6.3 Greek Tragedy

Notes

Tragedy began in ancient Athens, where plays were performed at festivals honoring the god Dionysus.

• Actors wore masks; a chorus of performers sang and commented on the action, often voicing the community's views.
• Violence usually happened offstage and was reported by a messenger.
• Sophocles wrote Oedipus Rex: Oedipus seeks the cause of a plague and discovers he has unknowingly killed his father and married his mother, fulfilling a prophecy.
• In Sophocles' Antigone, Antigone buries her brother Polyneices against King Creon's order, choosing divine law and family duty over the state's law.