Episode 96: Introduction to Antigone
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Welcome to the first episode in our series on Sophocles\\u2019 Greek drama Antigone. After sharing a little about their background with this play, Angelina, Cindy and Thomas talk about the overall structure and the conventions of Greek Drama and Greek Tragedy. Thomas also gives an overview of the type of characters to expect in Greek Tragedy, and he highlights the ways in which Sophocles changed Greek Drama. Angelina explains the ideas of unity of time, unity of place, and unity of plot as presented by Aristotle. Thomas also summarizes the myth on which this play is based, talks about Creon\\u2019s character, and expands on some of the tensions present in Antigone.
Commonplace Quotes:
You don\\u2019t know what ideas my mind-spirit needs right now; I don\\u2019t know what your mind-spirit need; and we don\\u2019t know the mind-spirit needs of each child in a classroom. Vital ideas are not sold pre-measured in a bottle.
Anne White
She had a terror of solitary evenings, all the terror of one who did not care for books, who was soaked in superstition and loved lights and noise.
Hugh Walpole
When we are self-conscious, we cannot be wholly aware; we must throw ourselves out first. This throwing ourselves away is the act of creativity. So, when we wholly concentrate, like a child in play, or an artist at work, then we share in the act of creating. We not only escape time, we also escape our self-conscious selves.
The Greeks had a word for ultimate self-consciousness which I find illuminating: hubris: pride: pride in the sense of putting oneself in the center of the universe. The strange and terrible thing is that this kind of total self-consciousness invariably ends in self-annihilation. The great tragedians have always understood this, from Sophocles to Shakespeare.
Madeleine L\\u2019Engle
A Scot to Jeanne D\\u2019Arc
by Andrew Lang
DARK Lily without blame,\\xa0\\xa0
Not upon us the shame,\\xa0\\xa0
Whose sires were to the Auld Alliance true;\\xa0\\xa0
They, by the Maiden\\u2019s side,\\xa0\\xa0
Victorious fought and died;\\xa0
One stood by thee that fiery torment through,\\xa0\\xa0
Till the White Dove from thy pure lips had passed,\\xa0\\xa0
And thou wert with thine own St. Catherine at the last.\\xa0\\xa0
Once only didst thou see,\\xa0
In artist\\u2019s imagery,\\xa0
Thine own face painted, and that precious thing\\xa0\\xa0
Was in an Archer\\u2019s hand\\xa0\\xa0
From the leal Northern land.
Book List:
Ideas Freely Sown by Anne White
The Thirteen Travellers by Hugh Walpole
The Sea Tower by Hugh Walpole
A Circle of Quiet by Madeleine L\\u2019Engle
The Great Divorce by C. S. Lewis
The Oresteia by Aeschylus
The Three Theban Plays by Sophocles
Mythology by Edith Hamilton
The Poetics by Aristotle
Trojan Women by Euripides
The Bacchae by Euripides
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Connect with Us:
You can find Angelina and Thomas at HouseofHumaneLetters.com, on Instagram @angelinastanford,\\xa0and on Facebook at\\xa0https://www.facebook.com/ANGStanford/
Find Cindy at\\xa0morningtimeformoms.com, on Instagram @cindyordoamoris\\xa0and on Facebook at\\xa0https://www.facebook.com/cindyrollins.net/. Check out Cindy\\u2019s own Patreon page also!
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