One reason reading literature from the classical period is a pleasure many fail to indulge is simply because accessing it can seem intimidating.
While there are many genres of classical literature worth reading, this short piece will serve as an instructional primer on how to read a Greek tragedy using Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos as a model. Oedipus Tyrannos was one of the examples used by Aristotle in his Poetics and it has been a foundation for tragic drama since the beginning of Western civilization.
Of course, the more advanced reader will want to explore other parameters of drama as his interest and acumen deepen, but the following steps will help the novice reader access and enjoy these splendid masterpieces.
Nature and Structure of Tragedy
First, in order to appreciate the tragic drama, the reader must grasp the nature of tragedy, the parts that make it up, and a few of its important features. To begin with, a good play possesses a beginning, a middle, and an end, and it follows a specific trajectory.
It is the nature of comedy, for example, for the plot to move from low to high, usually ending in a wedding or marriage feast. The nature of tragedy is exactly the opposite and only covers a short duration of time. That is, the plot moves “in the single circuit of the sun” from a high point to a low point wherein the protagonist goes from being exalted to being abased.
Taking Oedipus Tyrannos as the model, the play begins high, with Oedipus ruling Thebes and the people looking to him to save them from a plague that is devastating the land. The play then moves to the middle where Oedipus discovers knowledge that changes his fortune and becomes the source of his undoing. It finally ends with Oedipus suffering tragically, e.g. the death of Jocasta, his wife (and mother), and the loss of his eyes to self-inflicted blindness.
Next, there are six parts to a tragedy. As Aristotle notes, there are plot, characters, diction, thought, spectacle, and melody. He asserts the plot is the most important. This is because plot is the action that moves the story forward through its trajectory.
Plot itself has three important features: peripety, discovery, and suffering. Peripety is a Greek word that means a sudden change in the state of things, or a reversal of fortune. In Oedipus Tyrannos, this takes place when the messenger, attempting to comfort Oedipus, reveals the nature of his birth. This leads to the second important feature of a tragic plot, discovery.
Discovery is the unexpected revelation of truth, the change from ignorance to knowledge. In the work under consideration, this happens at the same time as the peripety—which actually makes for the best form of tragedy according to Aristotle.
The third important feature of plot is suffering and comes as a result of the first two. As the puzzle is pieced together and the full revelation of Oedipus’ unwitting deeds are declared, he is ultimately ruined. Aristotle explains, “Tragedy…is an imitation not only of a complete action, but also of incidents arousing pity and fear.” That is, the tragic fall of the protagonist arouses fear and pity, which accomplishes a catharsis of such emotions, which seems to be one of the chief projects of tragedy.
Historical and Political Setting
Second, to successfully access some depth of understanding of the play, the reader might want to acquire some background knowledge of the playwright and the historical setting of the period in which he writes.
In the case of Oedipus Tyrannus, for example, it is likely Sophocles wrote the play when he was approximately fifty-five years old, at the height of Athens’ Golden Age, around 436 to 426 B.C. With the timing of the Peloponnesian Wars beginning around 431 B.C., some scholars conjecture Pericles, the famous Athenian tyrant and general, was the inspiration for Sophocles’ Oedipus, since it was one of Pericles’ war policies that caused a plague around the same time.
Understanding the historical and political setting offers the reader a seat with some of the earliest audiences to watch the play when it was first performed. Though not entirely necessary, plausible historical context increases the richness of the reading experience.
Read for Enjoyment
Finally, and most importantly, the reader should simply read the play leisurely, in one sitting, that is read it for the sheer pleasure of it. One might mark unfamiliar terms and expressions as he reads, but as much as possible allow the context to define them while continuing to read.
Listen to the characters. Aristotle notes they are second in importance in a tragedy, following only the plot. Characters reveal their moral qualities and desires through the actions they are prompted to respond to, as well as their values through the dialogue and pithy maxims they share.
There is much more that deserves consideration, but armed only with this simple process, the novice reader is ready to indulge the Greek tragedy, one of Western civilization’s greatest expressions of the action and life of the human experience, and discover both his happiness and his misery.
Interested in learning more about Greek literature? Join me this summer (2019) for a low-intensity, nine-week course in The Greek Epics.
Bibliography
Aristotle, W. Rhys Roberts, Ingram Bywater, and Aristotle. Rhetoric. New York: Modern Library, 1984.
Sophocles, and David R. Slavitt. The Theban plays of Sophocles. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
“Sophocles.” Greek Drama Lecture Eleven. Faulkner University: HU 8326 https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B0sH-ttNNv9vVUhnWkF5TGVYZmc/view.