Dionysus and the Origins of Tragedy
Greek drama has its origins in the Festival of Dionysus, an annual spring festival held in Athens each year.
| life spirit of all green vegetation, esp. the grape vine |
| god of wine, intoxicated abandonment, ecstatic possession |
| polugêthês 'much-cheering' |
| linear B tablets at Pylos |
| demands the whole of a person |
| transformation is essential |
| death at the hands of the Titans |
| rebirth and birth of humankind |
| worshippers known as bacchai |
| mania: not frenzy but heightened and intensified mental power |
| sought, through ecstatic dancing and wine, to become possessed by Dionysus |
| Athenian festival established under the tyrant Pisistratus |
| theater flourished under democracy |
| a mask on a column dressed with a cloth |
| theater as transformation |
| tragodia: 'goat-song' or 'song w/ a goat for a prize' or 'song for a goat-sacrifice' |
| result of merger of Dionysiac cult and heroic myth and legend |
| theater thus was a sacred space |
| built in the temenos 'precinct' of Dionysus |
| theater developed from choral performances" chorus 'dance' |
| gradual additions of actors |
| behind the staging area was the skene, or 'stage building' |
| playwrights had total control |
| plays "produced" by a choregos |
| under direction of playwright |
| 3 tragedies each day for three days |
| followed by a comic satyr-play |
| participation in funerals |
| contagious: note Creon's refusal of contact with Oedipus at end of play |
| Oedipus is never purified after slaying of Laius |
| may be inherited as a 'curse' |
| kidnapped the son of Pelops |
| prophecy: his own son would slay him |
| fed the flesh of Pelops, his own son, to the gods |
| produced the curse of the house of Arestes |
| The Riddle of the Sphinx ('strangler'): |
| "There is on earth a two-footed creature, and a four-footed one with the same name, and also a three-footed, for it alone of all the creatures that move on the ground or through the air or in the sea changes its form. But when it walks on the most feet, then is the swiftness of its limbs the weakest." |
| Fifth century BCE religious scepticism in Athens |
| can a prophecy be avoided? |
| Four prophecies presented in the play, listed according to the order they are presented in the play: |
| a) from Apollo to Creon: 'Drive the corruption from the land. Banish the murderer of Laius, or demand blood for blood (ll. 106 ff.); 3rd prophecy received. |
| b) Tiresias to Oedipus: 'you are the corruption; the double lash of your mather and father's curse will whip you from this land (l. 401, ll. 475-8); 4th prophecy received. |
| c) An oracle from the priests of Apollo to Laius that doom would strike him down at the hands of his own son (ll. 784-8); 1st prophecy received. |
| d) Apollo to Oedipus: you are fated to couple with your mother and kill your father (ll. 867-75); 2nd prophecy received. |
| Remember that the characters received these prophecies in a different order from that in which they are presented in the play. |
| Aristotle maintained that Oedipus falls through hamartia, a 'mistake' (often wrongly translated as 'tragic flaw'). |
| If so, what is this 'mistake'? Is it pursuing the truth about the murder of Laius? |
| Or does it lie farther back in his past? |
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