The study of old age in the humanities has developed significantly in the last few decades, but there is still much scope for progress. This thesis, therefore, seeks to contribute to the growing academic discourse in this area by considering ageing as it is represented in ancient Greek theatre. At the same time, it seeks to take its place within Classical Studies by developing new readings of the plays. To develop a context for its analysis, this study begins with consideration of the contemporary demographics, social position, and stage portrayal of old age, and following this dedicates a chapter to each of the four surviving fifth century dramatists. In Aiskhylos’ Agamemnon, old age emerges as a crucial element in choral self-identity, and an important component of the authority that they display. Following this, the thesis considers the chorus of Euripides’ Herakles, in particular its use of metadramatic language, and the impact this has on plot-development and the representation of their age. The next chapter, on Oidipous Koloneus, shifts to consideration of the protagonist. The old age of Oidipous emerges as a powerful driver of his mental and spiritual power, and forms a striking background to the exploration of his character. The final chapter of the thesis examines how mechanisms of renewal that old men undergo in Aristophanes’ comedies (Knights, Akharnians, Peace, Wasps, Birds) differ across the dramas, and the impact this difference has on their interpretations. Such reassessments of ancient dramatic texts through the lens of old age can provide significant insight into the complexity of old men’s characterisations and of their involvement in the dramas. At the same time (from a gerontological perspective), this thesis’ analysis contributes to the developing discussion of the history of ageing, and highlights the differences between the ancient and modern worlds in this respect.

Η μεταπτυχιακή διατριβή αναφέρεται στις ποικίλες εκφάνσεις του θεϊκού νόμου στην Αντιγόνη και στον Οιδίποδα Τύραννο του Σοφοκλή. Στα συγκεκριμένα έργα η θεολογική διάσταση συνιστά μια αυτοτελή οπτική, είτε αυτή ενυλώνεται έμμεσα, μέσω των χρησμών και των οιωνών και της εκπλήρωσής τους είτε άμεσα μέσω των υπέρλογων δυνάμεων της άτης και της τύχης. / Diploma thesis refers to the variety of facets of divine law in Antigone and Oedipus Tyrannus of Sophocles. In these specific dramas, theological dimension can be an independent view either exists indirectly via oracles and omens either directly via irrational - supernatural powers of ate and destiny.

Habilitation - Universität, Zürich, 2004/05. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 380-412) and indexes.

Esta dissertação visa a leitura do texto dramático António Marinheiro (O Édipo de Alfama) de Bernardo Santareno, tendo como ponto de partida Édipo Rei de Sófocles. Os fundamentos teóricos para a interpretação desses textos são a obra freudiana e o ensino de Jacques Lacan. Santareno retira as suas personagens do interior das muralhas de Tebas para colocá-las em Alfama, bairro de Lisboa, na segunda metade do século XX. Nesse novo cenário, o fado, o vinho e a taberna compõem os costumes tipicamente portugueses. Escolhemos dois filmes, Édipo Rei de Pier Paolo Pasolini e Incêndios de Denis Villeneuve, para fazer uma leitura comparativa com as peças de Sófocles e de Bernardo Santareno. O início do filme de Pasolini ocorre em uma cidade pequena ao norte da Itália e depois se transfere para a Grécia antiga onde se passa a tragédia de Sófocles. Incêndios é uma adaptação da peça do libanês Wadji Mouawad e retrata a guerra civil do Líbano, a intolerância religiosa, estupro, incesto e genocídio / This dissertation concerns to the reading of the dramatic text Antonio Sailor (the Oedipus of Alfama), Bernardo Santareno, taking as a starting point Sophocles ' Oedipus the King. The theoretical foundations used to interpret these texts are the Freudian theory and the teachings of Jacques Lacan. Santareno takes its characters from inside the walls of Thebes, and places them in the second half of the 20th century, to live in a typical scenario where the fado, the wine and the tavern are the elements that describe a typical Portuguese mentality. We chose two films to do a comparative reading with Sophocles plays Oedipus the King and Antonio Sailor (the Oedipus of Alfama), Bernardo Santareno play: Oedipus Rex, by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Fires of Denis Villeneuve. The beginning of Pasolinis film takes place in a small town in Northern Italy and then in the ancient Greece where Sophocles tragedy takes place. Fires is an adaptation of a Lebanese play by Wadji Mouawad and it describes the Lebanon civil war, religious intolerance, rape, incest, and genocide

