Greek Theatre

8th century B.C. -- the first drama in recorded history. By 5th century B.C. The "polis" or citystate was the governing unit.

Pericles (495 - 429 BC)

Golden Age 'Periclean Age.

 By 432 BC, Athens had become the most populous city-state of the Hellenic world.

In Athens and Attica, there were at least 150,000 Athenians, around 50,000 foreigners, and more than 100,000 slaves.

 Pericles constructed many monuments and edifices (including the Temple of Athena Nike, the Propylaea, and the Parthenon).

Origin of Tragedy

Pisistratus institutes City Dionysia tragic contest in 534 BCE Thespis wins first prize awarded to a poet
He is also known as the first actor (HYPOKRITES)

Tragos as the root word means goat

 Dionysos, who was also called Bacchus was, was a nature god of fruitfulness and flora. He was especially known as the god of wine and ecstasy. The Bacchants chose to call Dionysos by one of his many other titles, either that of Bromios (Thunderer), Taukeros (BullHorned), or Tauroprosopos (Bullfaced).

Dionysos

Dionysos was the son of Zeus and Semele (a daughter of Cadmus, King of Thebes).

Zeus, however, saved his son by sewing him up in his thigh, where him kept him until maturity. Dionysos was therefore born twice.

 Dionysos represented the sap, fluid, and lifeblood element of nature.

As a result, sumptuous festal orgia (rites) were widely instituted in his honor.

These Dionysia (or Bacchanalia) quickly won converts amongst the women in the postMycenaean world.

 In a legend, Pentheus, king of Thebes, was torn to pieces by frenzied Bacchants while he attempted to spy on their activities.

Dithyramb
Tragedy may have evolved from this form Dithyramb was a hymn sung and danced to Dionysus Lead singer could improvise sung dialogue with chorus Around 600, Arion made the dithyramb literate Eventually other heroes than Dionysus are subject

NOTE Thespis added the HYPOKRITES (actor) but the CORYPHAIOS (chorus leader) remained

Who is this one? What is His name? A Wanderer from exotic lands? Of iron heart, invincible, who checks the strength of every foe. Bright flames leap from His shining eyes like Lemnos-fire. With hunting boots and dearskin clad, His staff held high, He comes to us. He marches through our noble town. A God has come, who forges laws to rid the land of monstrous things. Every outrage will be answered! The flow of Time (adapted from a dithyramb by Bacchylides, Campbell 18 [Perseus], ll.31-45, 54-60) ends everything.

The City Dionysia

The City Dionysia was held in late March (between the first quarter and the full-moon of the month). It concluded the Dionysian part of the year (Winter) and honored Dionysos Eleuthereus (Dionysos the Free, in the form of an incarnation of the god that had been brought from Eleutherai, a country village, and was kept in the temple of Dionysos in the theatre district).

The City Dionysia combined performances of both Tragedy and Comedy.

 The Arkhn supervised the organization and the initial procession of the festival as well as its dramatic contests.

Before the performance of plays proper, a Proagn (or preliminary contest) was held.
This was a prelude to the dramatic contests (or Agnes).

The Festival consisted of the following stages:

1: Eisagg - The Bringing In

2: Pomp Procession
3: Cmos Revel
Agnes Contests Ecclsia - Assembly

Agnes Contests
3 days, three "teams" competed performing either new plays or reviving the best ones from earlier years. The Arkhn chose the poets and assigned a Khorgos and Chorus to each of them. Three Tragedies and a Satyr Play were performed (in the morning), followed by a Comedy (in the afternoon).

Parts of a Greek Theatre

Parados: entrance ramps that separated orchestra from skene. orchestra: the dancing area; chorus occupies this space skn: building at back of acting area Paraskene: flanking wings added to the skene in late 5th century.

Thymele: Alter in the centre of the orchestra.

Theatron: Seeing place; the seats for the audience.

Stage Machinery
ekkyklma: a cart inside the skn which could be suddenly rolled out to display the result of an event inside; e.g. the murder of Agamemnon

Stage Machinery
Periaktoi: Triangular column of scenery, revolved to show change of locale.

Stage Machinery
mchan: a crane used to lift actors above the acting area; usually actors are playing gods here, hence the phrase deus ex machina.

Deus ex machina: God from the machine the god machine that was commonly used as a quick ending.

Tragedy in the 5th Century

Structure of Tragedy formalized: 1: Prologue- at start of play is account of prior events. 2: Parados-entrance song of chorus.

3: Episodes- from 3-6 histrionic scenes.

4: Stasimon- a choral interlude between episodes. 5: Exodus- final exit of all characters and chorus.

