1. Oedipus the King
Sophocles B.C.

2. Greek Dramatists Aeschylus— Prometheus Bound Euripides— Medea
Sophocles—Antigone, Ajax, Electra, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus

3. Sophocles --Produced more than 120 plays
--Introduced the “third actor” to Greek drama, creating “triangular scenes”
--Often used a well-known story as the source of his tragedy; Oedipus’ tale would have been recognized by the audience

4. Key Terms and Ideas The Riddle of the Sphinx
Oedipus the King as a tragedy
Oedipus as a tragic hero
Oedipus’ tragic flaw
Role of Prophecy
Fate vs. Free will in Greek Drama
Role of the Gods
Dramatic Irony
Jokasta, Freud and the Oedipal complex

5. Central Characters Laios : Former King of Thebes who was Murdered
Polybos: Queen of the deceased Laios; married Oedipus after he solved the riddle of the Sphinx
Kreon: Brother of Jokasta ; Oedipus accuses him of lusting after the throne
Tiresias: The blind seer whose prophesies are never wrong concerning Oedipus
Polybos and Merope: The “parents” of Oedipus from Corinth
The Drunkard: at a banquet, he blurts out a rumor about Oedipus’ suspicious parentage

6. Characters Continued
The Priest: leader of the people who pleads with Oedipus to help the people of Thebes survive the plague
The Chorus: really of collection of Theban citizens that act as an interlude and convey information
Corinth Messenger: Tells Oedipus Polybos is dead; also conveys to Oedipus that Polybos is not his real father
Theban Shepherd: kind-hearted individual who took the infant Oedipus and gave him to a shepherd on Mount Kithairon

7. “The journey from ignorance to knowledge through suffering>”
Tragedy
“The journey from ignorance to knowledge through suffering>”

8. Aristotle and the Tragic Plot
1) Peripeteia: Reversal of a situation, from apparent good to bad
2) Anagnorisis: Recognition, usually of a terrible truth
3) “Scene of suffering”—a “destructive or painful action”

9. Aristotle’s Poetics
Mimesis: Tragedy not an exact imitation of life but a representation
Catharsis: “proper purgation”-- release of emotions at the end of the tragedy. Pity (eleos) and fear (phobos)

10. The Tragic Hero Capable of greatness
Misfortunes caused by some great error or frailty.
Hamartia—the tragic flaw. What humanizes the protagonist.
Tragic dilemma: fate vs. free will in Greek tragedy

11. The Sphinx pic one
An image of the Sphinx, a wonder of the ancient world

12. The Sphinx pic two
The side-view of the Sphinx—the slides that follow will relay its importance

13. The Sphinx Means “strangler”
The Sphinx had a woman's head, a lion's body, an eagle's wings, and the tail of a serpent
First hear of her in the works of Hesiod
Many competing versions of the myth

14. Sphinx continued Daughter of a monster, probably Chimaera
Father was the dog Orthos, sister was the Nemean Lion.
Name is Phix, but pronounced in English as Sphinx.

15. Sphinx Continued
She asked every traveler a riddle: "What goes on four legs in the morning, two at noon, and three in the evening?" Those who failed to answer she would strangle and eat.
After Oedipus answers, the Sphinx hurled herself from the rock to her death
--Oedipus wins Jokasta’s hand in marriage

16. A Chronology of Oedipus’ life
Laios receives prophesy from oracle: “doom will strike him down at the hands of a son.”
Oedipus born; at three days old, his ankles are fastened
Henchman supposedly “flings him away on a barren, trackless mountain”
The “henchman”--a shepherd—takes pity on the baby doesn’t kill him but instead gives him to a fellow shepherd on Mount Cithaeron
That shepherd gives the baby to Polybos King of Corinth and Merope, his queen, who raise him as their son

17. A Chronology of Oedipus’ life
Years pass by; the boy thinks he is the son of Polybos and Merope and is raised as such; Oedipus is thus the “prince of the realm”
Key scene: at a banquet, an drunk man shouted to Oedipus that he was not his father’s son.
Oedipus questions mother and father, who are “enraged at the fool,” but do not tell him the truth. The entire situation “gnaws” at Oedipus as the slander spreads
Oedipus goes to Delphi; Apollo spurns him, but flashes a vision of the future before Oedipus:

18. A Chronology of Oedipus’ life
Apollo’s prophecy to Oedipus: “You are fated to couple with your mother, you will bring a breed of children into the light no man can bear to see—you will kill your father . . .”
A distraught Oedipus runs from Corinth to keep the prophecy from coming true
Runs to the “triple crossroads” or “the place where three roads meets: kills King Laios and his band of men there (all but one, actually). Ambiguous whether it was murder or manslaughter (self-defense). In the very act of running from the prophecy, Oedipus has made part of it come true.

19. A Chronology of Oedipus’ life
Oedipus runs to Thebes; confronts the Sphinx, solves her riddle
Oedipus takes Jokasta as his queen and becomes the new King of Thebes.
Everyone in Thebes thinks that Oedipus has a good fate: “a god was with you, so they say.”
Years pass: Oedipus and Jokasta have children, including Ismene and Antigone. Oedipus is a good king and is seen as a savior by the people of Thebes.
Narrative action of the play begins.

20. Sigmund Freud and the Oedipal Complex
Freud was a physiologist, medical doctor, psychologist and is generally recognized as the father of psychoanalysis
The young child develops an interest in its sexual organs as a site of pleasure (the 'phallic' stage), and develops a deep sexual attraction for the parent of the opposite sex,
and a hatred of the parent of the same sex (the 'Oedipus complex'). This, however, gives rise to (socially derived) feelings of guilt in the child, who recognizes that it can never supplant the stronger parent.

21. Oedipal Complex Continued
Both the attraction for the mother and the hatred are usually repressed, and the child usually resolves the conflict of the Oedipus complex by coming to identify with the parent of the same sex.