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Greek Drama. The essentials to understanding and appreciating Medea . Ceremonious. Humans have always been ceremonious creatures. What ceremonies do we have in modern life? It is all drama, all a play that resonates with us. Ancient Greeks. Polytheistic
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Greek Drama The essentials to understanding and appreciating Medea.
Ceremonious • Humans have always been ceremonious creatures. • What ceremonies do we have in modern life? • It is all drama, all a play that resonates with us.
Ancient Greeks • Polytheistic • Dionysus – god of wine and vegetation. Every year the Greeks celebrated him by dressing in goat skins (like satyrs) and dancing. • in poetic language they would tell of the god’s triumphs or sufferings. • A choral hymn called a dithyramb was sung.
Dithyramb • a wildly enthusiastic speech or piece of writing • (ancient Greece) a passionate hymn (usually in honor of Dionysus) • According to Aristotle, the dithyramb was the origin of the Ancient Greek theatre
This celebration evolved • A permanent theatre was needed. • “The famous theatre of Dionysus in Athens was begun about 500 B.C.”
It was built at the foot of the Acropolis – center of Greek Culture and near the Current temple of Dionysus.
The orchestra • This is also called the dancing floor. • In it, the chorus (you will meet them in the book), a group of 10-15 people, sang and danced. • In the center of the orchestra, there is an altar to the god where a flute player stood.
Strophe /Anti-Strophe • This is the chorus moving across the stage as they establish the plot. • Strophe means they are going from right to left • Anti- Strophe is they are going from left to Right. • Listen to what they say! They are laying the ground work for the action.
Seating • It was like a large half of a football stadium. • The people sat in tiers around the stage. • They were built into hillsides, so one seat was above another.
Magical Acoustic Properties • Even a matchstick dropping on stage could be heard by all 20,000 viewers. • All Greek people went to the theatre – the Greek state paid for poor people to attend. • The sound was a problem for one Greek theatre in a wooded setting. All the audience could hear were crickets who were on the stage and chirping.
The Plays and players • Actors wore platform shoes to appear taller. • Only males acted, no females. • The Chorus wore colorful, draped costumes. • Broad gestures to emphasize speeches. • Facial masks were used to indicate strong emotion.
Conventions • Ekklyklema: a wheeled platform that was thrust onstage. Usually, as most action happened offstage, it would be rolled onstage with the corpses of characters who had just been killed. • Deus ex machina: the god from the machine. A crane which allowed characters to fly above the house and which usually provided striking entrances for the god.
Euripides • He was born about 484 BCE – the darkest and most disturbing of the Greek Playwrights. • Fascinated by the oppressed • He depicts real men with all too human weaknesses. • He was the unwanted voice of conscience for the injustices and hypocrisy of Athens.
A match made in heaven • Medea was a barbarian, from the far edge of the Black Sea. A powerful sorceress, princess of Colchis and Granddaughter of the sun god Helias. • Jason was a great Greek hero and captain of the Argonauts.
Greeks • Learning from others’ mistakes is an important part of Greek tragedy.
Before this play begins… • Jason was in search of The Golden Fleece, which was in the possession of Medea’s father. • Medea’s father set up challenges for Jason to perform in order to earn the fleece. Of course, they were near to impossible for a mortal to perform. • Medea fell in love with him and helped him, even to the point of killing her own brother to help him escape. • Therefore, she has no home.
So, they’re a couple… • Unfortunately, after many years and two sons, Jason decides to forsake her and marry another woman. • Could be love, could be that her daddy is King of Athens. • Medea is too powerful to accept being thrown over in this way, although she has little outward power because she is a woman.
TOPICS! • Revenge. Medea sacrifices all, even her own peace of mind, to get revenge on Jason. Medea’s situation is a paradigm for anyone who feels slighted by someone or thing that is institutionally protected and unfair.
PASSION AND RAGE • She had so much passion for Jason she gave up everything for him. Now that he has betrayed her, her rage is boundless. • Medea is an example of passion carried too far in a woman perversely set on choosing rage over mercy and reason.
EXILE • In the time of the Greeks, to be exiled was the worst of punishments. • Medea had become an exile from her own land for Jason’s sake. • Now she is being exiled again, from Jason and the new land of Corinth.
The Position of Women • Greek society was dependent on slave labor and the oppression of women. • Medea is a product of these injustices, a real woman twisted by her suffering. • This play shows the war of the sexes where everyone comes out scarred.
Manipulation • Jason manipulated Medea to help him win the Golden Fleece. • Jason is manipulating the royal family of Corinth to secure his own ends. • But Medea is the master. She plays everyone perfectly to exact her revenge.
