GLOSSARY - VOCABULARY LIST - HISTORICAL REFERENCE

ACROPOLIS

Elevated and walled section of Athens where the festival of Dionysus was held.

ANTISTROPHE

The second of three parts in the Greek choral ode. It is delivered as the Chorus circles back toward the orchestra, moving from left to right.

APOLLO

The god of prophecy, reward, and punishment. Apollo was the son of Zeus and the most respected of the Greek gods.

ARTEMIS

The twin sister of Apollo and the goddess of the heavens. Artemis was known to send plagues and sudden deaths-especially to women-without warning.

ATHENE

The goddess of power and wisdom. Athene was known as the protector of the Athenian state and was responsible for maintaining Greek law and order.

CITHAERON

A mountain range that separated the province of Boeotia, where Thebes was located, from the surrounding frontier of Attica. Cithaeron was thought to be sacred to Dionysus.

COLONUS

City near Athens where Oedipus dies.

DELPHI

The most sacred city in Greece, home of the holy oracles of Apollo.

DIONYSUS

God of wine and fertility; proprietor of the theater.

EXODUS

A choral recessional in Greek tragedy. It is the ritual departure song of the Chorus as it moves off the stage at the end of the play.

FURIES

The Eumenides, or "gracious ones," who punished people for disobedience.

HUBRIS

Excessive pride.

ORACLES

Priests or psychics believed to be in direct communication with the gods. The Greeks believed oracles were holy prophets, capable of predicting the future and also interpreting the past and the present. The most famous oracle was located at Delphi.

PARADOS

The ceremonial entrance of the Chorus; it is also the first song chanted by the Chorus as it enters the theater and moves to the orchestra.

PROLOGUE

Literally, "the speech before." In Greek tragedy the prologue is the first passage of spoken dialogue before the entrance of the Chorus.

SPHINX

A winged monster known in myth as "the strangler." The Sphinx had a lion's body and the head and breasts of a woman. Sitting on a rock outside the gates of Thebes, the Sphinx asked the same riddle of every passerby. Those who could not answer the riddle were strangled. When Oedipus solved the riddle of the Sphinx, she flung herself from the rock and was killed.

STASIMON

The choral song chanted or sung by the Chorus in its ritual movement around the stage. Stasima alternate with passages of spoken dialogue and are also found as choral odes between individual episodes of the tragedy.

STROPHE

The first of three parts of the Greek choral ode. It is delivered as the Chorus circles from right to left in the orchestra; it comes before the antistrophe.

THEBES

The chief city of the province of Boeotia, reportedly founded by the hero Cadmus. Legend had it that Thebes was created when Amphion played his magic lyre and caused stones and rocks to move into place to form a city. Oedipus is a descendant of Cadmus.

ZEUS

The husband of Hera, Zeus was the most powerful of all the Greek gods and was entrusted with ruling Mount Olympus.