Antigone
“All men make mistakes, but a good man yields when he knows his course is wrong, and repairs the evil. The only crime is pride.”
~Sophocles
Antigone is the third installment of the Oedipus story. The first story is known as Oedipus Rex or Oedipus the King. From there, we read Oedipus at Colonus, and then round it out with Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus.
The story is one that is simple but delivers a powerful, emotional punch. When a war between brothers ensues, a power shift is the result. Mix in the love of a sister and the fear of another, and a story about the struggle to "do the right thing" is born.
Greek Drama
Greek drama is one of the oldest forms of drama. In ancient Greece, plays grew out of religion and myths. From the 6th century B.C., religious festivals featured a chorus, or group of actors, that danced and sang hymns to Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.
In about 534 B.C., the lyric poet Thespis introduced the use of a single actor, separate from the chorus. As drama evolved, the chorus voiced the attitudes and values of society while the actor delivered speeches, answered the chorus, and performed the story. With these changes, drama (from the Greek word for doing, rather than telling) was born, and actors today are still called thespians.
Drama grew to become a vital part of life in Athens. The festival of Dionysus, the most important Greek religious festival, introduced a drama competition. The three greatest writers of Greek tragedy-Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides-presented their plays at these festivals. The plays were usually directed by the playwright himself, who sometimes acted as well. Greek dramas appealed to the audience because they focused on the myths and legends that were known and loved by Athenians. Favorite subjects included the Trojan War and such legendary figures as Oedipus, Agamemnon, and the Greek gods and goddesses. Tragedies examined the consequences of an individual's actions, the relationship of people to the gods, and the role fate plays in life.
Comedies were also presented at these competitions, offering some relief from the sobering tragedies. Aristophanes both delighted and outraged Athenian audiences with his bawdy satires, in which he mischievously mocked politicians, famous cultural figures, and even the gods themselves.
Plays served several important function in ancient Greece. Performances entertained and delighted thousands. But audiences were also challenged by the playwrights to consider the moral and ethical dilemmas the characters confronted and to reflect upon such issues in their own lives.
~Prentice Hall Literature
Greek Theater
Ancient Greek theaters were very large, open-air structures that took advantage of sloping hillsides for their terraced seating. Many of these theaters were built in relatively open areas with lovely vistas. The core of any Greek theater is the orchestra, the “dancing place” of the chorus, and the chief performance space.
The audience sat in the theatron, the “seeing place,” on semi-circular terraced rows of benches. In the earliest theaters these were wooden; they were later built of stone. The Greeks often built these in a natural hollow, though the sides were increasingly reinforced with stone. Although the name theatron suggests an emphasis on sight, in reality, actors and chorus would look rather small even from seats only part-way up, and from the top rows, one would see mostly colors and patterns of movement rather than any details of costuming or masks.
The acoustics in this theater, however, are magnificent, and words spoken very softly in the orchestra can be heard in the top rows (as long as your neighbors are quiet).
On the far side of the orchestra was the stage building, or skene (meaning “tent”). This was a covered structure, originally a temporary wooden building, where the actors stored their masks and costumes and performed quick changes out of the sight of the audience.
On either side of the stage building were long ramps, called eisodoi or parodoi, that led into or away from the orchestra. These were used for the entrances and exits of the chorus, and the word parodos was also used to designate the choral entrance song. It was conventional for the chorus to remain in the orchestra for the duration of the play.
Actors, however, might have several entrances and exits, and these could involve either the central doors or these ramps. The actors’ performance space was usually in front of the stage building (whether or not there was a very low platform there), but in either case they could and frequently did move outward into the orchestra and interact with the chorus.
The price of theater attendance was apparently two obols, equal to the wages an unskilled man might earn for a day's work.
The Theater of Dionysus
Conventions of Greek Theater
The Ancient Greek term for a mask is prosopon ("face") and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens, likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Most of the evidence comes from only a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC. No physical evidence remains available to us, as the masks were made of organic materials and not considered permanent objects, ultimately being dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances. Nevertheless, the mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus and considered to be one of the iconic conventions of classical Greek theater.
