Antigone by Sophocles

The Tragedy

• Online Text
• 1961 Video with English Subtitles (oh, yeah!) 

Antigone's Background

• On Sophocles (our playwright)
• What are the approximate years of Sophocles' life?
• What did Sophocles do differently than other playwrights of his day (as well as those that preceded him)?
• What makes Sophocles deeper than and richer than many other playwrights?
• Terms (please define the terms section of your composition book):
• 1.  Please copy down Aristotle's definition of a tragedy here.
  
• 2.  Now read this lecture in groups.  You will find definitions for the following terms. 
• catharsis
• hubris
• peripeteia
• anagnorisis
• ataxia
• 3. Finally, review a short definition of tragedy and define catastrophe here.

• Video
• BBC: Ancient Drama and Democracy (59 min.)

Journal : Antigone (BG&T Condensed):Grab a book (horror of horrors!) or use this online text

• 1.  Context: Who wrote it? Where? When?
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  2.  Tradition: Name a specific story from the Bible that Creon or Tiresias or Antigone's  character and actions reminds you of (consider Esther, David and Nathan the Prophet, Pharaoh).  Explain the relationship briefly, and quote and cite from the Bible.
• 
  3. Composition: Copy down your favorite line from the piece.  Describe the grammar, syntax, and compositional structure of this translation of Sophocles (Shorter, simpler sentences compared to other books you've read?  Longer, more complicated or complex sententences compared to what you've read?  Dialogue style? Seriousness?).
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  4.  Distinction: What are the key images of the work?  Which one is the most memorable? Why (please don't answer that "the reader could just see and feel it so clearly because of the way it was written"; a key image should be powerful and reinforce an important theme)?
• 
  5.  Understanding: 
• A. Discuss Antigone as the protagonist and Creon as her antagonist.  Use all of the applicable tragic terms to discuss them (see the notes you took in the background above).  At least one term will best apply to Creon.  
•  B. What kind of view of life and world is assumed in Antigone?  What creates the tragic tension?  What would need to change for a positive conclusion to be possible? 
• 
  6.  Judgment: 
• A. What is a central, important truth that this play teaches high school students today?  Include at least one quote from the play as you explain your answer.  
• B. Provide at least two good reasons that this tragic drama has sailed through over 2,000 years of opinion, 7,772 miles, to beach in an obscure classroom in Watsonville, Ca, OR identify a text that should replace Antigone in our course and provide at least two reasons to support your replacement.  Either way, defend your answer. 

Essay Prompt

• The Take Home Essay

Antigone in front of the dead Polyneices by Nikiforos Lytras

To be ignored at almost all costs:

• A. E. Housman's "Fragment of a Greek Tragedy" (satire)