● Sophocles

- So the story will really just be about human suffering and despair.
- Although the story talks about human suffering, the author lived a nice and comfortable
life.
- He grew up with his family in athens.
- He was in a carefree environment and became a dramatist
- He first received recognition at age 28 when he defeated Aeschylus (another amazing
playwright)
- He produced 123 plays but only 7 remain
- The first half of the fifth century (B.C) in Athens was a political and social optimism as
well as the Greeks invading the Persians at marathon. (490 BC) and Athens experienced
cultural developments in (480).
- This was the age that raised the temple parthenon and acropolis
- As well as developed a democracy
- This came to a stop because of how much it was costing them to have these good
luxuries of a town and as well as resources being taken from other areas.
- This caused conflict and sparked conflict between Athens and sparta.(as well as other
cities for 27 years)
- Which makes sense as to why sophocles' plays were unsettling and despairing.

● Oedipus Rex
- This is considered to be one of the world's greatest tragedies.
- Talks about what a tragedy is (a serious drama featuring the main character who
is usually of noble birth who strives to defeat something big or great, but
ultimately loses in the end. The downfall is their tragic flaw. Usually the main
character gets new wisdom or knowledge because of their defeat)

● The greek theater

- The second half of the fifth century really introduced the drama and it became the
golden age for greeks
- Dramatic festivals in athens were the center of cultural life (grown out of religious
rituals)
- The Dionysia is a festival that honors the god Diyonious and was a 4 day event
held in March or april.
- 15,000 people came out and witnessed the plays and comics.
- The theater was carved out of stone and resembled a semi circle with seats.
- At the bottom, it was rounded with musical aspects and chorus.
- Behind the orchestra were the performance of the actors with masks
- Males played one or more roles and females only played 1

● The oedipus plays

 - Oedipus is one of the three sophocles plays (Theban plays aka the three
tragedies) mainly about king oedipus of thebes and his family.
- He composed these for over a 36 year long period
- Started with
- antigone
- oedipus rex
- oedipus at colonus

● Story of oedipus
- So oedipus is the ill fated king of thebes whose past catches up with him and
turns his life into a mess on him and his family
- Before the play begins oedipus has just won the hand of queen jocasta (her
husband, king lausis, was killed by a traveler on the road)
- He won her by solving a riddle made by sphinx a monster, head of a woman,
body of a lion, and wings of an eagle (terrorizing thebes)
- He does not know that he is jocasta's son and laius' son
- To avoid the awful fate they made a procephy, (killing the father and marrying the
mother is what oedipus had to do and laius and jocasta wanted to kill their baby
son
- They gave him to a shepard that was ordered to take the infant on the side of
mount cithaeron
- Then the shepherd gave the infant to a messenger who brought the baby to the
king and queen of corinth (they named him oedipus)
- He found out the prophecy and found out that he was the murderer of his father
and all of this he didn't know about so he was shocked and that is the main
focus of the play

● Structure and theme of the play

- It is a tight framed type of work and all actions take place in one area and
involved a limited amount of characters
- Oedipus who is the main character and is on the stage most of the time and the
chorus
- The every line contains a possible meaning
- This irony contains a possible dramatic irony
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