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Greek FestivalsGreek Festivals Festivals honored Olympian gods Ritual Competitions Olympics: Apollo
Athletics Lyric Poetry
Drama: Dionysos Dithyrambic Choruses Tragedy Comedy
Greek TheatreGreek Theatre 6th - 4th century bce Originated in festivals honoring Dionysos Tragedy:
Aeschylus (524-456 bce) Sophocles (496-406 bce) Euripides (480-406 bce)
Comedy: Old Comedy: bawdy and satiric
Aristophanes (c. 485-c.385 bce) New Comedy: social situations:
Menander (342-292 bce)
Theatre FestivalsTheatre Festivals The Greater Dionysia took place at the end of
March or the beginning of April Three days were given over to theatrical
competition. Three playwrights each took part in each
contest Each tragedian put on a trilogy in the morning
and each comic writer put on one comedy in the afternoon.
The festival at Lenaes,staged at the end of January or the beginning of February, placed its emphasis on comedy
ACTORSACTORS No tragedy used more
than 3 actors All actors were male Costumes included
character masks, and, in later years, raised boots
Acting must have more expressive than realistic
ORIGINS of TRAGEDYORIGINS of TRAGEDY Tragedy, derived from the Greek words tragos (goat) and ode
(song), told a story that was intended to teach religious lessons Tragedy arose from dithyrambic choruses. The dithyramb was an ode to Dionysus. It was usually performed by a chorus of fifty men dressed as
satyrs -- mythological half-human, half-goat servants of Dionysus.
In the 6th c. bce Thespis of Attica added an actor who interacted with the chorus. This actor was called the protagonist.
In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus, changed the Dionysian Festivals and instituted drama competitions. Thespis won the first competition in 534 BC.
Tragic TetralogiesTragic Tetralogies Each tragic dramatist had to present
a trilogy of tragedies: connected narratively or dramatically
The entire trilogy was performed in one day.
The trilogy was followed by a satyr play - mocking and lightening the seriousness of the tragedies
A Tetralogy, then, is a series of 4 plays: 3 tragedies and one satyr play
TRAGIC STRUCTURETRAGIC STRUCTURE
4-5 alternating scenes and choral odes, including the
PROLOGOS: Introductory scene PARADOS: Entry of chorus
EPISODEION STASIMON
PAEAN: a hymn of praise to the gods
EXODOS: final scene
EPODE: final ode.
ARISTOTLE’SARISTOTLE’STHREE UNITIESTHREE UNITIES
Aristotle’s On Tragedy is usually considered the first piece of Western dramatic criticism. In it, he proclaimed that tragedy must follow the 3 unities: UNITY OF TIME: one day UNITY OF PLACE: one setting UNITY OF ACTION: one plot
AESCHYLUSAESCHYLUS 525-456 bce525-456 bce
General in Persian Wars -- fought at Marathon, Salamis, Platea
Fierce proponent of Athenian ideals
The first of the great Athenian dramatists, was also the first to express the agony of the individual caught in conflict.
Credited with adding the second actor
Only extant trilogy: The Oresteia Agamemnon The Libation Bearers The Eumenides
SOPHOCLESSOPHOCLES 496 - 406 496 - 406
bcebce Wrote over 100 plays,
but only seven survive Credited with adding the
third actor Known as actor as well
as dramatist Most interested in
human dynamics THEBAN PLAYS:
Oedipus the King Antigone Oedipus at Colonnus
EURIPIDES EURIPIDES c.480-406 bcec.480-406 bce The last of the thee great Greek
tragic dramatists -- 17 plays survive including Medea, The Trojan Women, The Bacchae
Explored the theme of personal conflict within the polis and the depths of the individual
Disgust with events of Peloponnesian War brought about disillusionment with Athens
Men and women bring disaster on themselves because their passions overwhelm their reason
TRAGIC ACTIONTRAGIC ACTIONARETE, ARISTEIA: excellence
HUBRIS: arrogance
HAMARTIA: fatal mistake
PERIPETEIA: reversal of fortune
ANAGNORISIS: understanding
KATHARSIS
ORIGINS of GREEKORIGINS of GREEKOLD COMEDYOLD COMEDY
Arose from komos : songs of revelry, charms to avert evil, prayers for fertility sung to Dionysus
Chorus dressed ludicrously Audience responded to choral komos and were
gradually admitted into chorus Chorus became two-part group with antiphonal
song Invention of comic chorus is attributed to Susarion Dorian and Sicilian farces were precursors of Old
Comedy
CONVENTIONS of OLD COMEDYCONVENTIONS of OLD COMEDY Scene set on Athenian street “Events seldom occur – they are merely talked about” Masks and fantastic costumes Satiric of contemporary events and public figures Bawdy
COMIC STRUCTURECOMIC STRUCTURE
Komos: final choral song and exit in wild revelry
4-5 alternating scenes and choral odes
illustrating the outcome of the agon
Prologos: introductory scene
Parados: entry of 24 member chorus dressed in fantastic
costumeAgon: argument “just prior to the agon, the leader of the chorus always asks
one contender to present his argument, and it is this contender who always loses”
Parabasis: chorus’s great song
Episodeion Stasimon
ARISTOPHANESARISTOPHANESc. 448 - 380 BCEc. 448 - 380 BCE
30+ plays; 11 extant; 6 first prizes
Plays include Clouds Wasps Birds Lysistrata Frogs
Critiques of Euripides & Socrates: reactionary conservative; social critic
Plato's epitaph for Aristophanes : “The Graces, seeking a shrine that could not fall, discovered the soul of Aristophanes.”
