Week 4: Antigone Lecture #1 Thoughts

     Until watching the lecture, I had never really viewed Antigone in its social context as a play. It just seemed like a book set in Ancient Greece to me. One of the first interesting things regarding this topic was how the play was set in Thebes, but performed in Athens. The lecture teaches that Thebes was actually an enemy of Athens, and its setting in the story was intentional, as to place the warnings that the play lays out on Thebes instead of the people of Athens so they don’t think it might happen to them. The lecture also introduces the Festival of Dionysus in the Sanctuary of Dionysus, noting its massive funding and wide reach all over Attica. This point was made to explain the incredibly communal nature of Antigone as a play, to get the people of Athens to think about what they’re doing without directly accusing them. That piece of knowledge allowed me to see Antigone with a new lens, and it was interesting to analyze the messages of the book now knowing they were made to educate. I would like to know more about how the Ancient Greeks responded to Antigone. I’m sure it was successful considering its reputation today, but it’s also possible that it is one of those stories that was disregarded at the time and grew in reputation due to contemporary subtexts (though I doubt it).

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