Classical Studies 1000 Lecture Notes - Oedipus The King, Choral Poetry, Shakespearean Tragedy
Document Summary
November 25, 2013: three great athenian playwrights, aeschylus 524/5 456/5 bce; we have 7 plays, sophocles ca. 495-406 bce; we have 7 plays: euripides ca. The names of many others are known and some fragments" survive: what survives of these tragedians is not at all random. There are also fragments which are quotations by other playwrights which are otherwise lost (ex. With euripides we have 1500 fragments that range from one word to a few lines): aristotle"s poetics: about 50 years after the death of euripides and sophocles. The whole western tradition of literary criticism started with him. Chronology: the first preserved tragedy is called persians by aeschylus from 472 bce. It dramatized part of the war between persia and greece: tragedy was introduced as a competition at the greater dionysia in 536/533 bce, at some point tragedy just began and didn"t evolve naturally.