Greek Drama

Things that I would like to share about Greek Drama:

Greek Drama

1. Started in Sixth Century BC until Sixth Century AD

2. Greek Theatre is the first great theatrical age in the history of Western civilization.

3. It’s part of religious and cultural heritage.

4. Theatre: Amphitheatre – Theatre of Dionysus
5. The forms of the plays are tragedy and comedy.
6. They have chorus (a masked group of young men who sang and danced as a group) in their tragedy (not necessarily sad ending) or comedy.
7. Tales of God, Demi-Gods or heroes, legendary ancestors of the Greeks ( their war, marriage, life, adulteries and destinies of their children giving the essential elements of conflict between man and God, good and evil, child and parent, duty and inclination)
8. As the spectator, they knew the story already but their interests lay in seeing how the dramatists had chosen to deal with the play, assessing the quality of acting, and the work of the chorus.
9. This group together with other chorus groups also sung unison hymns (dithyramb) and danced to honor Dionysus (God of wine) as part of the City Dionysia prior to the tragedy competition.
10. Structure of Greek Drama:

• Greek drama begins with the Prologue. The Prologue’s purpose is to give background information to situate the conflict.

• Parados ( 1^st Ode) Choral song chanted by the chorus as they enter the area in front of the stage.

• The Odes – follows each scene. Serves to separate one scene from another (since there were no curtains in Greek theaters). Also allowed the chorus’s response to the preceding scene. Parts of the Ode:

Strophe – part of the ode that the chorus chants as it moves from right to left across the stage.

Antistrophe – part of the ode chanted as the chorus moves back across the stage from left to right.

• 1^st scene: Following the Parodos, the first scene presents the conflict of the play.

• Paean (follows scene 5). A hymn in praise of a god

• Exodos, Final scene of the play.

11. No female actors on the stage.

Greek famous playwright

Aeschylus

Tragedy. 80 to 90 plays only 7 complete plays survive and fragments.

The Persians, The Suppliants, Seven against Thebes, Prometheus Bound, The Oresteia (Trilogy: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Eumenides)

Sophocles

Tragedy - complexities of human relationships as opposed to those of Gods and men.

90 plays, 7 survive.

Ajax, Trachiniae, Philoctetes, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone, Electra, Oedipus the King

Euripides

No longer pure tragedy but tragic comedies even melodramas, interested in studying of abnormal states of mind, and he was interested in problems of feminine psychology.

90 plays 18 survive.

Most of these were written and produced during the war with Sparta.

Medea, Alcestis, Heracleidae, Hippolytus, Cyclops, Orestes, Electra, the Trojan Women …

Aristophanes

He wrote Comedy. They are Ephemeral, closely related to the politics and social customs of his own day.

40 plays 11 survive

Lysistrata, Birds, Frogs, Clouds, Acharnians, Knights, Wasps, Peace, Assembly of Women …