Oedipus the King
Term explanation
Tragedy: is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying
catharsis or pleasure in audiences. Tragic plots were most often based
upon myths from the oral traditions of archaic epics. In tragic theatre,
however, these narrative were presented by actors. Athenian tragedies were
performed in late March/ early April at an annual state religious festival in
honor of Dionysus.
Drama: is the
specific mode of narrative, typically fictional, represented in performance.
It often combined with music and dance. The drama in opera is generally sung
throughout. Musicals generally include both spoken dialogue and songs. And some
forms of drama have identical music or musical accompaniment underscoring the dialogue.
Comedy: It refers to any discourse or work
generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by including laughter, especially
in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy.
Catharsis: is the purification and purgation of emotions- especially pity and fear. It describes
the effect of tragedy principally on the audience. It is a metaphor originally
used by Aristotle in the Poetics, comparing the effects of tragedy.
Chorus: a group of characters in Greek tragedy,
who comment on the action of a play without participation in it. Their leader
is the choragos. The chorus represent , on stage, the general population of the
particular story. In contrast, with many of the themes of the ancient Greek
plays which tented to be about individual heroes, gods and goddess. They were
often the same sex as the main character. In Aeschylus, Agamemnon, the chorus
comprises the elderly men of Argos, whereas in Euripides’ The Bachhae, they
were a group of eastern bacchantes , and in Sophocles’ Electra, the chorus
represents the woman of Argos. The parts however were acted by males. In
Aeschylus’ The Eumenides, however, the chorus takes the part of a host of
avenging Furies.
History of western drama
Classical
Greek Drama
Western drama
originates in classical Greece.
Satyr
play: it was an ancient Greek
form of tragicomedy, similar in spirit to the bawdy satire of burlesque. In the
Athenian Dionysia, each playwright customarily entered four plays into the
competition : three tragedies and one satyr play to be performed either at the
end of the festival or between the second and third tragedies of a trilogy, as
a spirited entertainment, a comic relief to break the oppression of hours of
gloomy and fatalistic tragedy.
God+ mortal ‘s child
Dionysus: He is the god of the grape harvest,
winemaking and wine. He is the son of Zeus and Semele
Semele: She is the mortal mother of Dionysus by
Zeus in one of his many origin myths.
Illegitimate child-
For example : Athena, Dionysus
Athena: She is the goddess of wisdom. She is the
virgin patroness of Athens.
Thespis: creator of tragedy--
He was the first person ever to appear on stage as an actor playing a character in a play. In other sources, he is said to have to introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus. He was a singer of
dithyrambs. He is credit with introducing a new style in which one singer or
actor performed the words of individual characters in the stories,
distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks. This new
style called tragedy. He was the most popular exponent of it. Eventually, to
find the best tragedy were instituted at the City Dionysia in Athens, and Thespis
won the first documented competition. Capitalising on his success, he was also
invented theatrical touring.
Aristophanes: the comic writer
Aristophanes
He was a comic
playwright of ancient Athens. He was also known as the Father of Comedy and the
prince of Ancient.
Ancient Greek comedy
Old
comedy [archaia]
The most important
Old Comic dramatist is Aristophanes Born in 446 BC, whose works, with their
pungent political satire and abundance of sexual and scatological innuendo,
effectively define the genre today. His most important contemporary rivals
being Hermippus and Eupolis.
Middle
comedy [mese]
Aristophanes and
others of the latest writers of the Old Comedy being sometimes regarded as the earliest
Middle Comic poets. There have some different points from the Old Comedy. The
role of the chorus was diminished to the point where it had no influence on the
plot, public characters were not impersonated or personified onstage, and the
objects of ridicule were general rather than personal, literary rather than
political.
New
Comedy [nea]
New Comedy
followed the death of Alexander the Great in 323 and lasted throughout the
reign of the Macedonian rulers, ending about 260 BC. It is comparable to
situation comedy and comedy of manners. The three best known playwrights
belonging to thus genre are Menander, Philemon,
Diphilus.
Greek Tragedians
Aeschylus
The first of
classical Athen’s great dramatists, who raised the emerging art of tragedy to
great heights and theatrical power.
Sophocles
He was the younger
contemporary of Aeschylus and the older contemporary of Euripides. The best
known of his drama was Oedipus the king.
Euripides
He was most
considered to be the most socially critical of all the ancient Greek
tragedians, and his plays seem quite modern in comparison with those of his
contemporaries.
Vocabulary
nov:
new
innovation: a new idea, device
or method
renovation: to make changes or
repair
vok:
to call
invoke: to mention someone or
something in an attempt to make people feel a certain way
provoke: to make something
happen
ab:
negative thoughts
abortive: falling
to achieve the desire result
Phrase
be credit with
feel like Ving
Additional Supplement
inauguration: the
act of starting a new operation or practice
cocky: pertly self
assertive
ecstasy: an
overpowering emotion or exaltation
Book discussion
p.603 Ancient Athenian Drama
provide compelling
stories about human relationships, whose absorbing, often
violent or
melodramatic plots invite us to think about profound issues, such as the nature
of justice, the meaning of suffering, and clashes between family and state and
between human and divine perspectives.
The
two major Athenian religious occasions that included major Athenian religious occasions
that included major dramatic performances: the Great Dionysia and the Lernaea.
Lernaea: was an
ancient serpenine water monster with reptilian traits in Greek and Roman
mythology.
p.604
Dramatists also
learned from Homer how to create vivid dialogue and fast, exciting narrative,
as well as sympathy for a range of different characters, Greek and foreigner
alike.
Movie
The great Gatsby
Chapter 1
In
my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve
been turn over in my mind ever since. 