REMINDERS

• APRIL 8, 2022 – SUBMISSION OF

ACTIVITIES (LAST DAY)

• APRIL 11 – 12, 2022 – FINAL EXAM FOR

AWARDESS

• APRIL 20 – 21, 2022 - FINAL EXAM FOR

NON-AWARDESS
 ACTIVIVITY IN ART 9
• LESSON 8: GREEK PLAYS AND
OPERAS

• DIRECTION: Read or watch the story of

Oedipus Rex and Medea. Then answer the
• following questions. Write your answer
on a sheet of paper.
 ACTIVIVITY IN ART 9
A.Oedipus Rex (page 233-237)
1.What was the oracle in the story?
2.What did King Laius do upon learning about the oracle?
3.What did the shepherd do with Oedipus?
4.How did Oedipus fulfil the first half of the oracle?
5.What did Jocasta do when she learned the truth?
6.What happened to Oedipus in the end?
 ACTIVIVITY IN ART 9
B. Medea (pages:237-239)
1.What is the name of Medea’s Husband?
2.What is the reason of Medea’s husband for leaving her for
another woman?
3.How did Medea kill her husband’s other woman?
4.What is Medea’s reason for killing her own children?
5.How did Medea’s story end?
 9
ART
Plays and Opera
UNIT III
Western Classical
 8
Greek Plays and Opera
LESSON
I. Greek Theatre History

• It began with festivals honoring their gods and goddesses.

 Dionysus
• “God of wine”
• Plays were only presented at City
Dionysia festival.
• “City of Dionysia” – special
occasion/festival
• The festival consisted of drunken men
outfitted in goat skins that sang and
played choruses to welcome Dionysus.
 Theatre of Dionysus
• First ever Greek theatre
Amphitheatres / Theatron -
Theatre building
Orchestra - A large circular or
rectangular area at the center part
of the theatre, where the play,
dance, religious rites, acting used to
take place.
Skene: A large rectangular building
situated behind the orchestra, used
as a backstage. Actors could
change their costumes and masks.
 City Dionysia
The cast of a Greek play in the
Dionysia was comprised of
amateurs, not professionals (all
male).
The shape of the mask amplified
the actor's voice, making his
words easier for the audience to
hear.
Tragic masks carried mournful or
pained expressions, while comic
masks were smiling or leering.
 Theatrical Forms
1. Tragedy plays
Thespis - first Greek "actor" and originator/inventor of tragedy
(which means "goat song“ (goats sacrificed to Dionysus before
performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.)
- play with unhappy ending
- very serious plays with a moral lesson
2. Comedy plays - more light-hearted than tragedies
- a humorous story with a happy ending
3. Satyr plays - dealt with the mythological subject
 Greek Chorus
a group of actors who
described and commented
upon the main action of a play
with song, dance, and
recitation.
 Greek Playwrights
 author or Greek plays
 Greek Playwrights
• Aeschylus
• He introduced the second actor
• choral membership (chorus) to 12
• Plays: Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound
 Greek Playwrights
• Sophocles
• He introduced the third actor
• Adjusted the choral membership (chorus) to
15
• He first include painted backdrops
• Won 24 awards for his plays
• Lowest rank 2nd
• Plays: Antigone, Electra, Oedipus Rex
 Greek Playwrights
• Euripides
• He composed over 90 plays – 18 surviving
pieces
• Plays: Medea, Hercules, The Trojan Women
II. OEDIPUS REX
 II. OEDIPUS REX
• 429 BCE - first performed
• a tragedy by the ancient Greek
playwright Sophocles
• second of Sophocles‘ three
Theban plays to be produced
• first in the internal chronology
(followed by “Oedipus at
Colonus” and then “Antigone”) Sophocles
 II. OEDIPUS REX
 the story of King Oedipus of
Thebes
 killed his own father, Laius
 married his own mother, Jocasta
 II. OEDIPUS REX
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
• King Oedipus of Thebes
• King Laius (biological father)
• Jocasta (biological mother)
• King Polybus of Corinth (adoptive father)
• Merope (adoptive mother)
 II. OEDIPUS REX
OTHER CHARACTERS
• Shepherd /Messenger
• Oracle - a person provides a prophecy
• Tiresias
• Creon
• Antigone
• Ismene
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 1

