The Origin of Tragedy in Ancient Greece. Heroes of ancient Greek tragedies
The birth of tragedy. Already in the dithyrambs of Arion, according to the testimony of the ancients, there was a dialogue between the luminary and the choir, depicting goat-footed satyrs - companions of Dionysus. The genre of tragedy is born from the dithyramb (from the Greek "tragos" - a goat, "ode" - a song). In Thespides and Phrynichus, whose works have not been preserved, the tragedy, obviously, is still close to the dithyramb. Thespis is the first to introduce an actor commenting on songs into the dithyramb, creating the basis of tragedy as a genre. Phrynichus, Heril (like Aeschylus) were the first to use not a mythological, but a historical plot for the tragedy (about the victories of the Greeks in the Persian wars). Pratin adapts the genre of satyr drama to the stage. At the end of VI-V centuries. BC. in Athens, on the bowl-shaped slope of the Acropolis, the theater of Dionysus is being built (first from wood, in the 4th century BC from stone) for 17 thousand spectators, i.e. for the entire population of the city. Here begins the annual theatrical competition in honor of Dionysus. Initially, they took place in the Great Dionysia - in March, from the second half of the 5th century. BC. and on the holiday of Leney - in January. On the first day, five comedies were presented, on the second, third and fourth - one tetralogy each. On the second, third and fourth days, three playwrights took part in the competitions, each preparing a tetralogy for the competition - a cycle of four plays (three tragedies and the final satyr drama, where the choir portrayed the satellites of Dionysus - satyrs), staged their works and initially played the role of the protagonist - Main character. This is exactly what is known about Thespides, Phrynichus, Aeschylus. Note that Sophocles has achieved national recognition as an outstanding actor. Ten judges determined the winner. Lists of such competitions for a number of years have been preserved. In just 240 years of the development of this genre, only significant tragedians created more than 1,500 tragedies. But from the works of ancient Greek tragedians, only 7 tragedies of Aeschylus have come down to us (including one trilogy - "Oresteia"), 7 tragedies and excerpts from one satyr drama by Sophocles, 17 tragedies and one satyr drama by Euripides (the authorship of another tragedy is disputed). The tragedy consisted of a prologue, a parody (the opening song of the choir overlooking the orchestra - a round platform in front of the skene - a building, on an elevated platform in front of which - proskenia - the actors played a performance), three or four episodies (actions), stasims (songs of the choir between episodies) , epod (final with closing song and departure of the choir). Parods and stasims were divided into stanzas and antistrophes similar to them (under them, the choir moved along the orchestra first in one direction, then in the other). In tragedies, there could also be monologues of the hero, kommos (joint crying of the choir and hero), hyporcheme (song of the choir at the climax, before the catastrophe breaks out). Aeschylus. Aeschylus (525 - 456 BC) - "father of tragedy." Aeschylus introduced a second actor into the performance and thereby defined the specifics of the tragedy as dramatic work and the leading role in it of action (later, following the example of Sophocles, he began to introduce a third actor). He was a participant in the battles of Marathon and Salamis. Tradition connects the fate of three great tragedians with the second battle: Aeschylus was greeted among the winners by the young Sophocles, who sang in the choir, and Euripides at that time was born on the island of Salamis. From 500 BC Aeschylus took part in the tragedian competitions and won 13 victories in them. 7 of his tragedies have come down to us in full: "Persians" (about the victory of the Athenians over the Persians at Salamis), "Seven against Thebes" (about the campaign of Polynices against hometown, from the trilogy about Oedipus), "The Petitioners, or Prayers" (from the trilogy about the Danaids), presented in 458 BC. the trilogy "Oresteia" (the tragedies "Agamemnon", "Hoephors", "Eumenides" - about Orestes' murder of his mother Clytemnestra as revenge for her murder of her husband Agamemnon, the trial of Orestes, pursued by Erinyes - the goddesses of revenge, and his cleansing from what he had done) , "Prometheus Chained" - the most famous of the tragedies, which made the image of Prometheus, who rebelled against the tyranny of Zeus, in an eternal way world literature (works by Goethe, Shelley, etc.). The concept of the tragic in Aeschylus is based on the belief in the law of world justice, the violation of which leads to misfortune and death. His characters are amazingly solid, monumental. Sophocles. Sophocles (496 - 406 BC) - the second great Greek tragedian, in 486 BC. who won the contest of Aeschylus, won first place 24 times and never won last third places. Sophocles was an ally of Pericles, under whom Athens reached an unprecedented prosperity, participated in hostilities as a strategist (commander). 7 of his tragedies have come down to us (“Ajax”, “The Trachinian Women”, “Oedipus Rex”, “Oedipus in Colon”, “Antigone”, “Electra”, “Philoctetes”), 400 poems from his satyr dramas “Pathfinders”. ” and “The abduction of cows by the boy Hermes”, some other passages. Sophocles introduced a third actor, scenery, reduced the role of the choir, neglecting the trilogical composition, increased the completeness of each tragedy. Main character Sophocles is not a god, but a strong man. The character of the protagonist determines the action to a much greater extent than that of Aeschylus. Sophocles pays close attention to the motivation of the characters' actions. It is not the problem of fate that comes to the fore, but the problem moral choice. So, Antigone in the tragedy of the same name, obeying a moral duty, decides to bury her brother's body, despite the prohibition of the authorities. Thus, she herself chooses her own fate, which is the main sign of a tragic hero. The most famous tragedy Sophocles - "Oedipus the King" (429 BC). Aristotle considered this tragedy the most perfect example of the use of tragic ups and downs - transitions from happiness to unhappiness and vice versa. Here the idea of the tragic guilt of the hero is most fully realized. The action begins in Thebes, on the square in front of the royal palace. The city was struck by a terrible pestilence. It turns out that the gods are angry with the city because a certain person lives in it, who killed his father and married his mother. Oedipus Rex gives the order to find this criminal. But as a result of the investigation, it turns out that he himself committed the crime, albeit out of ignorance. Then Oedipus blinds himself as a punishment for what he once did and renounces the Theban throne. The tragedy uses a retrospective composition: the origins of events lie not in the present, but in the past. The hero tried to fight fate, fate: having learned from the oracle that he could kill his father and marry his mother, he fled from his parents, not suspecting that they were not his relatives. On the way to Thebes, Oedipus committed an accidental murder, and upon arrival in this city, which he saved from the Sphinx, having guessed its riddle, accepted the offer to rule it and take the widow queen as his wife. Only now, within the framework of stage time, did he realize that by doing so he had