Colonus

Sophocles. Throughout his lifetime, Sophocles wrote one hundred and twenty plays. Unfortunately, only seven of his works have survived in their entirety. The list of plays include: Antigone, The Women of Trachis, Ajax, Electra, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus, and Oedipus the King (Oedipus Rex). His works focused heavily on the concepts of misery and tragedy. Several of his most famous Theban plays feature the character Oedipus such as Oedipus Rex. Oedipus Rex is the story of the king of Thebes,…

To fully understand Sophocles’ play, the context must be explained. Oedipus the King takes place in mythological ancient Greece. In the city of Thebes, the events of this play happen all in a single day. In front of the Palace of Thebes, the people of this day are experiencing a famine in the land. An oracle tells that this famine is present because the murderer of the old king, Laius, has not been found and subsequently punished. In this age, it is important to note that the people of ancient…

Sophocles is an Ancient Greek tragedian. Sophocles was born during 496 B.C in Colonus in a village close to Athens. Sophocles was an original Greek boy from a wealthy family. Sophocles was born a few years before the battle of marathon. The exact year of his birth is unknown. Sophocles had an very educated family. Sophocles had two kids Iophon and Ariston both boys. Sophocles first wife name was Nicostrata and second wife name was Theoris. When he was not doing theater he was a member of…

perceived free will, even when they lose it. So it has become apparent that the more pride there is in the characters, almost always meant a false “free will” to which their demise was given, while the less pride in characters, like Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus, seems to have no free will at all. Pride in characters affects our perception of them and how much free will they harbor, and this, dear readers, is what the demise of Oedipus, Polynices, Eteocles, and Creon is all centered…

uses his power to forbid it. This Greek play symbolically demonstrates the inner conflict between power and one’s conscience. (Haigh) Antigone was the third and final installment of Sophocles popular trilogy after Oedipus the King and Oedipus at Colonus (Sayre). Sophocles, who lived from 496-406 BCE was a treasurer for Athenian polis, a general under Pericles and a financial advisor for the Athens during the Peloponnesian Wars as well as being a playwright (Sayre). He was an extremely…

down the characters during the three Theban plays. For example, Antigone became the physical and metaphorical crutch for the blinded Oedipus as he journeyed through his years of exile from place to place. Antigone, as Creon points out in Oedipus at Colonus, “had no part in marriage” because of her role as his caretaker in his time in exile (OAC 851). This example serves to illustrate the way in which the generational curses have impacted Antigone’s life. She does, however, attempt to shed the…

In many Greek tragedies, the main characters had tragic flaws that led to their downfalls. In two of Sophocles’s plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone, the main characters both had a tragic flaw of arrogance. In Oedipus the King, Oedipus had a tendency to let his arrogance overpower him, and he was the one who caused the plague because he blindly killed his father Laius, the first king of Thebes. In Antigone, Creon is the king after Oedipus left the city. Creon wanted to be different than…

Great rulers only come once in Greek lifetime. Oedipus and Creon were both good rulers for Thebes, yet at the same time were men tragic of ill created fates and downfall. Oedipus was swift with action and had courage that could last a life time, while Creon was simplistic in nature and had a good head on his shoulders. Both kings, however had character flaws of stubbornness, as one tried to change and outrun his fate, while the other could not see past his nose, unable to make the right changes…

Antigone was written by Sophocles in around 442 BCE, but it was not his only piece of literature (Classical Literature, 2009). Before the writing of Antigone, Sophocles had also written Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and Seven against Thebes (Classical literature, 2009). Therefore, the story is categorized as drama in the classical period. Antigone was written when the national issues were held dear and were of great concern in Greece. For example, there was a thrilling and brutal war…

Point of View Antigone is a play which involves two brothers who lead opposite sides in the Thebes’ civil war. They engage in a bloody siege whereby they end up dead. Oedipus dies while in Colonus. Antigone and her sister decide to return to Thebes with the intention of helping their other brothers. They avoid the prophecy which predicts that they will kill each other in the battle for the throne of Thebes (Honig, 2013). The play has a narrator. The narrator is called Antigone. The effect of…