#the three theban plays

[heartoppression]

Oedipus did have one freedom: he was free to find out or not find out the truth. […] This freedom to search, and the heroic way in which Oedipus uses it, make the play not a picture of man's utter feebleness caught in the toils of fate, but on the contrary, a heroic example of man's dedication to the search for truth, the truth about himself.

Bernard Knox, in the introductory notes to Sophocles' Oedipus the King (trans. Robert Fagles)

#082022 #Sophocles #Bernard Knox #Robert Fagles #Oedipus the King #Oedipus Rex #The Three Theban Plays #lit

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

Despite so many ordeals, my advanced age and the nobility of my soul make me conclude that all is well.

from Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, as quoted and translated in The Myth of Sisyphus by Albert Camus 

#oedipus #oedipus colonus #oedipus at colonus #the oedipus cycle #oedipus cycle #sophocles #the three theban plays #the three theban tragedies #three theban tragedies #three theban plays #tragic #tragedy #absurd #the absurd #absurdism #absurdity #absurd victory #the myth of sisyphus #myth of sisyphus #sisyphus #sisyphos #sisyphean #sisyphean task #albert camus #camus #all is well #ordeals #old age #nobility #wisdom

[gen-is-gone]

So was anybody gonna tell me that Jodie Whittaker and Chris Eccleston star in a filmed performance of Antigone or was I just supposed to learn that from a mean-spirited tumblr post myself?

#jodie whittaker #christopher eccleston #Antigone is my favorite of the three Theban plays #it looks amazing too #megan whines into the empty abyss of cyberspace

[babygirl-olympics]

#babygirlifying him #poll #babygirl olympics #spree #spree movie #kurt kunkle #kurt kunkle spree #oedipus #oedipus rex #three theban plays #greek myths #greek plays #greek tragedy #please vote

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

Polynices and Eteocles kill each other, but Oedipus is also murdering both from beyond the grave. All three are also killing Antigone, their strife makes her death inevitable as well. Fratricide, sororicide and filicide all at once...

#polynices #eteocles #oedipus #antigone #oedipus trilogy #three theban plays #why do people always focus on oedipus' relationship with jocasta? #his relationship with his children is far more interesting

[lostjulys]

xl CONTINUES to be so anouilh antigone coded btw.

#^ some of the xl / bw interactions earlier reminded me so much of this.. #i would say like. minus the homoeroticism of evry scene w/ them but also like... this is the three theban plays we're talking about so. #construe it how u like. </3 #tgcf #dot text

[shcherbatskya]

is it worth it to pay the same amount of money for one play and not three just cause i don’t like the cover image on the three plays.

#it’s the three theban plays and the cover for one version of it is really ugly. #samael speaks

[lostinaloveletter]

Irresistible Aphrodite, never conquered — Love, you mock us for your sport.

- Sophocles, the Three Theban Plays

#lostinaloveletter #sophocles #three theban plays

[hearthwrm]

𝐄𝐕𝐄𝐍 𝐀𝐒 𝐈 𝐇𝐎𝐋𝐃 𝐘𝐎𝐔 // 𝐈 𝐀𝐌 𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐆𝐎.

ⓒ :

kui, ryoko. delicious in dungeon (ダンジョン飯, danjon meshi, lit. “dungeon food”). yen press, 2018. 14 vols. / sophocles. three theban plays: antigone; oedipus the king; oedipus at colonus. translated by robert fagles, penguin books, 1984

#cw spoilers #⌕ [ dungeon meshi ] inspired #parallels #web weaving #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #yaad #thistle #yeah sibling bonds got me fucked up... ( ´_ゝ`) #¡si ya saben como me pongo pa' que me invitan! #being a sibling is becoming both sword and shield (sometimes cage)

[artthatgivesmefeelings]

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (French, 1780 - 1867) Oedipus and the Sphinx, 1808 National Gallery, London Oedipus, a figure from Greek mythology, stands nude and in profile before the Sphinx, who guards the entrance to the ancient city of Thebes. The Sphinx – a monster with the face, head and shoulders of a woman, a lion’s body, and bird’s wings – asks Oedipus to solve the riddle she poses to all travellers seeking to enter the city: ‘What has a voice and walks on all fours in the morning, on two at noon, and on three in the evening?’ Oedipus correctly answers that it is man who crawls on all fours as a child, walks on two legs as an adult, and uses a walking stick as a third leg in old age. The bones of a previous traveller, killed by the Sphinx for having failed to solve the riddle, lie at the bottom of the picture. Thebes is visible in the distance on the right.

