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Ancient Greece
Sophocles and Oedipus Rex
Greece in the 4th Century B.C
 Greece was the
superpower of the
known world
 The Greeks worshiped
many gods: Zeus,
Hera, Athena, Apollo,
etc.
 Greek citizens were
required to attend
festivals to worship and
honor the gods.
Festival of Dionysis
 Dionysis was the god of
wine, agriculture, and theater
 During this religious festival
there was a theater
competition – each
competing playwright
submitted 3 tragedies and 1
comedy
 Winners won a goat
 The most successful and
recognized playwright was
Sophocles
Sophocles
 Wrestler, musician,
general, politician
 Very handsome and
successful
 Celebrated playwright
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120 (ish) plays
20 (ish) first prizes
 Only 7 plays remain –
the most famous:
Oedipus Rex
Theater of the Greeks
 Every show was done during the day
 Audiences could be as many as 14,000
 Minimal, if any set
 Only the “chorus”
 Thespis – first “actor”
 All the actors were men – wore masks
 Never showed any violence on stage.
More Theater of the Greeks
 The Chorus
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A group of about 15 men
Speak in one voice as one “character”
Represent the people – in this case the people
of Thebes
Offer prayers to the gods
Summarizes the action
Oedipus Rex Notes…
 Background
 Oedipus leaves his home city of Corinth to go
wandering
 Comes to a cross road and kills a man who
wouldn’t get out of his way
 Comes to city of Thebes who has recently lost
their king.
 Thebes is under siege of the Sphinx and her
riddle
 Oedipus answers riddle, Sphinx dies, Oedipus
is made king and marries the previous queen
Sphinx’s Riddle…how smart are you?
 What walks on four legs
in the morning, two in
the afternoon, and three
in the evening?
 Answers? (you die if
you get it wrong…)
 A man – child, healthy
adult, old man with a
cane
Oedipus Rex Notes…
 Remember:
 This is a story that
was not invented by
Sophocles
 The original
audiences would
have known the story
and how it ended
Apollo…
 Greek god of music,
medicine, light, truth, and
poetry

Also the sun god
(sorta)
 Had an oracle at Delphi –
which was the most famous
oracle of Ancient Greece

An oracle is a
priestess who delivers
the prophesies of the
god
Oedipus Rex Notes…
 Themes
 Willingness to ignore the truth
 Limits of free will
 Human pride
 Symbolism
 Sight and Light = Truth
 Blindness and Dark = Ignorance/lies
 Motifs (when an author uses a literary element over
and over – in this case symbols and irony – that
emphasize the themes)
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Sight vs. Blindness / Light vs. Dark
Dramatic irony
Literary Terms for you…
 Irony – when the opposite of what is expected
happens
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Situational Irony – when a character or reader
expects one thing to happen but something
else entirely happens
Verbal Irony – when someone says one thing
but means another
Dramatic Irony – the contrast between what a
character knows and what the reader or
audience knows