Antigone (441 BCE) by Sophocles (497-406 BCE)

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Daily Activities and Introduction

Mr. Chilton

BC/AD

BCE/CE

Antigone (441 BCE) by Sophocles (497-406 BCE)

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Daily Activities and Introduction

Mr. Chilton

One person’s life will be changed by this book. Call, email, or stop by when you discover it’s you.

Is it you?

Today:

Take notes in journal (10)

Entry # _____

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Tour of Website

Intro to Greek Tragedy

Let’s start with the basics:

Did I tell you about “Lesbos”?

Sappho 630-570 BCE

Sample of her poetry:

In my eyes he matches the gods, that man who �sits there facing you--any man whatever--�listening from closeby to the sweetness of your � voice as you talk, the��sweetness of your laughter: yes, that--I swear it-- �sets the heart to shaking inside my breast, since �once I look at you for a moment, I can't� speak any longer,�

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but my tongue breaks down, and then all at once a�subtle fire races inside my skin, my�eyes can't see a thing and a whirring whistle � thrums at my hearing,��cold sweat covers me and a trembling takes �ahold of me all over: I'm greener than the �grass is and appear to myself to be little� short of dying.

Sample of her poetry:

In my eyes he matches the gods, that man who �sits there facing you--any man whatever--�listening from closeby to the sweetness of your � voice as you talk, the��sweetness of your laughter: yes, that--I swear it-- �sets the heart to shaking inside my breast, since �once I look at you for a moment, I can't� speak any longer,�

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but my tongue breaks down, and then all at once a�subtle fire races inside my skin, my�eyes can't see a thing and a whirring whistle � thrums at my hearing,��cold sweat covers me and a trembling takes �ahold of me all over: I'm greener than the �grass is and appear to myself to be little� short of dying.

Feels like it was written yesterday.

�Direct, imagistic, impressionistic, modern.

“Sapphic”

“Lesbian”

But I digress into the juicier details of “etymology”

(the study of word origins)...

Onto Greek Theater...

Personal Pictures I took while visiting Philippi, Greece

Caravaggio: “shaped like a human ear, perfect for the reverberations” (1608)

Masks from 1st century B.C.E.

Why masks?

• Distance from performers:
• Can’t see facial expressions anyway
• Easily recognizable
• Represent deities and other sacred figures more easily
• Focus on the words, not the acting (continues through Shakespeare)

Theory of Drama

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

Aristotelian tragedy

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The Poetics (335 BCE)

�First work of “literary criticism/theory”

Can you think of examples of this plot?

Tell a partner about movies and books you read and how they fit the pattern...

“Catharsis”: Release

�Horror movies?

Recognition and Reversal:

Anagnorisis: “recognition” (“re”- again, “cognition”-think)

Metabasis: a reversal or change of fortune

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“A ‘recognition,’ as the term itself implies, is a change from ignorance to knowledge...recognition is most effective when it coincides with a reversal of fortune.”

-Aristotle, Poetics

Homework:

Watch the following three videos and take notes (10) in your journal

The backstory to Antigone...what happened prior to the play to Antigone’s family...family therapy, anyone?

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Day 2:

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Tree Discussion:

Go outside

Group up around trees with people not in your group

Read question and discuss until I tell you to rotate

Note to Chilton: Print slides 5-9 and post

List in order of importance and tell why:

• Your own happiness/goals
• Friendships
• Family
• Your country
• Religious beliefs

What are examples of “authority figures”?

Where do they get their authority?

What would you do if you disagreed with a law?

What is the law based on?

Popular support, representatives, divine law, common decency?

If you’re faced with two conflicting decisions, how do you decide?

Why do this?

• Connects to themes about Antigone
• Gets us to apply these ideas to our personal life
• How does it connect?

Circle up with your group of four:

• Look back over your journal notes and questions from the three homework videos
• Go around circle THREE times sharing an interesting thing you learned from the documentary videos about Greek theater and tragedy

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Speaker:

The Chorus

• Anonymous representatives of the Community/ Citizens

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• Homogeneous in appearance but heterogeneous in opinion

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Speaker:

The Chorus

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• Strophe vs. Antistrophe
• Strophe = turn
• Antistrophe = to turn back
• Right to left and then turn back
• Moral reflection and moral exhortation

Circle up with your group of four:

• Discuss informally the “vegetable video” of Oedipus Rex
• If I were to quiz you (wink, wink) on the plot of Oedipus Rex, would you know it?
• Figure it out together...

