Swollen Feet, The King

a.     Oedipus the Man

-Oedipus was a overly proud and determined man. He was determined to find the killer of the Previous king laius and that led to him finding out it was himself. In that and finding out he was married to his mother, he loses his pride.

b.     Oedipus the Myth

-Oedipus was born to Lauis and Jocasta of Thebes. His parents find out that their son will kill the father and marry the mother in the future. So Oedipus is ordered to be killed. However the shepherd doesn’t kill the baby, instead he gives it to the king and queen of Corinth. Which results in the chain of events in the play

c.      Oedipus the Play

-The play of Oedipus the king takes place after he kills his father and has four kids with his mother. He is still ignorant of the fact that they are his mother and father. The play was written by Sophocles in around 430 B.C.

d.     Tragedy-

-Tragedy is the situation in which a hero performs an action that has serious consequences while being presented in an attractive fashion. Aristotilian tragedies must be whole, no cliffhangers or “episodic” endings. They also must be complex and fairly lengthy.

e.     Hubris-Hubris is an excessive pride. It often causes a hero to ignore a moral warning. Ignoring the moral warning eventually leads to the tragic hero’s demise.

f.      Dramatic irony

- Dramatic irony occurs when the audience knows a detail that the characters do not. In the play Oedipus Rex, everyone knows the myth of Oedipus marrying his mother, but the Oedipus himself, in the story, does not know that. This effect really draws audiences in because they know the result but they can’t look away.

g.     Sophocles

-The second of 3 great greek tragedy writers, Sophocles was most famous for his work on oedipus rex. He won many awards for his writing in competitions and he also bested Aeschylus in a dramatic competition

h.     Teiresias

- Teiresias was a Famous prophet of Thebes. He walked in on Athena bathing, so she blinded him, however, she also gave him the gift of prophecy in his blindness. So he was used in many greek myths as a prophet.

i.       Fate

-In greek mythology, fate is always inevitable. Heroes hear a prophecy and they want to deny it and try to go against it, which results in bad consequences for the hero. Fate is common in the structure of all greek literature.

j.       Greek theater

- Greek theater was thought to originate around 700s B.C.. Greek theater only included male actors who portrayed comedic or tragic myths on stage according to a playwright. There were three famous tragic playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.