The chorus in Greek tragedies served several functions: commenting on and reacting to the plot, establishing ethical frameworks, adding spectacle through song and dance, and pacing the action. In Oedipus Rex specifically, the chorus represents the citizens of Thebes and gradually comes to understand and pity Oedipus's fate over the course of the play through their odes, guiding the audience's emotions and response. They dramatize the unfolding of events and their own enlightenment.

1. The Function
of Chorus
Muhammad Zameer Nawaz

2. Review: Greek Dramatic Structure
• A CLASSIC GREEK TRAGEDY CONSISTS OF:
– PROLOGUE
– PARADOS
– SCENE 1 (EPISODE 1)- action
– ODE 1 (STASIMON 1)- chorus
– SCENE 2 (EPISODE 2) - action
– ODE 2 (STASIMON 2) - chorus
– SCENE 3 (EPISODE 3) - action
– ODE 3 (STASIMON 3) - chorus
– SCENE 4 (EPISODE 4) - action
– ODE 4 (STASIMON 4) - chorus
– EXODUS

3. Chorus
• The best-known traditional element of Greek tragedy
• Chorus---Greek word meaning “dance.”
– 12 members- later 15
– represents a “marginal” group, such as old men, women, or slaves
– Had closer association with audience due to their social and political status
• the onstage performers of song and dance—
• functions as a single voice or even a single idea
• Interactions among actors & chorus divide the play into discrete sections.

4. Aristotle’s poetics
• “The chorus too should be regarded as one of actors;
it should be an integral part of the whole and take a
share in the action that which it has in Sophocles
rather than Euripides.”

5. Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Birth of Tragedy (1872)
– Apollonian----the spirit of measure, moderation, and reason;
– Dionysiac ----the spirit of intoxication, loss of self, excess,
• Nietzsche saw tragedy as a conflict between the Dionysiac chorus and the Apollonian
characters and dialogue, in which the Dionysiac was constantly trying to “break
through” the Apollonian
•

6. Choral Structure
Strophe
• Greek: turn, bend, twist----forms the first part of the ode in Ancient Greek tragedy
• chanted by a chorus as it moved from east to west across the scene.
Antistrophe
• Greek: a turning back: the portion of an ode sung by the chorus in its returning
movement from west to east, in response to the strophe,
• has the nature of a reply and balances the effect of the strophe
Epode:
• concuding part of an ode, which followed the strophe and the antistrophe

7. Functions of the chorus
o an agent: gives advice, asks, takes part
o establishes ethical framework, sets up standard by which action will be judged
o ideal spectator - reacts as playwright hopes audience would
o sets mood and heightens dramatic effects
o adds movement, spectacle, song, and dance
o rhythmical function - pauses / paces the action so that the audience can reflect
o makes sense of the suffering it has witnessed onstage, thus keeping order intact and chaos at bay.
o summarize the preceding action or speculate about its significance;
o By anticipating the horrifying acts, it can act as a companion to the audience:
o Prepare for the shock
o Generally stands (like the audience) outside the action, but (unlike the audience) makes comments and
often has a stake in the outcome.

8. Chorus in Different works
Bernard Zimmerman in Greek Tragedy: An Introduction explains the different ways the
tragic poets used the chorus:
• In Aeschylus [the chorus] serves as a vehicle of the dramatic action,
• In Sophocles becomes a distinct dramatis persona with a minor part in that action.
• The Euripidean chorus, by contrast, dismayed at what is happening around and in
part because of it, no longer participates in the action but only sympathizes with the
actors.

9. Oedipus Rex – Dramatic Structure
• Setting: palace at Thebes over the course of a day
• Prologue (1-150)
– Details problem and steps Oedipus has taken to correct it
• Parodos (151-215)
– Chorus’ lament, and prayer to various Gods
• First Episode/Scene (216-262)
– Oedipus and Tiresias’ argument over prophecy
• First Stasimon/Ode (263-512)
– Chorus sides with Oedipus
• Second Episode/Scene (513--862)
– Oedipus and Creon conflict
– Jocasta tells her story
• Second Stasimon/Ode (863-910)
– Choral response critical of Oedipus

10. Oedipus Rex – Dramatic Structure
• Third Episode/Scene (911-1085)
– Jocasta appeals to gods
– Corinthian messenger arrives with news
• Third Stasimon/Ode (1086-1109)
– Chorus appeals to Dionysus
• Fourth Episode/Scene (1110-1185)
– Shepherd is brought
– Oedipus realizes his identity
• Fourth Stasimon/Ode (1186-1222)
– Chorus expresses pity for Oedipus
• Exodos (1223-1530)
– Messenger reports fates of Jocasta and Oedipus
– Creon banishes Oedipus
– Choral Leader censures people