The theme of a monster defeated by human intelligence clearly appealed to Ingres. The picture also complements another of his paintings, Angelica saved by Ruggierro, which shows a chivalrous knight attacking a sea monster to save a princess. But this is also a painting of a man facing his destiny, as Oedipus’s actions will lead him to become King of Thebes, as the oracle predicted at his birth, and to unknowingly marry his own mother, Jocasta. This unwitting tragedy and its consequences is the drama of Oedipus Rex, the middle play of Sophocles' Theban Plays.

This painting is a later, and smaller, version of one painted in 1808 and subsequently reworked in 1827 (Louvre, Paris). The first version of Oedipus and the Sphinx was essentially a figure study that Ingres painted while studying at the French Academy in Rome. It was sent to Paris to be judged by members of the Institut de France. As required by the Institut’s rules, the figure of Oedipus was based upon a live model, although the pose was derived from the classical statue, Hermes Fastening his Sandal (Louvre), a Roman marble copy of a lost Greek bronze. Oedipus’s body is presented as an arrangement of geometrical shapes; for example, the triangle formed by his left arm, thigh and chest is mirrored and inverted by his left upper arm and forearm. The use of profile for both Oedipus and the Sphinx, together with the shallow space in much of the picture, recalls classical friezes and ancient Greek vases, which Ingres used as the sources for his deliberately classical artistic style.

#Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres #French art #mediterranean #art #fine arts #1800s #fine art #european art #classical art #europe #european #oil painting #europa #mythology #mythological art #classical #Oedipus and the Sphinx #1808 #painting #artwork

[tylermileslockett]

In 5th century Athens, a festival in honor of Dionysus was held called the City Dionysia where competitions in music, dance, poetry, and outdoor theatre performances took place. Here playwrights perfected three types of plays; comedies, tragedies, and satyr plays. A masked actor(s) would communicate with a group known as the Chorus; who summarized plot points and backstory to the audience. These elegant and incredible plays, not only expand our views on mythic characters and tales, but they reveal insight into the ancient cultural beliefs of Athenian Greeks. There were many playwrights, but the three most famous tragedians are as follows…

Aeschylus (525-455 B.C.) (Eh-skuh-lus) known as “the father of tragedy,” descended from a line of Eleusinian priests, and fought as a hoplite soldier against the Persians. Aristotle credits Aeschylus with first creating conflict between two characters in a play (before this the characters would only converse with the chorus members). His Oresteia trilogy, is the only surviving complete trilogy we have. Out of his 80- 90 plays, 7 are extant (surviving).

Sophocles (496 – 406 B.C.) (saa-fuh-kleez) came from a wealthy family, was highly educated, and well known and respected amongst statesmen. He is credited by Aristotle for the innovation of adding a third actor onstage to propel the plot, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus, as well as adding skenographia, or scene paintings. Out of the 30 competitions he entered, he won 24. Sophocles most famous plays are his Theban plays; Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Out of his 120 plays, 7 are extant.

Euripides (480- 406 B.C.) (yer-i-puh-deez) was a pioneer for portraying mythic heroes as more flawed, as well as developing internal character conflict to new heights with female characters like Medea and Hecuba. He commonly used the plot device Deus Ex Machina; where gods arrive to resolve the conflict at the end. It is said Euripedes socialized with Sophist philosophers, and owned a large library. He only won 4 competitions. Out of his 92 plays, 19 are extant.

Thanks for looking! to see more of my mythic art, please click the LINKTREE Link in my bio.

Thank you for retagging my artworks all you lovely tumblr folks! xoxo

#pagan #hellenism #greek mythology #tagamemnon #mythology tag #percyjackson #classicscommunity #dark academia #greek #greekmyths #classical literature #percy jackon and the olympians #pjo #homer #iliad #classics #artmerch #mythologyart #art #artists on tumblr #artists on etsy #odyssey #literature #hesiod #ancientworld #ancienthistory #ancient civilizations #ancientgreece

[heartoppression]

ANTIGONE: Don't fear for me. Set your own life in order.

Sophocles, Antigone (trans. Robert Fagles)

#082022 #Sophocles #Robert Fagles #Antigone #The Three Theban Plays #lit #f

[the-ephemeral-ethereal]

Our life is not as pitiful as you'd think, so long as we find joy in every hour.

from Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles

#oedipus #oedipus colonus #oedipus at colonus #the oedipus cycle #oedipus cycle #sophocles #the three theban plays #three theban plays #the three theban tragedies #three theban tragedies #tragic #tragedy #absurd #absurdism #the absurd #absurdity #joy in spite of everything #find joy in every day #find joy #joy

[fdelopera]

The Oedipus Project (or, How Oedipus’ Historical Context Reveals the Play’s Meaning)

Sooo back in Spring 2020, Oscar Isaac starred in a Zoom production of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannus — The Oedipus Project. I highly recommend watching the production. Oscar gives a uniquely genuine performance of Oedipus. Thankfully, @hupperts​​ linked to the full livestream in a post (it’s a Google Drive link you can watch here).

