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Summary Greek Theatre Quotes by Essay Point
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Quotation GatheringOedipus the King
➔ ‘Your gods - nothing’- second biggest hubristic moment
◆ Delphic maxim - revere the sacred
● ‘No poet speaks more than sophocles on the need for reverence’ -
Kitto
➔ ‘Blind to the corruption of your life’ - Oedipus’ ignorance
◆ Delphic maxim - know thyself
◆ ‘Oedipus seeks out knowledge beyond the scope of what is prudent or
necessary’ - Waggoner
➔ ‘Posses his bed, wife who shares our seed’ - Incestous
◆ Greek fear of the ‘over loving’ mother [Agave and Pentheus] - Pentheus vase
◆ ‘I give this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children’ - Menader
➔ ‘Oh my children’ - Oedipus love for Thebes
◆ Beginning of the play, the phrase ‘my children’ is used four time by O to
address his subjects
◆ ‘What causes his ruin is…his loyalty to Thebes’
➔ ‘I grieve for these people…more than I fear for my own life’ - Oedipus loving Thebes
➔ ‘Seer blind in his craft’ - Oedipus impiety
◆ Delphic maxim - revere the sacred
● ‘No poet speaks more than sophocles on the need for reverence’ -
Kitto
➔ ‘Twist his arms back, quickly!’ - Oedipus cruelty
◆ Democracy was highly favoured and Kings were seen as bad [links to
Bacchae with bad king Pentheus]
● ‘Oedipus initial tendency to discharge his aggressive impulses on
someone else’ - Faber
● ‘A man of action swift and vigorous action’ - Bloom
➔ ‘I think he’s crowned’ - Foreshadowing king Creon
◆ Creon represents a democratic king, Thebes loves democracy
● ‘The destruction of the royal family is, although pitiable, no disaster for
Thebes - Barry
➔ ‘Lusty voyage home to the fatal harbour’ - Incest metaphor
◆ Greek fear of the ‘over loving’ mother [Agave and Pentheus] - Pentheus vase
● ‘I give this woman to you for the ploughing of legitimate children’ -
Menader
➔ ‘Speak to us all’ - Democracy and good ruling
◆ Democracy was highly favoured and Kings were seen as bad [links to
Bacchae with bad king Pentheus]
● ‘Oedipus is the epitome of Athenian values’ - Knox
➔ ‘All of us are equals?’ - quasi-democratic
◆ Thebes loved democracy, entire Frogs play promotes democracy
● ‘The drama festivals were an exercise in propaganda’ - Carey
➔ ‘Is there a man more agonised?’ - metatheatre, competition
◆ Here Sophocles announces his character as the most agonised, trying to win
the play festival
, Quotation Gathering
◆ Sophocles won first prize at the Festival of Dionysus 18 times [OTK came
second]
● ‘We are to the gods as flies are to wanton boys; they kill us for their
sport’ - Gloucester in King Lear, Shakespeare
➔ ‘Unaware of the one you live with, you are the curse the corruption of this land’ -
Oedipus’ incest
◆ Calyx Krater vase with Jocasta standing horrified
◆ ‘The main message of the play is that wisdom is an abomination’ - Nietszche
➔ ‘I see it all, I see the light’ - Oedipus’ revelation
● ‘Oedipus seeks out knowledge beyond the scope of what is prudent or
necessary’ - Waggoner
➔ ‘Destiny guide me always’ - pious chorus
◆ ‘The chorus express the moral and religious lessons to be drawn’ - Dover
Bacchae
➔ Pentheus, who now fights with gods - impiety alert !!!
◆ pity is evoked by unmerited misfortune, fear by the misfortune of a man like
ourselves - Aristotle
◆ Most Greek tragedies showed people being killed for their impiety, proves the
power of the gods [OTK]
➔ You will pay for your ignorance and irreverence to the god! - Dionysus tells Pentheus
his fate
◆ if anyone despises divinity, let them look upon this man's death, and believe
in the gods
➔ I, Dionysus, son of Zeus - the play begins with a divine prologue
◆ Frogs has Dionysus introduce himself as ‘song of flagon’
◆ Dionysus is the director of the play - Dover
◆ ‘The drama festivals were an exercise in propaganda’ - Carey
➔ [Zeus] concealing the baby within his thigh… Zeus brought him to birth - man born of
man. Gender transgression
◆ ‘Effeminate stranger’
➔ [at the rituals] stand full bowl of wine… serve the lusts of men- women as oversexed
◆ ‘That the women of the city should behave without restraint is profoundly
shocking to a Greek world’ - Dover
◆ ‘Frenzied down the ways hair flowing like a Maenad roused by the thyrsus’ -
Ovid Ars Amatoria
➔ Your hair is long… very seductive! - homoerotic undertones
◆ That such relationships are completely unacceptable - Pausanias in the
Symposium
◆ 'The keynote of the episode is the calm and easy exercise of power on the
one side, the flurry and futility on the other.' - Winnington-Ingram
◆ 'Pentheus' almost erotic fascination with the god's appearance becomes part
of his gradual surrender to the god's power'- Judith Mossman
◆ ‘Know thyself’ - delphic maxim
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