Greek Theatre

Greek Tragedy

Tragedies:

Aeschylus - 525-456 B.C. - 80 plays, 7 extant

Euripides - 480-406 B.C. - 90 plays, 18 or 19 extant

Sophocles - 495-406 B.C.-100 plus plays, 7 extant

AeschylusAeschylusAeschylean tragedy is grand, massive, and dignifiedThe language is heavy and often difficult to understand, full of compound forms and complex metaphors.

He is still considered by many (as Aristophanes writes about in The Frogs) to be the greatest Greek playwright.

Aeschylus' first victory: 484 B.C.Number of victories by Aeschylus: 13

Characteristics of Aeschylus's plays:

characters have limited number of traits, but clear and direct

emphasizes forces beyond human control evolution of justice, impersonal power of state eventually replacing personal

revenge chain of private guilt and punishment - all

reconciled at end

Sophocles Sophocles was born in 497 BC in Colonos,

Athens. Although according to some sources he was

the son of an aristocratic family, according to others, he was the son of a knife-maker.

He kept studying the plays of Aeschylus and many times he defeated him in the contests.

During his militairy service he attained the rank of General.

He was teaching three separate tragedies instead of one trilogy.

He increased the number of hypocrits(actors) from two to three.

He also increased the members of the chorus from 12 to 15.

His language was so harmonic and beautiful that Aristoteles said that "honey was dropping of his mouth"

He died in Athens in 405 BC, after having written 123 dramas, of which only 7 are saved.

Characteristics of Sophocles' plays: emphasis on individual characters reduced role of chorus complex characters, psychologically well-motivated characters subjected to crisis leading to suffering and self-

recognition - including a higher law above man exposition carefully motivated scenes suspensefully climactic action clear and logical poetry clear and beautiful few elaborate visual effects theme emphasized: the choices of people

Euripides He was born in 480 BC in Halandri,

Athens on the day of the battleship of Salamina.

His parents were very poor but he had a fine education, being a student of Anaxagoras and a close friend to Socrates.

Very popular in later Greek times, little appreciated during his life sometimes known as "the father of melodrama"

He wrote 72 works, 19 of which are saved ( 18 tragedies and 1 satiric drama: "The Cyclops")

He died violently in 406 in Pella, killed by wild dogs.

Euripides Euripides appears to cast tragedy's religious foundations

into question. Some later playwrights, such as Aristophanes, portray him as arid in his dialogue, and determined to make tragedy less elevated by introducing common people. Others call him a misogynist, an underminer of received morality, and unorthodox in his religious views.

Yet, no other playwright from antiquity challenged the status quo in such a controversial manner. He brought about issues for the people and for the philosophers, and not just for the literary figures.

Characteristics of Euripides' plays:

dealt with subjects usually considered unsuited to the stage which questioned traditional values (Medea loving her stepson, Medea murdering her children)

dramatic method often unclear -not always clearly causally related episodes, with many reversals, deus ex machina endings

many practices were to become popular: using minor myths or severely altered major ones

less poetic language, realistic characterizations and dialog tragedy was abandoned in favor of melodramatic treatment. theme emphasized: sometimes chance rules world, people are

more concerned with morals than gods are.

Aristophanes

He was born in Athens in 452 BC.

He had been writing since he was an adolescent but he was not allowed to participate in the contests because of his age.

Therefore he participated with the alias "Detalis" and he won the first prize with "The Acharnians".

He died in Aegina in 385 BC.

Plays Acharnians (425 B.C.) Knights (424 B.C.) Clouds (423 B.C.) Wasps (422 B.C.) Peace (421 B.C.) Birds (414 B.C.) Lysistrata (411 B.C.) Women at the Thesmophoria (411 B.C.) Frogs (405 B.C.) Ecclesiazusae (c. 391 B.C.) Plutus (388 B.C.)

Greek Comedy Comedy (from Greek komos, meaning “revel”) was presented competitively in Athens

from 486 BC at the Lenaea winter festival. It fused much earlier traditions of popular entertainment, mime, phallic rites, and revelry

in honour of Dionysus. Old Comedy, of which Aristophanes was the chief exponent, was highly satirical. It was characterized by wildly imaginative material (in which the chorus might represent

birds, frogs, wasps, or clouds) that was blended with a grotesque, vulgar, and witty tone, which could still accommodate poetry of great lyrical beauty.

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 The bawdiness of the plays was emphasized by the actors' costumes, which featured

jerkins with padded stomachs and large phalli. As in tragedy, masks were worn, though exaggerated for comic effect.