Function of Chorus
ideal spectator: clarify experiences, feelings; express conventional attitude. Advance story Provide psychological/emotional background. Introduce/question new characters. Point out significance. Establish facts. Cover passage of time. Separate episodes.

Numerous formal acting conventions

All actors are men All actors wore masks No violence shown on stage- messenger speech relates No more than 3 actors- but may have had more than 3 characters Continuous action- usually unity of time and place observed.

Aristotles POETICS

Tragedy is the imitation (mimesis) of a good action that elicits and releases pity and fear (catharsis).

Aristotles 6 elements of tragedy

1: Plot
Action essential to tragedy Beginning, middle and end with central theme related to change in protagonists fortunes Ending is chief thing emphasis on causation/probability/necessity Incidents beyond control of hero Illustrates matters of universal, not personal significance Reversal (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorsis)

 Simple plot
Unified plot where reversal comes about without peripetia or recognition.

Complex plot
Unified plot where reversal comes about with peripetia, recognition or both.

Recognition
A shift from ignorance to awareness.
4 tactics
Congenital or Acquired Triggered memory Revelation Reasoning

Peripetia
A shift of what is being undertaken to the opposite in the way previously stated.
The effect of my action turns out to be the opposite of what I expected.

Pathos
A destructive or painful act, such as deaths on stage, paroxysms of pain, woundings . . .

 2: Character (tragic hero)

Psychological motivation not important Must arouse catharsis Ideal protagonist
Highly renown and prosperous Not pre-eminently virtuous and just (e.g. hubris) Consistent and true to life Misfortune brought on by error of judgment/frailty

Hamartia
Heros frailty, not personal quality called tragic flaw: hero takes steps that initiates events of his downfall Downfall result of role of destiny/chance

 Characters must behave with propriety

Kings act like kings, slaves like slaves (decorum) Actions should be consistent

 3: Thought
Theme- all that is received by spectators

4: Diction
Excellent acoustics from skene, orchestra surface, tiers Masks, chanting Delivery

 5: Spectacle
Devices to imitate lightning/thunder Painted scenery Eccyclema Mecane

6: Song
Not just actors, but also competent singers

 The Plot should consist of a beginning a middle and an end. The play should adhere to the unity of time, place and action. All elements must contribute to the structure and expression of the play.

Aeschylus

Aeschylus was born in 525/524 BC and died in 456/455 BC.

the Oresteia
Only one of the trilogies that has survived complete. Agamemnon, in which Agamemnon returns from war to be murdered by this wife Clytemnestra. Choephoroi (The Libation Bearers) in which Orestes vows to avenge his fathers murder. Eumenides (The Furies) in which the fleeing Orestes is pursues by furies, and finally judged in Athens.

 Aeschylus other surviving tragedies include:

Hepta epi Theobas (Seven Against Thebes), Hiketides (Suppliants), Prometheus desmotes (Prometheus Bound).

He is argued to have lifted the art of Tragedy from its origins in dithyrambic song to fully developed drama. He added the second actor to dramatic performance, made use of the concomitant possibilities for extended dialogue, and thus enabled tragic drama to assume its characteristic function: the presentation of action. He was also the first known writer to express in dramatic form that vision of life that is recognized as tragic.

Sophocles
Sophocles was born at Colonus, near Athens in Greece in 496 BCE. He died in 406 BCE in Athens. Amongst his surviving works, the best known are probably a trilogy comprising: Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone. The exact date of Sophocles first foray into the Agnes of the City Dionysia is not known, although we do know that Sophocles obtained his first victory in 468 BCE (on which occasion he defeated Aeschylus).

 He composed around 123 plays for the festival of Dionysos in Athens and won perhaps as many as 24 victories. Astonishingly, he never came lower than second in any competition in which he took part. As well as being a dramatist, he was also a prominent figure in the political life of Athens. In 440 he was voted one of only ten strategi (a type of military and naval commander). The officer senior to him was the mighty Pericles. Ancient sources represent Sophocles as a congenial, affable and much-cherished public figure; he involved himself vigorously in society and is reported to have possessed dazzling creative faculties. Sophocles outlived Euripides by just a few months and died just before the end of the Peloponnesian War.

Only seven of his tragedies are fully extant

Ajax, Antigone, Electra, Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, Philocletes The Trachinian Women.

All of his surviving plays date from his most productive and developed phase.

