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Antigone (Sophocles Play)
''Antigone'' ( ; ) is an Athenian tragedy written by Sophocles in either 442 or 440 BC and first performed at the Festival of Dionysus of the same year. It is thought to be the second-oldest surviving play of Sophocles, preceded by ''Ajax'', which was written around the same period. The play is one of a triad of tragedies known as the three Theban plays, following ''Oedipus Rex'' and ''Oedipus at Colonus''. Even though the events in Antigone occur last in the order of events depicted in the plays, Sophocles wrote ''Antigone'' first. The story expands on the Theban legend that predates it, and it picks up where Aeschylus' ''Seven Against Thebes'' ends. The play is named after the main protagonist Antigone. After Oedipus' self-exile, his sons Eteocles and Polynices engaged in a civil war for the Theban throne, which resulted in both brothers dying while fighting each other. Oedipus' brother-in-law and new Theban ruler Creon ordered the public honoring of Eteocles and the public ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nikiforos Lytras
Nikiforos Lytras (; 1832 – 13 June 1904) was a Greek painter. He was born in Tinos and trained in Athens at the School of Arts. In 1860, he won a scholarship to Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Munich. After completing these studies, he became a professor at the School of Arts in 1866, a position he held for the rest of his life. He remained faithful to the precepts and principles of the Munich School, while paying greatest attention both to ethnographic themes and portraiture. His most famous portrait was of the royal couple, Otto and Amalia, and his most well-known landscape a depiction of the region of Lavrio. Biography Nikiforos Lytras was the son of a popular marble sculptor. In 1850, at the age of eighteen years he went to Athens to study in the School of Arts. He studied painting with Ludwig Thiersch and Raffaelo Ceccoli (c.1800-after 1860). After graduating in 1856, he began teaching an elementary course in writing. In 1860 with a Greek government's scholarship he ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oedipus At Colonus
''Oedipus at Colonus'' (also ''Oedipus Coloneus''; , ''Oidipous epi Kolōnō'') is the second of the three Theban plays of the Athenian tragedian Sophocles. It was written shortly before Sophocles's death in 406 BC and produced by his grandson (also called Sophocles) at the Festival of Dionysus in 401 BC. In the timeline of the plays, the events of ''Oedipus at Colonus'' occur after ''Oedipus Rex'' and before ''Antigone''; however, it was the last of Sophocles's three Theban plays to be written. The play describes the end of Oedipus's tragic life. Legends differ as to the site of Oedipus's death; Sophocles set the place at Colonus, a village near Athens and also Sophocles's own birthplace, where the blinded Oedipus has come with his daughters Antigone and Ismene as suppliants of the Erinyes and of Theseus, the king of Athens. Plot Led by Antigone, Oedipus enters the village of Colonus and sits down on a stone. They are approached by a villager, who demands that they leave ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coryphaeus
In Classical Athens, Attic Theatre of ancient Greece , drama, the coryphaeus, corypheus, or koryphaios (Greek language, Greek κορυφαῖος ''koryphaîos'', from κορυφή ''koryphḗ́'', the top of the head) was the leader of the Greek chorus, chorus. Hence the term (sometimes in an Anglicized form "coryphe") is used for the chief or leader of any company or movement. The original Greek coryphaeus spoke for all the chorus, whenever the chorus took part in the action, in quality of a person of the drama, during the course of the acts. The term is sometimes used for the chief or principal of any company, corporation, sect, opinion, etc. Thus, Eustathius of Antioch is called the coryphaeus of the First Council of Nicaea of 325 CE, and Cicero calls Zeno of Citium, Zeno ( 334 – 262 BCE) the coryphaeus of the Stoicism, Stoics. Paul the Apostle is often entitled "Coryphaeus" in Christian iconography. In 1856 the University of Oxford established the office of Coryphaeus or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Megareus Of Thebes
