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Greek Theatre

Greek Theatre. Overview Oedipus the King Lysistrata Mythology. Overview of Greek Theatre. The myths. The land. The stage. The Land. Greece has thousands of inhabited islands and dramatic mountain ranges Greece has a rich culture and history Democracy was founded in Greece

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Greek Theatre

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  1. Greek Theatre Overview Oedipus the King Lysistrata Mythology

  2. Overview of Greek Theatre • The myths • The land • The stage

  3. The Land • Greece has thousands of inhabited islands and dramatic mountain ranges • Greece has a rich culture and history • Democracy was founded in Greece • Patriarchal (male dominated) society • Philosophy, as a practice, began in Greece (Socrates, Plato, Aristotle)

  4. The Land Located in Europe in the Aegean Sea

  5. The Land

  6. The Stage

  7. The Stage Three Main Portions of Greek Theatre: Skene – Portion of stage where actors performed (included 1-3 doors in and out) Orchestra – “Dancing Place” where chorus sang to the audience Theatron – Seating for audience

  8. The Stage

  9. The Stage

  10. Where and how were the dramas performed? • Once a year • In an amphitheatre • Free! • With a chorus who described most of the action. • With masks • With all the violence off stage • With tragedy first, then comedy later.

  11. Elements of Greek Theatre • Storytelling of gods, heroes and battles would be told by traveling actors. • Tragic trilogies involved epic myths from Greek mythology • Priests would organize choruses • Playwrights decided to combine stories and choruses to create plays (mostly tragedies, “goat song”)

  12. Dithyramb Festival • A yearly drama festival for all to enjoy, in the name of the god Dionysus (wine, fertility, theatre and madness) • 7 day event: • Honour of Dionysus’s story; sacrifice bull • Dythyrambic Competition (choric hymn/dance) Boys against Men • 5 comedies presented (crude and underdeveloped) • 3 tragedies and 1 satire presented in the course of 3 days • Awards

  13. Performers • Chorus: Group of 25-30 older men to help inform audience, through chant, of characters’ actions / motives. • Actors: All men, wearing colourful costumes and exaggerated masks to be easily identified. • Thespis: First recognized famous actor of the tragedy in written dramas.

  14. Major Greek Dramatists

  15. Play format • PROLOGUE (introduction) • PARADOS (entrance of chorus) • EPISODES & STASIMA (dialogue & chorus interludes) • EXODUS (actors leave stage)

  16. Sophocles (496-406 BCE) • Wrote 113 plays, only 7 surviving • Winner (or at least runner up) at the festivals • Tragic playwright believed in recognizing the inevitability of suffering (fate) • Focus on single individual (tragic hero) who must learn about himself and the nature of universal justice • Focus on the psychological – fallibility of humans who despite nobility, marred by fatal error • Included only the part of the Oedipus myth that allows for this understanding • Innovative contributions: • added a 3rd actor, introducing concept of ‘perspective’ • reduced and modified chorus to 15 to be more inclusive • included dramatic irony • Painted background scenery

  17. Sophocles’s Oedipus the King • AKA Oedipus Tyrannus or Oedipus Rex • Written about 430 BCE and performed in Athens • Set in Thebes (a city in ancient Greece) • The play is read like a ‘whodunnit’ in which Oedipus is searching for the the King’s killer (himself) • Sigmund Freud coined the psychological term “Oedipus complex”

  18. Oedipus’s past • Oracle prophesied to Laius (King of Thebes) that he would be killed by his son and his son would marry his own mother. • They ordered the son to be killed, but the shepherd took pity and took him to Corinth where he was adopted by King Polybus and his baron Queen. • Upon adulthood, Oedipus saw the Oracle who told him of the prophesy. He vowed to never return to Corinth. Wandering, he met and killed Laius, thinking he and his men were robbers. He moved on to Thebes. • A Sphinx was attacking Thebes until someone solved its riddle. Oedipus solved it and was crowned King, marrying the widow Queen (his mother). • Years later (this is the beginning of the play), a plague descended on the land and would remain until Laius’s murderer be punished. Oedipus soon discovers he did it, and after Jocasta commits suicide, he digs out his eyes and eventually flees Thebes with his daughter Antigone.