nevertheless fulfilled the prophecy. Oedipus cannot fight fate, but he can make a moral decision and punish himself. Euripides. Euripides (480 or 485/4 - 406 BC) - the youngest of the three great Greek tragedians, who received greatest recognition in subsequent eras. However, his contemporaries valued him much less: of the 22 tetralogies he wrote and staged, only four were awarded first place. His satyr drama Cyclops and 17 tragedies have come down to us, of which the most famous are Medea (431 BC), Hippolytus Crowned (428 BC), and Hecuba ”, “Andromache”, “Troyanka”, “Electra”, “Orest”, “Iphigenia in Aulis”, “Iphigenia in Tauris”. If Sophocles showed people as they should be, then Euripides - as they are. He significantly strengthened the development of psychological motives, focusing on the psychological contradictions that make the characters commit wrong actions, leading them to tragic guilt and, as a result, to misfortune and death. Aristotle considered Euripides "the most tragic poet". Indeed, the situations in which his characters find themselves are often so hopeless that Euripides has to resort to the artificial device of deus ex machina (literally, “God from the machine”), when the gods who appeared on the stage resolve everything. The heroes and plots of Euripides' tragedies are devoid of Aeschylean integrity, Sophocles' harmony, he refers to marginal passions (Phaedra's love for her stepson), unsolvable tasks (a father must sacrifice his daughter), unjustifiably cruel deeds (Medea kills her children in order to take revenge on those who have cooled towards her Jason). His characters go berserk. Hecuba, who has lost her children, sinks to the ground and knocks with her fists so that the gods of the underworld can hear her. T "esus, cursing the innocent Hippolytus, demands from the gods to fulfill his desire and kill his son. Undoubtedly, at the performances of the tragedies of Euripides, the audience, to a greater extent than at the performances of the tragedies of his predecessors, should have experienced catharsis. The theory of tragedy. "Poetics "Aristotle. The experience of the great tragedians of the 5th century BC made it possible in the next century to theoretically comprehend the genre nature of tragedy. The creation of the theory of tragedy is associated with the name of one of the greatest philosophers antiquity - Aristotle Stagirite (384 - 322 BC). In his work “Poetics” (only the first part of 26 chapters, devoted to tragedy, has survived, only fragments have been preserved from the second part, devoted to comedy), the genre is defined: “... Tragedy is an imitation of an important and complete action, which has a certain volume (imitation ), with the help of speech, in each of its parts differently decorated, through action, and not story, performing, thanks to compassion and fear, the purification of such affects. There are two key concepts in this definition: mimesis (imitation) and catharsis (purification). Mimesis is the most important term of the Aristotelian concept of art, which developed from the teachings of Pythagoras (c. 570 - c. 500 BC) about music as an imitation of heavenly harmony and the teacher of Aristotle - Plato (428 or 427-348 or 347 BC). ) about the visible world as an imitation of ideas and about art as an imitation of imitation. Aristotle sees in the desire to imitate a common property of living beings, and above all people. There is a large literature on mimesis. This concept became one of the main ones in the aesthetics of classicism and was criticized by Kant and Hegel, as well as by Schelling and other romantics. He was opposed to the doctrine of expression (ie, the primacy of the subjectivity of the artist) as the essence of art. However, mimesis was usually interpreted in a straightforward way - as a reproduction, copying of reality or any of its parts. Meanwhile, Aristotle, calling the subject of mimesis in tragedy an action (not even in itself, but in the elements identified and built by art: not events, but plot, not people, but characters, not a set of thoughts, but a way of thinking, i.e. motivation actions), considers the stage setting as a way of imitation, and verbal expression as means (recall: not ordinary speech, but “differently decorated in each of its parts”) and musical composition, i.e. those that are not related to easy copying, but they have specific art forms. Given the teleological attitude of Aristotle (his idea of the development of the world as a movement towards ultimate goal), we can definitely point out that mimesis in tragedy is only the initial means to achieve an intermediate goal: to arouse feelings of fear and compassion in the audience, and it, in turn, allows you to achieve the ultimate goal - catharsis. This mysterious concept, not explained by Aristotle, subsequently received not only aesthetic (associated with aesthetic pleasure), but also ethical (educates the viewer), psychiatric (gives spiritual relief), ritual (heals like), intellectual (liberates from erroneous opinion) and others. interpretations. The definition of tragedy speaks only of tragic catharsis, i.e. one that is achieved through the experience of fear and compassion (obviously to the hero). And yet, logically, catharsis is not the ultimate goal of tragedy. Having cleansed himself of "similar affects" or passions (apparently not from fear and compassion, but from those because of which the hero got into a tragic situation and which gave rise to his tragic guilt), a person can return to society, unite with worthy people, for he is now equally “cleansed” with them. This is the apparently unspoken outcome of Aristotle's reflections on the impact of tragedy on man.
Social, ethical, political problems, issues of education, a deep depiction of heroic characters, the theme of high civic self-awareness form the life-affirming basis of the ancient Greek theater.
However, as we mentioned above, Tronsky notes that "suffering" was a characteristic feature of ancient Greek tragedies. He explains this as follows: “The interest in the problems of ‘suffering’ was generated by the religious and ethical fermentation of the 6th century, by the struggle that the emerging slave-owning class of the city waged, relying on the peasantry, against the aristocracy and its ideology. The democratic religion of Dionysus played a significant role in this struggle. the role was put forward by tyrants (for example, Peisistratus or Cleisthenes) as opposed to local aristocratic cults. The myths about heroes, which belonged to the main foundations of polis life and constituted one of the most important parts in the cultural wealth of the Greek people, could not but fall into the orbit of new problems. With this rethinking of Greek myths, it was no longer epic “feats” and not aristocratic “valor”, but suffering, “passions” that could be depicted in the same way as the “passions” of dying and resurrecting gods were depicted; in this way it was possible to make the myth an exponent of a new worldview and extract from it material for those relevant in the revolutionary era of the 6th century. problems of "justice", "sin" and "retribution" [Tronsky: 1983, 109].
Aeschylus was the true founder of ancient Greek tragedy. He is the author of more than seventy works, of which only seven have come down to us: Persians, Pleading, Seven against Thebes, Chained Prometheus, Agamemnon, Choephors, Eumenides. All the plays of Aeschylus are permeated with a strong religious feeling, they are based on the conflict between human passions and spirituality.
