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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 4 page essay that explores Sophocles' plays Oedipus and Antigone in regards a principal theme in Greek drama, which is to remind the audience that the will of the gods is paramount and that neither high position nor noble birth exempt an individual from the obligation to fulfill societal duties according to divine dictates. Following this theme, Sophocles pictures numerous ironic reversals of fortune in his plays Oedipus the King and Antigone. This dramatic device serves to underscore the basic themes of both plays, which emphasize the dangers of hubris and the goal of justifying ancient Greek social paradigms as being founded in divine commandments. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_khedan.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
noble birth exempt an individual from the obligation to fulfill societal duties according to divine dictates. Following this theme, Sophocles pictures numerous ironic reversals of fortune in his plays Oedipus
the King and Antigone. This dramatic device serves to underscore the basic themes of both plays, which emphasize the dangers of hubris and the goal of justifying ancient Greek social
paradigms as being founded in divine commandments. As Oedipus opens, the protagonist enters and shows, through his questions, that he is a ruler who is concerned about his people,
"Why sit ye here, my children,/...Uplifting in your hands the suppliants boughs" (lines 1-3). In order to discern why the gods no longer listen to the prayers of his citizens
and why his realm is plagued, Oedipus begins to investigate events that occurred in his youth. Of course, the story of Oedipus is well known, that is, how his
father, Laius, the previous ruler of Thebes, in order to avoid his prophesized fate, had his son, Oedipus, exposed on the mountainside in infancy, intending that he should die. Oedipus
was found and raised as a noble son elsewhere, never knowing the true identity of his mother and father. Meeting Laius on the road from the Oracle at Delphi, where
he has heard the dreadful prophecy that he will kill his father and marry his mother, Oedipus meets Laius on the road, becomes enraged at his behavior toward him and
kills him, which sets off the series of events that cause the prophecy to be fulfilled. However, at the beginning of the play, Oedipus knows nothing of his true origins,
so he proclaims that whoever killed the previous ruler shall be found out, punished and banished, which is, of course, ironic, since this is a ruling against himself. At
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