Oedipus the King

Oedipus the King

• 5th Century (BCE) Athens, Greece

Greek Theatre

Oedipus the King

Greek Theatre

Oedipus the King

• Annual Festival every March honoring the God Dionysus involved a huge drama festival

– Festival lasted 5 days

– One of the city leaders (“archon”) would give 3 tragic poets the chance to produce plays for the competition

– Each competitor was assigned 3 actors and a group for the chorus

– Each tragedian put on three tragedies and a satyr drama

– In the early years the plays were thematically connected and put on as a tetralogy, but Sophocles and Euripides helped to introduce a single play format.

– The plays were interpretations or extensions of well-known Greek myths – the audiences would have been familiar with the general stories and characters, but each playwright would give his own unique “spin” to the story.

The Festival of Dionysus

Oedipus the King

Greek Theatre

Oedipus the King

• 496-406 BCE (lived to be 90 years old!)• Won fame for his victories in theatre

competitions• Wrote approximately 120 plays, but only 7 of

them remain intact• Won 24 times at the festival of Dionysus• Introduced several innovations to the Greek

dramatic traditions

– Ended the tradition of writing trilogies for the contest

– Painted background scenery– Changed number of speaking actors from 2 to 3– Increased the size of the chorus from 12 to 15

• Philosophically conservative: in contrast to the Sophists, he believed in the divine knowledge of the Gods rather than the knowledge of mankind.

Sophocles

Oedipus the King

– During this time, Greek society was in transition between an oral and a written culture, books were not widely available until the end of the 5th C.

– People learned through memorization. The festivals of Dionysus continued into the 4th century with the older plays of Sophocles still being performed as “revivals”.

– Around 330 BCE, Lykurgus, an Athenian politician passed a law that required the preparation of “official” versions of the plays for re-performance. These were made based on a mix of what was already available in written and oral material, and even these manuscripts (which were written on papyrus, not paper, had to be re-copied).

– The original manuscripts didn’t even have divisions between words, or assignments of lines to individual speakers, and didn’t necessarily have fixed titles created by the playwright.

The plays: then vs. now

Oedipus the King

• The “prequel” to OTK.

• A story that all, or most of Greek citizens would have been familiar with.

• …and you thought YOUR family was messed up.

The Oedipus Myth

Oedipus the King

• Pythia The Delphic Oracle (believed to be able to communicate with Apollo and give prophetic messages about the future)

Apollo important Greek God, at various times described as the god of truth and prophecy, as well as healing and the bringing of plague.

The shrine of Apollo at Delphi Where citizens of Greece would go to pray and listen to the word of Apollo through the Oracle.

Oedipus the King

I know you all know this story very well…(it is one of the greatest stories of all time, after all), but let me remind you anyway:

So there’s this sacred dragon scroll that is supposed to contain mystical secrets of the universe that can unlock amazing powers in anyone who reads it.

But this dragon scroll is only to be read by the legendary “dragon warrior”– a master of kung fu who could use this knowledge to do great things.

It all comes back to KUNG FU PANDA…

Oedipus the King

Tai Lung, who is a great kung fu warrior and who is also seen by the wise Master Oogway to have “darkness” in his heart, tries to take the scroll by force.

Oogway stops him and locks him up in a prison with thousands of guards just to keep this dangerous warrior from obtaining the powerful scroll.

It all comes back to KUNG FU PANDA…

Oedipus the King

It all comes back to KUNG FU PANDA…One day, Master Oogway calls his

student, Master Shifu to tell him that he has had a vision of Tai Lung returning to steal the dragon scroll.

Shifu feels intense fear upon hearing his master’s prophecy, and immediately sends a messenger to the prison with a command to double the number of guards so that the prediction may never come true.

Oogway offers some words of wisdom at this point:“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”

Oedipus the King

It all comes back to KUNG FU PANDA…Upon arriving at the prison, the

messenger, Zheng is assured by the head guard that there are more than enough guards and that there is no chance of Tai Lung escaping.

The guard takes Zheng down to the cell where TaiLung is shackled helplessly. As they leave the room, the guard confidently slaps Zheng on the back, sending one of his feathers over near the imprisoned Tai Lung.

Oedipus the King

The crafty TaiLung uses the feather that Zheng dropped to pick the lock on his shackles and break free from the prison…

Oogway’s prophecy comes true. TaiLung DOES return…but only because of Shifu’s attempts to prevent it from happening…

“One often meets his destiny on the road he takes to avoid it.”

It all comes back to KUNG FU PANDA…

Oedipus the King