| Term | Definition |
|---|
| theater of dionysos | looked like a football stadium |
| oedipus | means "swollen foot" or "club foot" |
| oracle | person who can see the future |
| polynices and eteocles | sons of oedipus and jocasta |
| antigone and ismene | daughters of oedipus and joscasta |
| tiresias | blind prophet |
| oedipus | killed his father and married his mother |
| polynices | attacked the seven gates of thebes |
| antigone | believes that Gods laws must be obeyed |
| antigone | written by sophocles, the most well-known of all greek dramatists |
| greeks | worshipped many gods, believed in fate as a divine force |
| greeks | held many religious festivals |
| catharsis | heightening of emotions |
| acropolis | slopes where the first theater had been held |
| unity of time | all the action of the play provided background information |
| unity of place | action was limited to one |
| unity of subject | focus was on the plots |
| messengers | used to tell the audience about what happened offstage |
| creon | recently made king of thebes, he is the uncle to his sisters children: eteocles, polynices, antigone, and ismene |
| eteocles | he and his brother shared the throne after his father left thebes in shame. he and creon fought against polynices and his foreign troops |
| polynices | after both sons were killed, creon declared eteocles a hero and polynices a traitor |
| antigone | niece of creon and sister to the two boys; she is very upset at creons refusal to give a proper burial to both boys |
| ismene | sister of antigone and the two boys |
| haemon | son of creon and intented husband of antigone |
| queen eurydice | haemons mother |
| chorus leader | usually provides opportunity for dialogue within the chorus |
| tiresias | the blind soothsayer who is able to look into the future |
| the boy | he leads tiresias around and acts as his eyes |
| function of the chorus | set the tone, give essential background information, recall events in the past, etc. |
| sophocles | antigone was written by |
| fate | the greeks believed that the the divine force was even stronger than the gods |
| dead relatives | the greeks believed that an important religious duty was the burial of |
| hades | the greeks believed that after death, a person's soul went to live in |
| dionysos | the earliest dramas were part of religious festivals in honor of the god |
| tragic hero | the main character in a tragedy is known as the |
| flaw | his downfall is brought about by a tragic in his character |
| catharsis | through witnessing the downfall of the main character, the audience undergoes a purging or draining of their emotions, known as a |
| unity of time, place, subject | greek dramas followed the three unities |
| messenger | violent acts were kept offstage, not on. so if an act of violence occurred, it would be told about by a |
| chorus | a group of men who acted as the wise men of the town and who would interact with the characters as known as |
| oedipus | eteocles and polynices are sons of |
| polynices turn to be king | the reason for the fighting between the brothers is |
| thebes | the name of the city in which the story takes place is |
| buried with honors | at his first act as the new king, creon declares that eteocles will be |
| not be buried | polynices will |
| being a traitor, attacked thebes | polynices crime is |
| death | the punishment for burying polynices is |
| bury polynices | antigone awakens ismene to tell her that she plans to |
| safe, cautious, and conservative | in contrast to antigone, ismene can best be characterized as |
| can be at rest or can enter hades | antigone feels that they need to bury polynices so that his soul |
| women | ismene feels that one reason her and antigone should do nothing is that both of them are |
| four | from ismene, we learn that members of their family have already died |
| father, mother | ismene mentions the crimes of their father oedipus. oedipus made the mistake of killing and doing the wild thing with |
| conscience, law | the central conflict of the drama: antigone chooses to obey her rather than to obey |
| below, earth | one reason for burying polynices is that life lasts longer than life |
| someone would obey polynices | creon is worried. he fears that |
| chorus | creon wants to be sure that he has the support of |
| buried polynices body | a soldier brings the news that |
| blaming each other | the guards/soldiers begin arguing because |
| tells creon what happened | the soldiers throw dice to decide who |
| gods | creon thinks the chorus members are stupid for believing that the burial of polynices might be a sign from |
| paranoid | creon believes there exists a group of people "who complained when he issued his proclamation" and "who opposed him from the outset." the best word to describe creon is |
