Download Ancient Greek Theatre The Greek theatre history began with festiv

Ancient Greek Theatre
The Greek theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods. A god,
Dionysus, was honored with a festival called by "City Dionysia". In Athens, during
this festival, men used to perform songs to welcome Dionysus. Plays were only
presented at City Dionysia festival.
Athens was the main center for these theatrical traditions. Athenians spread these
festivals to its numerous allies in order to promote a common identity.
At the early Greek festivals, the actors, directors, and dramatists were all the same
person. After some time, only three actors were allowed to perform in each play.
Later few non-speaking roles were allowed to perform on-stage. Due to limited
number of actors allowed on-stage, the chorus evolved into a very active part of
Greek theatre. Music was often played during the chorus' delivery of its lines.
Panoramic view of the Greek theatre at Epidaurus.
Tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays were the theatrical forms.
Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres. Satyr plays
dealt with the mythological subject in comic manner. Aristotle's Poetics sets out a
thesis about the perfect structure for tragedy.
Tragedy plays
Thespis is considered to be the first Greek "actor" and originator of tragedy (which
means "goat song", perhaps referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before
performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.) However, his importance is
disputed, and Thespis is sometimes listed as late as sixteenth in the chronological
order of Greek tragedians.
Aristotle's Poetics contain the earliest known theory about the origins of Greek
theatre. He says that tragedy evolved from dithyrambs, songs sung in praise of
Dionysus at the Dionysia each year. The dithyrambs may have begun as frenzied
improvisations but in the 600s BC, the poet Arion is credited with developing the
dithyramb into a formalized narrative sung by a chorus.
Three well-known Greek tragedy playwrights of the fifth century are Sophocles,
Euripides and Aeschylus.
Comedy plays
Comedy was also an important part of ancient Greek theatre. Comedy plays were
derived from imitation; there are no traces of its origin. Aristophanes wrote most of
the comedy plays. Out of these 11 plays survived - Lysistrata, a humorous tale
about a strong woman who leads a female coalition to end war in Greece.
Greek Theatre
Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters were large, open-air
structures constructed on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main
elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience.
Orchestra: A large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre,
where the play, dance, religious rites, acting used to take place.
Skene: A large rectangular building situated behind the orchestra, used as a
backstage. Actors could change their costumes and masks. Earlier the skene was a
tent or hut, later it became a permanent stone structure. These structures were
sometimes painted to serve as backdrops.
Rising from the circle of the orchestra was the audience. The theatres were
originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people on
stage, as well as the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen
thousand.
Acting
The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not
professionals (all male).
Ancient Greek actors had to gesture grandly so that the entire audience could see
and hear the story. However most Greek theatres were cleverly constructed to
transmit even the smallest sound to any seat.
Costumes and Masks
The actors were so far away from the audience that without the aid of exaggerated
costumes and masks.
The masks were made of linen or cork, so none have survived. Tragic masks
carried mournful or pained expressions, while comic masks were smiling or leering.
The shape of the mask amplified the actor's voice, making his words easier for the
audience to hear.
Playwrights
Aeschylus
Aristophanes
Euripides
Sophocles
Aeschylus
Bust of Aeschylus from the Capitoline Museums, Rome
Aeschylus was born in the city of Eleusis, near Athens, in 525 BC and died in 456
BC. He was a Greek dramatist, the earliest of the city's great tragic poets. As the
predecessor of Sophocles and Euripides, he is the founder of Greek tragedy.
He fought successfully against the Persians at Marathon in 490 BC, at Salamis in
480 BC, and possibly at Plataea in the following year. He made at least two trips,
perhaps three, to Sicily, where on his final visit he died at Gela. A monument was
later erected there in his memory.
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It was a major step for drama when Aeschylus introduced the second actor. He also
attempted to involve the chorus directly in the action of the play. Aeschylus is said
to have written about 90 plays. His tragedies, first performed about 500 BC, were
presented as trilogies, or groups of three, usually bound together by a common
theme, and each trilogy was followed by a satyr drama (low comedy involving a
mythological hero, with a chorus of satyrs). The titles of 79 of his plays are known,
but only 7 have survived.
