Notes and Essential Questions for Sophocles, Antigone

In the past, my study question style has been to throw spazzy lists of personal questions at you. That's a good strategy to prepare -- you HAVE noticed by now, haven't you, that my study questions are simply a model of how YOU can prepare homework material yourself? There's nothing stopping you except time and effort from making your own web pages on these texts! -- but there are others as well.

Since there is so much background information in the "Notes" section, let's try a different style of questions. Instead of lots of spazzy questions, how about a few essential questions, important, overarching questions that are designed to make you think about big and lasting ideas instead of small ideas that may get you a couple of quiz points, but that you won't really remember.

In fact, this "essential questions" approach to figuring out what's important may be more familiar to you from History class. Let me know which style works best for you! (And use it yourself!!)

NOTES

pp. 95-101 Mythological context

NAMES TO KNOW:

Zeus, "father of gods and men" and sneaky thief of Europa (95)
Kadmos, brother of Europa who searches for her (95)
Delphi, a place where the oracle offers true but confusing predictions to those seeking guidance (95)
Apollo, god of wisdom, who tells Kadmos to call of his search and create the city of Thebes (95)
        Kadmos creates Thebes, but he also kills a dragon belonging to Ares, god of war (95)
                                                -- it's not safe to make the god of war mad at you!
Teiresias, a blind prophet who lives for seven generations and knows EVERYTHING about sex! (96)
Laios, great-grandson of Kadmos, becomes king of Thebes (95-96)
            violates the hospitality of Pelops, son of Tantalos, by stealing Pelops' son
            Pelops CURSES him: if Laios has a son by his wife Jocasta, that son will kill him
Jocasta, wife of Laios, mother of Oedipus (96)

OEDIPUS, son of Laios and Jocasta, cast out in the mountains in hopes of avoiding Pelops' curse (96)
he grows up thinking he is the son of the king and queen of Corinth, so he leaves Corinth, ends up going towards Thebes, meets someone along the way that he gets in a fight with and kills (guess who!)

Sphinx, a mythological creature with a riddle, who is tormenting Thebes (96)
Kreon, brother of Jocasta, who is ruling Thebes in Laios' absence, promises the kingdom and the hand of Jocasta to the man who defeats the Sphinx

Oedipus kills the Sphinx and becomes King of Thebes and husband of Queen Jocasta!
Oedipus and Jocasta have four kids: twin boys, Eteokles and Polyneices, daughters Ismene and ANTIGONE

When the truth comes out about Oedipus and Jocasta, she kills herself and he blinds himself and leaves Thebes forever (Antigone takes care of him until he dies)

With everyone else out of the picture, twins Eteokles and Polyneices promise to share power by alternating years in charge. Eteokles goes first and refuses to give up the throne after his year is up. Polyneices gathers an army and attacks the city.

The people of Thebes ask Teiresias (see above) who will win the battle between the two twins' armies. Teiresias reminds them that Ares is still mad about his dragon (see above), and that the only way to appease him is the death of a descendant of one of the dragonslayers. Megareus, son of Kreon and nephew of Jocasta (see above), sacrifices himself for the good of Thebes.

Thanks to Megareus, Thebes wins the battle. However, Eteokles and Polyneices kill each other in the process. The only leader left to rule is Kreon, Megareus' father, who takes over as king. His first act as king is to honor Eteokles and those who died defending Thebes. At the same time, he insults Polyneices and those who attacked the city by refusing to bury them at all. (This is more than an insult, but an eternal punishment: the Greeks believed that without burial, a person's soul could not travel to the underworld and its natural resting place, but had instead to wander the earth forever.)

As the play begins, Antigone and Ismene are discussing what should be done about their unburied brother, Polyneices.
 

pp. 20-72 Sophocles' Antigone

DIALOGUES -- keeping track of who is on stage and who is speaking to whom is important! This catalog should also help you find passages you might need to support an argument (in class discussion or in your CHARACTER SKETCH essay coming up!)

21-25     Antigone & Ismene
27-29     Kreon & Koryphaios (the chorus leader)
29-34, 36-38 Kreon & Sentry
38-42    Kreon & Antigone
42-45    Antigone & Ismene & Kreon
46-52    Kreon & Haimon
53-57    Antigone & Kreon & Chorus
59-63    Kreon & Teiresias
66-69    Eurydice & Messenger
70-72    Kreon with Koryphaois & Messenger

TERMS TO KNOW -- these will be discussed in class; make sure you know them before a quiz pops up!

catharsis -- cleansing emotional outburst of pity and sorrow
hamartia --your most prominent characteristic; inevitably BOTH your greatest strength AND your greatest weakness
hubris -- a person exhibiting hubris will be insulting the gods by acting as if he or she has unlimited powers;
                the traditonal definition is "overweening pride"
nemesis -- the inevitable and suitable outcome (although it may feel like punishment!) of humans' flawed interactions;
                hubris is sure to lead to nemesis
stichomythia -- the dramatic SHOWDOWN in which a rapid exchange of dialogue develops from preceding longer speeches
Thespis -- the founder of drama, from whom we get the term "thespian"

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

What did Sophocles' audience expect to get from a tragedy like Antigone? Do we expect the same things today?

How do we know when we are doing what's right and when we are overstepping the bounds of our capabilities?

How should we act when we feel that competing loyalties require conflicting things from us? (Government "vs." religion; parents "vs." romantic partners)

How do we decide when a loved one is being reasonable or unreasonable? (Antigone, Kreon, Haimon) What can we do if we think he or she IS being unreasonable? (Antigone, Kreon, Haimon, Teiresias)

What is the relationship -- if any! -- between the biological differences of sex and the cultural differences of gender? (Now THIS is an essential question!!!)