Origins & Structure
What term names the outdoor, semi-circular seating area where Greek audiences watched plays?
Theatron
Who wrote Oedipus the King?
Sophocles
What facial covering did Greek actors commonly wear to help project character and emotion?
Masks
Who is Oedipus’s wife (and mother)?
Jocasta
Who declares, “I will bring it all to light myself” and what do they mean?
Oedipus vows to find Laius’s murderer and bring him to justice.
What are the three main parts of a classical Greek tragedy (often named for sections of performance)?
Prologue, Episodes, Stasimon
Name two other major Athenian tragic playwrights contemporary with Sophocles.
Aeschylus and Euripides
Why did male actors wear masks when playing female roles?
Cultural norms barred women from performing; masks allowed male actors to portray female roles and to exaggerate features for visibility
What central theme involves the tension between a character’s choices and forces beyond their control?
Fate vs. Free Will
What event prompts Oedipus to send for the blind prophet Tiresias?
The plague afflicting Thebes and the oracle’s response prompt the search for Laius’s murderer and Tiresias’s involvement.
What is the role of the chorus in Greek tragedy?
Provide commentary, represent public opinion, summarize action, and react emotionally; they also bridge scenes and interpret events for the audience.
At which Athenian festival did Sophocles first present his plays?
The Festival of Dionysus or City Dionysia
What does deus ex machina mean and how was it used in Greek theatre productions?
It means "God from the Machine" and it was a pulley crane used to lower gods or flying figures onto the stage.
What is “hamartia” and how does it apply to Oedipus?
Hamartia is the tragic flaw or error in judgment; Oedipus’s hamartia is often read as his pride/blindness to evidence and rashness in judgment.
What dramatic irony is present when Oedipus curses the murderer of Laius?
Oedipus’s curse on Laius’s killer is ironic because he is himself the killer.
Which god’s festivals were the primary venue for dramatic competitions in Athens?
Dionysus
Sophocles is credited with introducing what dramatic innovation involving the number of actors on stage?
Changed the number of actors from 2 to 3
Describe the function of the chorus’s costumes and movement in supporting the play’s mood and exposition.
Costumes signaled social status, age, gender, and mood; synchronized movement reinforced dramatic rhythm and emotional tone
How does the concept of fate vs. free will drive the plot of Oedipus the King? Give one concrete example from the play.
Fate prophecies (that Oedipus will kill his father and marry his mother) vs. Oedipus’s attempts to avoid them; e.g., he flees Corinth to escape supposed parents, inadvertently fulfilling the prophecy.
Name the revelation that finally convinces Oedipus of his guilt (what tangible evidence or testimony turns him).
The shepherd’s testimony and the recognition of the crossroads, the piercing tokens (pins), and the discovery of Oedipus’s origins (that he was not Polybus’s son) confirm the truth.
Explain how the Greek theatre’s physical design (orchestra, skene,atron) affected actor–audience interaction and amplification.
The orchestra placed chorus and actors close to the audience; skene provided backdrop and entrances; open-air acoustics and masks amplified voice and gesture.
Identify one important way Aeschylus’s style and thematic focus differed from Sophocles’s.
Aeschylus often used grand mythic themes and choral emphasis; Sophocles focused more on complex individual psychology and tighter plotting.
Explain how Greek set pieces and stagecraft conveyed scene changes and supernatural events without modern technology.
Minimal scenic pieces, symbolic props, choral narration, and devices like the mechane and ekkyklema (a rolling platform) portrayed events offstage (deaths, revelations, divine appearances).
Discuss how the role of the chorus in Oedipus the King shapes audience sympathy for Oedipus over the course of the play.
The chorus begins by trusting Oedipus and praising him, then grows doubtful and empathic; their shifting responses guide audience interpretation and maintain moral framing.
Select one key exchange or speech in the play (identify speaker and lines) and explain how it reveals the tragic reversal (peripeteia).
Example: Tiresias’s confrontation with Oedipus (Tiresias’s blind truth vs. Oedipus’s sight) culminating in Oedipus’s self-blinding — shows reversal as knowledge of identity brings ruin.