In his play, Antigone, Sophocles explores varying perspectives of justice through the fates of his characters. Young Antigone defies the laws of her nation and her ruler, Creon, by burying her brother, who has been declared a traitor, despite the decree against it. She is caught in the act, and Creon sentences her to a ...
The Greek drama Antigone, written by Sophocles in the fifth century, is a play about how far a sister will go to honor her recently deceased brother. It seems that the king of Thebes, Oedipus, had two sons: Eteocles and Polyneices. Eteocles drove Polyneices out of Thebes into Argos after their father passed away. Polyneices ...
Oedipus Rex, by Sophocles, is the tale of a tragic hero, as defined by Aristotle. This book is the story of a king who learns that he has done a terrible deed through his own folly. He is consequently punished. This classic story teaches the lesson that pride and other sins come before a fall. ...
A recent reading of PENDENNIS by William Makepeace Thackeray reminded me how prevalent is the theme of mother and son incest in classic literature. While the societal taboo is implied in some of the works, even a cursory reading leaves one sensing the lust of the mother for her son. In Thackeray’s classic 19th century ...
The women characters in Sophocles’ Oedipus and Antigone were portrayed in many ways. Each character had her own way of interacting and dealing with the men in her life. Each character is able to be compared against Pericles’ ideal of Athenian womanhood. Many of these women show traits that contrast immensely with this ideal of ...
In The Poetics of Aristotle, translated by Preston H. Epps, tragedy is defined as “an imitation, through action rather than narration, of a serious, complete, and ample action, …in which imitation there is also effected through pity and fear its catharsis of these similar emotions.” Aristotle believed there were six elements that comprised a tragedy: ...
An avid reader of mythology would be able to observe that the typical Greek myth will most likely contain at least one person who can be admired for their heroics. In a Greek myth the definition of a hero or heroine would be: “a figure who is representative of the individual who confronts conflicts similar ...
Hegel described a tragedy as being a conflict between two sides, people or groups where there is no clear right or wrong, and both sides refuse to compromise. In Antigone, Sophocles illustrates Hegel’s principle. He beautifully conveys both Creon’s and Antigone’s characters and arguments. At the end of the play, Sophocles offers no true explanation ...
Most of the tragedies written by Greek authors in the fifth century before Christ have been lost, but some of the dramas of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides survive. Aeschylus, the oldest, died in 456 B.C. Sophocles and Euripides, his younger contemporaries, died a few years before the close of the Peloponnesian War in 404 B.C. ...
Sophocles’ tragedy “Oedipus the King” is considered by most to be the greatest tragedy ever written. Even in his own time, Sophocles won the Dionysia Festival over twenty times, a feat that shows just how well expected he was. In order to follow the play, it’s helpful to know the back story. King Laius, ruler ...
