Oedipus Rex - Episode #1 - The philosophy, the predicaments, the purpose in Greek Theater

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Oedipus Rex - Episode #1 - The philosophy, the predicaments, the purpose in Greek Theater   Hi, I’m Christy Shriver.   And I’m Garry Shriver and this is the How to Love Lit Podcast.  Today, we’re venturing back into drama and when I say back- I mean way way back- all the way to 496bc  give or take a few years to Athens Greece where we will meet one of the most famous playwrights of all time- Sophocles.  But…before we do, I’ve been called out for an inconsistency.  It seems that a listener, actually two listeners, have made the claim that I have just completely quit the fun facts.  So, in response, I thought I’d kind of revive the tradition.  Christy has a strange connection with Greece in that her passion for Greece does not come necessarily for a love of the language, although she took Greek in high school, btw- or the food or the wine or even the beaches..things she loves, but from the movie Mamamia- she and her daughters, Anna and Lizzy have a passionate relationship for all things Mamamia!!...including the fact that this summer, she and her daughter Anna performed a fine albeit out of tune performance of “Mamamia” in Valparaiso Chile in front of a large group of karaoke watchers…and I have the video, I should post it!!!   Oh dear-Anna will kill you- but maybe we should- take one for the team!!   it is so awkward when you do this.  But I can’t deny- Mamamia introduced me to Greece, but Greece can certainly hold its own.  This summer was the first time I had ever been there, and we didn’t even get to the islands, just the mainland, so I am due a return visit.   But you know, I’m not the only one with fun facts..if we can call them.. lots of people have fun facts about Greece or any of the other books we’re talking about…if you have a fun fact about something we’re talking about or some place we’ve been- message us on fb, Instagram or via the website.  We’d love to give you a shout out!!  Just tell us what book it connects with and your fun fact!!!  Include a pic if you have one!       Now, leaving Abba and going to Sophocles- Sophocles is one of the big three Greek poets you may have heard of before- Sophocles, Euripedes and Aeschylus.  Sophocles is said to have written as many as 123 dramas prior to his death around 406 bc (remember we count backwords at this point)- but.  Only seven have survived the 2500 years of human history between now and only two of those can be dated with any amount of certainty.  So, Christy..before we get into Sophocles and Oedipus, what do we need to know about Greek theater in general to be able to really understand it.    Ugh- well, that’s a very multi-faceted question with a long answer, but we’ll take it in chunks.  To begin with, something to keep in mind is that the purpose of Greek theater was SO different than how we think of theater today.  For the citizens of Athens in the fifth century BC, theater was both a religious as well as a civic occasion.  They were only two  times a year that they even had them and both were at religious festivals and both were associated with the Dionysius, the god of wine and crops.  When I try to explain this to my kids here in Memphis, I make the comparison with Christian churches.  In Memphis, Christianity has a very strong cultural tradition as well as a religious one we kind of do the same thing.  In Memphis we not only have many churches, but we also have mega-ones.  We have one church, Bellevue, that has over 10,000 members and one of the things they’re known for in our community is putting on a Christmas pageant and an Easter Pageant.  They hold these things for a couple of weeks and lots of lots of people come,  not just church members and these are often big deals with hundreds of people singing, and fireworks and an orchestra and live animals- it’s huge.  We talked a little bit about this in our special Christmas  edition- so, in one sense to. Me it feels natural to think of it this way except- there’s just one big difference- the religions are very different.    Well, I would have to say that makes a huge difference- Dionysius being the god of wine – there is not doubt there was a different feel than a Christian service or mass.  There was a lot of drunkenness and the atmostphere was far from what today we would consider reverent-   That’s true- but there is another parallel with religious cantatas as we know them today- Sophocles, or any major author the Greek classical age- the purpose of the plays were instructional- now not in the moral sense like this is right code of ethics and this is a wrong one, but in the philosophical sense.  Sophocles is a teacher on stage and is trying to instruct his fellow men to think, and to act according to the way the rules of the universe operate so that in understanding these they have a shot at  improving themselves- and in this sense- some of the ideas he discusses in these plays have been found to be timeless, they have been explored for literally 2000 years.  He looks deeply at the correct attitude and concept of family relationships-   Another one relates to man’s ability or inability to forecast future consequences. Sophocles truly believed that man was capable of reaching any human goal he set for himself, but in order to achieve great heights one needs to use your brain and steer your emotions constructively.     Well, I think we’re getting a little ahead of ourselves in talking about themes- let’s go back to the basics.  Let’s say, I’m a tourist         and I show up in Greece during March at the Great Dionysia- the three day citywide celebration- what would I see?     Well, you would definitely know you’d arrived at a special occasion.  First of all, Athens would be jammed full of people from every social class- it didn’t matter if you were rich or poor, if you could afford the admission or not.  If you were a citizen, they’d let you in anyway.  It was a big deal.  