| money | creon believes that others would be willing to oppose him, but only when they are motivated by |
| find who buried polynices | creon tells the guards that he will be put to death if he is not able to |
| conscience | the soldier tells creon that the problem might really lie with creons |
| arrogant | the chorus warns us that a man is , lawless, or neglectful will be brought low |
| mountain/cave | the scene has moved from the city of thebes to |
| death | antigones tomb is also her wedding chamber because she will become the bride of |
| all of her family is dead | in a sense, antigone is going home because |
| they also died in the cave, similar to antigones death | diane and danae are mentioned because |
| because he is blind | tiresias is led onto stage by a boy because |
| birds | tiresias fears that something bad is going to happen soon: he reads the death of many as a bad omen |
| thebes, creons unbening will | the dead bird represents and the fire represents |
| the unburied body of polynices | the gods cry out for vengeance beacuse of |
| advises creon that everyone makes mistakes/not punish antigone/let polynices have a proper burial | tiresias advises creon to |
| desire for money | creon believes that tiresias is not telling him the truth and that tiresias story is motivated by |
| king | tiresias reminds creon that on account of him, creon is |
| death of his sone haemon | creon angers tiresias. tiresias then warns creon that, because of his arrogance, will also occur |
| doesn't want to look weak and lose his reputation | creon is still worried about letting antigone go free because he |
| chorus leader | the one who is finally able to get creon to change his mind about antigone is |
| eurydice | creons wife |
| haemon | they journey out to the cave. when they arrive, from the inside the cave they hear the voice of |
| hanging herself | antigone had killed herself by |
| creon | two guards stop haemon from murdering |
| stabbing himself | haemon then kills himself by |
| eurydice will kill herself | when the chorus leader says "i do not trust extremes of silence in the face of grief," he means that he fears |
| creon, pride/stubborness | a tragic hero is one who brings about his own downfall by a flaw in his character. in this story, the tragic hero is , whose character flaw is the flaw of |
| his wife killed herself | while creon is trying to cope with his sons death, he then recieves the further bad news that |
| death of haemon | eurydice stabbed herself because of the news of |
| wise | the chorus tells us that, through the death of those near to him, creon has at least become |
| flexible/forgiving, stubborn/proud/strict | the moral sin of this story might be that it is better to be than |
| wine and fertility | dionysos is the god of |
| dionysos | early greek drama was performed in honor of |
| athens | these dramas were held in the city of |
| Thespis | he transformed greek drama in two ways: first, to the praises of dionysos, he added stories of famous heroes or gods; then, he had a masked chorus member play the part of the hero or god and engage in dialogue with the chorus. His name was |
| conflict | Aeschylus then added a second individual actor, which created the potential for |
| satyr | during the Dionysia, most playwrights presented tragedies, but there were also lewd comedies known as |
| actors voices would be amplified | many of the masks had exaggerated mouthpieces, so that |
| they were told that he was going to kill his father and marry his mother | Laios and Jocasta decided to leave their baby boy to die. Why? |
| the old man was trying to run him off the road | on his way to Thebes, Oedipus kills an old man. What was the cause of their fight? |
| he solved its riddle. the answer was "man" | how does Oedipus defeat the Sphinx? |
| he saved Thebes from the sphinx | When Oedipus enters Thebes, he is welcomed as a hero. Why? |
| Made him their king and the queen (Jocasta) became his bride | What prize is Oedipus given? |
| the murderer of King Laios | The oracle said that the plague of Thebes would not end until who was punished? |
| Teiresias | Oedipus learns who killed Laios by asking the blind prophet named |
| Jocasta kills herself | When the truth of what Oedipus has done is finally known, Jocasta does what? |
| gouged out his eyes to punish himself for being blind to the truth | And Oedipus does what? |
| because his brother, Eteocles refused to give up his throne | Why was Polynecies attacking Thebes? |
| bury Polyneices | As the play opens,we learn that Creon has declared that no one should |
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