11. Chorus in Oedipus The King
• Appears five times in the play
• The first song of chorus sound immediately after Oedipus has declared his resolution
to trace the murderer of Laius.
– The chorus has already learnt the message from Delphi and consequently
expressed uncertainly about who the murderer might be.
– The choric song also intensifies the sorrowful condition prevailing in the city.
• The second song is introduced just after Oedipus is accused of being a murderer
himself. The chorus is not prepared to believe the allegation against Oedipus and
instead urges the horrible murdered to free from the city immediately.

12. • The third song is a meditation upon a serious defect of Oedipus's nature.
– In his dealing with Creon, Oedipus has exhibited extreme pride, arrogance and ill-
temper. The chorus indirectly speaks of the possible fall of tyrants through pride.
• The fourth ode comes up while Oedipus is occupied by the crisis of his identity. The
chorus speculators on some romantic affair between gods and nymphs on the
mountain side and assume that Oedipus must be such semi-divine product.
• The final choric song is an interpretation of Oedipus's fall and reflection upon short-
lived happiness of human beings. The choric songs thus intensify and analyze the
developing dramatic situation helping the audience to understand the drama more
fully.

13. Chorus in Oedipus The King
• Mediating
• A mediator between the imaginary drama and the real audience.
– mediate in terms of space
» When characters are inaudible because of the physical structure
– and in terms of understanding
» clarifies

14. Foreboding
• Anticipates and prepares for the next action
What is the sweet spoken word of god from the shrine of Pytho
rich in gold
that has come to glorious Thebes?
I am stretched on the rack of doubt, and terror and trembling hold
my heart, O Delian Healer, and I worship full of fears
for what doom you will bring to pass, new or renewed in the
revolving years (155)
• not always reliable, contrary to our expectations

15. Guiding
• Guides our emotions, response, and our understanding.
– Chorus: …. there is besides only an old faint story.
OEDIPUS: What is it? I look at every rumor.
CHORUS LEADER: It was said that he was killed by certain wayfarers.
• Tells us what to feel, say and how to look at and evaluate the action
– Chorus: You that live in my ancestral Thebes, behold this Oedipus—
him who knew the famous riddles and was a man most masterful;
not a citizen who did not look with envy on his lot—
see him now and see the breakers of misfortune swallow him!
Look upon that last day always. Count no mortal happy till
he has passed the final limit of his life secure from pain. (1525-1530)
• Guides Oedipus
– I know that what the lord Teiresias
sees is most often what the lord Apollo
sees. If you should inquire of this from him
you might find out most clearly. (285)

16. Evaluating
comment and evaluate the incidents and developments, characters
and themes
– On fall of Oedipus,
– on his greatness,
– on his weakness,
– the destiny and frailty of man
– Reinforce Sophocles' theme of fatalism towards the end

17. Example
We look at this man’s words and yours, my king,
and we find both have spoken them in anger.
We need no angry words but only thought
how we may best hit the god’s meaning for us. (line 405)
Insolence breeds the tyrant, insolence
if it is glutted with a surfeit, unseasonable, unprofitable
climbs to the rooftop and plunges
sheer down to the ruin that must be,
and there its feet are no service. (872—877)

18. Dramatizing.
• dramatizes the process of the drama and their own development
• In the beginning they only express some faith in the gods, but they disbelieve and
even disregard the prophecy of Teiresias by saying that
– "these evil words are lies".
• Then they begin to fear the law of the gods and express that fear, warning us also that
the disobedience of the divine laws brings about doom.
• In the third ode, they express a false wish that Oedipus were the son of the gods, but
they do emphasize that we can never see the future.
• At last, they fully change and purify themselves directing our process of change also.

19. • In the fourth ode, they finally realize the ultimate reality that fate rules us absolutely.
• They pity and fear the plight of Oedipus, and they help us have the catharsis.
• Their comment is thematic and it dramatizes the full development of their growth:
they are now enlightened. That embodies the dramatic effect intended for the
audience also.

20. reference
• Bloom reviews
• https://www.bachelorandmaster.com/globaldrama/role-of-chorus-in-oedipus-
rex.html#.W6ynrmhzSYg
• Markantonatos, Andreas, ed. Brill's companion to Sophocles. Brill, 2012.