Gail K. Hart
Office: HIB 185
Tel: (949) 824-4363
Email: gkhart@uci.edu
Office Hours: Monday 2-3 and by appointment
FAMILY AND STATE
Week One, Lecture One: ANTIGONE
| I. Sophocles 496-406/5 B.C.E. | |
123 plays—only 7 full plays survive (3 in your book). order is order of composition.
Greek Theater—vital component of polis or city-state.
Sophocles, like many Athenian citizens had civil posts and was active in government.
These plays based on stories/legends/history that the audience was familiar with, so they generally knew what was going to happen in the plays and enjoyed the particular presentation of familiar material.
We are reading Sophocles’ version of the Antigone story.
II. FAMILY AND ANTIGONE'S FAMILY
Generally when we discuss Family, we talk about deviations from what we tend to see as the norm --either to enforce the norm or to consider and appreciate the variety.
Family Values in Thebes: Chart on p. 425
Summary:
Antigone's mother/grandmother, Jocasta, hangs herself
Her father/brother, Oedipus, puts out his eyes with her brooches
Exiled by Creon, Oedipus wanders Greece with Antigone and Ismene
O. dies at Colonnus.
Antigone and Ismene return to Thebes.
Meanwhile, Eteocles and Polynices have struggled for the throne.
Polynices lost and attacked his home with an army
Eteocles and Polynices kill one another in battle.
Creon decides to bury Eteocles and expose Polynices.
Mini-thesis: As relations are blurred within her immediate family, Antigone, who is daughter-sister,
daughter-granddaughter, sister-niece, and sister-aunt, assumes the role of SISTER TO POLYNICES
and finds a stable footing or identity as she defends her brother's right to burial. more on this later.
III. ANTIGONE'S STATE:
.Antigone’s Thebes is a monarchy.
It is a well-established state that can identify heroes and traitors.
The state commands loyalty and its laws must be obeyed.
There are two states involved in Sophocles Antigone:
1. the ancient legendary Thebes of Antigone
2. the "modern" 5th-century Athenian democracy of Sophocles
The political world of the characters is perceived from the political world of the spectators.
Antigone endorses the state's authority, but she makes a special exception for her role as sister.
IV. POLIS: Greek city-state. These states began around 800 B.C.E. as monarchies, but developed various forms of government, including rule by citizens.
OIKOS: Ancient Greek household, included extended family, servants/slaves, and others necessary for the running of the household.