But I would be remiss in talking about Ancient Greek theatre if I didn’t also share a few historical facets of the play (and of Greek Theatre in general) that are often overlooked in modern productions. (For context, my college major was Classical Theatre — with an emphasis on Ancient Greek theatre and Shakespeare. So Ancient Greek Tragedy is still a big special interest.)

The Original Actors:

In Sophocles' and Euripides' tragedies, there were only three actors (all adult men), plus a Chorus of fifteen young men, led by a Chorus Leader. (Aeschylus before them had two actors, plus a chorus of twelve young men.)

Since there are more than three characters in these plays, it was standard for several (if not all) of the three actors to play multiple roles. The roles that these actors played often relate to each other, creating many subtextual layers of connection and meaning between the characters.

Read more below the cut:

The Three Actors and the Chorus:

In Ancient Greek theatre, the lead actor was called the Protagonist. This was often the most senior actor and the one deemed most skilled.

The second actor was called the Deuteragonist. This actor often had less seniority than the Protagonist, though they were often deemed to be of equal skill level.

The third actor was called the Tritagonist. This actor was often the youngest and least experienced of the three, and they would often play Messenger roles.

The Chorus comprised a Chorus Leader, leading a Chorus of 15 young men. They chanted and danced in unison, with certain lines spoken/sung solo by the Chorus Leader.

Singing, Dances, and Masks in Ancient Greek Theatre:

Ancient Greek theatre was first and foremost a religious ceremony, dedicated to the god, Dionysos. The plays were written in meter, and the actors would have alternated between speaking their lines and singing the text. The Chorus performed circular dances, and they also sang and chanted their lines. The actors were accompanied by a musician playing a double-piped reed instrument called the aulos (the sound would have been similar to a modern-day oboe).

The three actors and the Chorus all wore masks and costumes. These masks were religious in nature — they permitted the actors and Chorus to interact with the divine nature of Dionysos (which was believed to be present on the theatre stage) without being overcome by the god. In Ancient Greek theatre, masks do not conceal; instead, they reveal the truth. The masks also served a practical purpose, allowing the actors to switch between their characters with relative ease.

The Roles Played by the Three Actors and Chorus in Oedipus Tyrannus:

Here is the original cast list from Oedipus Tyrannus (this is my reconstruction, based on exits and entrances).

1st Actor (Protagonist):

Oedipus (King of Thebes, who unknowingly murdered his father, King Laius, and who married his mother, Queen Jocasta; he became the new King upon defeating the Sphinx at Thebes by solving her riddle)

2nd Actor (Deuteragonist):

Priest (Priest of Apollo)

Tiresias (blind prophet and servant of Apollo)

Queen Jocasta (Queen of Thebes, unknowing wife of her son Oedipus, and former wife of King Laius, Oedipus' father)

Theban Shepherd (who saved the infant Oedipus from death and gave him to the Shepherd and Messenger from Corinth)

3rd Actor (Tritagonist):

Creon (Brother of Jocasta, Queen of Thebes, and unknowing uncle of Oedipus)

Corinthian Messenger (the Shepherd who brought Oedipus to his adoptive parents in Corinth)

Theban Messenger (the Messenger who delivered the news of Jocasta's death and Oedipus' blinding)

Chorus Leader, leading a Chorus of 15 young men:

The Elder Citizens of Thebes (the Chorus serve as the point-of-view character through which the audience is meant to intellectually and emotionally understand the play)

The Connections Between the Three Actors and Their Roles:

The Protagonist in Oedipus played one role: Oedipus. In Greek Tragedy, the lead role was deemed to be of such importance that the Protagonist was often given no other roles to play.

The Deuteragonist had to shoulder some of the most important moments in the play. They opened the play as the Priest of Apollo. They played Tiresias and then Jocasta, both wrestling emotionally with Oedipus. And finally, they played the Theban Shepherd, who is tortured into his confession of saving the baby Oedipus from certain death. The fact that the Deuteragonist portrays all of these roles provides a common thread between them, linking together characters who unknowingly lead Oedipus to his downfall.

