Transcript Greek Drama2[1]

Introduction to Greek Drama
Where did Drama originate?
The word drama comes from the
Greek word, "to do".
• The origins of Western
drama lie in Athens,
(also known as the
region of Attica), a city
which lies in the southeastern section of what
we now call Greece.
• Athens was the political
and cultural center of
Attica, after Theseus
supposedly united
Attica's twelve towns
into a strong central
unit.
• Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient
Athenians created a theatre culture whose
form, technique and terminology have
lasted two millennia, and produced plays
that are still among the greatest works in
theatre.
• There have been only two other periods in
theatre history that equaled the greatness
of ancient Athens — Elizabethan England
and the Twentieth Century.
How a God named Dionysos
helped form Greek Drama
• Dionysos is the Greek god of wine and
fertility.
• The Cult of Dionysus practiced ritual
celebrations which included
intoxication, orgies, human and animal
sacrifices, and hysterical rampages by
women called maenads.
• The cult's most controversial practice
involved uninhibited dancing and
emotional displays that created an altered
mental state. This altered state was known
as ecstasis, from which the word ecstasy
is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and
catharsis also derive from Greek words for
emotional release. Ecstasy was an
important concept to the Greeks, who
would come to see theatre as a way of
releasing powerful emotions.
• The Rites of Dionysus evolved into what
we know today as theatre.
At some point during the sixth
century B.C., these Dionysian
celebrations became an annual
festival.
• Eventually, the dancing choruses of
worshipers began competing for prizes (a
bull or a goat).
• The Greek word tragedy comes from the
Greek word tragaidia, based on tragos,
“goat,” and aeidein, “to sing”
Thespis
• Sometime during 500 B.C. Thespis of
Attica added an actor who interacted with
the chorus. This actor was called the
protagonist, from which the modern word
protagonist is derived, meaning the main
character of a drama. The word thespian,
meaning actor, also derives from Thespis.
• Thespis is also credited with inventing the
touring acting troupe, since he toured
Greece with a group of actors in a cart that
doubled as a stage.
Athenian Drama Competitions
• In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus, changed the
Dionysian Festivals and instituted drama competitions.
Thespis won the first competition in 534 BC.
• In the ensuing 50 years, the competitions became
popular annual events. A government authority called the
archon would choose the competitors and the choregos,
wealthy patrons who financed the productions. Even in
ancient Greece, arts funding was a tax shelter: In return
for funding a production, the choregos would pay no
taxes that year.
Amphitheatres
• During this time, major
theatres were
constructed. The Theatre
of Dionysus, built at the
foot of the Acropolis in
Athens, could seat
17,000 people. During
their heyday, the
competitions drew as
many as 30,000
spectators.
How Plays Were Performed
• The annual drama competitions in Athens took
most of the day, and were spread out over
several days. Plays were performed in the
daytime. Actors probably wore little or no
makeup. Instead they carried masks with
exaggerated facial expressions. They also wore
cothorni (singular: cothornos), or buskins, which
were leather boots laced up to the knees. There
was little or no scenery. Initially, most of the
action took place in the orchestra. Later on, as
the importance shifted from the chorus to the
characters, the action moved to the stage.
TRAGEDY
• Told a story that was intended to teach religious
lessons. Much like Biblical parables, tragedies
were designed to show the right and wrong
paths in life.
• Tragedies were not simply plays with bad
endings. They depicted the life voyages of
people who steered themselves on collision
courses with society, life's rules or simply fate.
The tragic protagonist is one who refuses to
acquiesce to fate or life's rules, either out of
character weakness or strength.
• Most often, the protagonist's main fault is
hubris, a Greek (and modern English)
word meaning arrogance. Whatever the
root, the protagonist's ultimate collision
with fate, reality or society is inevitable and
irrevocable.
Why did tragedy develop?
• On one hand, Greek religion had dictated for centuries
how people should think and behave. On the other hand,
there was a flourishing of free thought and intellectual
inquiry.
• Athens in the 4th and 5th centuries BC was bustling with
radical ideas like democracy, philosophy, mathematics,
science and art.
• In essence, the ancient Athenians had begun to question
how nature worked, how society should work, and what
man's role was in the scheme of things. Tragedy was the
poets' answer to some of these questions -- How should
one behave? How can one accept the injustices of life?
What is the price of hubris?
The Tragedy Form
The traditional tragedy consisted of the following parts:
• Prologue, which described the situation
and set the scene
• Parados, an ode sung by the chorus as it
made its entrance
• Five dramatic scenes, each followed by a
Komos or Ode, an exchange of laments
by the chorus and the protagonist
• Exodus, the climax and conclusion
Aeschylus, the First Playwright
• Until 484 BC the Athenian
drama competitions were still
more choral than dramatic. But
around 484 BC there appeared
on the Athenian theatre scene
a playwright named Aeschylus.
Aeschylus turned the
competitions into what we
consider “modern” drama. He
added a second actor (the
antagonist) to interact with the
first, introduced props and
scenery and reduced the
chorus from 50 to 12.
525-456 BC
Sophocles
• In 468 BC, Aeschylus
was defeated in the
tragedy competition by
Sophocles. Sophocles'
contribution to drama was
the addition of a third
actor and an emphasis on
drama between humans
rather than between
humans and gods. He
also introduced painted
sets and expanded the
size of the chorus to
fifteen.
496-406 BC
More about Sophocles
• Considered the
greatest of the
ancient Greek
playwrights.
• Known for his
musical, poetic and
dramatic talents.
• Also involved in public
life…he served as a
general, political
leader and priest.
Sophocles’ “Theban” Plays
• Three tragedies about King Oedipus of
Thebes and his family.
• He wrote these plays over a 40-year
period.
• He wrote the third part of the story,
Antigone, first. Then he backtracked and
wrote the first part of the story, Oedipus
the King. Finally, he wrote the middle
segment, Oedipus at Colonus during the
last year of his life.
Antigone
Conscience vs. Authority
When we know that those in power are
morally wrong, do we break their
laws, or do we collaborate with them
by obeying?
• This is the story of
Antigone, one of
Oedipus’ daughters,
who has this moral
dilemma. Should she
follow her conscience
or follow the law?
Read to find out…
The Story of Oedipus
The Final Curtain
• By the time of Sophocles' death in 406 BC, 128
years after Thespis' victory in the first Athenian
drama competition, the golden era of Greek
drama was waning. Athens, whose free-thinking
culture had spawned the birth of theatre, would
be overrun in 404 BC by the Spartans, and
would later be torn apart by constant warring
with other city states, eventually falling under the
dominion of Alexander the Great and his
Macedonian armies. Theatre continued, but it
would not return to the same creative heights
until Elizabethan England two millenia later.