GREEK LITERATURE

Greek literature, body of writings in the Greek language, with a continuous history extending from the 1st millennium BC to the present day. From the beginning its writers were Greeks living not only in Greece proper but also in Asia Minor, the Aegean Islands, and Magna Graecia (Sicily and southern Italy). Later, after the conquests of Alexander the Great, Greek became the common language of the eastern Mediterranean lands and then of the Byzantine Empire. Literature in Greek was produced not only over a much wider area but also by those whose mother tongue was not Greek. Even before the Turkish conquest (1453) the area had begun to shrink again, and now it is chiefly confined to Greece and Cyprus.

Sophocles Sophocles was an ancient Greek playwright, born in

Colonus near Athens, Greece in 496 B.C.E. His father, Sophilus, was a rich member of a small community, the rural ‘Deme’. Sophocles was highly educated. He is one of three Greek tragedians whose plays have lived on. The Suda, which is an ancient 10th Century encyclopedia, from which we know that Sophocles wrote 123 plays out of which we have 7 complete plays. These are ‘Ajax’, ‘Antigone’, ‘The Women of Trachis’, ‘Oedipus the King’, ‘Electra’, ‘Philoctetes’ and ‘Oedipus at Colonus’. He took part in competitions and even won over the two popular playwrights Aeschylus and Euripides.

Genre tragedy, branch of drama that treats in a

serious and dignified style the sorrowful or terrible events encountered or caused by a heroic individual. By extension the term may be applied to other literary works, such as the novel.

Odipus the king Jocasta Jocasta is the wife and mother of Oedipus

and queen of Thebes. Before marrying Oedipus, she was married to Laius. She commits suicide at the end of the play, perhaps in guilt that she left Oedipus to die as a baby, thus precipitating his course towards a tragic end for their whole family.

Teiresias Teiresias is the blind prophet, led by a

small boy, who knows the truth about Oedipus's parentage. Oedipus calls on him to find Laius's killer but becomes furious when Teiresias claims that Oedipus himself is the killer.

Creon Creon is Jocasta's brother, who shares

one third of Thebes's riches with Oedipus and Jocasta.

Messenger from Corinth The Messenger from Corinth arrives to

tell Oedipus that his father, Polybus, is dead, and that the people of Corinth wish Oedipus to be their new king.

Herdsman The Herdsman gives Laius' and Jocasta's

baby to the messenger upon their orders - and is also the same man who witnessed Laius's death.

Priest The Priest's followers make sacrifices to

the gods at the beginning of the play, hoping that the gods will lift the plague that has struck the city.

Ismene and Antigone Ismene and Antigone are Oedipus's

young daughters who are led out at the end of the play.

Chorus of Theban Elders The Chorus of Theban Elders is a group of men who

serve as an emotional sounding board and expositional device in the play, reflecting on the plot developments while asking important philosophical questions.

Oedipus Oedipus is the king of Thebes, married to Jocasta. He is

unaware, at the start of the play, that he has murdered his father and slept with his mother. Soon he learns that it was he that put his kingdom at such terrible risk, and blinds himself using a brooch. He has a 'tell-tale limp', a piercing wound in his ankles, made as a child by the father who exposed him.

Apollo The son of Zeus and Leto, and the twin

brother of Artemis. Apollo was the god of music (principally the lyre, and he directed the choir of the Muses) and also of prophecy, colonization, medicine, archery (but not for war or hunting), poetry, dance, intellectual inquiry and the carrier of herds and flocks. He was also a god of light, known as "Phoebus" (radiant or beaming, and he was sometimes identified with Helios the sun god).

summary King Oedipus has a complex. Um—wait. We mean he has a problem. Aware that a terrible curse has befallen Thebes, he sends his

brother-in-law, Creon, to seek the advice of Apollo. Creon informs Oedipus that the curse will be lifted if the murderer of Laius—the former king—is found and prosecuted. Laius was murdered many years ago at a crossroads.

Oedipus dedicates himself to the discovery and prosecution of Laius’s murderer. Oedipus subjects a series of unwilling citizens to questioning, including a blind prophet. Teiresias, the blind prophet, informs Oedipus that Oedipus himself killed Laius. This news really bothers Oedipus, but his wife Jocasta tells him not to believe in prophets—they've been wrong before.

As an example, she tells Oedipus about how she and King Laius had a son who was prophesied to kill Laius and sleep with her. Well, she and Laius had the child killed, so obviously that prophecy didn't come true, right?

Jocasta's story doesn't comfort Oedipus. As a child, an old man told Oedipus that he was adopted, and that he would eventually kill his biological father and sleep with his biological mother. Not to mention, Oedipus once killed a man at a crossroads... which sounds a lot like the way Laius died.

Jocasta urges Oedipus not to look into the past any further, but he stubbornly ignores her. Oedipus goes on to question a messenger and a shepherd, both of whom have information about how Oedipus was abandoned as an infant and adopted by a new family. In a moment of insight, Jocasta realizes that she is Oedipus’s mother and that Laius was his father. Horrified at what has happened, she kills herself. Shortly thereafter, Oedipus, too, realizes that he was Laius’s murderer and that he’s been married to (and having children with) his mother. In horror and despair, he gouges his eyes out and is exiled from Thebes.

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