Esta dissertação visa a leitura do texto dramático António Marinheiro (O Édipo de Alfama) de Bernardo Santareno, tendo como ponto de partida Édipo Rei de Sófocles. Os fundamentos teóricos para a interpretação desses textos são a obra freudiana e o ensino de Jacques Lacan. Santareno retira as suas personagens do interior das muralhas de Tebas para colocá-las em Alfama, bairro de Lisboa, na segunda metade do século XX. Nesse novo cenário, o fado, o vinho e a taberna compõem os costumes tipicamente portugueses. Escolhemos dois filmes, Édipo Rei de Pier Paolo Pasolini e Incêndios de Denis Villeneuve, para fazer uma leitura comparativa com as peças de Sófocles e de Bernardo Santareno. O início do filme de Pasolini ocorre em uma cidade pequena ao norte da Itália e depois se transfere para a Grécia antiga onde se passa a tragédia de Sófocles. Incêndios é uma adaptação da peça do libanês Wadji Mouawad e retrata a guerra civil do Líbano, a intolerância religiosa, estupro, incesto e genocídio / This dissertation concerns to the reading of the dramatic text Antonio Sailor (the Oedipus of Alfama), Bernardo Santareno, taking as a starting point Sophocles ' Oedipus the King. The theoretical foundations used to interpret these texts are the Freudian theory and the teachings of Jacques Lacan. Santareno takes its characters from inside the walls of Thebes, and places them in the second half of the 20th century, to live in a typical scenario where the fado, the wine and the tavern are the elements that describe a typical Portuguese mentality. We chose two films to do a comparative reading with Sophocles plays Oedipus the King and Antonio Sailor (the Oedipus of Alfama), Bernardo Santareno play: Oedipus Rex, by Pier Paolo Pasolini and Fires of Denis Villeneuve. The beginning of Pasolinis film takes place in a small town in Northern Italy and then in the ancient Greece where Sophocles tragedy takes place. Fires is an adaptation of a Lebanese play by Wadji Mouawad and it describes the Lebanon civil war, religious intolerance, rape, incest, and genocide

The costume design for the University of Central Florida Conservatory Theatre‘s production of Seamus Heaney‘s The Burial at Thebes: A Version of Sophocles’ Antigone took an ancient Greek classic by Sophocles and infused it with influences from avant-garde theatre. This thesis documents the process of designing the costumes from academic, artistic, and technical aspects. Through this process, I explored how to communicate abstract ideas about humanity into actual costumes and how multiple cultural heritages can be intertwined in a united visual which pushes the audience to think more critically about the story. The recurring themes of duality are central to the final costume design: silk chiffon chitons draped over seemingly nude tattooed bodies, representing the ever-present competing allegiances to the will of the gods or to the law of man. Working backwards through the process, this thesis discusses the avant-garde aims of the production and how they were achieved in design. The historical and cultural research, and how it directly influenced the costume design, is discussed for both Seamus Heaney and The Burial at Thebes, as well as for Sophocles and Antigone. Moving through a thorough script analysis and text-to-text comparison of Antigone and The Burial at Thebes illuminates the character and situation traits that are expressed in the design. Script-to-script comparisons reveal the heightened political language Heaney has created to make a story readily accessible to modern audiences. This gives Creon more humanity, thus magnifying the conflict, which is analyzed using conflict theory

This thesis evaluates tragic characters from three representative tragedies, Macbeth, Antigone, and Death of a Salesman, in terms of Lawrence Kohlberg's six stage theory of moral development. A tragic character's moral judgment is described as being founded on universal values and principles which determine stage placement. The tragic situation is precipitated by conflict experienced by a character between his present stage form of evaluation and the more preferred, differentiated and integrated form of the next higher stage. Since Kohlberg's theory is cognitive-developmental with the moral principle of justice emerging autonomously at the stage six level, its application aids in supporting a view of tragedy based on a moral order having justice as its highest principle and on a continuity independent of historical and cultural influence.