Masks were also made for members of the chorus, who play some part in the action and provide a commentary on the events in which they are caught up. Although there are twelve or fifteen members of the tragic chorus, they all wear the same mask because they are considered to be representing one character. Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity.
Illustrations of theatrical masks from 5th century display helmet-like masks, covering the entire face and head, with holes for the eyes and a small aperture for the mouth, as well as an integrated wig. This demonstrates the way in which the mask was to ‘melt’ into the face and allow the actor to vanish into the role. Effectively, the mask transformed the actor as much as memorization of the text. Therefore, performance in ancient Greece did not distinguish the masked actor from the theatrical character.
Mask Functions
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the classical masks were able to create a sense of dread in the audience creating large scale panic, especially since they had intensely exaggerated facial features and expressions. They enabled an actor to appear and reappear in several different roles, thus preventing the audience from identifying the actor to one specific character. Their variations helped the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status, in addition to revealing a change in a particular character’s appearance.
Only 2-3 actors were allowed on the stage at one time; masks permitted quick transitions from one character to another. There were only male actors, but masks allowed them to play female roles. In order to be seen by audiences in huge theaters seating thousands, actors wore high boots and large, padded costumes. Masks were made of linen or leather, attached to wooden frames. The mouths of the masks acted as megaphones to amplify the actors' voices in the large theaters. Aside from displaying basic expressions such as fear, joy, and surprise, the masks were essential for indicating whether the male actor was playing a man, woman, or child.
The Oedipus Complex
In Sophocles' play Oedipus the King, the Delphic oracle's warning proves true, and Oedipus finally realizes the horror of who he has become: the murderer of his own father and the husband of his own mother. In anguish, Oedipus cries out, "What grief can crown this grief?" (Sophocles).
The myth of Oedipus is one of the classic themes of literature. Over the centuries, writers as diverse as Homer, Sophocles, Seneca, William Shakespeare, Jean Cocteau, and Tennessee Williams have explored and echoed this tragic theme. It was the Austrian psychiatrist, Sigmund Freud, however, who in 1910 drew upon the myth of Oedipus to describe his theory concerning the role of sexuality in the development of the human personality. Freud used the label "Oedipus complex" to describe the unconscious or hidden feelings of desire a child experiences toward a parent of the opposite sex. According to Freud's theory, these feelings of desire toward one parent are paired with feelings of rivalry toward the other parent. Freud wrote, "It is the fate of all of us [men], perhaps, to direct our first sexual impulse toward our mother and our first hatred...against our father."
One of the central questions raised by the myth is that if King Oedipus-one of the wisest men in the Greek empire-does not truly know who he is, how can any of us expect to know who we are? Sophocles made Oedipus' dilemma extreme-he actually does murder his father and marry his mother. But for us, the dilemmas are more subtle, more hidden. A large part of who we are is made up of how we feel. Yet, according to Freud, many of these feelings remain beyond our grasp in our unconscious mind. In the myth, Oedipus is unable to witness the horror of his own fate so he blinds himself. Similarly, according to Freud's Oedipus complex theory, we try to ignore our feelings of anxiety by repressing our wishes in the unconscious, and becoming "blind" to them.
~Prentice Hall Literature
Works Cited
"Alexandria-coffin sculpture of Antigone." Flickr, August 17, 2017. https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosemania/1268236732/in/photostream/
Google Images. "Sigmund Freud, Father of Psychoanalysis." Wikimedia, February 19, 2018. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:File_Photo_of_Sigmund_Freud.jpg
Nguyen, Marie-Lan. "Bust of Sophocles of the Farnese type. Marble, Roman copy after a Greek original of the 4th century BC." Wikimedia, 2009. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sophocles_Farnese_Pio-Clementino_Inv329.jpg
Sophocles. "Antigone." Prentice Hall Literature, edited by Pearson Education, 1991, p. 334.
"Theater of ancient Greece." Wikipedia, May 16, 2018. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_ancient_Greece
Wickenberg, Per. "Oedipus and Antigone." Wikipedia, December 31, 1832. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antigone#/media/File:Per_Gabriel_Wickenberg_-_Oedipus_och_Antigone.jpg