1. The Ancient Greeks took their entertainment very seriously and used drama as a way of investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human.

2. Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. Typically the main protagonist of a tragedy commits some terrible crime without realizing how foolish and arrogant he has been. Then, as he slowly realizes his error, the world crumbles around him. The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Aristotle argued that tragedy cleansed the heart through pity and terror, purging us of our petty concerns and worries by making us aware that there can be nobility in suffering. He called this experience 'catharsis'.

3. This critical stance is based on the work of the philosopher Aristotle, whose Poetics (fourth century B.C.) laid out the basis for traditional analysis of drama or “dramatic” fiction. Aristotle asserts that poetic art is “the imitation of an action,” a spiritual movement which is represented in concrete artistic form and which then becomes universal. This imitation, or mimesis, is a writer’s attempt to represent reality or truth in artistic form.

4. Tragic plots must have a clear beginning, middle, and end, and the action should be ordered and continuous, arising through a cause and effect process.

5. The events in the play should inspire pity and terror in its viewers, allowing them, through vicarious participation in the dramatic event to attain an emotional purgation, moral purification or clarity of intellectual viewpoint.

6. Tragedy is characterized by protagonists who are “highly renowned and prosperous.” And whose reversal of fortune and fall from greatness are brought about “not by vice or depravity, but by some error or frailty.” The protagonist’s inner weakness or inherent error is called the hamartia, taken from the Greek word meaning “to err’ or “to miss the mark.” The harmatia often concerns excessive pride or hubris. hubris. The reversal of fortune is characterized by “reversal of situation” (peripeteia) and “recognition” (anagnorisis). Aristotle believed that in the most successful tragedies, the moment of recognition and the reversal of situation take place in the same narrative event.

7. A scene of suffering must also take place in tragedy. Aristotle, and the Greeks in general, viewed suffering as a prerequisite for wisdom.

8. Was a winged monster of Anatolian origin. It had heavenly powers and was settled near the city of Ancient Thebes, spreading destruction and bad luck to the entire district. Had long hair, the body of a lion, the chest and wings of a bird and the head of a woman.

9. The Sphinx used to sit outside of Thebes, asking the same riddle to anyone who passed by. The riddle was going as follows: "What goes on four legs at dawn, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?" Would the traveler fail to solve the riddle, he was cursed to die.

10. No one was ever capable of answering correctly... until one day, Oedipus came along. Oedipus was promised the hand of the princess should he interpret the riddle correctly. As he was famous for his wisdom, Oedipus found the answer to the riddle with ease, replying: "Man, who as a baby crawls on four legs, then walks on two legs as an adult and in old age walks with a cane as his third leg..." The Sphinx became so frustrated about this answer that it committed suicide immediately, throwing herself from a high rock.

11. What is Reality? What is Illusion?

12. In Oedipus Rex, Sophocles demonstrates the forever prominent theme, ignorance is bliss. The Greek outlook on my particular theme is an unique one- facing reality is not up to the characters. It is up to fate, the harsh reality displayed in this play. Oedipus is damned from the moment he was born; nevertheless, by abandoning him to die Laius and Jocasta attempt to change inevitable reality. As Oedipus grows up, he is taught that he is the son of the king and queen of Corinth. His entire life is a lie, everything he knows a mere illusion. He so strongly believes this lie that the horrible prophecy has to come true in order for him to face reality and accept his fate. Oedipus now faces a catastrophic identity crisis, not to mention separation from his family forever out of shame. However, if he were simply told the truth, all of this would be irrelevant. But fate has never been one for changing its mind.

13. A strophe (/ ˈ stro ʊ fi ː /) is a poetic term originally referring to the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy, followed by the antistrophe and epode. In its original Greek setting, "strophe, antistrophe and epode were a kind of stanza framed only for the music," as John Milton wrote in the preface to Samson Agonistes, with the strophe chanted by a Greek chorus as it moved from right to left across the scene. Etymology Strophe (from Greek στροφή, "turn, bend, twist") is a concept in versification which properly means a turn, as from one foot to another, or from one side of a chorus to the other.

14. Oedipus Jocasta Creon Tiresias A Priest Chorus Strophe Antistrophe Messenger Old Shepherd Palace Official Attendants & Servants - All Citizens - All