Sophocles
A marble relief of a poet, perhaps Sophocles.
Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus Hippius (now part of Athens), he was
to become one of the great playwrights of the golden age. The son of a wealthy
merchant, he would enjoy all the comforts of a thriving Greek empire.
Sophocles was provided with the best traditional aristocratic education. He studied
all of the arts. By the age of sixteen, he was already known for his beauty and
grace and was chosen to lead a choir of boys at a celebration of the victory of
Salamis in 480 BC. In 468 BC, at the age of 28, he defeated Aeschylus, whose preeminence as a tragic poet had long been undisputed, in a dramatic competition.
In 441 BC he was in turn defeated in one of the annual Athenian dramatic
competitions by Euripides. From 468 BC, however, Sophocles won first prize about
20 times and many second prizes. His life, which ended in 406 BC at about the age
of 90, coincided with the period of Athenian greatness. He was not politically active
or militarily inclined, but the Athenians twice elected him to high military office.
Sophocles wrote more than 100 plays of which seven complete tragedies and
fragments of 80 or 90 others are preserved. He was the first to add a third actor. He
also abolished the trilogic form. Sophocles chose to make each tragedy a complete
entity in itself--as a result, he had to pack all of his action into the shorter form, and
this clearly offered greater dramatic possibilities.
Sophocles also effected a transformation in the spirit and significance of a tragedy;
thereafter, although religion and morality were still major dramatic themes, the
plights, decisions and fates of individuals became the chief interest of Greek
tragedy.
Sophocles's Characters
Antigone
Electra
Oedipus
Sophocles' Plays:
Antigone written 442 B.C.E
Electra written 410 B.C.E
Oedipus at Colonus trans
Oedipus the King trans.
Philoctetes written 409 B.C.E trans.
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The Trachiniae written 430 B.C.E
Euripides
Euripides, Vatican Museum.
Euripides was born in 480 BC and died in 406 BC. Euripides was the youngest of
the three principal fifth-century tragic poets. His work, which was quite popular in
his own time, exerted great influence on Roman drama. In more recent times he
has influenced English and German drama, and most conspicuously such French
dramatists as Pierre Corneille and Jean-Baptiste Racine.
His plays began to be performed in the Attic drama festivals in 454 BC, but it was
not until 442 BC that he won first prize. This distinction, despite his prolific talent,
fell to him again only four times. Aside from his writings, his chief interests were
philosophy and science.
Euripides represented the new moral, social, and political movements that were
taking place in Athens towards the end of the 5th century BC. It was a period of
enormous intellectual discovery, in which "wisdom" ranked as the highest earthly
accomplishment. Anaxagoras had just proven that air was an element, and that
the sun was not a divinity but matter. New truths were being established in all
departments of knowledge, and Euripides, reacting to them, brought a new kind of
consciousness to the writing of tragedy. His interest lay in the thought and
experience of the ordinary individual rather than in the experiences of legendary
figures of the heroic past.
Aristophanes
Let each man exercise the art he knows1.
Aristophanes was a Greek comic writer, who was the son of Philippus. It is not
known where he was born or in what year. However we do know that he lived in the
deme of Kudathenaion which would suggest that he came from a wealthy family1.
Most of his plays were political satires highlighting the troubles in Athens during that
period. Many of them were performed at festivals, watched and voted for by the
people, unfortunately out of the 40 plays that he wrote only 11 survive today.
His first surviving work is The Acharnians (425 BC). Athens at this time was very
demoralized because of the Peloponnesian War and the death of Pericles six years
earlier. The play highlights the problems the people of Attica were having with
constant raids on their land and continual enemy invasions.
His second surviving play is The Knights (424 BC). In the play, Aristophanes pokes
fun at the Athenian leader of the time Cleon, for his tyrannical leadership and also
for his alcoholic tendencies. Because of the sharp attack on Cleon, Aristophanes
had to play the part of Cleon himself. The play gained Aristophanes first place at
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the festival.
