This is for a native English, advanced 7th-grade level (American) Social Studies and Literature class. It is taken from Chapter 5 of World History: Patterns of Interaction. Maps used are Greek City States, Mycenean Greece, The Persian Wars, Peloponnesian War, and Alexander and his successors.
I. Cultures of the Mountains and Sea
(Quizlet, Videos)
II.Warring City-States
III. Democracy and Greece's Golden Age
(Quizlet, Videos: Khan Acadamy, Aristotle and Virtue, )
IV. Alexander's Empire
(Quizlet, Videos: Alexander's Empire )
V. The Spread of Hellenistic Culture
Quizlet,
Pythagorean Theorem videos: TedEd, Khan
Quizlet Review of Chapter 5
VI. Greek Roots
1. Top 30 Greek Roots
2.
50 Greek Roots
VIII. Literature: Antigone
(pdf) written in 442 or 441 BC (Teacher’s guide)
Intro: Where did the stories for the Greek tragedies come from? How and why did theatre begin in ancient Athens? Why was tragedy so important to the Greeks?
A. TRAGEDY
The source for the word "tragedy" is the Greek tragedois, or "goat song." Theatre historians don't know for certain, but they suspect that either the Greeks initially sacrificed a goat to Dionysus or gave it to the winning playwright as a prize for the best tragic trilogy. Tragedy itself originates from the dithyramb, a hymn or lyric ode sung to Dionysus, which started as an improvised story danced to and sung by a choral leader and answered with a refrain from a chorus of singer-dancers. Later, these hymns were written down. The dithyramb evolved into tragedy when Thespis stepped out of chorus and assumed character, thus becoming the very first actor. That's why today we often refer to an actor as a "thespian." Tragedy then changed from being a narrative poetic form, with strong lyrical elements, to an enacted or dramatic poetic form.
The most important festival, the City Dionysia, took place in the spring and offered a contest for the best trilogy of tragic plays. A wealthy citizen, or choregus, paid for training and costuming of the actors and the chorus and also supplied non-speaking supernumeraries. For three days, audiences came to the Theatre of Dionysus at daybreak to watch a trilogy of plays each day. These state-sponsored festivals intertwined theatre, religion and politics and provided a forum for the civic debate that was considered necessary for the health of Athens' body politic. The tragic and--later, comic--playwrights openly criticized the gods, the government, political leaders, and society's mores and fashions, etc. Also, one of the fundamental aspects of the ancient Greek ethos was the need to look at life from a cosmological worldview, (taken from Doyle Study Guide)
B. Background: Oedipus Rex (summary: Video 1, Video 2)
The tragedy Antigone opens with Oedipus's sons Eteocles and Polyneices dying in war after fighting to be king of Thebes. It is decided that King Eteocles will receive a proper burial, but that Polyneices won't because of his alliances.
Polyneices's sister Antigone refuses to accept this decision and buries her brother anyways. Antigone is discovered burying her brother and is sentenced to death by Creon. Haemon, her fiancé, attempts to persuade him to spare her. Eventually, Tiresias, a seer, convinces Creon that Polyneices should be buried, but the decision comes too late for Antigone, who hangs herself. Her death results in the suicide of Haemon and his mother.
The tragedy is an examination of the perils of war and uses vocabulary words that are commonly used in the English language today. (Quizlet Vocabulary)
C. What is Hubris? Hubris is a type of pride that is destructive. In Ancient Greek culture, this behavior defied the norms of cultures, defied the gods, and led characters on their destructive paths and eventual downfall.
D. Antigone: Video,
As the play opens, we see Antigone meeting secretly with her sister Ismene to discuss the decree Kreon has made regarding their brother Polyneices. Antigone is appalled that Polyneices's dead body is being condemned to decompose upon the earth as ''a tasty meal for vultures.'' Antigone defiantly plans to care for her bother's body despite the death sentence Kreon has placed on anyone who dares to do so. Ismene gives voice to the social norm of the time as she resists Antigone's plan, saying, ''we are women, born unfit to battle men.'' Ismene and most Greek women believed women to be innately inferior to men. Antigone exerts feminist strength when she dismisses her sister's protests with ''then weakness will be your plea.'' She goes on to assert, ''I am different. I love my brother and I'm going to bury him, now.''
E. Post Reading:
- Literary Devices (Video), Symbols, Irony (Situational, Dramatic and Verbal)
- Themes: Individual vs. Establishment, Fate vs. Self Determination, Reason vs. Emotion, Women vs. Men,
- Gender Roles
F. Assessment Test
- Does Antigone have the right to defy Creon by burying her brother, Polynices? Why do you think that she feels she has this right?
- Does Creon have the right to enforce the laws of society by punishing the person who gives Polynices a burial?
- What might be Creon's motivation for having denied Polynices a burial?
- Who is the protagonist in the play, Antigone or Creon? Why do you think that this character is the protagonist?
- Antigone is considered one of the greatest roles for an actress to play. Do you think, though, that she is more than a flesh-and-blood character, that she represents some sort of an idea or ideal? If so, what is that idea or ideal?
- Compare and contrast Antigone and Ismene.
Resources:
