Greek Theater
Greek theater was very different fromwhat we call theater today. It was, first of all, part of a religiousfestival. To attend a performance of one of these plays was an actof worship, not entertainment or intellectual pastime. But it isdifficult for us to even begin to understand this aspect of theGreek theater, because the religion in question was very differentfrom modern religions. The god celebrated by the performances ofthese plays was Dionysus, a deity who lived in the wild and wasknown for his subversive revelry. The worship of Dionysus was associatedwith an ecstasy that bordered on madness. Dionysus, whose cult wasthat of drunkenness and sexuality, little resembles modern imagesof God.
A second way in which Greek theater was different frommodern theater is in its cultural centrality: every citizen attendedthese plays. Greek plays were put on at annual festivals (at thebeginning of spring, the season of Dionysus), often for as manyas 15,000 spectators at once. They dazzledviewers with their special effects, singing, and dancing, as wellas with their beautiful language. At the end of each year’s festivals,judges would vote to decide which playwright’s play was the best.
TABLE OF CONTENTS / ROBERT FAGLES CLASSICS 2013 PENGUIN GROUP (USA) Homer. Sophocles THE THREE THEBAN PLAYS Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus.
In these competitions, Sophocles was king. It is thoughtthat he won the first prize at the Athenian festival eighteen times.Far from being a tortured artist working at the fringes of society,Sophocles was among the most popular and well-respected men of hisday. Like most good Athenians, Sophocles was involved with the politicaland military affairs of Athenian democracy. He did stints as a citytreasurer and as a naval officer, and throughout his life he wasa close friend of the foremost statesman of the day, Pericles. Atthe same time, Sophocles wrote prolifically. He is believed to have authored 123 plays,only seven of which have survived.
Sophocles lived a long life, but not long enough to witnessthe downfall of his Athens. Toward the end of his life, Athens became entangledin a war with other city-states jealous of its prosperity and power,a war that would end the glorious century during which Sophocleslived. This political fall also marked an artistic fall, for the uniqueart of Greek theater began to fade and eventually died. Since then,we have had nothing like it. Nonetheless, we still try to read it, andwe often misunderstand it by thinking of it in terms of the categoriesand assumptions of our own arts. Greek theater still needs to be read,but we must not forget that, because it is so alien to us, reading theseplays calls not only for analysis, but also for imagination.
Antigone
Antigone was probably the first of thethree Theban plays that Sophocles wrote, although the events dramatizedin it happen last. Antigone is one of the first heroines in literature,a woman who fights against a male power structure, exhibiting greaterbravery than any of the men who scorn her. Antigone isnot only a feminist play but a radical one as well, making rebellionagainst authority appear splendid and noble. If we think of Antigone assomething merely ancient, we make the same error as the Nazi censorswho allowed Jean Anouilh’s adaptation of Antigone tobe performed, mistaking one of the most powerful texts of the FrenchResistance for something harmlessly academic.
Oedipus the King
The story of Oedipus was well known to Sophocles’ audience.Oedipus arrives at Thebes a stranger and finds the town under thecurse of the Sphinx, who will not free the city unless her riddleis answered. Oedipus solves the riddle and, since the king has recently beenmurdered, becomes the king and marries the queen. In time, he comesto learn that he is actually a Theban, the king’s son, cast out ofThebes as a baby. He has killed his father and married his mother. Horrified,he blinds himself and leaves Thebes forever.
The story was not invented by Sophocles. Quitethe opposite: the play’s most powerful effects often depend on thefact that the audience already knows the story. Since the firstperformance of Oedipus Rex, the story has fascinatedcritics just as it fascinated Sophocles. Aristotle used this playand its plot as the supreme example of tragedy. Sigmund Freud famouslybased his theory of the “Oedipal Complex” on this story, claimingthat every boy has a latent desire to kill his father and sleepwith his mother. The story of Oedipus has given birth to innumerablefascinating variations, but we should not forget that this playis one of the variations, not the original story itself.
Oedipus at Colonus
Beginning with the arrival of Oedipus in Colonusafter years of wandering, Oedipus at Colonus endswith Antigone setting off toward her own fate in Thebes. In andof itself, Oedipus at Colonus is not a tragedy;it hardly even has a plot in the normal sense of the word. Thought tohave been written toward the end of Sophocles’ life and the conclusionof the Golden Age of Athens, Oedipus at Colonus, thelast of the Oedipus plays, is a quiet and religious play, one thatdoes not attempt the dramatic fireworks of the others. Written after Antigone, theplay for which it might be seen as a kind of prequel, Oedipusat Colonus seems not to look forward to the suffering thatenvelops that play but back upon it, as though it has already beensurmounted.