Aeschylus was the founder of a tragedy that was civil in its ideological sound, a contemporary and participant in the Greco-Persian wars, a poet of the time of the formation of democracy in Athens. The main motive of his work is the glorification of civic courage and patriotism. One of the most remarkable heroes of the tragedies of Aeschylus is the irreconcilable theomachist Prometheus, the personification of the creative forces of the Athenians. This is the image of an unbending fighter for high ideals, for the happiness of people, the embodiment of reason, overcoming the power of nature, a symbol of the struggle for the liberation of mankind from tyranny, embodied in the image of the cruel and vindictive Zeus, to whom Prometheus preferred torment to slavish service.
The plots of his tragedies are simple and grandiose, as in ancient epic poems. Gods and demigods act in Prometheus. The plot of the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" is an internecine war, ending in the death of brothers who disputed power over their native city from each other. The plot of Oresteia is the struggle between maternal law (matriarchy) and paternal law (patriarchy): the son avenges the death of his father, who was killed by his mother; guardians of mother's right - Erinnia stand up for the murdered, but the mother-killer is protected by the god Apollo, the guardian of father's right. Everywhere - not the events of private life, but upheavals that matter in the life of entire tribes and peoples. The action is built like those cyclopean structures ancient greek architecture where colossal stones, not held together by cement, are piled on top of each other. Just as great are the actors. Their characters are monolithic and do not change during the course of the tragedy. They may also resemble statues of archaic Greek sculpture with a frozen expression. Sometimes they are silent for a long time at the beginning of the action. "Power" and "Strength" chain Prometheus to a rock, but neither a sigh nor a groan escapes from the titan's chest. Silent, not answering questions, in the tragedy "Agamemnon" the Trojan captive - the prophetess Cassandra, and, only feeling the murder taking place behind the scenes, begins to speak about him in mysterious words, interrupted by screams. Sometimes the whole tragedy sounds like a continuous plaintive groan and cry. Such are the "Prayers", where the main person is the choir of unfortunate girls seeking protection from their persecutors from the inhabitants of Argos. Such are the Persians, where the choir and Queen Atossa, the mother of the defeated Persian king Xerxes, mourn the death of the army and the disgrace of the state. If Aeschylus expanded the dialogues, he still left the role of an important character to the choir. The conversations of faces are constantly interrupted by the songs of the choir, as if the heroes of the tragedy are talking and calling to each other on the shore of the ever-noisy sea.
Behind the images of Aeschylus, we always feel their author. Of course, our conclusions about him are only conjectural: after all, they are made on the basis of only seven tragedies that have come down to us. But they also allow us to say that the poet, who belonged to the Greek aristocracy, was by no means a class-limited person. An ardent patriot who highly valued the freedom of the Athenian Republic, he at the same time was opposed to the radical destruction of the institutions left over from the past. This aristocrat claimed, however, that Truth loves the modest huts of the poor and shuns palaces. A deeply religious man, an admirer of Zeus, he depicted the supreme god in Prometheus as a cruel tyrant, and made his opponent an eternal symbol of a revolutionary fighter, an enemy of all violence.
Initially Greek gods did not have that noble and beautiful appearance that they received later in sculpture and poetry. These primitive gods were crude personifications of the forces of nature. In the 5th century before new era they became humanoid and handsome. In Aeschylus they often retain their ancient nature. And at the same time they are reborn, evolving. The cruel Zeus, as we see him in Prometheus, later turns in Aeschylus into a benevolent, world-encompassing deity, the embodiment of wisdom and justice. The evil Erinnias in the last part of the Oresteia become Eumenides, goddesses favorable to people, the personification of those torments of conscience that do not destroy, but heal souls. They, by the will of the goddess Athena, are settled within the boundaries of her city in order to protect it from crimes.
Aeschylus lived and worked at the turn of two epochs, when the concepts associated with the era of communal and tribal life were obsolete, and new ones were born, imbued with greater humanity, greater freedom of human thought.
Sophocles is also considered the great playwright of Ancient Greece. He wrote 125 dramas, of which seven tragedies have survived: Antigone, Ajax, Oedipus the King, Electra, and others. According to Aristotle, Sophocles portrayed ideal people, while Euripides portrayed them as they are on really. Euripides was more of a commentator than a participant in the events, he was deeply interested in female psychology. The most famous of the 19 works that have come down to us are Medea and Phaedra.
A feature of all ancient dramas was the choir, which accompanied the whole action with singing and dancing. Aeschylus introduced two actors instead of one, reducing the choir parts and focusing on dialogue, which was a decisive step in turning tragedy from purely mimic choral lyrics into genuine drama. The game of two actors made it possible to increase the tension of the action. The appearance of the third actor is an innovation of Sophocles, which made it possible to outline different lines of behavior in the same conflict.
Sophocles has similarities with Aeschylus, but there are also notable differences. Like Aeschylus, Sophocles dramatizes epic traditions. But he does not address plots from modern life, like Aeschylus in The Persians. The dramatization of myth is generally a characteristic feature of ancient Greek tragedy. It does not at all follow from this that this tragedy was far from living life and the malice of the political day. It also does not follow that the tragedy once and for all retained its ancient religious character.
The authors turned to myths, knowing that they are familiar to most viewers, and hoping to arouse public interest not by the originality of the fictional plot, but by its processing, interpretation of images, by names and stories well known to the public. The authors did not consider themselves obliged to strictly adhere to the most common version of the myth and, under the cover of an old legend, they often discussed by mouth actors and chorus questions that were of the most topical importance for the Athenian citizens. On the other hand, the appeal to mythical images taken from ancient legends allowed Aeschylus and Sophocles to bring heroes to the stage, somewhat elevated above the level of everyday reality. Sophocles is credited with the words that he depicted “people as they should be”, that is, he gave broadly generalized characters, emphasizing in people their highest, heroic aspirations, revealing all the richness of a person’s spiritual properties.
It is in the attention to man, to his inner world, to his suffering, to his struggle with the vicissitudes of fate, that the main difference between the images of Sophocles and the monumental and often static images of Aeschylus lies. The person in the tragedies of Sophocles is more independent, the action is more determined by the properties of the character of the main person, which are the cause of both his happiness and his misfortunes.
The famous choir in Antigone is the most majestic hymn to man that has come down to us from antiquity. The choir glorifies man - the most wonderful and powerful of all that exists in the world. Man subjugated the earth, the sea, and the whole world of animals. But Sophocles limits his glorification of man to significant reservations. The human mind does not always lead people to dombra, but can lead to evil and injustice. With all his might, man is helpless before death. And not only before death, but (this is not mentioned in the choir of Antigone) and before fate. The will and mind of man are limited by even more powerful forces. The conflict between man and fate is the basis of Sophocles' most famous tragedy, Oedipus Rex.