In Greek mythology, Megareus (; ) or Menoeceus (Μενοικεύς) was a warrior of Thebes, who figures in the war of the ''Seven against Thebes'' – the struggle between Eteocles and Polynices, the twin sons of Oedipus, for the throne of Thebes. He was known for his large stature, and is considered an anthropomorphic representation of his father's pride by some literary scholars. Family Megareus was the son of Eurydice and Creon, uncle of the two princes. He was thus the brother of Lycomedes, Haemon, Megara, Pyrrha, and Henioche, and the cousin of Antigone, Ismene, Eteocles, and Polynices. Mythology Creon supported Eteocles, the incumbent king. Megareus wanted to fight for Eteocles, but Creon did not want him to, fearing for his safety. Also, Tiresias, the blind prophet, told Creon that Eteocles would win if Creon sacrificed Megareus, reinforcing his decision. Creon suppressed Tiresias' prophecy, and sent Megareus to be sheltered away from the city of Thebes. Despi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dionysus
In ancient Greek religion and Greek mythology, myth, Dionysus (; ) is the god of wine-making, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus ( or ; ) by the Greeks (a name later adopted by the Ancient Rome, Romans) for a frenzy he is said to induce called ''baccheia''. His wine, music, and ecstatic dance were considered to free his followers from self-conscious fear and care, and subvert the oppressive restraints of the powerful. His ''thyrsus'', a fennel-stem sceptre, sometimes wound with ivy and dripping with honey, is both a beneficent wand and a weapon used to destroy those who oppose his Cult of Dionysus, cult and the freedoms he represents. Those who partake of his mysteries are believed to become possessed and empowered by the god himself. His origins are uncertain, and his cults took many forms; some are described by ancient sources as Thrace, Thracian, others as Greek. In O ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niobe
Niobe (; : Nióbē) was in Greek mythology a daughter of Tantalus and of either Dione or of Eurythemista or Euryanassa. She was the wife of Amphion and the sister of Pelops and Broteas. Niobe is mentioned by Achilles in Homer's ''Iliad'', which relates her ''hubris'', for which she was punished by Leto, who sent Apollo and Artemis to slay all of her children, after which her children lay unburied for nine days while she abstained from food. Once the gods had interred the slain, Niobe retreated to her native Sipylus, "where Nymphs dance around the River Acheloos, and though turned to stone, she broods over the sorrows sent by the Gods". Later writers asserted that Niobe was wedded to Amphion, one of the twin founders of Thebes, where there was a single sanctuary where the twin founders were venerated, but no shrine to Niobe. Mythology Family Her father was the ruler of a city located near Manisa in today's Aegean Turkey that was called "Tantalis" or "the city ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Seven Against Thebes
''Seven Against Thebes'' (, ''Hepta epi Thēbas''; ) is the third play in an Oedipus-themed trilogy produced by Aeschylus in 467 BC. The trilogy is sometimes referred to as the ''Oedipodea''. It concerns the battle between an Argive army, led by seven champions including Polynices who were called the Seven against Thebes, and the army of Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Thebes led by Eteocles and his supporters. The trilogy won the first prize at the Athens City Dionysia. The trilogy's first two plays, ''Laius'' and ''Oedipus'', as well as the satyr play ''Sphinx'', are Lost literary work, no longer extant. Background When Oedipus, King of Thebes, realized he had married his own mother and had two sons and two daughters with her, he blinded himself and cursed his sons to divide their inheritance (the kingdom) by the sword. The two sons, Eteocles and Polynices, in order to avoid bloodshed, agreed to rule Thebes in alternate years. After the first year, Eteocles refused to step down, lead ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jocasta
In Greek mythology, Jocasta (), also rendered as Iocaste ( ) and EpicasteHomer, ''Odyssey'', Vol. XI11.271/ref> (; ), was Queen of Thebes through her marriages to Laius and her son, Oedipus. She is best known for her role in the myths surrounding Oedipus and her eventual suicide upon the discovery of his identity. Family Jocasta was the daughter of an unknown woman and Menoeceus, a descendant of Cadmus, the legendary founder of Thebes, and the Spartoi Echion. She had two siblings: Creon and Hipponome. She was a member of the ruling class of Thebes, but her exact role before her marriage to Laius, the king of Thebes, is unknown. With Laius, she became Queen of Thebes and gave birth to a son, Oedipus. Later, not knowing of Oedipus's identity, she married him and gave birth to Antigone, Eteocles, Polynices and Ismene. She was therefore both the mother and the grandmother of her children. Mythology After Laius married Jocasta, he received an oracle from the Pythia at Delp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Creon (king Of Thebes)