ARISTOPHANES WORK IS ALSO CALLED

ATTIC OLD COMEDY

Athenian comedy of the 5th centuryVitally connected to Athenian democracyHighly political – intending to instruct, so political ideas, entertain .Thrived when Athens was in the extreme crisis of the Peloponnesian war 431-404bcCelebrated traditional values: peace, fertility, religion, and countryside,poetry & creativity.Against “modern” values: The new, the war, logic and sophist education.

Characteristics of old comdey (related to its link to the ecstatic cult of Dionysus)

Chorus , masks, animal costumes

Loosing one’s individual personality, and opening to the god [like student or Xmas parade]

STRUCTURE centred on parodos, agon, parabasis

parados – the procession of chorus into the theatreagon – the debate between 2 actors – judged by the chorusparabasis – unmasked chorus talks to the audience about the meaning of the play

Serious educative purpose

Characteristics of old comdey (related to its link to the ecstatic cult of Dionysus)

Emphasis on bawdiness Komos – (the phallic procession) - religious, not obscene.

Festive return to life [winter –Lanaea, and spring – City Dionysia]

Satirical attack on current trends and unpopular leaders

Competitive

Structure of the play

Prologos-The first speech of an actor (hypokrites) or actors, usually to set up the plot and explain what has happened prior to the play’s beginning.

Parodos -The first speech of the chorus, usually to explain their purpose in being there, or to explain the overall purpose and meaning of the play.

Episodes -Actions between actors or between an actor and the chorus. Their purpose is to present the action or dialogue within the play.

Structure of the play

Agon- the argument of “contest” at the heart of Aristohanes comedies. Both sides have a say, usually comically over stating their own case and paradingin the opponents.

Parabasis a sort of time out where the leader of the chorus addresses the audience outside the stry of the comedy on some pressing issue of the day, but linking to the theme of the comedy.

Exodus - The final resolution of the play, and an explanation of the final actions in the play by one or more of the hypokriteis.

Timeline of Ancient Greek Dramac. 625 Arion at Corinth produces first dithyrambic choruses.

540-527 Pisistratus, tyrant of Athens, founds the festival of the Greater Dionysia

536-533 Thespis puts on tragedy at festival of the Greater Dionysia in Athens

525 Aeschylus born

499-496 Aeschylus' first dramatic competitions

c. 496 Sophocles born

485 Euripides born

486 Aeschylus' first dramatic victory

487 Aeschylus defeated by Sophocles in dramatic competition

488 Aeschylus' Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides)

456 Aeschylus dies

c. 450 Aristophanes born

441 Sophocles' Antigone

431-404 Peloponnesian War (Athens and allies vs. Sparta and allies)

c. 429 Sophocles' Oedipus the King

406 Euripides dies; Sophocles dies

404 Athens loses Peloponnesian War to Sparta

399 Trial and death of Socrates

c. 380's Plato's Republic includes critique of Greek tragedy and comedy

380 Aristophanes dies

Timeline of Ancient Greek Drama

Existing Works of Greek Tragedy

• Aeschylus– Persians (472)

– Seven Against Thebes (468)

– Suppliant Women (463?)

– Oresteia Trilogy: (458)• Agamemnon • Libation Bearers• Eumenides

– Prometheus Bound (450-425?)

• Sophocles– Ajax (450-430)

– Antigone (c. 442?)

– Trachiniai (450-430?)

– Oedipus Tyrannos (429-425?)

– Electra (420-410)

– Philoctetes (409)

– Oedipus at Colonus (401)

• Euripides– Alcestis (438)

– Medea (431)

– Children of Heracles (ca. 430)

– Hippolytus (428)

– Andromache (ca. 425)

– Hecuba (ca. 424),

– Suppliant Women (ca. 423)

– Electra (ca. 420)

– Heracles (ca. 416)

– Trojan Women (415)

– Iphigenia among the Taurians (ca. 414)

– Ion (ca. 413)

– Helen (412)

– Phoenician Women (ca. 410)

– Orestes (408)

– Bacchae (after 406)

– Iphigenia in Aulis (after 406)

– Cyclops (possibly ca. 410)

Existing Comedies of Aristophanes

– Acharnians (425 B.C.)

– Knights (424 B.C.)

– Clouds (423 B.C.)

– Wasps (422 B.C.)

– Peace (421 B.C.)

– Birds (414 B.C.)

– Lysistrata (411 B.C.)

– Women at the Thesmophoria (411 B.C.)

– Frogs (405 B.C.)

– Ecclesiazusae (c. 391 B.C.)

– Plutus (388 B.C.)