Greek Theater The Land Greece has a rich culture and history.

Greek TheaterGreek Theater

The LandThe Land

•Greece has a rich culture and history

The LandThe Land

•Democracy was founded

in Greece

The LandThe Land

•Patriarchal (male dominated)

society

The LandThe Land

•Philosophy, as a practice, began in Greece (Socrates,

Plato, Aristotle)

The LandThe LandLocated in Europe in the Aegean

Sea

The LandThe Land

The LandThe Land

Overview of Greek TheaterOverview of Greek Theater• The land

• Antigone

• The Theater

The TheaterThe Theater

The TheaterThe TheaterMain Portions of Greek Theater:

Theatron – Seating

for audience

The TheaterThe TheaterMain Portions of Greek Theater:

Orchestra – “Dancing

Place” where

chorus sang to the

audience

The TheaterThe TheaterMain Portions of Greek Theater:

Skene – wooden scene

building used as a dressing room.

The TheaterThe Theater Main Portions of Greek Theater:

Parados – entrance

to the theater used by

the Chorus

DionysusDionysus

•God of Wine and

fertility

The TheaterThe Theater

• Greek plays were performed during religious ceremonies held in honor of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and

fertility

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• Business would shut down for days, people would travel from all around to see the

drama competitions—even prisoners were temporarily released to see the plays

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Major Greek DramatistsMajor Greek Dramatists

Dramatist Born Wrote

Aeschylus 524 B.C. Seven Against Thebes

Sophocles 496 B.C. Antigone

Oedipus

Euripides 480 B.C. Medea

How were the dramas developed?How were the dramas developed?

• Thespis was the first playwright to tell a story. He had one chorus member step away from the others to play the part of a hero or god.

How were the dramas developed?How were the dramas developed?

Aeschylus added a second individual

actor to the performance, thus

creating the possibility of

conflict.

How were the dramas developed?How were the dramas developed?

•Sophocles adds a third actor; now

we have full-blown drama.

Overview of Greek TheatreOverview of Greek Theatre• The land

• Antigone

• The stage

The Chorus: A Group of Elderly The Chorus: A Group of Elderly MenMen

• The chorus was very dominant

• Represented society

• often served as the “ideal spectator” by providing advice, opinions, questions to the audience and actors.

The Chorus: A Group of Elderly The Chorus: A Group of Elderly MenMen

• singing and chanting

• summing up the action after every scene

• saying out loud what the audience should be thinking

Key Points Key Points

• Athenian playwrights often used the traditional stories to make points about their own era, and they often used mythological conflicts to portray contemporary ones to an audience.

• In Antigone, Sophocles focuses on the possible conflicts between one’s religion and one’s politics.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Is based on the myth of Oedipus

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

• Oedipus is given away by his parents, Laios and Jocasta

when they learn from an oracle that their son would kill his father and marry his

mother.

• The ancient citizens of Greece would sacrifice and

pray to an ORACLE.

• An oracle was a priest or priestess who would send a message from the gods

to mortals who brought their requests.

The Oracle at DelphiThe Oracle at Delphi

Most famous oracle in Greek mythology.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

• Oedipus learns of the oracle and believing the king and queen of Corinth are his

parents, he leaves to avoid the oracle.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone• Oedipus travels to Thebes, killing Laios on the way. He saves the city

from a terrible monster, the

Sphinx.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Thebes reward him by making him king and giving him the

queen to marry.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

• A plague hits the city and the oracle warns that it won’t go away until the killer of King Laios is

punished.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Oedipus investigates and finds out he killed

his father and married his mother.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Oedipus blinds

himself and Jocasta kills

herself.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Set in Thebes (a city in ancient

Greece)

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Antigone is the daughter of

Oedipus and Jocasta.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Antigone’s brothers, Eteokles and

Polyneices, were to rule in alternate years.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Eteokles refused to give up the throne

for Polyneices at the end of his year.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Polyneices went to Argos and raised an army to gain

the throne.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Eteokles and Polyneices killed

each other in battle.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Antigone’s uncle, Creon, became king of Thebes.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

• Antigone’s uncle, Creon, gives Eteokles, his ally, a hero’s burial and issues a decree against burying

Polyneices.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•Antigone believes that he is wrong and that both of her brothers

should be buried with honor.

Sophocles’ Sophocles’ AntigoneAntigone

•The conflict between Antigone and Creon is the basis for the

play, Antigone .

The EndThe End