Dans la réadaptation d’un mythe, l’évolution des mentalités, notamment en ce qui concerne les représentations familiales, donne lieu à de larges remaniements de l’intrigue proposée par la tradition antique. Le mythe d’Electre, peut-être parce qu’il propose un modèle déjà compliqué à assumer pour les Grecs anciens (un fils tuant sa mère), est l’objet d’une transmission difficile. La rareté des Electre au XVIIe siècle, puis les innovations auxquelles les dramaturges sont contraints pour les adapter dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle, attestent ces difficultés. Le personnage d’Electre, en tant que sœur, subit des modifications en profondeur, même si elle demeure toujours fidèle à l’idéal de réunion familiale : désormais, cette réunion inclut la mère, ce qui implique un regard très différent sur le matricide. Les réactions de la jeune fille sont parfois difficiles à comprendre ; on peut néanmoins les rattacher, d’un point de vue juridique et social, à des normes auxquelles elles obéissent, même lorsqu’elles semblent les transgresser. La période durant laquelle le mythe d’Electre est le plus dynamique en Europe correspond à un nouvel intérêt pour les relations familiales. L’on peut noter, dans la tragédie, une transition entre des pièces (au XVIIe siècle) où le rôle de la sœur demeure largement indifférencié, vers des pièces (au XIXe) où la sœur est un personnage compris pour la richesse de la relation qu’il entretient avec le frère. Les intrigues consacrées à Electre mettent en avant la relation du frère et de la sœur : cette spécificité contribue à expliquer pourquoi la fable connaît un tel essor, à l’époque même du drame bourgeois. / When adapting a myth to theatre, the plot from the original antique tradition is often largely modified to suit the audience’s mentality of the time, especially as far as the reprensentation of the family ties is concerned. Perhaps because it proposes a model which is complicated even for ancient Greeks to accept (that of a son killing his mother)The Electra myth has had a difficult transmission through the ages. The rare occurences of Electra in the XVIIth century, and the necessary innovations that playwriters had to invent to adapt the subject during the second half of the XVIIIth century confirm those difficulties. As a sister, Electra’s character is deeply modified. Even if she remains attached to an ideal of family unity, this reunion now includes the mother, which implies a totally different view of the matricide in the original text. Although the young woman’s reactions are sometimes difficult to understand, from a legal and social point of view they can be linked to the norms to which they obey, even when they seem to break them. The Electra myth is at its most dynamic time in Europe when a new interest in familial relationships is growing. In tragedy, there is a noticible transition between plays in the XVIIth century where the role of the sister is widely unspecialized, to plays in the XIXth century where the sister character is recognised for its rich relationship with the brother. Intrigues dedicated to Electra stress the relationship between the brother and sister: that specificity helps to explain why this antique fable is so popular at the very same time as the drame bourgeois.

O ρόλος της Ηλέκτρας σε σχέση με το θέμα της μητροκτονίας όπως αναπτύσσεται σκηνικά στις προσεγγίσεις του Δημήτρη Ροντήρη, του Καρόλου Κουν, του Ανδρέα Βουτσινά, του Μιχαήλ Μαρμάρινου και του Δημήτρη Μαυρίκιου. / Sophokles Helektra and the matricide at the directions of Ronthris, Koun, Boutsinas, Marmarinos, Mayrikios.

[pt] Tendo como princípio a inquietação causada pelo questionamento de Sócrates no Hípias Menor de Platão (363a-364c): Qual personagem, entre Aquiles e Odisseu, seria superior? A presente dissertação leva em consideração o direcionamento do diálogo acerca do que seja a mentira segundo a ótica platônica, e dedica-se especificamente a descobrir quem destes poderia ser compreendido como um mentiroso: entre Aquiles e Odisseu, quem estaria mentindo? Primeiramente a pesquisa deseja averiguar as definições que sejam provenientes do diálogo platônico, para em seguida retornar para a cena da epopeia homérica em que seja possível definir para qual herói caberia a alcunha de mentiroso. Abalizado pelos critérios extraídos do diálogo entre Sócrates e Hípias, a busca pela cena que atenda às definições necessárias para a mentira se direciona às tragédias, onde o Filoctetes de Sófocles se sobressai entre as demais remanescentes, por atender aos critérios e nos permitir examinar a mentira de modo a justapor definições e critérios à cena que melhor exemplifica o caso. Em suma, metodologicamente tenta-se conjecturar para além do que se vê no diálogo Hípias Menor, buscando exemplo mais oportuno do que aquele dado pelo sofista a Sócrates, contudo, sem deixar de atentar para os argumentos e definições expostas, deseja-se chegar mais próximo de uma compreensão menos aporética deste diálogo, lançando mão do exemplo como um recurso didático que pode ajudar concomitantemente na compreensão do que seja a mentira, ao mesmo passo que se observe quem seja um mentiroso. / [en] Taking as a principle the uneasiness caused by Socrates questioning in Plato s Hippias Minor (363a-364c): which character, between Achilles and Odysseus, would be superior? This dissertation takes into account the direction of the dialogue about the lie according to the Platonic perspective, and is dedicated specifically to discover who could be understood as a liar: between Achilles and Odysseus, who would be lying? First, the research wants to ascertain the definitions that come from the Platonic dialogue, and then return to the scene of the Homeric epic where is possible to define which hero would be named as the liar. By the assignments taken as criteria drawn from the dialogue between Socrates and Hippias, the search for the scene that meets the necessary definitions for the lie is targeted to the tragedies, where the Sophocle s Philoctetes excels among the plays remaining fully, to revel the criteria and allowing us to examine the lie in order to juxtapose definitions and criteria to the scene that best exemplifies the case. In sum, this dissertation tries methodologically to conjecture for beyond what is seen in Hippias Minor, seeking a more opportune example than that given by the Sophist to Socrates, yet without neglecting the arguments and definitions set forth, it is desired to get closer to a complete understanding of this dialogue, using example as a didactic resource that can help concomitantly in the understanding of what is the lie, at the same time as observing who could be a liar.