Aristophanes in The Clouds (423 BC) turns his attention away from political satire
and instead covers the cultural figure of Socrates. The Wasps (422 BC) ridiculed
the courts of justice. The Peace (421 BC) focuses on the Peace of Nicias which
saw the end of hostilities in the Peloponnesian War and discusses the peace
between Athens and Sparta.
Aristophanes next play was not for another seven years and in that time a law had
been passed attempting to keep in check political satire. Aristophanes next
surviving play was The Birds (414 BC) and poked fun at Athens for its fondness of
litigation. In 411 BC Aristophanes wrote Lysistrata which is another anti-war play
and shows the plight of women trying to bring about peace in an attempt to stop
losing their sons to the war.
Aristophanes did not write another play for 19 years and his later work was far less
critical of the political issues of the time. Presumably this was because of the laws
that had been put in place to stop writers criticizing the regimes that ruled Athens.
Aristophanes final play was Plutus (388 BC), which he wrote some three years
before his death.
ORIGIN OF COMEDY
This document was originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization,
vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 26-28.
The evolution of comedy is much simpler than that of its sister art, though
as to its origin and earlier development there is little exact information. All
that Aristotle can tell us is that it first took shape in Megaris and Sicyon,
whose people were noted for their coarse humor and sense of the
ludicrous, while Susarion, the earliest comic poet, was a native of a
Megarian town. Add to this that it arose from the Phallic processions of
the Greeks, as did tragedy from the dithyramb, and we have about all that
is known as to the inception of the lighter branch of the drama.
At country festivals held in celebration of the vintage it was the custom for
people to pass from village to village, some in carts, uttering the vile jests
and abuse unjustly attributed to the tragic choruses; others on foot, bearing
aloft the Phallic emblem and singing the praises of Phales, the comrade of
Bacchus. In cities it was also the custom, after an evening banquet, for
young men to roam around the streets with torches in their hands, headed
by a lyre or flute-player. Such a band of revellers was called a comus, and
a member of the band a comoedus or comus-singer, the song itself being
termed a comoedia, or comedy, just as a song of satyrs was named a
tragoedia, or tragedy.
The Phallic processions were continued as late as the days of Aristotle, and
we learn from one of the orations of Demosthenes that the riotous youths
who infested the streets of Athens delighted in their comic buffooneries.
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Pasquinades of the coarsest kind were part of the exhibitions, and hence,
probably, it was that comedy found a home at Athens during the time of
Pericles, for it furnished the demagogues with a safe and convenient
means of attacking their political opponents. When formally established as
a branch of the drama it had its chorus, though less numerous and costly
than the dithyrambic choir, and the actors, at first without masks, disguised
their features by smearing them with the lees of wine.
By Plato comedy is defined as the generic name for all exhibitions which
have a tendency to excite laughter. Though its development was mainly
due to the political and social conditions of Athens, it finally held up the
mirror to all that was characteristic of Athenian life. By a consensus of
authorities comedy has been arranged in three divisions, or rather should
they be termed variations in form--the old, the middle and the new--and
these it will here be convenient to follow.
OLD COMEDY
This document was originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization,
vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 28-29.
The old comedy, dating from the establishment of democracy by Pericles,
about 450 B.C., arose, as we have seen, from the coarse jests of Dionysian
revellers, to which was given a political application. In outward form these
comedies were the most extravagant of burlesque, in essence they were the
most virulent of abuse and personal vilification. In its license of word and
gesture, on its audacious directness of invective, no restriction was placed
by the dramatist, the audience or the authorities, this license running to an
excess that to modern play-goers would seem incredible. The satire and
abuse were directed against some object of popular dislike, to whom were
not only applied such epithets as coward, fool and knave, but he was
represented as saying and doing everything that was contemptible, as
suffering everything that was ludicrous and degrading. But this alone
would not have won for comedy such recognition as it recognition as it
received from the refined and cultured community of the age of Pericles.