The last of the tragic poets from whom whole plays have come down to us is Euripides. In his tragedies, he reflected the crisis of the traditional polis ideology and the search for new foundations of the worldview. He sensitively responded to the burning questions of political and social life, and his theater was a kind of encyclopedia of the intellectual movement of Greece in the second half of the 5th century. BC e. In the works of Euripides, various public problems new ideas were presented and discussed.
Ancient criticism called Euripides "a philosopher on the stage." The poet was not, however, a supporter of a particular philosophical doctrine, and his views were not consistent. His attitude towards Athenian democracy was ambivalent. He glorified it as a system of freedom and equality, at the same time he was frightened by the poor "crowd" of citizens, who in the people's assemblies resolved issues under the influence of demagogues. Through the thread, through all the work of Euripides, there is an interest in the individual with his subjective aspirations. Great playwright depicted people with their inclinations and impulses, joys and sufferings. With all his work, Euripides made the audience think about their place in society, their attitude to life.
Thus, we can conclude that the heroes of ancient tragedies in the interpretation of different authors looked different, but they were always strong-willed individuals who defied fate, not wanting to submit higher powers wanting to choose their own path in life. They expressed the social, moral and philosophical problems that worried poets and spectators.
Conclusion
Having reached great ideological and artistic heights, antique theater laid the foundation for the entire subsequent development of the European theater. We can safely say that the theaters of ancient Greece became the basis for the subsequent development theatrical art which continues to this day. Ancient Greek dramaturgy had a huge impact on the development of world literature. It touched upon socio-political and philosophical issues, it is characterized by saturation with the ideas of patriotism, attention to a person with all the richness of his spiritual life, a deep depiction of heroic characters that educates the minds of the audience.
So the following can be done general conclusions on our topic:
1. Being in its origin a native of a religious cult, the theater has already become a socially significant phenomenon. And, receiving support at the state level, being an important part of the life of the policy, the theater was also an integral element public life, a spokesman for the sentiments of the citizens of Ancient Greece.
2. The organization of the theatrical action was well debugged, and although the nature of the action itself was conditional, the costumes and scenery were poor, all this was compensated for by the actors' play, the inclusion of the choir in the action and the presence of a moral component in the plays: suffering, crying, which determined the mood audience and the general nature of the works performed.
3. Social, ethical, political problems, issues of education, a deep depiction of heroic characters, the theme of high civic consciousness constitute the life-affirming basis of the ancient Greek theater.
The forms taken by the main source of the tragedy.
a) Aristotle speaks of the origin of tragedy "from the singing dithyramb." The dithyramb was indeed a choral song in honor of Dionysus. The tragedy arose, therefore, from the successive singing of the singer and the choir: the singer gradually becomes an actor, and the choir was the very basis of the tragedy. On the three great Greek tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - one can quite clearly establish the evolution of the chorus in Greek classical drama. This evolution was a gradual decline in the importance of the choir, from those tragedies of Aeschylus, where the choir itself is the protagonist, and ending with tragedies and was no more than a kind of musical intermission.
b) The same Aristotle speaks of the origin of tragedy from the Satmrian game. Satyrs are humanoid demons with strongly pronounced goat-like elements (horns, beard, hooves, disheveled hair), and sometimes with a horse's tail.
The goat, like the bull, was closely related to the cult of Dionysus. Often Dionysus was represented as a goat, and goats were sacrificed to him. Here was the idea that God himself is torn to pieces so that people can taste, under the guise of goat meat, the divinity of Dionysus himself. The very word tragedy in Greek literally means either "song of the goats" or "song of the goats" (tragos - goat and ode - song).
c) It is necessary to recognize the folklore origin of the drama in general. Ethnographers and art historians have collected significant material from the history of different peoples about primitive collective game, which was accompanied by singing and dancing, consisted of the parts of the lead singer and the choir or of two choirs, and at first had a magical significance, because in this way the impact on nature was conceived.
d) It is quite natural that in the primitive religious and labor rituals, those elements were not yet differentiated, which later led to the development of individual types of drama or to twists and turns within the same drama. Therefore, the mixture of the sublime and the base, the serious and the comic, is one of the features of these primitive rudiments of drama, which later led to the origin of tragedy and comedy from the same Dionysian source.
e) In the city of Eleusis, mysteries were given, which depicted the abduction of her daughter Persephone from Demeter by Pluto. The dramatic element in Greek cults could not help but influence the development of drama in the dithyramb and could not but contribute to the separation of artistic and dramatic moments from religious rituals. Therefore, in science there is a firmly established theory about the influence of the Eleusinian mysteries on the development of the tragedy in Athens.
f) The theory of the origin of the tragedy from the cult of the spirit of the dead, and in particular from the cult of heroes, was put forward. Of course, the cult of heroes could not be the only source of tragedy, but it was of great importance for tragedy already in view of the fact that tragedy was almost exclusively based on heroic mythology.
g) Almost every tragedy contains scenes with mourning one or another hero, so there was also a theory about the phrenetic origin of the tragedy (tbrenos - in Greek "deep lamentation"). But frenos could not be the only source of tragedy either.
h) It was also pointed out to the mimic dance at the graves of the heroes. This moment is also very important.
i) At a certain stage of development, a serious tragedy separated from. funny satyr drama. And from the mythological tragedy and the satyr drama, the non-mythological comedy was already separated. This differentiation is a certain stage in the development of Greek drama.
Tragedy before Aeschylus.
Not a single tragedy before Aeschylus has survived. According to Aristotle, drama originated in the Peloponnese, among the Dorian population. However, the drama received its development only in much more advanced Attica, where the tragedy, the satyr drama was staged at the feast of the Great (or City) Dionysius (March - April), and at another Dionysus feast, the so-called Leney (January - February) - mainly comedy; in the Rural Dionysia (December - January) plays that had already been played in the city were staged. We know the name of the first Athenian tragedian and the date of the first staging of the tragedy. It was Thespis, who staged for the first time in 534 a tragedy on the Great Dionysia. Thespis is credited with a number of innovations and the titles of some tragedies, but the reliability of this information is doubtful. A contemporary of the famous Aeschylus was Phrynichus (approx. 511-476), to whom, among others, the tragedies "The Capture of Miletus" and "The Phoenician Women" are attributed, which received great fame. Later, Pratin acted, famous for his satyr dramas, which he had more than tragedies. All these tragedians were eclipsed by Aeschylus.
structure of tragedy.
