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Antigone (Sophocles Play)
''Antigone'' ( ; grc, Ἀντιγόνη) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in (or before) 441 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by ''Ajax'', which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following ''Oedipus Rex'' and ''Oedipus at Colonus''. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote ''Antigone'' first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' ''Seven Against Thebes'' ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone. After Oedipus' self-exile his sons Eteocles and Polynices engaged in a civil war for the Theban throne, which resulted in both brothers dying fighting each other. Oedipus' brother-in-law and new Theban ruler Creon ordered the public honor of Eteocles and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikiforos Lytras
Nikiforos Lytras ( el, Νικηφόρος Λύτρας; 1832 – 13 June 1904) was a Greek painter. He was born in Tinos and trained in Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860, he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the Munich School, while paying greatest attention both to ethnographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most well-known landscape a depiction of the region of Lavrio. Biography Nikiforos Lytras was the son of a popular marble sculptor. In 1850, at the age of eighteen years he went to Athens to study in the School of Arts. He studied painting with Ludwig Thiersch and Raffaelo Ceccoli (c.1800-after 1860). After graduating in 1856, he began teaching an elementary course in writing. In 1860 with a Gr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oedipus At Colonus
''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; grc, Οἰδίπους ἐπὶ Κολωνῷ, ''Oidipous epi Kolōnōi'') is the last of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC. In the timeline of the plays, the events of ''Oedipus at Colonus'' occur after ''Oedipus Rex'' and before ''Antigone''; however, it was the last of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be written. The play describes the end of Oedipus's tragic life. Legends differ as to the site of Oedipus's death; Sophocles set the place at Colonus, a village near Athens and also Sophocles's own birthplace, where the blinded Oedipus has come with his daughters Antigone and Ismene as suppliants of the Erinyes and of Theseus, the king of Athens. Plot Led by Antigone, Oedipus enters the village of Colonus and sits down on a stone. They are approached b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Greek Chorus
A Greek chorus, or simply chorus ( grc-gre, χορός, chorós), in the context of ancient Greek tragedy, comedy, satyr plays, and modern works inspired by them, is a homogeneous, non-individualised group of performers, who comment with a collective voice on the dramatic action. The chorus consisted of between 12 and 50 players, who variously danced, sang or spoke their lines in unison, and sometimes wore masks. Etymology Historian H. D. F. Kitto argues that the term ''chorus'' gives us hints about its function in the plays of ancient Greece: "The Greek verb ''choreuo'', 'I am a member of the chorus', has the sense 'I am dancing'. The word ''ode'' means not something recited or declaimed, but 'a song'. The 'orchestra', in which a chorus had its being, is literally a 'dancing floor'." From this, it can be inferred that the chorus danced and sang poetry. Dramatic function Plays of the ancient Greek theatre always included a chorus that offered a variety of background and summary ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coryphaeus
In Attic drama, the coryphaeus, corypheus, or koryphaios (Greek κορυφαῖος ''koryphaîos'', from κορυφή ''koryphḗ́'', the top of the head) was the leader of the chorus. Hence the term (sometimes in an Anglicized form "coryphe") is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement. The coryphaeus spoke for all the rest, whenever the chorus took part in the action, in quality of a person of the drama, during the course of the acts. The term is sometimes used for the chief or principal of any company, corporation, sect, opinion, etc. Thus, Eustathius of Antioch is called the coryphaeus of the First Council of Nicaea, and Cicero calls Zeno the coryphaeus of the Stoics. Paul the Apostle is often entitled Coryphaeus in Christian iconography. In 1856 at the University of Oxford, the office of Coryphaeus or Praecentor was founded, whose duty it was to lead the musical performances directed by the Choragus. The office ceased to exist in 1899. In Solzhenitsyn’s '' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megareus
In Greek mythology, Megareus (Ancient Greek: Μεγαρεύς) may refer to: *Megareus, king of Onchestus in Boeotia and father of Hippomenes. *Megareus, son of Eurydice of Thebes, and a defender of Thebes during the war of the Seven against Thebes. Notes References * Aeschylus, translated in two volumes. 1. ''Seven Against Thebes'' by Herbert Weir Smyth, Ph. D. Cambridge, MA. Harvard University Press. 1926Online version at the Perseus Digital Library. * Gaius Julius Hyginus
Gaius Julius Hyginus (; 64 BC – AD 17) was a Latin author, a pupil of the scholar Alexander Polyhistor, and a freedman of ...