The comic dramatist who would gain a hearing in Athens must borrow
from tragedy all its most attractive features, its choral dances, its masked
actors, its metres, its scenery and stage mechanism, and above all the
chastened elegance of the Attic language--for this the audience required
from the dramatist, as from the lyric poet and the orator. Thus comedy
became a recognized branch of the drama, often presenting a brilliant
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sparkle in dialogue and a poetic beauty in the choral parts not unworthy of
the best efforts of the tragic muse. Thus, also, it became a powerful engine
in the hands of a skillful and unscrupulous politician.
It was upon this stock that the mighty genius of Aristophanes grafted the
Pantagruelism, which, ever since it was reproduced by Rabelais, has had
among European writers, as in Cervantes, Swift, Voltaire and others, some
adequate representation. Though the word Pantagruelism is applied by
Rabelais to the characters sustained by court fools, he made a free use both
of the spirit and mechanical appliances of old Greek comedy, adopting the
disguise of buffoonery to attack some prevailing form of cant and
hypocrisy. And this is precisely what Aristophanes did, the term invented
by the great French master accurately describing the chief characteristics
of his prototype.
NEW COMEDY
This document was originally published in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization,
vol. 1. ed. Alfred Bates. London: Historical Publishing Company, 1906. pp. 30-31.
The new comedy lasted throughout the reign of the Macedonian rulers,
ending about 260 B.C. It may be studied to better advantage in the Latin
adaptations by Plautus and Terence than in the few Greek fragments that
have come down to us [1], nor did it differ essentially from the comic
drama of Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, Congreve and Wycherley. For the
first time love became the principal element in the drama, but it also was
seldom an honest love. The heavy father also makes his appearance, as
still we know him, and is often led into the vices and follies which he has
reproved in his son. With these exceptions the characters were very much
as in the middle comedy, but with the addition of the mercenary soldier
newly returned from the wars, with noisy tongue, full purse and empty
head. There can be little doubt that the new comedy represented faithfully
the most salient features of Athenian society; but it made no attempt to
improve it, presenting only in attractive colors the lax morality of the age.
1 Since the publication of this article, the complete text of Dyskolos, a play by
Menander, the leading writer of New Comedy, has been rediscovered. It is the only
example of New Comedy to have survived in its entirety. A few long fragments by
Menander have survived as well from such plays as The Arbitration, The Girl from
Samos, The Shorn Girl, and The Hero.
ORIGIN OF THE SATYRIC DRAMA
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The following essay was originally published in Manual of Greek Literature from the Earliest Authentic Periods to
the Close of the Byzantine Era. Charles Anthon. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1853.
The first writer of satyric dramas was Pratinus, of Phlius, a town not far from Sicyon.
For some time previous to this poet, and probably as early as Thespis, tragedy had
been gradually departing more and more from its old characteristics, and inclining to
heroic fables, to which the chorus of satyrs was not a fit accompaniment. But the fun
and merriment caused by them were too good to be lost, or displaced by the severe
dignity of the Aeschylean drama. Accordingly, the satyric drama, distinct from the
recent and dramatic tragedy, but suggested by the sportive element of the old
dithyramb, was founded by Pratinus, who, however, appears to have been surpassed
in his own invention by Choerilus.
It was always written by tragedians, and generally three tragedies and one satyric piece
were represented together, which, in some instances at least, formed a connected
whole, called a tetralogy. The satyric piece was acted last, so that the minds of the
spectators were agreeably relieved by a merry after-piece, at the close of an earnest
and engrossing tragedy. The distinguishing feature of this drama was the chorus of
satyrs, in appropriate dresses and masks, and its subjects seem to have been taken
from the same class of the adventures of Bacchus and of the heroes as those of
tragedy; but, of course, they were so treated and selected, that the presence of rustic
satyrs would seem appropriate. In their jokes, and drollery, and naïveté, , consisted the
merriment of the piece; for the kings and heroes who were introduced into their
company were not of necessity thereby divested of their epic and legendary character,
though they were obliged to conform to their situation, and suffer some diminution of
dignity from their position. Hence the satyric drama is not unaptly called "a playful
tragedy", being both in form and materials the same as tragedy.