Each day at dawn a different author would present a trilogy of tragic plays- three interrelated dramas, after the dramas would something they called a satyr play which an obsene short parady involving actual satyrs- those mythiscal creatures that were half man/ half goat.  After all of this, a different writer would present a comedy. This would go on for three days. And was an actual cokpetition- at the end of the three days a panel of five judges would announce the best one- and a lot of time, they would make their decision based on the reactiions of the crowds to the pieces. If you won first prize you got a crown made of ivy as well as a substancial cash prize.  One source of irony is that Sophocles who won the tournament 24 times, did not actually win the the play Oedipus the King.  Aschylys had recently died and they gave it to a popular trilogy he’d written that year- anyway.  Sophocles himself, I’m not sure we know a whole lot more about him, except that he lived to be 90 years old- that seems amazing for that day and age.    The festival to Dionysis is actually had over 500 years of practicing history- if you think about that- that’s a LONG tradition- and mostly originally about the singing and dancing but besides from singing and dancing and celebrating the legends of Dionysus, there’s a lot we DON’T know about these festivals.  We do know that by the fifth century, the plays were an extremely important component of the festivals and were funded by the state and were competitions. We also know that many Greek towns had these amphitheater. And if you go to the how to love lit Instagram page, back to the promo on Julius Caesar, you’ll see Christy and her brother in Italy (where they have these two) horsing around in one.       That’s true.  The theaters themselves are very cool and they have them other places besides Greece.  They have them all over the middle east.  There’s even one, I know of in Cairo as well as Spain- and I’m sure many other far-reaching places of the ancient world.- they are most often carved into hills with rising rows of seats so that sometimes as many 14-17000 people could fit in.  At the bottom would be what they called the orchestra or dancing place and that’s where the chorus lined up. Then behind the orchestra would be a skene or backdrop which was kind of the set.  It had a place where actors could go in and change, but in front of it was where the actors performed.   Of course for hundfeds of years it was just like the singing and dancing in circles we associate with many ancient cultures- but then Thespis introduced the idea of the actor.  Henceforth- all actors are called thespians!!! The playwright- Aeschylus thought of the idea of adding the second actor and then Sophocles thought- if not two then why not three and added the third.   If you say it like that, it seems like that shouldn’t have taken much thought- so why so long to invent the concept?  But that is the bias of the present-  actually I can see how adding a second and then a third player on the stage changes the dynamics or nature of the presentation completely.    It changed everything- so instead of the show being primarily about the chorus or the singing and dancing- the show was now about the relationships between the characters, the dialogue, an actual conflict, things that we would consider more like what we think of a play of actually being.  The role of the chorus became about singing the background information like we see at the beginning of Oedipus, or they act as townspeople, or they give information like narration about what we are supposed to think about the charascters.  They also sing praises to the gods.    Well, as a musician, the first think that comes to my mind, is the logistics of how a performer could possibly connect with a crowd of 15,000 people with mikes and speakers.   Exactly- that is the biggest challenge and helping people hear is a huge deal.  First of all, they would hire people that could project their voices and there weren’t that many who could do it.  Sophocles actually wrote parts with specific people in mind, so they say.  But also, and if you go to a Greek play now, they look weird and unfamiliar to us and a lot of it has to do with all the physical differences- they used these masks for one thing so one person could play more than one role.  The masks would be fairly generic- like- old man, young man, Oedipus’ would have been unique because of the whole stabbing his eyes out problem- but in general the masks were large and fitted over their entire heads (I think of that show the masked singer that’s on right now) they have were said to have fitted mouthpieces that somehow projected voices.  Also, they would wear elaborate costumes.  Some scholars think they were platform high shoes, but others don’t think so, but either way .  So, think like Kabuki theater more than Broadway theater.   Okay- so, I’m in the theater, sitting with 15,000 of my closest friends, a choir comes out, sings a song, and then a few guys comes out.  Are the plays divided in acts like Shakespeare?   In some sense, yes.  They are divided.  And in some editions you can still see those divisions- but not always- but the pattern is still there..and by the way, you’ll recognize several of these terms- or at least their cognates.  So, here’s how it will go- first you have the prologue- sound familiar- and this is what we’d call the exposition.  Then the chorus comes in and we have the parados- this will give us the point of view- what should we think about what we’re getting ready to see.  Then you have the episodias or the episodes- sound familiar..the characters come, they’ll have debates, we’ll see the different conflicts and between each episode the choir will come out and have a number.  They’re called stasimon-s but think of them as musical interludes- this is what makes it look like a Christmas cantata.  The chorus will respond to whatever happened in that episode.  The last scene is called the exodus and that’s when we’ll have a resolution and everyone will leave.  So, you have talking, singing, talking, singing, talking, singing- all the way through.   