Visionary

The production of Antigone I envision is less in tune with exactly the way things were done, but as realistically as possible - yet with some of the elements of masking and instruments and lighting used as the Greeks had done. While the picture I have chosen as my vision definitely does not portray a man wearing a woman's mask, I agree with other aspects of it. This is more than just a depiction of Antigone and Ismene. I've seen depictions that I don't like. With this one, my vision agrees with the clothing they are wearing, with the setting that suggests they are alone - with the way they are NOT placed on a stage in the middle of the palace. This is organic.

Also, this artist has rendered Antigone as more than just an angry, stubborn head. Creon and Oedipus were given contrary characteristics, despite their anger. I think Antigone should be allowed the same.





Work Cited
Armstrong, Thomas. Antigone and Ismene.

Flutey Crafts

Let's say a production of Antigone today - or any classical Greek play - needed a fully fledged band to play the music that may have accompanied the show thousands of years ago. Would you run out and buy brand new bongos and electric guitars? Ha. Sure you would.

No, you'd take the more annoying route and perhaps learn how to make your own versions of the instruments that the Greeks used. I found a video of how to make a Greek flute (even though the description tells us that it was used by only the Spartans in war). You could probably buy something like this - though I have no idea where. Viva la crafts! Maybe if you asked Hephaestus, he'd help you out.

Check it out HERE, at the History Channel website. I'm sorry I couldn't post the video directly in this blog. Anyway. If you create a flute like this, perhaps it won't be the correct way of how one was created....but add it to your production, and you have a better chance of recreating an ancient Greek play. Though you might have trouble keeping the audience from laughing during a tragedy.


Work Cited
Ancient Hobbyist. Perf. Dave Shaw. A&E Television Works. 1996-2010.

A Wedding Denied

One of the questions I had for this project was about marriage. Antigone and Haemon were going to be getting married and having a joyous celebration (we had hoped) before these tragic circumstances broke out. What would that wedding in ancient Greece have looked like? Which of the Gods would have been invited? I'm betting Dionysus was probably at the top of the guest list...

These are questions that I assume would have been answered very well in The Wedding in Ancient Athens. A book that has undergone scholarly peer review, it has been reviewed by the journal Women's Studies. The reviewer claims that while it doesn't appear to be a well-researched book, it proves its critical readers wrong. It's chock-full of the rituals the wedding would have had. The authors of the book even used a "plethora" of vases to illustrate their points (246).

While the story of Antigone didn't take place in Athens - what the ceremony would have been like may have been pretty damn close. We'd at least get a sense of how much the family had been looking forward to the spectacular occasion before everything came crashing down. Were there rituals and processes Antigone had to turn away from in order to save her brother? Were there preparations Haemon and Ismene had been helping with? What effects did the battle between brothers have on the upcoming wedding? Etc.

This is a book I wouldn't mind reading. Maybe I should buy it new for $17.95 from Barnes and Noble.

Work Cited

Boland, Catherine. "The Wedding in Ancient Athens (Book)." Women's Studies 32.2 (2003): 246. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 31 Oct. 2010.

Should Have Left it Outside

From a scholarly journal that fit all of my criteria and that I found on the first try (something that NEVER happens), I learned an inkling more about why Antigone was willing to sacrifice her life to bury Polynices.

It's clear from the text that she felt it her duty as he was her brother. From the article, I learned that it wouldn't just have been a shock to her system, but to all the people. Creon was within his rights to not bury Polyneices, a traitor, in Thebes. However, Polyneices was left unburied inside the walls of the city. It was something unheard of. (p. 34-35)

This is useful to know for all of the characters and how they react to Creon's decree. Though it is easy to see who follows along with Creon and who doesn't, we are able to see more of just how much a character (Ismene, for example) ignores in order to follow the rules.

Work Cited

Patterson, Cynthia B. "The Place and Practice of Burial in Sophocles' Athens." Helios. 2006 supplement. Volume 36. p 34-35.

A Small Sliver of Greek Mythology

Continuing the obsession with names and the stories behind them...

My eye only caught thirteen references to greek myth when reading Antigone, though I'm sure there are WAY more. While Zeus and Hades tallied up the most mentions, I decided to research more on the stories that threatened to go whizzing over my head (luckily, I caught some).

I take a look at five of those: Dirces, Niobe, Danae, Ares, and Hephaestus. And though there are other stories that continuously link with these names, I do my best to keep the focus on them.

Dirces: A figure dragged to death behind a bull after mistreating Antiope. Apparently, Dirces got changed into a stream after death - the stream that now symbolizes the city Thebes.

Niobe: A figure who boasted about having fourteen children in comparison to Leto's: Apollo and Artemis. The two then killed all but one of her children, resulting in Niobe taking her own life. Zeus, after her death, turned her into a stone - which is said to have wept in the summer months.

Danae: After he received warning that her son would murder him, Danae's father locked her in a tower. She was visited by Zeus (who had feelings of attraction toward her) disguised as a shower of gold, impregnating her as it rained down. The son she bore, Perseus, would fulfill the prophecy and go on to kill her father.

Ares: The god of war and one of the twelve Olympian gods. A representative of conflict.



