Greek Theater Essay

Greek Theatre

Introduction
In the year is 441 B.C. five years after the eleven year war between Sparta and Athens, there is famine in Rome but on the up side, literature, artwork, architecture, philosophy, and politics are all growing rapidly only two actors are ever on stage at one time has now changed thanks to Sophocles and theater is also growing and improving every day. first i will talk about Sophocles, how he would have lived and what Greece was like between his birth in 496 B.C to his death in 406 B.C and then i will go on to talk about Antigone. Hope you enjoy.
Sophocles

When Sophocles was just nine years old he saw his first war of many, between 490 and 479 B.C, Greece was invaded by the Persian army, in 480 B.C a force of sixty thousand men and six hundred ships sailed to Thermopylae where the Greeks and the Spartans fought against the Persians but a traitor brought a troop of Persians through a rear passage into the pass, (this is what the movie 300 was based on) and many other wars this occurs a lot in his plays. During the time Sophocles lived in Greece he would have lived in a traditional house, sixty square feet with eight rooms there would be a kitchen, living area, hallway bathroom and four bedrooms, one for the man, one for the woman (who would only concede in the man’s room), one for the children and lastly one for the slave, who believe it or not, was treated rather well, they were welcomed into the house under the same ritual as the wife, by drinking, having a feast and throwing rice and other confetti over them as they entered the house. now on to Sophocles himself it is believed that he wrote over one hundred and twenty plays but unfortunately only seven are still around today and three of those are the best plays ever written. Sophocles has won twenty four recorded prizes for his plays in the annual Athens city Dionysian. Could you imagine the legacy Sophocles would have left behind if all his plays were around today, one hundred and twenty of the greatest plays, the things that we could learn about Greek writing and more complex storylines, but who knows, they still could be found and to me that would be one of the greatest discovery’s anyone could ever make.

Antigone

Antigone is a follow up of the play "Oedipus the king", which was a tragedy about a prophecy of Oedipus killing his father and sleeping with his mother. Antigone is the daughter/sister of Oedipus; he also had three other children, another daughter/sister Ismene and two sons/brothers, Polynices and Eteocles who both fought against each other and killed each other in the civil war. It is Eteocles who fought for the king and Policies who fought against the king, so Eteocles was buried with homer and policies was left outside the city walls to be savaged by the wolves.
First, is Creon a tragic hero or not? This was a new phrase to me until a friend told me about it and mentioned Aristotle’s quote. “the change of fortune presented must not be the spectacle of a virtuous man brought from prosperity to adversity." this means that the character must make the audience fear or pity the protagonist. Ok so yes Creon did trap Antigone in a cave to die, just for burying her brother, but keeping in mind at the end Creon changes his mind and decides to show some mercy towards Antigone, but unfortunately is too late and she kills herself and so does his son.
I

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Ancient Greek Theater