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Dat myth tho

= Oedipus (son, 2nd husband and king, gouges out eyes, wanders off)

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=Laius (father, first husband and king, murdered)

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=Jocaste (mother, wife, suicide)

Backstory of Antigone

Link

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If necessary...

Mythos:

• Symbolic story about universal human nature
• It’s not about factual account, but “Truth” of the story.
• Compare to zaniness of Biblical stories: man created from dirt, woman from his ribs, a burning bush that God speaks from, parting the sea for people to Israelites to pass through, giants in Genesis 6...etc.

Symbolic

“oedipal complex”

After Oedipus Rex before Antigone

Oedipus’ two sons: Polynieces and Eteocles

Question of who will take over for Oedipus as he wanders off in shame, blindness, and mourning

Alternating rule for one year at a time, but after first year Eteocles will not give up throne

Polynieces leaves from Thebes to Argos and marries Argive princess and recruits Army (see map)

After Oedipus Rex before Antigone

Polynieces with his army and six other champions (The Seven Against Thebes) will take Thebes back by force

They meet face to face in battle, killing each other simultaneously

Defenders are victorious, city not captured

Jocasta’s brother, Creon, takes over and establishes his authority

Questions?

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What’s going to happen to Oedipus’ daughters Antigone and Ismene?

Let’s read and find out.

Volunteers to read? We all know how this works...

Needed:

• Antigone
• Ismene
• ?

Let’s read!

Take notes for Book Reviews…

p.198 for homework

Homework: Finish up to beginning of Parados / Chorus entry

Burial Anxiety

Honoring the Dead in Antigone

Day 2 Activities

Supplies for today:

• Copy of Antigone
• Journal:
• Entry # ______
• 15 notes today (10 notes, 5 are a specific task)
• PS: Read to page 198 for next class

Remind your partner of the central conflict of the play:

use 5 character’s names

Think like an alien /

a foreigner to your own culture:

Partner Discussion:

• Describe some of the rituals your family, your culture, or religion have to honor/bury the deceased.
• The body
• The funeral itself
• People at the funeral do/say
• Examples: put body in elaborately decorated casket, etc.
• If you don’t know, describe some what people definitely DON’T do.

Responses?

Most interesting thing you heard?

Teach this white boy from the South...

Open Casket

Cremation

Funeral pyre (Greek for “fire”)

Medical Sanitation

Viking Funeral

The Aghori (Shaivism)

Partner: What did you learn?

What questions do you have?

Ancient Greek Culture: Honoring the Body

The Iliad

• Oldest work of Western literature

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• Opening lines of poem worries that the heroes who died at Troy will end up the “pickings of birds and dogs”

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The Odyssey

• Story begins with an empty tomb, a missing body
• Grieving family unable to move on because they’re not sure where Odysseus is and expect him to be dead
• Unburied at sea probably--which is the worse fate possible as you’ll find out why later

teaches us:

Even criminals deserve burials

• Book 3
• Murderers of Agamemnon are interred together in a common tomb and given funeral rites after being slain by the general’s vengeful son, Orestes

The dead demand a funeral

• Book 11
• One of Odysseus’ oarsmen, Elpenor, gets drunk and falls asleep on the roof of Circe’s palace. Wakes up in panic because they’re leaving now. Falls and breaks his neck.
• When Odysseus travels to Hades, Elpenor pleads to Odysseus:

“...burn me up, together with such armor as was mine,

heap up a grave for me on the gray sea’s strand,

so even men to come will know of this unlucky man.

Do all of this, then plant upon my grave the oar

that I plied while still I lived, rowing with my mates.”

Grave = Fame/Honor

• Book 1
• Odysseus’ servant, the loyal swineherd, says about Odysseus:
• “If he’d gone down with comrades off Troy, all the Greeks together would have raised a grave mound to him...but the tempests have ripped him away, no fame for him!”