Creon or Kreon (; ) is a figure in Greek mythology best known as the ruler of Thebes in the legend of Oedipus. Family Creon was the son of Menoeceus, and grandson of King Pentheus. Creon had four sons and three daughters with his wife, Eurydice (sometimes known as Henioche): Henioche, Pyrrha, Megareus, Lycomedes and Haemon. Creon and his sister, Jocasta, were descendants of Cadmus and of the Spartoi. He is sometimes considered to be the same person who purified Amphitryon of the murder of his uncle Electryon and father of Megara (wife of Heracles), Megara, first wife of Heracles. Mythology First Regency After the death of King Laius of Thebes at the hands of his own son Oedipus, Creon became the ruler of the kingdom. During this regency, Amphitryon Amphitryon (; Ancient Greek: Ἀμφιτρύων, ''gen''.: Ἀμφιτρύωνος; usually interpreted as "harassing either side", Latin: Amphitruo), in Greek mythology, was a son of Alcaeus, king of Tiryns in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Thebes, Greece
Thebes ( ; , ''Thíva'' ; , ''Thêbai'' .) is a city in Boeotia, Central Greece (administrative region), Central Greece, and is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is the largest city in Boeotia and a major center for the area along with Livadeia and Tanagra. It played an important role in Greek myths, as the site of the stories of Cadmus, Oedipus, Dionysus, Heracles and others. One myth had the city founded by Agenor, which gave rise to the (now somewhat obscure) name "Agenorids" to denote Thebans. Archaeological excavations in and around Thebes have revealed a Mycenaean Greece, Mycenaean settlement and clay tablets written in the Linear B script, indicating the importance of the site in the Bronze Age. Thebes was the largest city of the ancient region of Boeotia and was the leader of the Boeotian confederacy. It was a major rival of Classical Athens, ancient Athens, and sided with the Achaemenid Empire, Persians during the Second Persian invasi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polynices
In Greek mythology, Polynices (also Polyneices) (; ) was the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia and the older brother of Eteocles. When Oedipus was discovered to have killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus was expelled from Thebes, leaving Eteocles and Polynices to rule. Because of a curse put on them by their father, the two sons did not share the rule peacefully. During a battle for control over Thebes, the brothers killed each other. Mythology Oedipus's curse In the ''Thebaid'', the brothers were cursed by their father for their disrespect towards him on two occasions. The first of these occurred when they served him using the silver table of Cadmus and a golden cup, which he had forbidden. The brothers then sent him the haunch of a sacrificed animal, rather than the shoulder, which he deserved. Enraged, Oedipus prayed to Zeus that the brothers would die by each other's hand. However, in Sophocles' '' Oedipus at Colonus'', Oedipus desired to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eteocles
In Greek mythology, Eteocles (; ) was a king of Ancient Thebes (Boeotia), Thebes, the son of Oedipus and either Jocasta or Euryganeia. Oedipus killed his father Laius and married his mother without knowing his relationship to either. When the relationship was revealed, he was expelled from Thebes. The rule passed to his sons Eteocles and Polynices. However, because of a curse from their father, the two brothers did not share the rule peacefully and died as a result, ultimately killing each other in battle for control of the city. Upon his death, Eteocles was succeeded by his uncle, Creon of Thebes, Creon. Etymology The name translates as "truly glorious", from ''eteós'' “true” and ''kleos'' “glory”. The name appears in earlier form ''*Etewoklewes'' (), attested in Mycenaean Greek tablets as ''E-te-wo-ke-le-we''. ''Tawagalawas'' is thought to be the Hittite language, Hittite rendition of the Greek name. Oedipus's curse In the ''Thebaid (Greek poem), Thebaid'', the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