The Tritagonist played Creon as well as the two Messenger roles. As the Theban Messenger, they would have been expected to deliver a dramatic and scene-stealing monologue about the death of Jocasta and the blinding of Oedipus, which would have given the younger actor some scenery to chew.

The Historical Context of Oedipus Tyrannus:

Something to note about Oedipus Tyrannus in the context in which it was written: the original meaning of the play is different from the Freudian themes that we normally associate with it. Freud took Oedipus and used it as an exploration of unconscious desires, but that wasn’t really Sophocles’ intent.

When Sophocles wrote Oedipus Tyrannus, Athens was beginning the second half of the great war with Sparta (the Peloponnesian War), which would ultimately lead to Athens’ downfall, as well as Sparta’s downfall not long after. 

About 50 years prior, Athens and Sparta had fought together in the Persian Wars to prevent the Persians from conquering Greece (if you’ve ever seen the movie 300, that’s what it is about). But in the intervening decades, Sparta and Athens had become rivals for resources and land within Greece, and between 460 – 445 BCE, and 431 – 404 BCE, they fought two bloody wars that ultimately led to the defeat of Athens, and the end of the Athenian Democracy.

Many Athenians, including the playwrights Sophocles and Euripides, were incredibly nervous about this conflict, and foresaw that it would lead to prolonged bloodshed and even the city’s downfall. 

For example, around the same time that Sophocles wrote Oedipus Tyrannus, Euripides wrote Medea, about a woman who murders her children to spite her husband — Euripides was effectively saying, “If these two powers of Sparta and Athens, mother and father, go to war with each other, all that we will succeed in doing is murdering our children (the young soldiers who will die in battle).”

Oedipus Tyrannus is about a king who wants to be a great ruler for his city, Thebes. And yet, he cannot know how to lead his city, for he does not even know himself.

Many years before the start of the play, he had defeated the Sphinx who had camped out outside Thebes’ city walls and was consuming the city’s inhabitants. She demanded that everyone who passed by her must answer her riddle. If they could not figure it out, she would eat them.

She asked them, “What creature walks on four legs in the morning, two legs at noon, and three legs in the evening?”

No one in Thebes could answer her riddle, and so one by one, she devoured them, simultaneously consuming the city’s soldiers and starving out the city’s inhabitants.

Around the time that the Sphinx was laying waste to Thebes, Oedipus was running from himself. Oedipus had received a prophecy that he would “kill his father and marry his mother,” so he left his city of Corinth and ran far away from his (adoptive) parents (though he didn’t know that he was adopted).

Along the way, Oedipus encountered an old man who attacked him at a crossroads. In anger, Oedipus killed the man, and kept going (unbeknownst to him, this was his father, Laius, the King of Thebes).

He soon happened upon the city of Thebes, and encountered the Sphinx. Like she had done countless times before, she asked Oedipus her riddle. But unlike the others before him, Oedipus used his intelligence and cunning to defeat her. 

Oedipus understood what the Sphinx was asking, and he answered her riddle correctly. The answer is “man.” Man walks on four legs in the morning (crawling as a baby), on two legs at noon (walking upright in the prime of his youth), and on three legs in the evening (using a cane to walk in old age).

Oedipus knew “man,” but he did not know himself.

Still, the Sphinx was defeated, and Oedipus was welcomed into the city of Thebes as a hero. The old king had just died, and the city was in turmoil. They were looking for a new king. The old king’s brother-in-law, Creon, did not want the throne, and so the city decided to adopt Oedipus as their new king and leader. The Queen, Jocasta, willingly married this young man who had saved her and her city. They wed and had four children together: two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Antigone and Ismene.

(Of course, these children would continue the twisted generational trauma of their family, as brother would turn against brother, sister against sister, and uncle against niece and nephew, until the family had consumed itself from the inside out.)

Oedipus’ Hubris:

Oedipus learns several important lessons from this incident. However, these lessons ultimately lead to his downfall:

1) He can defeat any enemy through argument, both in terms of aggression and cunning. He defeated the old man who attacked him (his own father) through aggression, and he defeated the Sphinx through cunning.

2) His intellect and reason are more powerful than even a superhuman force (the Sphinx), and he can threaten to banish or execute anyone who tries to challenge his understanding of things. He creates an echochamber from which he cannot escape.

3) He must continue to run away from his past, and never look at himself too deeply. He must never “know himself” or engage in any deep self-analysis because he believes that he is still running from the prophecy. He doesn’t realize that he already fulfilled the prophecy years before, and soon his punishment will come due.

In his Oedipus Project performance, Oscar did a masterful job at making Oedipus' guilt clear, and at laying out his hubris. Oedipus’ anger and insistence in his own righteousness ultimately bring him down.