Hephaestus: God of fire and crafts. Being born lame, Hera threw him down from Olympus. He would exact revenge on her by ensnaring her on a throne. Noted for creating the armor of Achilles, Harmonia's necklace, and the woman, Pandora.


Greek myth makes up more than half the script, I'm guessing. It's definitely important to research your mythical figures before you perform any Greek play!

Works Cited

"Dirce" The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 29 October 2010

"Niobe" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 29 October 2010

"Danae" The Oxford Companion to World mythology. David Leeming. Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 29 October 2010

"Ares" The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 29 October 2010

"Hephaestus" The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature. Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 29 October 2010

What's in a Name?

Oedipus' name means 'swollen foot.' We get it.

How about the names of everyone else? Seeing as how Oedipus is long gone by the time this story roles around, I decided to choose Antigone, Creon, Ismene, Haemon, Eteocles, Polyneices, and Eurydice to do name-meaning research on. From Oxford Reference Online, I found the proper criteria - except for Ismene's meaning, found elsewhere.

Let us begin! To start off, Antigone's name is a combination of a couple things. The anti means "against" or "contrary." The second half translates to "born." This character is contrary-born. It makes sense. One usually isn't birthed by your mother and your father/brother. Why it fits with Antigone herself better than Ismene though has to do with personality. She's the rebel of the two sisters - the one who is against Polyneices disgrace by Creon. (Cha-ching!)

The name Creon means "lord" or "ruler." I think it's important that Sophocles didn't choose a name for him that meant rash or stubborn. While the character does, indeed, act that way, Sophocles chose to instill a name that would allow this particular king to have a reasonable side. An important characteristic in the plays that would follow....

Ismene's name, according to the site I visited, means "knowledgeable." From the descriptions I've come to take as standard over the years, Ismene is usually counted just as Antigone's opposite: unwilling to do what the headstrong Antigone can and will. I've provided a clip from the beginning of the play where only Antigone and Ismene are the players:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGT24uYPb2Y.

From this, and keeping the idea of the meaning "knowledgeable" in mind, how does the word lend to Ismene's character?

With Haemon, I expected to find a meaning that was more along the lines of Antigone's meaning - maybe something rash or brave or dramatic... instead there was an area, Thessaly, known as "Haemonia" back in the day. It was very close to Thebes. It is possible that Haemon could have been taken from this name.

The names Polyneices (the disgraced brother) and Eteocles are much more straightforward. Eteocles means "true glory" and Polyneices means "much strife." (It seems Creon would have been content with those definitions...)

Finally, there's the minor character, Eurydice, Creon's wife. Hers was very interesting, as the name stems from Greek mythology. She was the wife of Orpheus, the amazing lyre player. Upon her death, Orpheus was granted his wish of going to the underworld to retrieve her - on the condition that she travel behind him and he not to turn and look at her as they exit. Sadly, he does glance behind him and she is lost to him forever. As is the wife of Creon....

Thus concludes the characters' names I researched! Es muy interesante.

Works Cited

"Antigone" A Dictionary of First Names. Patrick Hanks, Kate Hardcastle, and Flavia Hodges. Oxford University Press, 2006. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010

Albert Schachter " Creon (1)" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010

Campbell, Mike. "Ismene." Behind the Name. 1996-2010.

Herbert Jennings Rose , B. C. Dietrich "Pelasgus" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010

Bruno Helly "Thessaly" The Oxford Classical Dictionary. Ed. Simon Hornblower and Anthony Spawforth. Oxford University Press 2009. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010

"Orpheus" The Oxford Dictionary of English (revised edition). Ed. Catherine Soanes and Angus Stevenson. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010

Masking the Man Behind the WO

Men performed these plays - it's only reasonable they needed to conceal their manly facial features. Woe! How would this be done?

By covering it up with womanly features of course! To do this, a mask was involved. I decided to take a look into what the mask would need to look like in order for the audience of ancient Greece to think, "Yes. THAT is a woman. I have no doubt at all, whatsoever."

The two main women in the play of Antigone include the character from which the title stems and her sister, Ismene. To quote a PRIMARY DOCUMENT (wink, wink), I found a small description of what kind of mask the actor would need to wear in order to portray these characters, taken from Pollux's description of tragic masks in Onomastikon:

"...the shaven virgin, instead of onkos wears a smooth-combed tate, is shaven almost quite round, and of a color inclinable to paleness...And the other shaven virgin is perfectly like her, but without the tate and curls, as if she had often been in misfortunes." (Ilius Pollux, Onomastikon)

To break it down, the definition of onkos is an exaggerated high peak over the forehead (Oxford Reference Online, Costume) . This is what Antigone and Ismene would NOT have had (assuming they be virgins). The word tate is a word we must make assumptions about, for it is not a word that can be directly translated. The rest can be dissected more easily.

The problem with this description as it relates to Antigone is a matter of time. Antigone was written during the 5th century. The description above is believed to be from the Hellenistic era. What changes may have occurred? Until next time!

Works Cited

Pollux, Ilius. Onomastikon. "Pollux on Scenes, Machines, and Masks." A Source Book in Theatrical History. Ed. A.M. Nagler. Dover Publications, Inc., 1952. 11.

"Costume" The Concise Oxford Companion to the Theatre. Ed. Phyllis Hartnoll and Peter Found. Oxford University Press, 1996. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Central Washington University. 28 October 2010