It must, however, be observed, that there were some characters and legends which, as
not presenting any serious or pathetic aspects, were not adapted for tragedy, and
therefore were naturally appropriated to the Satyric drama. Such were Sisyphus,
Autolycus, Circe, Callisto, Midas, Omphale, and the robber Sciron. Hercules, also, as
he appears in Aristophanes and in the Alcestis of Euripides, was a favorite subject of
this drama, as being no unfit companion for a drunken Silenus and his crew. The only
extant satyric drama is the Cyclops of Euripides, though we possess numerous
fragments of others.
ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.)
ARISTOTLE was born in Stagira in the year 384 B.C. The most trustworthy biographical account of his life
by Dionysus of Halicarnassus, in his Epistle on Demosthenes and Aristotle: "Aristotle was the son of
Nichomachus, who traced back his descent and his art to Machaon, son of Esculapius; his mother being
Phæstis, a descendant of one of those who carried the colony from Chalcis to Stagira. He was born in the 9
Olympiad in the archonship at Athens of Diotrephes (384-383), three years before Demosthenes. In the
archonship of Polyzelus (367-366), after the death of his father, in his eighteenth year, he came to Athens,
having joined Plato, spent twenty years with him. On the death of Plato (May 347), in the archonship of
Theophilus (348-347) he departed to Hermias, tyrant of Atarneus and, after three years' stay, during the
archonship of Eubulus (345-344) he moved to Mitylene, whence he went to Philip of Macedon in the
archonship of Pythodotus (343-342), and spent eight years with him as tutor of Alexander. After the death
Philip (336), in the archonship of Euænetus (335-334), he returned to Athens and kept a school in the
Lyceum for twelve years. In the thirteenth, after the death of Alexander (June 323), in the archonship of
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Cephisodorus (323-322) having departed to Chalcis, he died of disease (322), after a life of three-and-sixty
years."
The Poetics (or, The Poetic, according to the translation) of Aristotle is the earliest critical treatise dealing
with dramatic practice and theory. Besides being a summing-up of the first great age of dramatic activity,
has exercised incalculable influence over the dramatists of all European and many other nations. There ar
few if any important contributions to dramatic theory and criticism which fail to take account of the work,
owing to its obviously incomplete form, the many corrupt portions of the text, its compact and elliptical st
it has been constantly misinterpreted, misquoted, and misunderstood. The famous Unities, the terms
"Imitation" and "Purgation," have in particular proved troublesome to the Italian critics of the Renaissance
and to their followers in France. Of late years, however, a number of valuable annotated editions, with
copious notes and explanatory matter, have gone far to clear up the misunderstanding.
While Aristotle based his treatise upon the Greek poets with whose work he was acquainted, his general
premises and his conclusions are in the main applicable to drama in general. Although there was an abridg
version of the Poetics extant in the late Middle Ages, it cannot properly be maintained to have made its
appearance until 1498, when Georgio Valla published at Venice a Latin translation of it. This was followed
the Greek text, in the Aldine Rhetores Grœci (1508). From that time forward, the text was translated into th
vernacular, commented upon, and criticized; its influence was soon to become of the greatest importance,
only in Italy, but in France, Germany, and England.
This article was originally published in European Theories of the Drama. Barrett H. Clark. Cincinnati: Stewar
Kidd Company, 1918..
Summary:
Almost every Greek city had a theatre because plays were part of
many religious festivals. The Greeks enjoyed singing and dancing. At
first, theatres were only used for festivals.
The theatres were built on hillsides in the open air and could often
hold more than 18,000 spectators.
The theatres were open air and built in a semi-circular shape with
rows of tiered stone seating around it. The shape of the theatres gave
everyone in the audience excellent viewing and also meant they could
hear the actors well too. In the centre of the theatre was a circular
dancing floor (orchestra), with an altar for sacrifices dedicated to
Dionysus. The stage was a raised area within this circle.
All the actors were men. They wore large masks that exaggerated
facial features and emotions. The mouth hole was large to help amplify
the voices. Greek plays were either comedies or tragedies. Tragedies
were often about the past, whereas comedies tended to be about
current and everyday life. Actors in comedies wore bright colours.
Actors in tragedies wore dark colours.
Plays were either spoken or sung in rhyme.
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