Dramatic innovations
Created a manner of "scene painting" (or pictorial stage property). increased the numbers of actor/dancers in the chorus, and added of a third actor on stage. noted for lithe language and outstanding intellectual artistry plays focus on the interplay between imperfect personal judgment, or a character flaw, and the discriminations of cruel fate, culminating, eventually and inevitably, with profound human loss and disaster. The stylistic precision and vibrant characterization of Sophocles plays render them, in many ways, quintessential ancient Greek drama.

Euripides
Euripides was born in Athens in 484 BC. He died in 406 BC in Macedonia. He was the last of 5th century BC Athens three great dramatists taking up the mantle from Aeschylus and Sophocles. He was said to be a grave and aloof man. It was his habit to sit in a cave, looking out to sea. Euripides took almost no part at all in the public affairs of Athens, although he was fervently fascinated by ideas. He interacted with intellectuals, amongst them Anaxagoras and other philosophers of his time. His exposure to (and understanding of) new ideas brought him agitation instead of assurance.

 Euripides first took part in the Agnes (competitions) of the dramatic festival of Dionysos Eleuthereus in 455 BC. His first victory was attained in 441. He contended on 22 times in all (submitting three tragedies and a satyr play at each). He departed Athens in 408 BC in order to benefit from the increased patronage of the arts at the court of King Archelaus of Macedonia. Euripides won few victories at the City Dionysia in Athens (only four whilst he was alive and one posthumously). This has sometimes been taken to represent a lack of approbation from amongst his peers.

 Nineteen of his plays survive the most respected of which being: Medea (431 BC), Hippolytus (428), Electra (418), The Trojan Women (415), Iphigenia at Aulis (406) and The Bacchae (406). In his plays, Euripides is argued to have taken the heroic figures of ancient legend and transformed them into ordinary people who had contemporary attitudes. His highly intellectualized dramas are rich in ethical and social commentary and generally make up in psychological realism what they lack in the idealizing grandeur of a writer such as Aeschylus.

Greek Comedy

not admitted to Dionysus festival till 487-486 B.C. - late unknown origins or influences perhaps from improvisations of leaders of phallic songs or from mime - satirical treatment of domestic situations or burlesqued myths 6 comic dramatists besides Aristophanes (his is the only extant work)

Aristophanes (C.456 -C.380 BC)

Only 11 plays extant: The Acharnians (425 B.C) The Birds (414 B.C.) The Clouds (419 B.C) The Ecclesiazusae (390 B.C.) The Frogs (405 B.C.) The Knights (424 B.C.) Peace (421 B.C.) Plutus (380 B.C.) The Thesmophoriazusae (411 B.C.) The Wasps (422 B.C.) Lysistrata

Structure of the Comedy:

Part One: prolog - chorus gives debate or "agon" over merits of the ides parabasis - a choral ode addressing the audience, in which a social or political problem in discussed Part Two: scenes show the result of the happy idea final scene: (komos) - all reconcile and exit to feast or revelry In 404 B.C., Athens was defeated in the Peloponnesian War; social and political satire declines.

"Old Comedy"
Commentary on contemporary society, politics, literature, and Peloponnesian War. Based on a "happy idea" - a private peace with a warring power or a sex strike to stop war exaggerated, farcical, sensual pleasures

The Satyr Play

The Satyr Play, of unknown origin, had to be mastered by tragedians

o Chorus-half-man, half-beast satyrs, companions of Dionysus o sometimes the story is connected with the tragedy it accompanies, but not usually o burlesque of mythology ridiculing gods or heroes o structure similar to tragedy o everyday and colloquial language o shorter afterpieces to tragedies

 There will be 2-3 actors, a reed-flute player, and a chorus of 12, who will be dressed as tipsy Silenoi (horsemen), Satyrs (goat-men) or various blends of the two. Thus they wear short pants to which a large Phallus and a horse's tail are attached; they also wear soft dancing shoes that resemble hooves. The chorus leader will play Silenos, the traditional drunken attendant of Dionysus; he will wear a shaggy costume resembling an animal skin and over his shoulder a panther hide (a traditional attribute of Dionysos). Wine and dance are proverbially connected, for one must dance on the grapes to make wine, and the wine in turn makes you dance! Satyr Plays dances are often bawdy. In addition to whirling, leaping, kicking and slapping dances, there is The Itch and the Konisalos, a spirited leap intended to expose the genitals. Other dances involve sexually suggestive shaking or trembling, such as we have in our fertility dances. We may also expect Theft and Gobbling Dances representing the stealing and eating of food, often with consequent beatings.

 The Cyclops Euripides - from The Odyssey - where Odysseus meets the Cyclops and a captive band of satyrs
The Trackers Sophocles - much is extant - about Apollo's attempt to find a herd of cattle stolen by Hermes, god of thieves.