English 2201
Dramatic Irony Dramatic irony is used extensively in the Oedipus trilogy. This is when the audience knows details which the character does not know. The character speaks and his/her words have two meanings – a simple meaning and a more complicated one known to the audience and not the speaker.
The Riddle of the Sphinx The Sphinx was a creature which had the body of an animal and face of a woman. It terrorised the city and gave the people of Thebes a riddle, promising that it would not leave until it was solved. The riddle was: What walks on four legs in the morning, two in the afternoon and three in the evening? Oedipus had solved it by guessing that it meant a man. The people of Thebes were so grateful they made him the King.
Hubris Hubris is an act of extreme arrogance where a person directly compares himself to a god. The Greeks believed it was wrong to do this as it would make the god seek revenge on a human who was arrogant enough to think that he was on the same level as a god.
Greek Gods Mentioned Athene: goddess of wisdom and war Artemis: goddess of moon and hunting Apollo: god of hunting, healing and prophecy Ares: god of death