No Grave = Dishonor

• Book 24
• Two ghosts, Achilles and Agamemnon, discuss their deaths and returns home
• No grave for Agamemnon--dishonorably murdered without grave by wife’s lover
• Achilles--Agamemnon elaborately recounts how he was given a hero’s funeral full of obsequious sorrow:
• Unnerving cry of his goddess mother, Thetis
• Songful lament by all nine Muses
• 17 days of lamentation
• Cremation on 18th day
• Golden urn made by Hephaestus himself
• The Odyssey is “burying” the Iliad

Greek word for grave:

“sema”

Greek: “sema”

• Secondary meaning: “grave” or “tomb”
• Primary meaning: “sign” or “symbol”
• English: “semiotics” or “semantics”
• Graves were intended to:
• Signal information about the occupant
• Tell tall tales of their exploits
• Speak about its inhabitants fame and glory
• A story made visible: the story of the life the body once lived
• When Odysseus refers to the the “secret” of his bed with Penelope he uses the word “sema”

Partner: What did you learn?

What questions do you have?

Writing Task with a group of four--Rhetorical Analysis:

Front partners: Research and prepare FIVE textual (that means short jabs) reasons Antigone gives for why they should bury Polynieces.

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Back Partners: Research and prepare FIVE textual (that means short jabs) reasons Ismene gives for why they should not bury Polynieces.

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Argue with your group from your character’s perspective.

Whole Class Discussion:

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• How will Creon likely respond?
• What are his options?
• *What factors complicate this decision for him?*

*What factors complicate this decision for him?

• He’s new to the job
• War time decision/politics
• Unify country after war
• He’s the king, political leader
• Uncle to Antigone
• History of tragedy in family, feels pity for Antigone
• Knew Polynieces, memories of nephew
• Greek beliefs on burial
• Greek beliefs on loyalty and strict boundaries (e.g. barbarians)

Levels of Authority:

Personal, family, religious, cultural, political

Levels of Authority:

Personal, family, religious, cultural, political

Shame

Honor

Public opinion

Ego

The Iliad: Nestor warns Achilles not to mess with King Agamemnon

Let’s read together

Day 1 Review

(p. 185-198)

Daily Dose for Today:

“Men Say They Know Many Things” by Henry David Thoreau

Group Discussion / Role Play

• With the group of four closest to you:
• Number off 1, 2, 3, 4

Group Discussion / Role Play

Number corresponds:

• Antigone
• Ismene
• Polyneices or Eteocles (you choose)
• Creon

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Answer these questions from your character’s perspective (in character):

What is your side of the issue? Why is this seemingly complicated problem simple?

Ode to Man

See separate Powerpoint

Day after Ode to Man:

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Previewing and Reading together

Supplies:

• Groups of four
• 1 whiteboard and marker
• 1 “roles sheet”
• Copy of Antigone (Class set of Fagles translation: page 78)
• 101 Questions on Antigone

Number yourselves off #1-4

Longest sentence of all time:

• Prologue (59-64)
• Chorus (Parados) (65-66)
• Scene 1 (67-75)
• Ode to Man (76-77)

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1 sentence summary + and then +

Today:

• Spin or pick the roles for today
• Read together starting on page 78
• Reader assigns roles as needed
• Everyone does their role
• I’ll stop you every few minutes to summarize and then pick a group to lead discussion on what just happened.
• Homework for next class:
• finish scene 4, p. 222 in yellow,
• p. 228 in white edition

Review

You’ll need:

• Journals: Entry #____ (complete all five steps of assignments)
• Copy of Antigone
• Turn desk into group of four

In your group,

number yourselves off #1-4

Your number corresponds to this section in the book

• Scene 2 (Y: 200, W: 205)
• Ode 2 (Y: 209, W: 215)
• Scene 3 (Y: 210, W: 216)
• Scene 4 (Y: 219, W: 225)

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How low can you go?

• First round:
• Summarize your passage into exactly 30 words, not 29, not 31.
• When done, draw line underneath your summary

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Rotate journals clockwise!

How low can you go?

• 2nd round:
• Summarize your passage into exactly 20 words, not 19, not 21.
• When done, draw line underneath your summary

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Rotate journals clockwise!

How low can you go?

• 3rd round:
• Summarize your passage into exactly 10 words, not 9, not 11.
• When done, draw line underneath your summary

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Rotate journals clockwise!

How low can you go?

• 4th round:
• Summarize your passage into exactly 5 words, not 4, not 6.
• When done, draw line underneath your summary

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For example:

Troy cheats. Rose defends, stays.

Rotate journals clockwise!

How low can you go?

