Oedipus Flashcards
(21 cards)
What does Oedis name mean?
Oida- all knowing
Word for pollution?
Miasma
Word for readiness to act?
Prothumia
Who are the chorus?
Theban elders
Where else is happiness questioned?
Herodotus’ histories
Methaphor for blinding?
Hailstorm
Which god responsible?
Apollo
Tragic hero is?
Not outstanding, falls into bad fortune not through vice or wickedness, but through mistake, enjoys prosperity
Two agons?
Tiresias and Oedipus, Oedipus and Creon
Date
429 BC
Kommos in Oedipus
when blinded Oedipus comes on stage
Portrayal of women
Oedipus says he values Jocasta’s advice over the chorus and Creon says how they have equal power. Echoes of Odysseus and Penelope. Deliberate irony that the happiest marriage in Greek tragedy is incestuous
Oedipus as good king
priest describes him as ‘first of men’, addresses them with paternal benevolence as ‘children’, has already sent Creon to consult the oracle and sent for Tiresias twice already
Plague in Athens
429-425 BC
Accusations against Tiresias
In cahoots with Creon to overthrow Oedipus
word for human understanding
‘gnome’
Word for picking up each other’s lines
Antilabe
Important thing the chorus do
Tell him to spare Creon
Example that Jocasta isn’t impious
Visits shrines with wreathed branches and offerings of incense- only questions oracles, not religion
Jocasta stopping Oedipus asking questions
Tries 4 times to make him stop
Role of the gods
“Apollo, it was Apollo…but the hand that struck them was mine: no one but I ventured this agony”
