Social Context Of Antigone

• What do we mean by the social context?

Social context means how does this play come into context with how Greeks were socially back when this play was written.

• How did people live at the time Antigone was created?

The important events that happen around the 440s BC were:

The Greek city-states make peace with the Persian Empire through the Peace of Callias, named after the chief Greek ambassador to the Persian Court, an Athenian who is a brother-in-law of Cimon. 

Athens agrees to end its support for the Egyptians rebels still holding out in parts of the Nile Delta, while the Persians agree not to send ships of war into the Aegean Sea. 

Athens now effectively controls all the Greek city states in Ionia.

Pericles begins a great building plan including the re-fortification of Piraeus and its long walls extending to Athens.

Pericles proposes a "Congress Decree" allowing the use of 9,000 talents to finance the massive rebuilding program of Athenian temples. This leads to a meeting ("Congress") of all Greek states in order to consider the question of rebuilding the temples destroyed by the Persians. The Congress fails because of Sparta's opposition.

Pericles places the Athenian sculptor Phidias in charge of all the artistic aspects of his reconstruction program. Construction begins on the Temple of Hephaestus in Athens, while the Athenian Senate commissions Callicrates to construct a temple to Athena Nike on the Acropolis.

The Second Sacred War erupts between Athens and Sparta, when Sparta forcefully detaches Delphi from Phocis and renders it independent.

• Who was the target audience for the piece?

The general Greek public in 5th century BC in Athens.  More specifically, the intended audience was people who already knew the oedipus story, and who would experience the effects of 'dramatic irony' as they watched in eager anticipation for the unfortunate events to unfold. Most people who watched the plays, already knew the plot, and experienced a kind of catharsis.

• What were the needs, values and beliefs of the target audience?

The Athenian elite lived modestly and without great luxuries, compared to the elites of other ancient states. There were very few great fortunes and land ownership was not concentrated: 71-73% of the population owned 60-65% of the land. This was also a period of Athenian political hegemony, economic growth and cultural flourishing formerly known as the Golden Age of Athens with the later part The Age of Pericles. 

• How did this influence the themes and characters of Antigone?

The themes and characters of Antigone were very heavily based on the problems in real life Athens therefore these values were reflected in Antigone

• What have you found out about the social context of Antigone? Think about what was going on at the time that Sophocles wrote the play. 

The theatre reached its greatest height in the 5th century BCE. Pericles promoted and favored the theatre with a series of practical and economic measures.

Athens became the great city of greek theatre. Theatrical performances lasted eight consecutive hours and were performed as part of a competition in which a jury proclaimed a winner. While the decor of the provisional theatres was very simple, the permanent theatrical venues of ancient Athens eventually became more sumptuous and elaborate. No matter the performance venue, plays were performed by, at most, three actors, who wore masks to identify them with the characters they portrayed; they were accompanied by a chorus who sang and danced.

• Who went to the theatre?

 Plays were made by men and usually for men, and this platform was often used to reinforce the patriarchy.

• What was the relationship between theatre, politics and religion? 

Many ancient Greek plays had characters that were or represented Gods, therefore, religion was definitely intertwined with the plays and it was also quite a sensitive subject because the Gods were worshipped so highly.  Politics was also involved in theatre as Kings and democracy and authority always always played a massive part in greek theatre as the people of Athens lived in a very democratic society.