• 5th round:
• Summarize your passage into exactly 1 word, not 0, not 2.
• When done, draw line underneath your summary

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Theme? Love. Anger. Death.

Explain to group:

• Why the one word? Justify choice. Better choice from group?
• Why is your scene significant?

101 Questions:

#41-59

Read together or in groups?

Vote!

Today:

• Spin or pick the roles for today
• Read together starting on page 78
• Reader assigns roles as needed
• Everyone does their role
• I’ll stop you every few minutes to summarize and then pick a group to lead discussion on what just happened.
• Homework for next class:
• finish scene X in yellow,
• p. X in white edition

Scene 5 Reading Day

You’ll need:

• Copy of Antigone
• Journal entry # _____ (10 total: 5 x 2)

Scene 4 Journal from earlier: Tell your group what occurred in scene 4

Rest of group: Tell each other why this is significant & important, predict what will happen today in scene 5

As we read today, write down 5+ discussion questions that this scene causes you to ponder.

Let’s read together as a class:

Creon, Tiresias, Chorus

Scene 5→ Y: 224, W: 230

Diary: Answer our “Big Question” from a character’s perspective (5).

Read and discuss with partner.

Day 2 Review

p. 185-210

Full sheet of paper: divide into half on both sides

Full sheet of paper: divide into half on both sides

Directions:

• Tasks for each round with directions on board
• Rotate papers in between rounds
• Free to discuss or talk...not a quiet quiz FYI

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Directions: Box 1

Summary of Antigone’s Reasoning: Layout out point by point her argument and the order of her logic. You need supporting quotations or paraphrases for each point. Minimum three points/quotes. For example:

• Antigone reasons that “_____” is appropriate because______(189).
• When Ismene says_____, Antigone believes “_____” because____(200).
• Creon’s response infuriates Antigone because______ (205).

Directions: Box 2

Evaluation of Antigone’s Reasoning: Judge/React to the logic of Antigone’s thought process. Is her reasoning valid? You have to react to what was written earlier, point by point.

JV: I disagree with her decision to___ because ____.

Varsity: When she does ____ it demonstrates ______.

Varsity: Her inability to _____ leads to ______.

On the back:

Repeat with Creon.

For homework if we run out of time...

Directions: Box 3

Summary of Creon’s Reasoning: Layout out point by point his argument and the order of his logic. You need supporting quotations or paraphrases for each point. Minimum three points/quotes. For example:

• Creon reasons that “_____” is appropriate because______(189).
• When Antigone says_____, Creon believes “_____” because____(200).
• Creon’s response infuriates Antigone because______ (205).

Directions: Box 4

Evaluation of Creon’s Reasoning: Judge/React to the logic of Creon’s thought process. Is his reasoning valid? You have to react to what was written earlier, point by point.

JV: I disagree with his decision to___ because ____.

Varsity: When he does ____ it demonstrates ______.

Varsity: His inability to _____ leads to ______.

Final rotation: You review your own paper.

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Elaborate on insufficient points

Day 3 Review:

p. 185-210

101 Questions Day: Click here

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Whole Class, Shoulder, Group, Write, Think

Day 4 Review

p. 210-223

Guided Reading of Scenes 3 & 4

Pages 210-223

Task

• Circle up with row, books, one handout, and pencils
• Chilton starts the time, you take turns reading.
• When time is up: discuss / summarize / analyzing your reading
• Note-taker: um, takes notes and comes up with discussion questions while you’re reading
• The “note-taker” writes down a minimum of 2 points on the paper and signs it.
• Time starts again, note-taker switches to someone else.
• Everyone reads, everyone writes, everyone talks.

Alternative Review: Help Your Classmates

• With a partner: summarize the top three most important events that occurred in last night’s reading
• I’ll call on three people to answer (volunteers?)
• Whichever side answers summary, the other side has to answer with analysis:
• Explain why this event is significant, comment on its symbolism, defend its importance, what does it “demonstrate”?

Day 5 Review

p. 224-end

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Socratic Seminar Preview

Document: Click here

• Who is Antigone?

2. Antigone and/or Creon and Hamartia

3. Violence: Physical, Political, Emotional, Generational

4. Authority

Reminder: Focus on textual examples and use on the test

Work with partner with same number to prepare for the Socratic Seminar.

Primarily, look for examples.

Focus on filling out this box first.