Aeschylean tragedies already have a complex structure. Undoubtedly, the path of development of this structure was long. The tragedy began with a prologue, which should be understood as the beginning of the tragedy before the first performance of the choir. The first performance of the choir, or, more precisely, the first part of the choir, is the parod of tragedy (parod in Greek means "performance", "passage"). After the parod, the tragedy alternated between the so-called episodies, that is, the dialogic parts (episodia means "advention" - the dialogue in relation to the choir was originally something secondary), and stasims, the so-called "standing songs of the choir", "song of the choir in a motionless state" . The tragedy ended with an exodus, an exodus, or the final song of the choir. It is also necessary to point out the combined singing of the choir and the actors, which could be in different places of the tragedy and usually had an excitedly weeping character, which is why it was called kommos (copto in Greek means “I hit”, that is, in this case - “I hit myself in the chest "). These parts of the tragedy are clearly traced in the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides that have come down to us.
satire drama.
Satyr drama or otherwise playful - among the ancient Greeks, a special kind of dramatic poetry that existed along with tragedy and comedy.
From a satyr drama, according to Aristotle, developed a tragedy by expanding plot and replacing the comic style with a serious and solemn one. The external feature that distinguished the satyr drama from tragedy in the heyday of the Greek theater is to participate in stage action satyrs, who, according to legend, were involved in the performance of praises Arion Corinthian about 600. The place of origin of the Satyr choir is recognized Peloponnese; in Athens, the satyr dithyramb turns out to be an alien phenomenon, timed to coincide with the forms of the Attic cult. Chronologically, this phenomenon is referred to as tyranny Pisistratus, who established the holiday of the great Dionysius (city). According to another view, the birthplace of the Satyr choir was Athens, moreover, stage satyrs, who put on a goat skin (in other parts of the costume, they could rather resemble centaurs), were a costumed retinue of God Dionysus, totem which was, by the way, a goat. The choral dance dithyramb, performed by costumed satyrs, was, according to this view, a remnant of the ritual action of the time when Dionysus was honored, taking the form of an animal dedicated to him, and in mythe, which formed the basis of the dramatic action, these satyrs turned into companions of Dionysus ( Veselovsky, "Three chapters from historical poetics"). According to Wilamowitz ("Heracles"), satires were introduced specifically to amuse and amuse the public and had nothing to do with the cult. Be that as it may, the atmosphere of the Satyr choir became part of the Dionysian holiday and led to the development of a cult and then an artistic drama.
In the legends of Dionysus, a combination of ideas of suffering and joy, death and life was given. This duality of the nature of the deity was reflected in the everyday life of the festival: the bearers of the ritual act - satires - either performed passionate songs imbued with fun to the dance, or tuned in to the mood of crying. With the gradual evolution of ritual forms, fun and serious moments were distributed between satyr drama and tragedy: the first retained the name and masks of the cult performers of the ancient dithyramb. The development of comedy proceeded completely independently, but along with the development of satyr drama and tragedy: neither by constitution, nor by setting, nor by goals, Greek comedy was connected with satyr drama. According to Magaffi(“History of the classical period of Greek literature”), the satyr drama was, in the initial phase of development, a rural and cheerful kind of dithyramb, performed by the lower class of the population, and choir imitated the games of satyrs, while tragedy arose from a serious dithyramb. When the latter began to deviate from his original goal and began to glorify, besides Dionysus, other gods and heroes, the satyr dithyramb was timed to coincide with the Athenian scene and became fashionable. According to Bernhardi("Grundriss der griechischen Litteratur", II part, 2 part.), Initially, at the Dionysian festivals, elements religious and secular, artificial and free stood next to each other; the first was expressed in a dithyrambic choir, the second in the jokes of satyrs, and the satyr drama was the prelude of the holiday. The connection of satyrs with the dithyramb was fixed by Arion. Initially, the satyr drama was performed by a choir without actors; unlike tragedy, it was noted the predominance orchestic element. Since Thespis its development went hand in hand with tragedy, and innovations in the field of the latter were simultaneously transferred to the satyr drama.
The first known representative of the Satyr drama in the history of Greek literature is Pratinus from Phliunt (Doryan), the author of 32 plays, according to legend, who transferred the Satyr choirs from Corinth to Athens. Despite the fact that the Doric dialect of choruses was little understood by the Athenians and the image of satyrs was alien to their mythology, the innovation quickly took root in the cult of Dionysus. Since that time, satyr drama has been recognized as a necessary branch of dramatic art and included in the program of Dionysian festivals (great Dionysius). Of the other representatives of this era in the field of satyr drama, Aristius, the son of Pratinus, and Hoiril stood out. The satyr drama reached its apogee at Aeschylus. Before him, the satyr drama, which concluded the tetralogy, could stand in connection with the plot of the previous tragedies; after Aeschylus, the independence of the satyr drama became a habit. Sophocles And Euripides also wrote satyr dramas. Some critics also include "Alcestis" and "Orestes", two plays by Euripides that have come down to us, to the type of drama being analyzed. In addition to the named poets, the following representatives of Stair's poetry were also known in antiquity: Ion of Chios, Achaey Electric, Jophokt, Philokles, Xenocles. In the IV century. BC. and later the decline of the satyr drama is noticed, only a few of its representatives are known.
Sophocles' Pathfinders, Euripides' Cyclops and Daphnis, or Litiers have survived to our time. sosithea. The drama of Euripides has been preserved in its entirety, the drama of Sophocles is almost half (the first 394 verses) from gaps that have been restored; from the drama of Sositheus, two fragments are currently known (21 verses and 3 verses).
A characterization of the satyr drama of the classical period (5th century BC) can be made on the basis of the Cyclops. Its content is taken entirely from the IX song " Odyssey” (v. 105-542), except that Euripides introduced Silenus and satires, that is, the actual satyr setting, and there is no mention of a ram that carried Odyssey from the Cyclops cave. The action takes place in Sicily, on the seashore, and begins with the fact that Silenus, who fell into slavery with the satyrs to Cyclops, sadly recalls the time when he was a servant of Dionysus. Meanwhile, the choir of satyrs, in the theme of a fast and comical dance, runs onto the stage and in a naively funny pastoral song expresses his sympathy for Silenus. A ship approaches the shore, bringing Odysseus and his comrades from Troy; a conversation ensues between the satyrs and the new arrivals. A giant appears Polyphemus and takes the aliens for robbers. Odysseus with dignity convinces Polyphemus that he is not a robber, but a guest, and asks for protection. Polyphemus replies that for him there are neither laws nor fear, and that the gift of hospitality to Odysseus will be fire and a cauldron in which his meat will be cooked. Odysseus turns to Pallas And Zeus with a prayer for help and enters after Polyphemus into the cave. In the choral song that follows, the satyrs sing of the cannibal's wide throat and express their desire to leave the inhospitable shore as soon as possible. Soon after, Odysseus runs out of the cave and tells with horror about the bloodthirstiness of Polyphemus, who devoured two of his comrades, and how he managed to get Cyclops drunk. The chorus expresses sympathy for Odysseus, who plans to gouge out the eye of the monster during his sleep and announces his name to Polyphemus - Nobody. With the help of satyrs offstage, Odysseus pierces Cyclops in his only eye. The groans and complaints of the blinded giant, his fury at the news of the salvation of Odysseus, the last dialogue between them and the readiness of the satyrs to sail with Odysseus - all this constitutes the final scene of the satyr drama.
