Transcript slides

c. 496 BC Born at Colonus, near Athens Sophocles
480 BC Chosen to lead choir celebrating
Athenian victory at Salamis
Biography
468 BC Defeats Aeschylus in tragic contest
441 BC Defeated in tragic contest by Euripides
406 BC Dies, aged about 90
Serves repeatedly as priest and general in Athens.
Composes about 123 plays, including over 20 “firsts.”
Today seven plays and over 1000 fragments survive
Oedipus the King/Oedipus Rex/Oedipus
Tyrannos (c. 429 BC)
Oedipus at Colonus (posthumously, 401 BC)
Sphinx
hubris
Laius
Jocasta
Oedipus the King - Structure
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Prologue (Setting the scene, pp. 57-62)
Parodos (Entry of the chorus of Theban
senators, pp. 62-64)
Episode 1 (Oedipus and Tiresias, pp. 65-75)
Episode 2 (Oedipus, Creon and Jocasta,
pp. 75-88)
Episode 3 (Jocasta, the Messenger and
Oedipus, pp. 88-95)
Episode 4 (The revelation, pp. 96-100)
Exodos (Death of Jocasta and blinding of
Oedipus, pp. 100-110)