•What was the oracle in the

story?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 2

What did King Laius do upon

learning about the oracle?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 3

What did the shepherd do with

Oedipus?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (first paragraph)
• Prophecy from an oracle • Oedipus was abandoned
• King Laius was doomed to
• found by a shepherd
perish by the hand of his own
son (Oedipus). • adopted by King Polybus
• Laius ordered his wife Jocasta of Corinth and Merope
to kill the infant Oedipus.
p. 234
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 4

How did Oedipus fulfil the first

half of the oracle?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (second paragraph)
• Prophecy from an oracle • On the road to Thebes,
• Oedipus would marry his Oedipus met Laius, they
own mother and kill his quarreled until he murder
own father Laius.
• to avoid this prophecy, fulfilling part of the
Oedipus left Corinth oracle’s prophecy
p. 234
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (third paragraph)
• Sphinx in Oedipus Rex
• a winged monster having a woman's head
and a lion's body
• propounded a riddle about the three ages
of man, killing those who failed to solve
it, until Oedipus was successful,
whereupon the Sphinx committed suicide.
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (third paragraph)
• Oedipus solved the riddle of
the Sphinx.
• Rewards:
the hand of Queen Jocasta
the crown of the city of Thebes
The prophecy was thus fulfilled.
p. 234
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (fourth paragraph)
• Play opens
• a priest and the Chorus of
Theban elders are calling on
King Oedipus to aid them with
the plague which has been sent
by Apollo to ravage the city.
• Oedipus sent Creon to consult the
oracle of Delphi.
• Creon report
• The plague will only end
when the murderer of their
former king, Laius, is caught
and brought to justice.
• Oedipus vows to find the
murderer.
p. 235
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (fifth paragraph)
• Blind prophet Tiresias
• Oedipus called Tiresias who claims
to know the answers to Oedipus‘
questions, but refuses to speak.
• the truth brings nothing but pain • last riddle by Tiresias: that the
• He advises Oedipus to abandon his
search.
• Oedipus accuses Tiresias of
complicity in the murder.
• Tiresias tells the truth to
Oedipus, that he himself is
the murderer.
murderer of Laius will turn
out to be both father and
brother to his own children,
and the son of his own wife.
p. 235
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (sixth paragraph)
• Oedipus demands that Creon be executed, • The mention of crossroads
the Chorus persuades him to let Creon live
• Jocasta tells to Oedipus, he should take no
causes Oedipus to give pause
notice of prophets and oracles and he suddenly becomes
• because, many years ago, she and worried that Tiresias‘
Laius received an oracle which never accusations may actually
came true
• everyone knows, Laius was actually have been true.
killed by bandits at a crossroads on the
way to Delphi
p. 235
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (seventh paragraph)
• Message from Corinth: • The messenger, eager to ease
• King Polybus was dead Oedipus‘ mind, tells him not
• Oedipus apparently happy, as he sees to worry because Queen
this as proof that he can never kill his Merope of Corinth was not in
father. fact his real mother anyway.
• although he still fears that he may
somehow commit incest with his
mother.
p. 236
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (eighth paragraph)
• The Message
• is also the shepherd who gave
Oedipus to King Polybus for adoption
• the same shepherd who witnessed the • Oedipus presses the shepherd to
murder of Laius
• Jocasta is beginning to realize
the truth, and desperately begs
Oedipus to stop asking questions
tell more information, until
emerges that the child he gave
away was Laius’ own son, and
that Jocasta had given the baby
to the shepherd secretly, in fear
p. 236
of the prophecy.
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 5

What did Jocasta do when she

learned the truth?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (ninth paragraph)
• With all now finally revealed
• Jocasta ran to the palace bedroom and
hanged herself
• Oedipus takes two long gold pins
from her Jocasta’s dress, and plunges
them into his own eyes.

p. 236
 II. OEDIPUS REX
•Question # 6

What happened to Oedipus in the

end?
 II. OEDIPUS REX
SYNOPSIS (tenth paragraph)
• Oedipus blindness
• Oedipus begs to be exiled as soon as possible
• He asks Creon to look after his two
daughters, Antigone and Ismene.
• Creon counsels that Oedipus should be kept
in the palace until oracles can be consulted
regarding what is best to be done,
• The play ends as the Chorus wails: ‘Count no
man happy till he dies, free of pain at last’.

