... a high official who chooses three contestants to participate in the Dionysiac Festival. Sophocles must present Antigone as part of a group of three tragedies and one satyr play, and if deemed acceptable by the Archon, the Archon in turn will provide him with a chorus of fifteen men, a lead actor, and a Choregus. ... citizen randomly chosen by the Archon to be the financial backer who undertakes the expense of providing Sophocles with the necessary materials to produce his play. If the Choregus refuses to perform his duties, another person will be chosen by the Archon, and this person will...

• Word Count: 1410
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Three Theban Plays he teaches a lesson through a story. These lessons are taught and projected to the audience through the plot, characters and theme of the play. The plays teach lessons on loyalty, keeping promises, fate, courage, prejudice, and the manners in which humans relate to each other. Each of these lessons ... plays are approximately two thousand five hundred years old they still manage to teach lessons that apply to life in present day. In Sophocles" first Theban play, Oedipus the King, there are many lessons that are embodied by the characters, the plot and the theme. The m...

• Word Count: 2002
• Approx Pages: 8
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... leader who formulates a rational basis for his laws and punishments, and has a generally positive reputation among the people of Thebes. By the end of the play Creon's excessive pride, known as hubris, begins to control his actions, which leads to an eventual reversal in fortune. Until Tiresias's prophecy is relayed to him ... them realize their hamartia and see their place in the universe. It is this manner that Creon can be seen as the tragic character in the play Antigone. Creon's stubbornness prevents him from being influenced by any other character. He refuses all advice that is in ...

• Word Count: 951
• Approx Pages: 4
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... engage in marriage prevails not only in the real world, but also in literature. Many novels, poems, and plays portray this glorious perception of marriage, including the play Antigone written by Sophocles. In one passage of Antigone (lines 1344-1371), a messenger tells the Chorus that a tragic event has taken place: Haemon has killed ... me than you", conveying the emphasis he puts on paternal bonds over nuptial unions (line 711). However, in a later section of the play, Haemon attempts to kill his father because he believes his father causes Antigone to kill herself. While in the begin...

• Word Count: 1318
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... its doomed heroine as its title, it is the character of Creon who provides the reader with a cathartic release through the development of his humanity throughout the course of the play. He is the figure most akin to the classical Aristotelian definition of the traditional tragic hero. In Aristotle's book, Poetics, the philosopher defines a tragic hero as someone of high status ... emotionally developed, and the breadth of his humanity is greatly accessible as he is flawed and as such, true to life. The complexities that transcend the main conflict within the play are numerous and striki...

• Word Count: 1647
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... radical, polar opposite of the stereotypical tender, loving, and fragile woman. Sophocles' counterexample against the conventional biases of women being tender and loving is the main character Antigone in his play, Antigone. When it comes to giving her brother Polynices a proper burial, Antigone will stop at nothing. "I will bury him myself. And even if I die in the act, that death ... ...

• Word Count: 1748
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate