The tension and dramatic irony was so gripping I couldn’t put the play down and I never thought any part of it was a drag despite its length relative to the other plays we were assigned.
It’s so dramatic, the pacing, imagery, and irony is so well placed. My mouth hangs open in shock.
notes
- Sophocles (497–406 BCE)
- Oedipus’s digestion of information
- Facination and horror
- Puncture heels adn put rod through
- Folktale motif: exposed child
- Herodotes: Cyrus
- Romulus and Remus
- Response to first oracle
- Folktale motif: exposed child
- Poetics - Aristotle: model tragedy due to plot organization and structure
- Intersecting prophecies, messenger shepherd, dramatic irony, different awareness in time
- Catharsis of pity and fear
- Purging and expiation
- Vicarious experience
- Freud: Oedipus complex
- Popular in 19th century Vienna
depictions
Oedipus and the Sphinx of Thebes red figure, c. 470 BCE