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TH 20-21Greek Theatre: tragedy
Basics
- Origin:
o 5thc in Athens
o Ceremonies/theatre to honor Dionysus (= god of wine, fertility, revelry)
o Dithyrambic choruses
= long hymn, sung by a group of men/boys
= beginning of Greek dramas
- Three basic forms: tragedy, comedy and satyr plays
- Greek religion: worship of a group of gods (Zeus = leader)
- Plots: episodes of Greek mythology
- !! violence/deaths not permitted on stage
Greek Theatre and Democracy
Athens = birthplace of (male) democracy
Theatre as testing place for democracy
Women, foreigners, children and slaves excluded
Men played all parts (incl.fem.), wearing a mask
Playwrights
Aeschylus
= founder of Greek drama (and Western drama)
o Lyric poetry – dramatic structure
o Added second actor dialogue
o Famous play: The Persians
Sophocles
= most celebrated in competitions
o Great plot construction
o Famous plays: Oedipus, Antigone, …
Euripides
= most “modern” writer, ‘most tragic of poets’
(sympathetic portrayal of women, realism, mixture of tragedy with melodrama and comedy,
…)
o Portrayal of gods as human and fallible
o Famous plays: Medea, The Trojan Women, Bacchae, …
Chorus
= representation of the common people of the city-state (in tragedy)
- 12 or 15 singing/dancing men
- Accompanied by aulete (= double-reed instrument)
- Presence of a chorodidaskalos (= choral trainer)
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- Dramatic functions: background information, comment on action, interacted with
characters, described offstage actions
Great Dionysia Theater Festival in Athens at the end of march
Lasted for several days
o Before opening: proagon (= talking about dialougue/advertisement)
o One or two other days: parades and sacrifices honoring Dionysus
o Three days: tragedies and satyr plays
3 trag. and 1 satyr play by a
single playwright each day (=
tetralogy)
plays chosen by the archon
Determination of the winner: archon randomly chose five of the ten votes of tribes of Athens
Buildings and costumes
Greek Amphitheaters
Set into hillsides (natural amphitheater)
o Theatron = seating area
o Orchestra = playing area
o Skene = scene building, where gods arrive, stage
house
o Orchestra = circular space in which chorus
performed
o Thymele = altar at center of orchestra
o Parados = entrances and exits at each side of skene
Stage Sets
o Paraskenion = crane used for flying in characters
o Mechane = machine on the roof of the skene
o Ekkyklema = platform on wheels to bring out
characters
“Greek dramas often reach a climax with the sudden appearance of a god who resolved all the
dramatic problems. The mechane, a crane hidden behind the upper level of the skene, was used to
effect the entrance of the actor playing the god or goddess in such a way as to suggest a descent from
the heavens. This climax highlited by an interevension of a deity is called, in Latin, deus ex machina”
Costumes and Masks
Our knowledge comes from Greek vases
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- Masks: cover entire head (multiple roles by one actor, men could play women, easy
identif.)
- Ornate tunic and short or long cloak
- Kothornos (= thick-soled boot to represent high status)
- Costumes based on everyday clothing
- Physical humorous feature: exaggerated penis worn around the waist
Theories of Greek Theatre
Aristotle’s poetics
Six elements of tragedy:
1. Plot (= mythos)
2. Character
3. Thought
4. Diction
5. Spectacle
6. Song
“Tragedy is the representation (= mimesis) of
an action that is serious, complete and of a
certain magnitude…”
For Aristotle, the most important element of tragic drama was the experience of catharsis
Aristotelian Tragedy
Protagonist
o Man (or woman) of high social standing
He/she experiences a downfall because
of the miscalculation of tragic flaw
(= hamartia = moral flaw or intellectual
error of judgement)
Doesn’t die (mostly)
Antigone dies in Antigone, which tells you that
actually she is not the protagonist of the play. It is,
rather, Cleon who lives
Aristotle’s Three Unities in Tragedies
1. Unity of action
A play should have one main line of action with no or few subplots.
2. Unity of place
A play should take plave in a single physical location.
3. Unity of time
There should be few or no breaks in time. If the play runs for three hours, the events that
take place on stage should also be considered as events that unfurled in a three-hour
timeframe.
Catharsis
= Emotional purification of pity (= eleos) and fear (=phobos)
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Antigone - Sophocles
Important from critical reading
o Tension between individual and state – and – duty and desire
o Every character battles against own monsters (p.9) internal conflict
Characters
ANTIGONE
- Symbol of female revolt
- Betrays law and thereby the expectation of women
- Good character, loyal to the gods
ISMENE
- Well-behaved woman
- Does not take any action
- Disagreeing w men is dangerous (patriarchal system)
- Doesn’t want to lose Antigone bcs already lost parents and two brothers
CREON (prot)
- No villain (!) but protagonist with flaws
- Wants to maintain law and order
- Places human law over religious duty
- Loses both his son and wife in the play
HAEMON
- Fanatic personality
- Fails to convince his father
TIRESIAS
- Blind prophet
- “Punishment for Creon’s actions will be the death of his family”
- Leaves the town without seeing the outcome
GUARD
- Only character that is an ordinary Theban citizen (not noble or royal)
- Language is more informal
- Comical character
Chorus
= elders of Thebes (well-respected men)
elders because many young men have died in the civil war between Polyneices and Eteocles
provide image for the male-dominated patriarchal society
moral compass? trustworthy?
Themes
Individual vs State / Conscience vs Law
- Antigone is both hero and traitor of the state
- Antigone = individual conscience, Creon = State law
- Loyalty to the gods above loyalty to her uncle Creon
- “Is it ever right to break the law?”
- Sophocles: not interested in who is right/wrong, but what is right/wrong
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