The setting of the drama, the characters of the characters and the form allow us to summarize the main features of satyr poetry. On the one hand, the satyr drama brings us satyrs - the true children of nature, roguish, fearful, sensual, careless, naively shameless, frisky and cheerful, living in the bosom of nature; they also include, as a representative of the gross animal element, Polyphemus. In contrast to them, Odysseus acts as a representative of the heroic and cultural beginning. He behaves like a hero of a tragedy, without humiliating his dignity, without falling into either a vulgar or too solemn tone. The purpose of the satyr drama, which was a harmless, naive joke on a mythical plot, was in the depiction of this contrast and in the message to the audience of direct fun. Not teaching like a comedy, the satyr drama amused and entertained, giving an outcome to the heavy and serious mood caused in the audience by the previous tragedies. The repertoire of satyr roles was not particularly large, which, by the way, explains the relatively small participation of the satyr drama in the programs of the Dionysian festivities and its gradual disappearance from the stage (by the end of the 4th century BC). The themes were originally taken from the legends of Dionysus and were related to the introduction of wine among people and the influence of a new gift on his inexperienced admirers (Lycurgus by Aeschylus). Later, myths with an animal element, funny, fabulous and wonderful were chosen as the basis of satyr plays; so, the satyr types of gluttonous, ingenuous, sensual, rude Hercules, roguish Autolycus, crippled Hephaestus, ferocious, in the spirit of Cyclops, Anthea And Buziris, the robber Skiron, etc. Plots were also allowed in which the action consisted of marriage and joy (Elena's Marriage). Sometimes the tragic and serious in myths is perverted into the funny ( Alcmaeon, Amphiarai, Athamant, teleph), but at the same time the poet had to reckon with the beliefs and tastes of the public and not overstep the limits of what was permitted. In general, a satyr drama had to satisfy the following requirements, which were set out by Horace in "Ars poetica" (vv. 220-250): she had to carefully choose expressions so that the characters, like a venerable matron performing a publicly religious dance, did not drop their dignity, and the speech of the satyrs corresponded to their shepherd character; in other words, its language must represent an intermediate between the language of comedy and tragedy. The task of the satyr drama was not parody, but to make them laugh, exposing the amusingly indecent, naive and inadmissible against the background of the serious and heroic and maintaining the tone of naive fiction and idyllic simplicity.
The liveliness of the action also corresponded to the size (trochaic tetrameter), originally used, according to Aristotle (Poet. § 14), in satyr poetry and closely related to dance. Choral meters were generally freer and simpler than in tragedy; choral parts were not strophic. In the dialogues uttered by satirical persons, freedom of both style and meter was also allowed: the replacement iambic cyclical anapaest met, for example, in all feet, except for the last. On the contrary, the heroic parties were strictly sustained in stylistic and metrical respects, as required by the laws of tragic form.
Dance of the Satyrs ( other Greekσίκιννις) was rather rhythmic jumps, sometimes obscene; the pace of the dance was fast, and the satires accompanied the movements with gestures, grimaces and antics designed to make the audience laugh (the vase painting provides a lot of material illustrating the satyr drama both from the side of the plots and from the side of the external environment). Number chorevts in the satyr drama it was 12-15, the choir had a quadrangular construction. The satyrs were dressed in goatskins and had phallus(there were also ithyphallic satyrs) and behind the tail (horse), as can be concluded from the vase painting
Compared to tragedy, the satyr drama was more conservative, as indicated, among other things, by the archaism of its style, and had less vital elements that could ensure its free development. Although the constituent elements of the tragedy and the satyr drama were the same, the second always seemed, in comparison with the first, as if underdeveloped. This is clear both from a consideration of the metrical properties of both dramatic types, and from the fact that, compared with tragedy, the volume of the satyr drama was less and the dramatic conflict was simpler. It was especially difficult for the poet to give an artistic combination of elements of the serious and the funny, and to maintain a tone that was intermediate between tragedy and comedy.
The obligation to amuse without full freedom for jokes and the narrow range of subjects have delayed the evolution of satyr poetry; its success in the 5th century. BC. can only be explained by the high talent of the poets who created the artistic drama. The degeneration of the satyr drama is already noticeable under Sophocles, who in some plays instead of satyrs brought out ordinary mortals (in the drama "Shepherds" shepherds were choirs, in the drama "Hercules on Tenar" - helots). Finally, the success of comedy, which fell to the lot of Athenian audiences from the 80s of the 5th century, contributed to the decline of the satyr drama. By the end of the IV century. the satyr drama has completely gone out of fashion, which explains, among other things, the loss of numerous samples of it, created in the 6th and 5th centuries.
Greek tragedy was a popular and influential form of drama performed in the theaters of ancient Greece from the late 6th century BC. The most famous playwrights of the genre were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, and many of their works were still performed for centuries after their first premiere. Greek tragedy led to Greek comedy, and together these genres became the foundation on which all modern theater is based.
ORIGINS OF THE TRAGEDY
The exact origins of tragedy (tragedies) are debated among scholars. Some of them have linked the rise of the genre, which began in Athens, to an earlier art form, the lyrical performance of epic poetry. Others suggest a strong connection with the rituals performed in the worship of Dionysus, such as the sacrifice of goats—a song ritual called trag-ōdia—and the wearing of masks. Indeed, Dionysos became known as the god of the theatre, and perhaps there is another connection, the drinking rites that caused the worshiper to lose complete control of his emotions and actually become a different person, as the actors (hupokritai) hope to do during speeches. The music and dance of the Dionysiac ritual was most evident in the role of the chorus and music provided by the aulos player, but the rhythmic elements were also retained by using the first, trophy tetrameter, and then the iambic trimeter in delivering the spoken words,
PLAY TRAGEDI
Performing at the theater open sky(theatron) such as Dionysos in Athens and seemingly open to the entire male population (the presence of women is disputed), the plot of the tragedy was almost always inspired by episodes from Greek mythology, which we must remember were often part of the Greek religion. As a consequence of this serious subject, which often dealt with moral right and evil, no violence was allowed on stage, and the character's death had to be heard from offstage and not seen. Likewise, at least in the early stages of the genre, the poet could not comment or make political statements through the play, and a more direct relation to contemporary events had to wait for the advent of a less severe and conventional genre, the Greek comedy.