New ComedyNew Comedy By 317 BC, a new form had evolved that resembled
modern farces: mistaken identities, ironic situations, ordinary characters and wit.
Basic plot: Boy meets girl, complications arise, boy gets girl – ends with betrothal or marriage.
5 act structure: acts divided by interludes performed by the chorus
Stock characters: young lovers, parasite, lecherous old men, clever servants, etc.
Social rather than political satire
MENANDERMENANDER 342-292 bce342-292 bce
1905 a manuscript was discovered in Cairo that contained pieces of five Menander plays, and in 1957 a complete play, Diskolos (The Grouch, 317 BC), was unearthed in Egypt.
Menander’s comedy with its emphasis on mistaken identity, romance and situational humor, became the model for subsequent comedy, from the Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway.
Parts of Menander’s comedies found their way into plays by
Roman playwrights: Plautus and TerenceShakespeare's Comedy of ErrorsStephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum.
ROMAN THEATREROMAN THEATRE
Drama flourished under the Republic but declined into variety entertainment under the Empire
Roman festivals: Held in honor of the gods, but much less religious than in Greece Ludi Romani Became theatrical in 364 B.C.
Held in September (the autumn)and honored Jupiter. By 240 B.C., both comedy and tragedy were performed.
Five others: Ludi Florales (April), Plebeii (November), Apollinares (July), Megalenses (April), Cereales (no particular season).
Under the Empire, these festivals afforded "bread and circuses" to the masses – many
performances. —including a series of plays or events. Acting
troupes (perhaps several a day) put on theatre events.
ROMAN THEATREROMAN THEATRE Encompassed more than drama :
acrobatics, gladiators, jugglers, athletics, chariots races, naumachia (sea battles), boxing, venationes (animal fights)
Entertainment tended to be grandiose, sentimental, diversionary
Actors / performers were called histriones
Fresco with theatre masks
Roman Theatre DesignRoman Theatre Design First permanent Roman theatre built 54 ce
(100 years after the last surviving comedy)So permanent structures came from periods after significant writing
More that 100 permanent theatre structures by 550 ce. Built on level ground with stadium-style seating
(audience raised) Could seat 10-15,000 people Awning over the audience to protect them from the sun During the Empire around 78 ce, cooling system
installed– air blowing over streams of water
Artist’s Impression of the Roman Theatre of Verulamium : Britaincirca CE 180, excavated in 1847by Alan Sorrell
ROMAN COMEDYROMAN COMEDY Chorus was abandoned No act or scene divisions Songs Everyday domestic affairs: Boy meets girl, complications, boy
gets girl: marriage Action placed in the street Bawdy Stock characters Only two playwrights' material survives:
Plautus (c. 254-184 bce) Terence (195 or 185-159 bce)
STOCK CHARACTERSSTOCK CHARACTERS Senex: old man in authority Pappas: foolish old man Bucco: braggart, boisterous Miles gloriosus: braggart soldier Dossenus: swindler, drunk,
hunchback Shrew: sharp-tongued woman Courtesan Clever servant Young Lovers
PLAUTUSPLAUTUS Titus Maccius Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus
c. 254-184 B.C.E.c. 254-184 B.C.E.
21 extant plays including Pot of Gold, The Menaechmi, Braggart Warrior -- probably between 205-184 B.C.
All based on Greek New Comedies Added Roman allusions, Latin
dialog, varied poetic meters, witty jokes
Some techniques: Stychomythia – dialog with short
lines, like a tennis match Slapstick Songs
TERENCETERENCE Publius Terenius AferPublius Terenius Afer
(195 or 185-159 B.C.E.)(195 or 185-159 B.C.E.)
Born in Carthage, came to Rome as a boy slave, educated and freed
The Afer in his name may indicate that he was an African, and therefore he may have been the first major black playwright in western theater.
Six plays, all of which surviveincluding The Brothers, Mother-in-Law, etc.
More complex plots – combined stories from Greek originals.
Character and double-plots were his forte – contrasts in human behavior
Less boisterous than Plautus, less episodic, more elegant language.
Less popular than Plautus.
Roman TragedyRoman Tragedy None survive from the early period,
and only one playwright from the later period: Seneca
5 act structure – later adopted by Elizabethans
Elaborate speeches -- rhetorical influence
Interest in morality – expressed in sententiae (short pithy generalizations about the human condition)
Medea, Herculaneum c. 70 bce
SENECASENECA
Roman philosopher, orator, dramatist and statesman
Nine extant tragedies, five adapted from Euripides:The Trojan Women, Medea, Oedipus, Agamemnon
Suicide in 65 A.D.– at the orders of Nero
Seneca had a strong effect on later dramatists.
Uncertain whether Seneca's plays were actually performed or simply intended for recitation before a small private audience: closet dramas
Lucius Annaeus Lucius Annaeus
SenecaSeneca (5 or 4 B.C.E.– 65 C.E.)(5 or 4 B.C.E.– 65 C.E.)
Roman SpectacleRoman Spectacle Gladiatorial combats Chariot races Naumachia: Naval
battles in a flooded Coliseum
“Real-life” theatricals
Decadent, violent and immoral
All theatrical events banned by Church when Rome became Christianized