Greek Drama

1. Greek Drama

2. Festival • Pan Dionysus City Dionysia Reversals Pan Tragedy- Goat song

3. Tragedy Cycle • Greeks were looking to investigate moral concepts, prosperity, satisfaction , pride and retribution • Plays explored self-knowledge, philosophy, governmental design, ethics, and Self-sacrifice for the benefit of the polis • Fate-but fate does not just happen, it is a direct result of a person’s choices and family history • Greek heroes recognize that their choices have consequences, therefore they meet their ends bravely even when they suffer • Society stressed moderation, obedience and respect

4. Theatre Dithyramb Thespis- The first Chorus-Senate or Everyman

5. Reversal of Fortune Tragic Elements: order Disorder sacrifice Restoration Events are stressed- not character development

6. Skene • Building on stage- equivalent to modern backstage area • Often served as the royal palace or city • Usually had five doors, 4 of which open onto the stage

7. Proedria-grassy area between the orchestra and the audience Proskenion-raised platform in front of the Skene, on which the actors perform Pinakes-Painted panels; temporary scenic elements usually placed in the openings between doors or columns of skene Thyromata-Greek: a room with doors to it, a chamber, or a door with posts. Doors with frames that pierce the facade of the skene

8. Theatres held 14,000-17,000 People Only men and less than desirable women were permitted to attend the theatre Performances included: 3 tragedies Break for lunch 1 Satyr 1 comedy

9. Aeschylus influences on Theatre: Adding a second actor diminishing the chorus to 50% dialogue became leading feature No bloodshed on stage Improved costumes= Elaborate masks , and platform shoes Instituted the practice of competing with trilogies, or series of 3 independent dramas.

10. Aeschylus (525-456 B.C.) 90 plays 79 known titles of 79 7 scripts Prometheus bound Heavily influenced by heroic period- Unresolved situations, suffer into knowledge, things work out in time Sophocles (484-406 B.C.) 123 plays 7 extant Heavily influenced by Aeschylus Antigone 442 Oedipus the king 429 Oedipus at colonus 401

11. Sophocles Impact on Theatre 3rd actor Attempted to bring the beauty of poetry on stage Spectacular scenery Contemplated fate, meaning of the universe, the role of the individual & that of the polis Antigone Fear anger Pity Individual vs authoritarian state Martyr-idealistic “Wrote about humanity as it ought to be, ” Paul Roche

12. Oedipus Rex What walks on four legs in the morning, two legs in the afternoon and three legs in the evening?

13. The parents of Oedipus (A king and Queen) are warned that their son will grow up to murder his father and marry his mother. • The King and Queen pay a servant to take the child into the mountains, pierce his heels with a knife, tie a rope through his ankles, then swing the child around in the air and smash it to the ground. • The servant cuts the Baby’s ankles but does not follow through with the smashing • He takes the child to another city and gives it to a different royal couple • Oedipus (swollen foot) grows up happy, healthy and very intelligent; however, he meets with a seer who informs him of His destiny. • Oedipus, unaware of his adoption, leaves because he is afraid of fulfilling the prophecy. Euphorbus

14. On the road • Sphinx plaguing Thebes • Ruling Thebes- Another Plague • Search for the reason the gods are unhappy and why the city is cursed • Tiresias, council warn Oedipus to stop • Servant is brought to court • Jocasta hangs herself • Oedipus gouges out his eyes • Banished to attica his daughters go with him and his sons remain behind • Oedipus dies and ismene and antigone return to Thebes where brothers Eteocles and Polynices are fighting over the throne

15. Oedipus’ curse falls upon his two sons Polynices attacks Eteocles who refuses to give up the throne The princes kill one another in battle Creon will not allow polynices to be buried

16. Different views of women Property Legitimate citizen- wives who lived in the home and remained virtuous and unseen, but managed the finances, house and the children. These women were protected and sheltered Companions and prostitutes more freedom but children could not be citizens Women in Greek Society “Women were viewed as highly sexual beings who could not control their sexual urges and had to be restricted for their own benefit. ‘woman is the consumer of men, their sex, their strength, their food, and their wealth, and the instigator of all evils in the world; yet without her, society cannot continue’. http://www.angelfire.com

17. Women’s roles in funerals Preparing the dead body for burial. In a funeral procession, the females were expected to carry the libations at the front of the group, FOLLOWED by the male relatives. Women prepared food and sacrificed bulls in honor of the gods, and to secure their love for the dead. Aristotle says, “all human happiness or misery takes the form of action; the end for which we live is a certain kind of activity, not a quality. Character…gives us qualities, but it is in our actions – what we do –that we are happy or the reverse.”

18. Tragedies are based on Mythology or history and deal with characters' search for the meaning of life and the nature of the gods. surviving tragedies begin with a prologue= exposition The chorus then introduces the paradox. where characters are Introduced and mood is created The final scene is called the exodus

19. 776 First Olympic Games 683 Republican rule by aristocrats in Athens 600 Use of coined money Black attic style in pottery Lyric poetry - Sappho and Alcëus flourish 561 Tyrant Pelisistratus seizes power, succeeded by his sons 534 Thespis, founder of Greek tragedy, victor at Athenian drama festival 507 Athenian democracy restored and broadened by Cleisthenes 561-507 Age of Athenian Tyrants 800 bce 687 bce 575 bce 462 bce 350 bce 750-594 Aristocratic Age 500 Heraclitus teaches Ephesus in Asia Minor 520 Persian domination of Ionia Red-figured style in pottery developed Philosopher Xenophanes at peak 550 Doric architecture standardized; Ionic influences appear 580 Philosophy and science begin with Thales and Anaximander 650 Large free-standing sculpture evolves 750 Greek colonies in Italy Music developed/Oriental influence on art Stone architecture Hesiod flourishes Human figures - pottery main subject

20. 445 30 years peace between Athens and Sparta declared 455 Euripides' first tragedy 460 Hippocrates born 468 Sophocles wins contest over Ischylus Aeschylus- 7 Against Thebes 478 Athens leads in forming Delian League of Greek States 480 Acropolis destroyed by Persians 490 Persian Wars Persians repelled at the Battle of Marathon 478-445 Rise of Athenean Empire 800 bce 687 bce 575 bce 462 bce 350 bce 499-479 Conflict with Persia 484 Aeschylus - drama prize 479 Persia defeated 472 Aeschylus- The Persians 462 Pericles brings democratic reforms to Athens 459 Rivalry between Athens and Sparta increases 448 Athenean empire firmly established Parthenon begun 441 Sophocles' Antigone

21. 371 Sparta defeated by Thebes 379 Sparta expelled from Thebes 385 Plato begins teaching at Athens 401 Sophocles Oedipus at Colonus 405 Aristophanes' The Frogs 423 Aristophanes' The Clouds 429 Pericles dies 431-404 Peloponnesian War 404-371 Supremacy of Sparta 800 bce 687 bce 575 bce 462 bce 350 bce 431 Peloponnesian war between Athens and Sparta breaks out Euripides' Medea 427 Sophocles' Oedipus Rex 414 Aristophanes comedy - The Birds 404 Athens surrenders to Sparta 399 Socrates, tried and condemned, drinks hemlock 382 Sparta seizes citadel of Thebes 378 Spartan-Thebean alliance