Early tragedies had only one actor who performed in costume and wore a mask, allowing him the presumption to impersonate a god. Here we can see, perhaps, a connection with an earlier religious ritual where a priest could conduct a trial. Later, the actor often spoke to the leader of the choir, a group of up to 15 actors who sang and danced but did not speak. This innovation is attributed to Thespis in c. 520 BC The actor also changed the costumes during the performance (using a small backstage tent, a skin that would later turn into a monumental façade), and thus break up the play into separate episodes. Phrynichos is credited with the idea of dividing the choir into different groups to represent men, women, elders, etc. (although all the actors on stage were actually male). In the end, three actors were allowed on stage, a restriction that allowed for equality between poets in the competition. However, the game could have as many non-speaking performers as possible, so no doubt playing with more financial backing could be a more impactful production with thinner costumes and sets. Finally, Agathon is credited with adding musical interludes unrelated to the story itself.
TRAGEDY IN THE COMPETITION
The most famous competition for the execution of the tragedy was within spring festival Dionysus Eleuthera or City Dionysia in Athens, but there were many others. Those pieces that were attempted to be performed in the competitions of the religious festival (agōn) had to go through an audition process, the court of which was found by the archon. Only those deemed worthy of the festival will be given the financial support needed to provide an expensive choir and rehearsal. The archon would also appoint three choregoi, citizens who would each finance the choir for one of the selected plays (the state paid the poet and the leading actors). The performances of three selected poets were judged that day by a group, and the prize for the winners of such competitions, in addition to honor and prestige, was often a bronze tripod cauldron. From 449 BC E. There were also prizes for leading actors (prōtagōnistēs).
WRITERS OF TRAGEDY
The first of the great tragedian poets was Aeschylus (circa 525 – 456 BCE). Innovative, he added a second actor for minor parts and by incorporating more dialogue into his plays, he squeezed more drama from the age-old stories so familiar to his audience. Since the plays were entered into the competition in groups of four (three tragedies and a satirical play), Aeschylus often dealt with the theme between plays, creating sequels. One such trilogy is Agamemnon, the Liberators (or Ciofori) and the Furies (or Eumenides), collectively known as the Oresteia. Aeschylus is said to have described his work of at least 70 plays, of which six or seven survive, as "pieces from the feast of Homer" (Burn 206).
The second great poet of the genre was Sophocles (c. 496-406 BCE). Very popular, he added a third actor to the case and used painted sets, sometimes even scene changes in the play. The three actors now allow for much more sophistication in terms of plot. One of his most famous works is Antigone (c. 442 BC), in which the leading character pays the final price for the burial of his brother Polynix against the wishes of King Fiona of Thebes. This is a classic situation with a tragedy - the political right to the fact that Polina's traitor denied funeral rites, is opposed to the moral right of a sister seeking to put her brother to bed. Other works include Oedipus Rex and The Women of Trachis, but he actually wrote over 100 plays, of which seven survive.
The last of the classical tragedy poets was Euripides (c. 484-407 BCE), noted for his intelligent dialogues, fine choral lyrics, and a certain realism in his textual and stage presentation. He liked to ask uncomfortable questions and upset the audience with his thought provoking attitude towards general topics. This is probably why, although he was popular with the public, he only won a few festival competitions. Of the roughly 90 games, 19 survive, among the most famous being Medea - where Jason, of Golden Fleece fame, refuses the title character for the daughter of the King of Corinth, causing Medea to kill her children in retaliation.
TRAGEDY BREAKING
Although the plays were specially commissioned for competition during religious and other festivals, many were re-performed and copied into scripts for mass publication. These scenarios, considered classics, especially the three great Tragedies, were even held by the state as official and unchanged. government documents. In addition, the study of "classical" plays has become an important part of the school curriculum.
There were, however, new plays that were constantly recorded and performed, and with the formation of actors' guilds in the 3rd century BC and the mobility of professional troupes, the genre continued to spread throughout the Greek world, and theaters became common feature cityscape from Magna Graecia to Asia Minor.
In the Roman world, tragedy plays were translated and imitated into Latin, and the genre spawned new form art from the 1st century BC, pantomime that drew inspiration from the presentation and subject matter of Greek tragedy.
Finally, it is worth talking about any one Greek. On the one hand, it is very difficult to choose, and on the other hand, it is very simple, because with light hand two people separated by a large time gap, we know which Greek tragedy is the main one.
In Aristotle's Poetics, the idea is unequivocally that the best Greek tragedian of the three great tragedians is Sophocles, and the best Greek tragedy of all Greek tragedies is Oedipus Rex.
And this is one of the problems with the perception of Greek tragedy. The paradox is that Aristotle's opinion was apparently not shared by the Athenians of the 5th century BC, when Oedipus Rex was staged. We know that Sophocles did not lose with this tragedy, the Athenian audience did not appreciate Oedipus Rex the way Aristotle did.
Nevertheless, Aristotle, who says that Greek tragedy is a tragedy of two emotions, fear and compassion, writes about Oedipus Rex that anyone who reads even a line from there will simultaneously be afraid of what happened to the hero, and sympathize with him.
Aristotle turned out to be right: almost all great thinkers paid attention to the question of the meaning of this tragedy, how we should perceive the protagonist, whether Oedipus is guilty or not guilty. Twenty years ago an article was published D. A. Hester. Oedipus and Jonah // Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society. Vol. 23. 1977. one American researcher, in which he scrupulously collected the opinions of everyone, starting with Hegel and Schelling, who said that Oedipus was guilty, who said that Oedipus was not guilty, who said that Oedipus was, of course, guilty, but involuntarily. As a result, he got four main and three auxiliary groups of positions. And not so long ago, our compatriot, but in German, published a huge book called "The Search for Guilt" M. Lurje. Die Suche nach der Schuld. Sophokles' Oedipus Rex, Aristoteles' Poetik und das Tragödienverständnis der Neuzeit. Leipzig, 2004., dedicated to how Oedipus Rex has been interpreted over the centuries since it was first staged.
The second person, of course, was Sigmund Freud, who, for obvious reasons, also devoted a lot of pages to Oedipus Rex (although not as much as it seemed to be) and called this tragedy an exemplary example of psychoanalysis - with the only difference that the psychoanalyst and the patient coincide in it: Oedipus acts both as a doctor and as a patient, since he analyzes himself. Freud wrote that in this tragedy the beginning of everything - religion, art, morality, literature, history, that this is a tragedy for all time.
