Honors 9 Homework for 9/27/18

The Comma III & IV

Bring "Oedipus" to class tomorrow.



Honors 9 Notes for 9/27/18

Intro to Greek Drama and Tragedy

The Greek theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods.

In early Greek plays, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same person. After some time, only three actors were allowed to perform in each play. Later a few non-speaking roles were allowed to perform on-stage. Due to limited number of actors allowed on-stage, the chorus evolved into a very active part of Greek theatre. Music was often played during the chorus' delivery of its lines.

The actors wore exaggerated costumes and masks.

The shape of the mask amplified the actor's voice, making his words easier for the audience to hear.

Early Greek plays were performed in outdoor theaters.

Orchestra: The orchestra (literally, "dancing space") was normally circular. It was a level space where the chorus would dance, sing, and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene. In the center of the orchestra there was often an altar. The orchestra of the theater of Dionysus in Athens was about 60 feet in diameter.

Theatron (thee-uh-tron): The theatron (literally, "viewing-place") is where the spectators sat. The theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking the orchestra, and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra.

Skene (skee-nee): The skene (literally, "tent") was the building directly behind the stage. The skene was directly in back of the stage, and was usually decorated as a palace, temple, or other building, depending on the play. It had at least one set of doors, and actors could make entrances and exits through them. There was also access to the roof of the skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other characters could appear on the roof, if needed.

Deus ex machine means “god from the machine”. This was a literal machine that would drop a thespian playing a god or goddess into the scene. It is the term used for describing when a conflict within the plot is solved seemingly out of nowhere.

Parodos: (literally, "passageways") are the paths by which the chorus and some actors made their entrances and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit the theater before and after the performance.

The ideas in Oedipus build upon Homer (Odyssey and Iliad), who tells us that fear of death motivates people beyond anything else. Remember the Homeric pattern?

Sophocles goes beyond this, and tells us that what really motivates humanity is fear of the unknown.

Greek tragedy also plays with the idea (paradoxically) of fate vs. free will.

Remember that a character is always a positive or negative example of the theme? In a tragedy, the tragic hero is always a negative example of the theme.

What happens to us is up to fate, but our free will is how we choose to deal with it.

Paradox: almost all of our lives are predetermined, nevertheless, we are responsible for how we react to our fate.

A paradox is a seemingly self-contradictory statement that proves to be true.

All tragedy teaches us that it’s how you deal with what you are dealt. In Greek tragedy, the gods generally control the fate of humankind.

The tragic playwrights, including Sophocles, add a fifth category to the Homeric pattern, anagnorisis.

Arete – striving for excellence

Hubris – excessive pride

Ate – the tragic hero goes too far, exceeds the bounds meant for him by the gods/universe

Anagnorisis – recognition by the tragic hero that he has gone to far, it happens after they have gone too far, and does not mitigate the nemesis they face

Nemesis – the ultimate punishment the tragic hero faces

If you do not deal with your fate with any kind of balance – if the hero has any sort of excessive behavior – they will face nemesis.

Tragedy teaches us how we deal with fate. There’s also the idea that we also have freedom vs. happiness. We kind of don’t want the freedom, because with freedom comes responsibility.

Tragedies are studies of why the tragic hero makes the decisions he makes – how the decisions we make inform our outcomes, in large part.

Vicariously, the reader is able to learn from Oedipus by realizing that there are things that will be beyond the reader’s control and that they will, perhaps, deal with those things better than Oedipus has dealt with his fate.

The reader undergoes a catharsis – a purging of emotion. We have a sense of pity and fear for the tragic hero, and it is a relief that his circumstances are not ours. (“Boy, I’m glad I’m not Oedipus”).

Tragedy is not a bummer. We look at the tragic hero and think, “Wow, that guy’s awesome.”

As humans, we are all preconditioned to be losers. The ultimate paradox is that we are born to die, and yet, it is how we go about the dying that counts. It’s how we deal with what we are dealt.

Dionysus and Demeter are the two gods that suffer – Demeter because she loses her daughter, Persephone, for part of the year, and Dionysus because he is torn apart every year in a ritual sacrifice.

Humans relate to these two gods because they suffer and because they give us food (Demeter) and pleasure/wine/a good time (Dionysus).

Dionysus is a syncretized version of the god. There were many different interpretations of him that varied from city-state to city-state. The Dionysus that we know is an amalgamation of many of these versions.

Dionysus, according to myth, was desired so much that he was devoured. Though the ladies who did this were remorseful, it eventually became obvious that his death had positive effects on their crops. This became an annual spring ritual in which a young man stood in for Dionysus and was chased, torn apart, and consumed. Almost every society has a spring ritual such as this one where there is a blood sacrifice that is believed to rejuvenate the city/land.

The White Goddess by Robert Graves is a good book that deals with this topic.

After many centuries of this Dionysian springtime ritual, a patriarchal society supplants the matriarchal society. They didn’t like young boys being sacrificed, so they began to substitute a goat for the young man. The word tragedy comes from the Greek phrase, which means “singing of the goat”.  This is where the phrase “scapegoat” comes from.

Dionysus is the god of chaos, revelry, suffering, rebirth, and wine. He is the opposite of Apollo, this creates a balance.

Often referred to as the tragic flaw, hamartia means, in Greek, “a missing of the mark”. Or, what makes them breaks them. What makes Oedipus great? His intelligence. Why does he have no eyes at the end? His intelligence.

Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune or change in circumstances. This means that what the character wants to avoid, they end up doing.

Dramatic irony – the audience knows something that one or more characters on the stage do not. It is at the heart of tragedy. It creates suspense.