Representation of women in Athenian tragedy Representation of women in Athenian tragedy The representation of women in Athenian tragedy was performed exclusively by men and it is likely (although the evidence is not conclusive) that it was performed solely for men as well. In a society that valued women’s silence, their predominance in the most public of Athenian art-forms constitutes a paradox. Only one of the surviving 32 plays has no female characters: Sophocles' "Philoctetes". Female tragic choruses also outnumber the male choruses by twenty-one to ten. Macaria, in the "Heracleidae" states that "for a woman, silence and self control are best." The philosopher Xenophon thought
Oedipus complex unconscious guilt. Freud believed that the Oedipal sentiment has been inherited through the millions of years it took for humans to evolve from apes. He based this on his analysis of his feelings attending the play, his anecdotal observations of neurotic or normal children, and on the fact that " Oedipus Rex" was effective on both ancient and modern audiences. (He also claimed that the play "Hamlet" "has its roots in the same soil as "Oedipus Rex"", and that the differences between the two plays are revealing. "In ["Oedipus Rex"] the child’s wishful fantasy that underlies it is brought into