!

• No, no says Jocasta. The witness (the man who
  escaped) said it was robbers.

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Unable to let his fears be assauged

• Oedipus sends for the witness

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But youre not the witness!

• The new arrival isnt the witness, hes a
  messenger from Corinth to tell Oedipus that
  Polybus, his father is deadhe will be the King
  of Corinth, too!

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But I can never go back to Corinth while mommy
is alive!
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More irony

• Hoping to ingratiate himself, the messenger from
  Corinth tells Oedipus there is nothing to fear.
  Merope wasnt your mother, nor was Polybus your
  father!

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Not good news!

• He explains how the baby was given to him by a
  shepherd from Thebes.

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The ugly realization

• Jocasta rushes out!

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More irony!

• Oedipus thinks she has fled because she is
  embarrassed that her new husband might have been
  an unwanted childor worsea slaves child!

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The truth at last!

• The Theban shepherd arrives. This turns out to
  be the same man who had been sent for as the
  witness to the murder of Laius. He is very
  reluctant to say anything to Oedipus. (I wonder
  why?)

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Under threat of torture, he reveals that the baby
was given to him by Jocasta to be killed and that
hed passed it on to the Corinthian out of pity.
Oedipus now know the whole truth and rushes out
to find Jocasta!
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Too late!

• Jocasta has already hanged herself!

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More tragedy

• Oedipus takes the shoulder pins from her dress
  and blinds himself.

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Antigone

• A continuation of this story
• Assumes audiences know the Oedipus story

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