... , would he still be our President? Was it his fate? In Oedipus the King, Iocasta says that Laius was slain at a place where three roads meet. This crossroads is referred to a number of times during the play, and it symbolizes the crucial moment, long before the events of the play, when Oedipus began to fulfill the dreadful prophecy that he would murder his father and marry his mother ... where different choices are still possible. In Oedipus the king, the crossroads is part of the distant past, dimly remembered, and Oedipus was not aware at the time that he was making a fateful decision (...

• Word Count: 1264
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... of 80 or 90 others are preserved. The seven extant plays are Antigone, Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King), Electra, Ajax, Trachiniae (Maidens of Trachis), Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus (produced posthumously in 401 BC). Also preserved is a large fragment of the Ichneutae (Investigators), a satiric drama discovered on papyrus in Egypt about the turn of the 20th century. Of the surviving tragedies the earliest is thought to be Ajax (circa ... 451-444 BC). Next probably are Antigone and Trachiniae (after 441). Oedipus Tyrannus ... ...

• Word Count: 2321
• Approx Pages: 9

... the gods. The gods inflict ate on Oedipus which leads to serious characteristic flaws including hubris, and the tragedy ends with a nemesis worse than death. The tragic nature of the play and the themes are conveyed not only through these features, but also through the role of the chorus and dramatic techniques including irony. Oedipus is seen as a tragic hero in the play, a principal character, in a position of social importance being the King ... of Thebes. His downfall is the result of incidents beyond his control, and is rather the result of fate. In Oedipus Rex, it is not so much a...

• Word Count: 1270
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... kills her children a hero. But this stems from the common modern vision of a hero as the embodiment of "good- (and by contrast the villain as the embodiment of "evil-). In ancient Greek mythology and literature, especially as delineated by Euripides' senior colleague, Sophocles in his Oedipus Tyrannos, a hero was an individual who possessed a ... anger (176), wrath (94). As in Sophoclean heroic tragedy, there is also a secondary figure whose pliability under pressure throws the hero's unbending will into high relief. It is Creon, king of Corinth. He comes on stage, his mind made up: he h...

• Word Count: 1681
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: High School

... of sight but very much within the emotional reach of the audience. (Albert Henrich) We know that in Oedipus the King the chorus plays a significant role and in the bloodiest moment in the play, it is not the violent act that we see but the description of it is given by the reliable chorus. Because the chorus is reliable throughout, constantly giving advice to the characters, the audience place their trust in them ... . Furthermore, in studying Aeschylus's Agamemnon we can see something very different from Oedipus the King but with the same idea that violence is not the center of the trag...

• Word Count: 1654
• Approx Pages: 7
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... of emotion, although shown from a character, are all based on human responses. These responses are countless in number for the reason that there are many facets to human nature. In looking at only two characters in Greek writings; Oedipus from Oedipus the King written by Sophocles and Medea from Medea written by Euripides, we can see two different reactions to adversity in tragedy. Medea, when ... faced with the loss of her husband to another woman, turns vengeful and murderous, "the emotions of the woman whose love has turned to hatred, and equally those of ... the man who loves no mo...

• Word Count: 2458
• Approx Pages: 10
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... when Jones comes into the scene and hands the girl that likes the frog a phone that is able to take pictures. In Oedipus this occurs when he was trying to escape, he discovered the truth about his identity. The gods though, had proven that they were superior and extremely powerful beings. Even though in Oedipus the deus ex machina resulted in a tragic ending, and the commercial turned out to ... be a comical one. Both examples both have hermatia. In the commercial it happens when she puts the frog back down on the table. Although it may not be as strong as seen in Oedipus it is still th...

• Word Count: 1513
• Approx Pages: 6
• Grade Level: High School

... and Ismene, the two daughters of Oedipus and Iokaste. After hours of preparation, Sophocles will finally conduct the production of his play for an audience of approximately fifteen thousand in a Greek theatre set into the side of a hill that is located at the foot of the Acropolis. In context and in performance, the tragic heroine of Antigone is in fact Antigone, niece of King Kreon, sister ... then; if you must have your love, Find it in hell!- In the conclusion of the play when Antigone has lost all hope and is imprisoned for disobeying the orders of the King, her tragic beauty finall...

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

... (490-480 B.C). His account of Greek heroism at the battles of Marathon, Thermopylae and Salamis has stirred readers for more than 2,000 years. Sophocles Sophocles, the third of the great tragic poets of Ancient Greece, wrote more than 100 plays, all in verse. Only six complete ones have been preserved: Ajax, Antigone, Electra, Oedipus the King, Philoctetes and Trachiniae. Thucydides Thucydides was an Athenian ... general and historian. He is known for his History of the Pelloponesian War, the struggle between Athens and Sparta (431-404 B.C). His emphasis on accuracy and his impartial att...

• Word Count: 2001
• Approx Pages: 8
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School