Nevertheless, this tragedy, like all other ancient Greek tragedies, was staged at a specific time and in a specific place. Eternal problems - art, morality, literature, history, religion and everything else - were correlated in it with a specific time and specific events.
Oedipus Rex was staged between 429 and 425 BC. This is very important time in the life of Athens - the beginning of the Peloponnesian War, which will eventually lead to the fall of the greatness of Athens and their defeat.
The tragedy opens, which comes to Oedipus, who rules in Thebes, and says that there is a pestilence in Thebes and the cause of this pestilence, according to the prophecy of Apollo, is the one who killed the former king of Thebes Laius. In tragedy, the action takes place in Thebes, but every tragedy is about Athens, insofar as it is staged in Athens and for Athens. At that moment, a terrible plague had just passed in Athens, which mowed down a lot, including quite outstanding ones - and this, of course, is an allusion to it. Including during this plague, Pericles, the political leader, with whom the greatness and prosperity of Athens is associated, died.
One of the problems that preoccupy the interpreters of the tragedy is whether Oedipus is associated with Pericles, if so, how, and what is the relationship of Sophocles to Oedipus, and therefore to Pericles. It seems that Oedipus is a terrible criminal, but at the same time he is the savior of the city both before the beginning and at the end of the tragedy. Volumes have also been written on this subject.
In Greek, the tragedy is literally called Oedipus the Tyrant. Greek word () from which Russian word"tyrant", deceptively: it cannot be translated as "tyrant" (it is never translated, as can be seen from all Russian - and not only Russian - versions of the tragedy), because initially this word did not have the negative connotations that it has in modern Russian. But, apparently, in Athens in the 5th century it possessed these connotations - because Athens in the 5th century was proud of its own, that there is no power of one, that all citizens equally decide who is the best tragedian and what is best for the state. In Athenian myth, the expulsion of tyrants from Athens, which took place at the end of the 6th century BC, is one of the most important ideologies. And so the name "Oedipus the Tyrant" is rather negative.
Indeed, Oedipus behaves like a tyrant in tragedy: he reproaches his brother-in-law Creon for a conspiracy that does not exist, and calls the soothsayer Tiresias bribed, who speaks of a terrible fate awaiting Oedipus.
By the way, when Oedipus and his wife and, as it turns out later, mother Jocasta, talk about the imaginary nature of prophecies and their political engagement, this is also connected with the realities of Athens in the 5th century, where they were an element of political technology. Each political leader had almost his own soothsayers, who specially, for his tasks, interpreted or even composed prophecies. So even such seemingly timeless problems as the relationship of people with the gods through prophecy have a very specific political meaning.
One way or another, all this indicates that a tyrant is bad. On the other hand, from other sources, for example, from the history of Thucydides, we know that in the middle of the 5th century, the allies called Athens “tyranny” - meaning by this a powerful state, which is controlled in part by democratic processes and unites allies around itself. That is, behind the concept of "tyranny" is the idea of power and organization.
It turns out that Oedipus is a symbol of the danger that powerful power carries and that lies in any political system. Thus, this is a political tragedy.
On the other hand, "Oedipus Rex" is, of course, a tragedy major topics. And the main one among them is the theme of knowledge and ignorance.
Oedipus is a sage who at one time saved Thebes from a terrible one (because the Sphinx is a woman), having solved her riddle. Just like a sage, a choir of Theban citizens, elders and youth comes to him with a request to save the city. And as a sage, Oedipus declares the need to unravel the mystery of the murder of the former king and solves it throughout the tragedy.
But at the same time he is a blind man who does not know the most important thing: who he is, who his father and mother are. In an effort to find out the truth, he ignores everything that others warn him about. Thus it turns out that he is a wise man who is not wise.
The opposition of knowledge and ignorance is at the same time the opposition of vision and blindness. The blind prophet Tiresias, who at the beginning speaks to the seeing Oedipus, keeps telling him: "You are blind." Oedipus at this moment sees, but does not know - in contrast to Tiresias, who knows, but does not see.
It is remarkable, by the way, that in Greek vision and knowledge are one and the same word. To know and see in Greek is οἶδα (). This is the same root that, from the point of view of the Greeks, lies in the name of Oedipus, and this is repeatedly played up.
In the end, having learned that it was he who killed his father and married his mother, Oedipus blinds himself - and thereby, finally becoming a true sage, loses his sight. Before that, he says that the blind man, that is, Tiresias, was too sighted.
The tragedy is built on an extremely subtle play (including verbal, surrounding the name of Oedipus himself) of these two themes - knowledge and vision. Inside the tragedy, they form a kind of counterpoint, constantly changing places. Thanks to this, Oedipus Rex, being a tragedy of knowledge, becomes a tragedy for all time.
The meaning of the tragedy also turns out to be dual. On the one hand, Oedipus is the most miserable person, and the choir sings about it. He was plunged from complete happiness into unhappiness. He will be expelled from his own city. He lost own wife and a mother who committed suicide. His children are the fruit of incest. Everything is terrible.
On the other hand, paradoxically, Oedipus triumphs at the end of the tragedy. He wanted to know who his father was and who his mother was, and he found out. He wanted to know who killed Lai, and he found out. He wanted to save the city from the plague, from pestilence - and he did. The city is saved, Oedipus has gained the most important thing for him - knowledge, albeit at the cost of incredible suffering, at the cost of losing his own vision.
By the way, Sophocles made changes to the well-known plot: Oedipus did not blind himself before, but within Sophocles' drama, blindness is a natural ending, an expression of both defeat and victory.
This duality is the literary and political meaning of the tragedy, since it demonstrates the two-sidedness of power, the connectedness of power and knowledge. This is the key to the integrity, the amazing alignment of this tragedy at all levels, from the plot to the verbal. This is the guarantee of its greatness, preserved over the centuries.
Why didn't the Athenian public appreciate Oedipus Rex? Perhaps it was the intellectualism of the tragedy, the very complex packing of various themes into it, that turned out to be too complicated for the Athenian public of the 5th century. And it was precisely for this intellectualism that Aristotle most certainly valued Oedipus Rex.
One way or another, "Oedipus Rex" embodied the main meaning and the main message of the Greek tragedy. This is, first of all, an intellectual experience, which is correlated with the experience of a very different nature, from religious and literary to political. And the more closely these different meanings interact with each other, the more successful and important its meaning and the stronger its effect.
