Learning Outcomes:
On completion of this module students should be able to:
* synthesize information about the various versions of the Oedipus myth;
* demonstrate critical understanding of the prescribed plays as works of literature;
* evaluate modern interpretations of the prescribed plays;
* contribute constructively to group discussion;
* construct relevant and analytical written work on the prescribed plays.
Indicative Module Content:
Lectures
Week
1. Introduction
2. Early versions of the Oedipus story
3. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes (Eteocles and the women)
4. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes (shield scene)
5. Sophocles, Antigone (Creon)
6. Sophocles, Antigone (Antigone)
7. Sophocles, Oedipus the King (myth)
8. Sophocles, Oedipus the King (Oedipus; fate)
9. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
10. Euripides, The Phoenician Women
11. No lecture
12. No lecture
Tutorials
Week
1. No tutorial
2. No tutorial
3. The social and political context of Greek tragedy
4. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
5. Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes
6. Sophocles, Antigone
7. Sophocles, Oedipus the King
8. Discussion of essay topics
9. Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus
10. Euripides, The Phoenician Women
11. No tutorial
12. No tutorial
Prescribed texts
Early Versions of the Oedipus Story (handout)
Aeschylus, Seven Against Thebes (in Persians and Other Plays tr. C. Collard, Oxford World’s Classics)
Sophocles, Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus (in The Three Theban Plays tr. R. Fagles)
Euripides, The Phoenician Women (tr. P. Burian & B. Swann, Oxford University Press)
Indicative secondary reading
J. Griffin, ‘The social function of Attic tragedy’, Classical Quarterly 48 (1998), 39–61
H.C. Baldry, ‘The dramatization of the Theban legend’, Greece and Rome 3 (1956), 24–37
R. Buxton, Myths and Tragedies in their Ancient Greek Contexts (Oxford, 2013)
M. Lloyd (ed.), Oxford Readings in Aeschylus (Oxford, 2007)
C. Sourvinou-Inwood, ‘Assumptions and the creation of meaning: reading Sophocles’ Antigone’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 109 (1989), 134–48
H.P. Foley, ‘Tragedy and democratic ideology: the case of Sophocles’ Antigone’, in B. Goff (ed.), History, Tragedy, Theory: Dialogues on Athenian Drama (Austin, 1995), 131–50
E.R. Dodds, ‘On misunderstanding Oedipus Rex’, Greece and Rome 13 (1966), 37–49
P. Burian, ‘Suppliant and saviour: Oedipus at Colonus’, Phoenix 28 (1974), 408–29
L.A. Swift, ‘Sexual and familial distortion in Euripides’ Phoenissae’, Transactions of the American Philological Association 139 (2009), 53–87