Greek Influence In Antigone

Another famous Greek tragedian was Sophocles, who composed popular and famous plays, Oedipus the King and Antigone. One reason for Sophocles’ plays to be more impressive and remembered by the current readers is that the chorus in his plays became far less central to the plot than it had been in Aeschylus. Moreover, he invented tritagonist in the stage, which allowed more vivid interactions and detailed relationships between the characters (Puchner 701-702). Although he wrote many great plays during his unusually long, successful, and productive life, unfortunately, only seven remains until today (Puchner 701). Nevertheless, there are still enough evidences in Antigone and Oedipus the King for us to understand why he composed tragedy in the

It was a time of prosperity for the city when Medea was performed first in the stage. During the golden age, Greeks society were open to foreigners who wanted to learn Greek democratic ideas and thoughts. But some people also argued that Greek openness to foreigners and their modes of thought also created potential dangerous influence to Greek people. And in the play, Medea was also marked as an outsider in three crucial ways: first, she was a woman in a male-dominated world; and a smart person surrounded by fools; finally, a foreigner in a Greek city (Puchner 785). Indeed, after Jason abandoned her, and remarried with another princess, Medea experienced a great hardship to find a place to live in Greek. And later, because of Jason’s neglect and abandon, Medea resulted in greater helplessness, which eventually bring her to the path for revenge and tragedy. In my opinion, Euripides wanted use the plot to tell the audiences that Greek democracy brought openness to foreigners, but people also needed to be cautious with potential threats in the democracy. Euripides also questioned the position of the gods, as he stated: “… the gods can accomplish what no one would hope for. What we expect may not happen at all, while the god find a way, against all expectation, to do what they want, however surprising. And that is exactly how this case turned out”

People might argue many plots in the tragedy are so extreme that rarely happened in an ordinary people’s life. For instance, it’s uncommon for people to kill his father and marry with his mother, as we observed in Oedipus the King. However, the audiences still can sympathize the tragedy, because they all have lost a family member sometimes in their life. And when they saw the tragedy, they will recall their own tragedy in their life, and be comforted by the characters’ misfortune and their inability to solve the issue. This is true for both ancient Greek audiences and current readers. In the golden age of Athens, people were being immersed in the prosperity and happiness of their democratic society. But in the other side, they also needed to face the threat and invasion from outside enemy, in particular, the Persian Empire. Many Greeks lost families in the war, and they saw the tragedy of the sacrifice of Iphigenia, audience emotional loss will be comforted through the compassion to the