p. 237
 III. MEDEA
• 431 BCE – won third price when it
was presented at the Dionysia Festival
• a tragedy by the ancient Greek
playwright Euripides
• based on Medea’s revenge against
Jason for betraying her with another
woman
Euripides
 III. MEDEA
IMPORTANT CHARACTERS
• Medes - from Colchis in the Caucusus and is considered a barbarian witch
by the Greeks
• Jason
• Glauce
• King Creon
• Aegus
• Chorus of Corinthian
 III. MEDEA
•Question # 1

What is the name of Medea’s

Husband?
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (first paragraph)
• Golden Fleece
• is a magical artifact with powerful healing
abilities
• the original Jason collected the fleece on his
journey.
• Medea, an enchantress who helped Jason,
leader of the Argonauts, to obtain the Golden
Fleece from her father, King Aeëtes of
Colchis.
 III. MEDEA
•Question # 2

What is the reason of Medea’s

husband for leaving her for
another woman?
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (first paragraph)
• After the adventures of the
Golden Fleece
• the Greek hero Jason took his
wife Medea into exile at
Corinth.
• he then left her, seeking to
advance his political
ambitions by marrying p. 237
Glauce, the daughter of King
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (second paragraph)
• Play opens • King Creon, also fearing
• Medea grieving over the what Medea might do.
loss of her husband’s • He declared that she and
love. her children must leave
• Her elderly nurse and the Corinth immediately.
Chorus of Corinthian
women fear what she p. 237
might do to herself or her
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (third paragraph)
• Jason arrives and attempts to
explain himself.
• He says that he does not love
Glauce but can not pass up the
opportunity to marry a wealthy
and royal princess and claims that
he hopes one day to join the two
families and keep Medea as his
mistress.
• Medea and the Chorus of Corinthian
women do not believe him.
• She reminds him that she left her
own people for him, murdering her
own brother for his sake, so that she
can never now return home.
• She also reminds him that it was she
herself who saved him and slew the
dragon which guarded the Golden
Fleece p. 238
• She secretly plans to kill both Glauce
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (fourth paragraph)
• Medea is then visited by Aegeus
(childless king of Athens), who
asks the renowned sorceress to
help his wife conceive a child
• In return, Medea asks for his
protection and, although Aegeus
is not aware of Medea‘s plans for
revenge, he promises to give her
refuge if she can escape to
Athens.
p. 238
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (fifth paragraph)
• As Medea ponders her actions, a • She wrestles with herself over whether
messenger arrives to relate the she can bring herself to kill her own
children too, speaking lovingly to them
wild success of her plan. all the while in a moving and chilling
• Glauce has been killed by the scene. After a moment of hesitation, she
eventually justifies it as a way of saving
poisoned robe, and Creon has them from the retribution of Jason and
also been killed by the poison Creon‘s family. As the Chorus of women
while attempting to save her, both laments her decision, the children are
daughter and father dying in heard screaming. The Chorus considers
excruciating pain. interfering, but in the end does nothing.
p. 238
 III. MEDEA
•Question # 3

How did Medea kill her

husband’s other woman?
 III. MEDEA
•Question # 4

What is Medea’s reason for

killing her own children?
 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (sixth paragraph)
• Medea tells the Chorus of her • She calls for Jason once more,
plans to poison a golden robe (a pretends to apologize to him and
family heirloom and gift from the sends the poisoned robe and
sun god, Helios) which she crown as a gift to Glauce, with
believes the vain Glauce will not her children as the gift-bearers.
be able to resist wearing.
• She resolves to kill her own
children as well, the best way her
tortured mind can think of to hurt p. 238
Jason.
 III. MEDEA
•Question # 5

How did Medea’s story end?

 III. MEDEA
SYNOPSIS (seventh paragraph)
• Jason discovers the murder of
Glauce and Creon and rushes to
the scene to punish  Medea, only
to learn that his children too have
been killed. Medea appears in the
chariot of Artemis, with the
corpses of her children, mocking
and gloating over Jason’s pain.
• She prophesies a bad end for
Jason too before escaping
towards Athens with her
children’s bodies. The play
ends with the Chorus lamenting
that such tragic and unexpected
evils should result from the will
of the gods.
p. 238