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Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus (; grc, Διόνυσος ) is the god of the grape-harvest, winemaking, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, festivity, and theatre. The Romans called him Bacchus ( or ; grc, Βάκχος ) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''bakkheia''. As Dionysus Eleutherios ("the liberator"), his wine, music, and ecstatic dance free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''thyrsus'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thracian, others as Greek. In Orphic religion, he wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Against Thebes
The Seven against Thebes were seven champions in Greek mythology who made war on Thebes. They were chosen by Adrastus, the king of Argos, to be the captains of an Argive army whose purpose was to restore Oedipus' son Polynices to the Theban throne. Adrastus, although always the leader of the expedition against Thebes, was not always counted as one of the Seven champions. Usually the Seven were Polynices, Tydeus, Amphiaraus, Capaneus, Parthenopaeus, Hippomedon, and Adrastus or Eteoclus, whenever Adrastus is excluded. They tried and failed to take Thebes, and all but Adrastus died in the attempt. On their way to Thebes, the Seven stopped at Nemea, where they held funeral games for the infant Opheltes, which became the origin of the Nemean Games. Before arriving at Thebes, Adrastus sent Tydeus on ahead to resolve the dispute through negotiation, which failed. At Thebes, Capaneus was struck down by Zeus' thunderbolt while attempting to scale the city walls. Tydeus was mortally wo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jocasta
In Greek mythology, Jocasta (), also rendered Iocaste ( grc, Ἰοκάστη ) and also known as Epicaste (; ), was a daughter of Menoeceus, a descendant of the Spartoi Echion, and queen consort of Thebes. She was the wife of first Laius, then of their son Oedipus, and both mother and grandmother of Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene. She was also sister of Creon and mother-in-law of Haimon. Life After his abduction and rape of Chrysippus, Laius married Jocasta. Laius received an oracle from Delphi which told him that he must not have a child with his wife, or the child would kill him and marry her; in another version, recorded by Aeschylus, Laius is warned that he can only save the city if he dies childless. One night, Laius became drunk and fathered Oedipus with Jocasta. Jocasta handed the newborn infant over to Laius. Jocasta or Laius pierced and pinned the infant's ankles together. Laius instructed his chief shepherd, Menoetes (not to be confused with Menoetes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creon (king Of Thebes)
Creon (; grc, Κρέων, Kreōn, ruler), is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. Family Creon had four sons and three daughters with his wife, Eurydice (sometimes known as Henioche): Henioche, Pyrrha, Megareus (also called Menoeceus), Lycomedes and Haimon. Creon and his sister, Jocasta, were descendants of Cadmus and of the Spartoi. He is sometimes considered to be the same person who purified Amphitryon of the murder of his uncle Electryon and father of Megara, first wife of Heracles. Mythology First Regency After the death of King Laius of Thebes by the hands of his own son Oedipus, Creon sat on the vacant throne and became the ruler of the kingdom. During this regency, Amphitryon arrived with his fiancée Alcmena and her half-brother Licymnius from Mycenae, seeking exile and purification for the death of his prospective father-in-law King Electryon, whom he accidentally had killed. Creon purified him, and received ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thebes, Greece
Thebes (; ell, Θήβα, ''Thíva'' ; grc, Θῆβαι, ''Thêbai'' .) is a city in Boeotia, Central Greece. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, indicating the importance of the site in the Bronze Age. Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a major rival of ancient Athens, and sided with the Persians during the 480 BC invasion under Xerxes I. Theban forces under the command of Epaminondas ended Spartan hegemony at the Battle of Leuctra in 371 BC, with the Sacred Band of Thebes, an elite military unit of male lovers celebrated as instrumental there. Macedonia would rise in power at the Battle of Chaeronea in 338 BC, bringing decisive victory to Philip II over an alliance of Thebes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynices
In Greek mythology, Polynices (also Polyneices) (; grc, Πολυνείκης, Polyneíkes, lit= manifold strife' or 'much strife) was the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia and the older brother of Eteocles (according to Sophocles' "Oedipus at Colonus"). When his father, Oedipus, was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, he was expelled from Thebes, leaving his sons Eteocles and Polynices to rule. Because of a curse put on them by their father Oedipus, the two sons did not share the rule peacefully and died as a result, killing each other in battle for control over Thebes. Mythology Oedipus's curse In the ''Thebaid'', the brothers were cursed by their father for their disrespect towards him on two occasions. The first of these occurred when they served him using the silver table of Cadmus and a golden cup, which he had forbidden. The brothers then sent him the haunch of a sacrificed animal, rather than the shoulder, which he deserved. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eteocles
In Greek mythology, Eteocles (; ) was a king of Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. Oedipus killed his father Laius and married his mother without knowing his relationship to either. When the relationship was revealed, he was expelled from Thebes. The rule passed to his sons Eteocles and Polynices. However, because of a curse from their father, the two brothers did not share the rule peacefully and died as a result, ultimately killing each other in battle for control of the city. Upon his death, Eteocles was succeeded by his uncle, Creon. Etymology The name translates as "truly glorious", from ἐτεός (eteós, “true”) + -κλῆς (-klês < kleos “glory”). It also appears in earlier form ''*Etewoklewes'' (). '' Tawagalawas'' is thought to be the Hittite rendition ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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