And one more thing- before we move the the actual plays themselves- I used the word scene, but really there is no change of setting. The setting really will be mostly one spot.  So, what would happen, if there’s something crazy that happens (which is often the case, instead of us actually seeing the event, a messenger will come and say- this is what happened.   Okay- that was probably was a lot of less than interesting detail- but really, if you are reading this play, you kind of need to know what you should be seeing in your minds eye- or everything is just really really really boring.   Alright- that’s enough of theater instruction for the moment, I don’t want to wear you out too much, and there is more to wear you out with.  I do want to get into what exactly is a tragedy, what exactly is a tragic flaw and all those things that we hear about when we think about Greek tragedy, but let’s get into the stories specifically because just like Shakespeare, or maybe Shakespeare,just like Sophocles, was not making up his own narratives, Sophocles is retelling myths that were already well-known.    We’re actually going to tackle the two most popular plays by Oedipus- Oedipus the King or Oedipus Rex and then Antigone.  We’re going to do Oedipus this week and next and then after we finish it, we’ll roll right into Antigone.  There is one more play that goes along with these two- this is a trilogy- called Oedipus at Colonus.  It was actually performed only after Sophocles had died.  In this third one, Oedipus is old and has been blindily wandering for years in exile.  It’s actually very beautiful and some consider it better than the other two, but it’s not nearly as famous, so we will let you read that one on your own-   Hopefully, we can get these covered in two episodes a piece.  That’s the play anyway.  They are fairly short.      The story of Oedipus the King is often recognized as the greatest of all the surviving Greek tragedies, by those who get to decide such things.     It definitely has intrigued lots of thinkers for centuries, and perhaps no one more notably then the beloved Sigmund Freud.  Everyone discusses what in fact does this story mean.  Oedipus is so interesting.  He’s intelligent, confident, he’s rash, but he doesn’t seem to deserve all that he gets in the end.  It somehow reminds us that greatness may or may not be what it appears that power and limitations have complicated relationships.  Of course, the plot itself is sooo extreme, we can’t identify with his situation, and in some sense that makes it safe for us to even talk about.    I agree- one difference between then and now- that since the story was familiar- all the actor had to do was say Oedipus and everyone knew the myth, they knew what had happened before the events on stage- as well as-what was going to happen now—which by the way- does make Oedipus somewhat unusual- even for Greek plays- all the important things in the story actually happen before the play actually starts.  So, to think about it in fraytag plot triangle  terms- the climax has already occurred.  The protagonist has already done that thing from which he cannot retur.  We’re just going to watch the fall out…and even this the Greeks already knew,  They just wanted to sit back and see how Sophocles was going to present it.  So, since most of our listeners are not Greek, although we do have a few, thank you our dear Greek friends,…Garry read to us this famous myth.   Sounds good, and I’m going to do exactly that.  I’m going to read it..there are obviously many versions, but I’m going to read a version written by the now deceased by revered and actually beloved classical scholar, Bernard Knox.    READ TEXT   Now that you know the story- you can maybe see the play from the Greek point of view in this sense- it’s all about the irony!!  Now remember, irony means opposite- something that is the opposite of something lse.  And here the entire play is about dramatic irony- we know but the charsacters done- it’s also about verbal irony- almost everything anyone says at any time means more than they know it does.  This puts us in something like the position of a god- we can see their lives, their struggles, their decisions from an omniscient perspective.  It’s in a strange sense that we can identify and respect how the characters are blinding screwing up their lives- and that is exactly how we’re supposed to be thinking about this.  Sophocles is going to go to quite an effort to deliberately refrain from suggesting that Oedipius is simply a poor sap who who has been cursed by Apollo for no good reason.  He is not a bad guy, but not perfect.  He’s courageous.  He’s strong.  He’s a leader- things we all want to be to some degree.  And for this reason perhaps we can identify with him even though the events that occur are extreme.    But at the same time because what he does is so out of bounds we can will definitely we’re detached enough- none of us would do that (at least those of us who are ignoring Freud) So, we can enjoy the superioty we can experience  because we in our omnisicience, like the Greek viewers and the god Apollo- we already everything that’s Oedipus is going to do and everything that is going to happen .  For example, at one point, Oedipus says, “I will fight on behalf of Lauais, and I quote, “As if he were my own father” which of course he is- he just doesn’t know it.  At other points he curses the murdererer of Lauis so in effect cursing himself.  This kind of stuff drips from every line of both Oepidus and Antigone, but especially Oedipus.  What it comes down to in a metaphorical and thematic sense, which we will talk about much much more next week is the idea that there is some sense that Oedipus is a victim- he did NOT deserve any of this.  But yet there is some sense in which Jocasta is a victim- but in both cases- their innocence is  not entirely 100%- they are not totally blameless- there were things they could have done- and as the play unfolds, we’ll see that- and in that sense- as something to think about- perhaps this is what people like about this play- it embodies the life reality- our lives are a strange combination of fate and fortune.