Oedipus' haughtiness is a protection against the fear and inadequacy he feels in his life. He has felt like an outsider for much of his life, and he is overcompensating for that. He feels that he must prove himself right in all arguments, because deep down, he knows that he’s not who he thinks he is.

Oedipus is terrified to look at the “truth,” because he suspects that he'll be looking in a mirror.

The downfall of Oedipus is that he resists the truth of himself that is staring him in the face. He won't see until he literally blinds himself, and then when he is blinded, he can finally see, but by then it is too late.

Athens’ Hubris:

Like Oedipus, Athens believed it could defeat any enemy through cunning and aggression. Years before, it had decisively routed the Persians in the Battle of Salamis, driving the Persian forces away from Greece and ending the war. In the same way, it believed that it could use cunning and aggression to defeat Sparta. Sparta and Athens were like mirror selves. They were the two parts of the whole that made up what it was to be Greek.

Like Oedipus, Athens’ rulers were hubristic, and believed that they could know what was best for all of Greece, and yet they didn’t even know what was best for their own city.

Thebes, Oedipus’ city, had sided with Persia during the Persian Wars. During the Peloponnesian War, it sided with Sparta. To the Athenians, Thebes was the Anti-Athens. But by basing this critique of Athens in a city that was seen as an enemy, Sophocles was effectively looking at Athens “through the mirror,” and recognizing that self and reflection of self are two parts of the same whole.

So, unlike the modern Freudian characterization of Oedipus, Sophocles’ intention was to explore the way that a political entity can become entirely corrupted by its leaders. These leaders argue themselves in circles, round and round, until they eventually come face to face with themselves. In that moment, it is shown that they have not been fighting against any external enemy, they have been destroying their own city from within, and in their own immolation, they burn the city as well.

Oedipus Tyrannus is a great exploration of generational trauma — it shows in microcosm the way that toxic dynamics are passed down over and over to create an inheritance of destruction. If Jocasta and Laius had loved their son despite Apollo’s prophecy, if they had sought to wrestle with the god instead of blindly following him, if they had treated their son with care instead of piercing his ankles and leaving him on a hillside to die, their downfall and his would never have occurred. Their compulsion towards the very predeterminism they feared sealed their fate.

In the same way, Athens' and Sparta's fear and enmity towards each other ultimately led to Athens' downfall and Sparta's decline not long after. In trying to destroy one another, Athens and Sparta learned far too late that they were only destroying themselves.

The Anti-War Message of Ancient Greek Tragedy:

Ancient Greek Tragedy dealt with deeply human themes, such as psychology, philosophy, religion, politics, and art. Above all, it dealt with what it is to be a nation at war.

The Athenian Democracy was bookended by two great wars: the Persian Wars, which culminated around 480 BCE, and the Peloponnesian War, which concluded in 404 BCE when Sparta defeated Athens.

Within that span of roughly 80 years, the Greek playwrights engaged in a complex discourse, addressing their existential feelings of being a society defined by both internal and external conflict. They warned about the horrors of war, and they strove to use their art to steer the ship that was Athenian Democracy.

When we understand Ancient Greek Tragedy within its historical context, we can see that it is just as relevant today as it was when it was written over 2400 years ago.

#oscar isaac #the oedipus project #oedipus rex #ancient greek tragedy #ancient greek theater #oedipus tyrannus

[babygirl-olympics]

#babygirlifying him #poll #babygirl olympics #please vote #american psycho #patrick bateman #horror #oedipus #oedipus rex #three theban plays #greek plays #greek myths #greek tragedy

[bretwalda-lamnguin]

Antigone’s dutifulness is what Oedipus most loves about her. She looks after him, both out of love, and because it is her duty as a daughter to look after him in his old age. No matter what others say about him, how he is treated by society, Antigone will not abandon him. She loves her father, she gives everything to look after him, even though all he can return is love. But that to her is enough.

Oedipus on the other hand despises his sons. They did not speak for him when he was exiled from Thebes. They cast him aside because he was inconvenient, an unhappy reminder of the nature of their own birth and a curse upon their people. To Oedipus his daughters are better men than them.

Oedipus curses his sons to kill each other. He is delighted when he realises this is no longer a curse but prophecy, it will come true. But Antigone’s dutiful love is not reserved for Oedipus alone. She will fulfill her duty to her family, that includes her brothers just as much as Oedipus. She must bury them. Oedipus’ curse destroys the sons he hates, but it also kills the person he loves most, for the very reason he loves her the most.

#oedipus #antigone #three theban plays #oedipus trilogy #my posts