  19. Riddle 1 • 2 travelers on a path, 1 in front, 1 in back • The one in front is the son of the one in back • But the one in back is not the father of the one in front • How are they related? • The one in back is his mother

  20. Riddle 2 • You’re on a path and come to a fork. One way leads to town; the other to a forest. You need to get to town, but don’t know which path to take. • Two brothers standing at the fork know. One always lies; the other always tells the truth. • You’re allowed one question to find your way to town. What do you ask? • Ask either of them: “Which path would your brother say leads to town?” Then take the opposite path.

  21. Things to Look for in Oedipus • Dramatic irony • Concept of fate • Characterization of Oedipus • Role of and belief in the gods • Blindness, truth and knowledge • Disease • Nature of the conflict • Concept of transgression-violation of a law, command or duty

  22. Sophocles’s Antigone • Set in Thebes (a city in ancient Greece) • Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta • Antigone’s brothers, Eteocles and Polyneces, took opposite sides in a war because they didn’t want to share the throne. They end up killing each other in battle. • Antigone’s uncle, Creon, becomes king of Thebes and orders Polyneces body to remain unburied. Antigone buries him in secret.

  23. Copy Only The Boxed Portion!

  24. Euripides’s Medea • Medea is a princess from Colchis • Medea marries Jason, who is in Colchis on a quest for the Golden Fleece • Medea betrays her father and murders her brother for her love of Jason • Medea has magical powers • Jason takes Medea back to his homeland, Corinth, where they have children • Jason takes another wife, the king of Corinth’s daughter

  25. Jason’s Voyage on the Argo Jason and Medea meet Corinth: Where Jason and Medea settle down

  26. Aristophanes’s Lysistrata • Comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War (Athens and Sparta – over land) • Lysistrata persuades the women of Greece to withhold sexual privileges from their husbands and lovers as a means of forcing the men to negotiate peace. • Inflames the battle between the sexes in a male-dominated society. • The older women overtake the Akropolis, the fortress that houses the treasury of Athens. • The older men try to smoke them out, but the women carry jugs of water to extinguish the fires. • The commissioner orders a battle, in which the women wittingly run the men off. Lysistrata describes how things ‘should’ run, using a weaving wool analogy. By the end, they dress the commissioner as a woman. • After two humorous seduction-gone-wrong skits, the sex-strike frustrates the men so much so that the Spartans beg the Athenians for a peace treaty.

  27. The Myths – why they were written • Explained the unexplainable • Justified religious practices • Gave credibility to leaders • Gave hope • Polytheistic (more than one god) • Centered around the twelve Olympians (primary Greek gods)

  28. When Echo tried to get Narcissus to love her, she was denied. Saddened, she shriveled to nothing, her existence melting into a rock. Only her voice remained. Hence, the echo! Explained the Unexplainable

  29. Dionysian cults in ancient Greece were founded to worship Dionysus, god of grapes, vegetation, and wine. To justify religious practices

  30. The Romans used myths to create family trees for their leaders, enforcing the made-up idea that the emperors were related to the gods and were, then, demigods. To give credibility to leaders

  31. The ancient citizens of Greece would sacrifice and pray to an ORACLE. An oracle was a priest or priestess who would send a message to the gods from mortals who brought their requests. To give hope Where DID hope come from? After unleashing suffering, famine, disease, and many other evils, the last thing Pandora let out was HOPE.

  32. The Oracle at Delphi Most famous oracle in Greek mythology.

  33. Mount Olympus… …Where the Olympians lived. Who are the Olympians?

  34. The Olympians Are the 12 Main Gods

  35. Temperaments of the Olympians

  36. King of gods Heaven Storms Thunder lightning Zeus

  37. Poseidon • Zeus’s brother • King of the sea • Earthquakes • Horses

  38. Hades • Brother to Zeus and Poseidon • King of the Underworld (Tartarus) • Husband of Persphone

  39. Ares • God of war

  40. Hephaestus • God of fire • Craftspeople • Metalworkers • Artisans

  41. Apollo • God of the sun • Music • Poetry • Fine arts • Medicine

  42. Messenger to the gods Trade Commerce Travelers Thieves & scoundrels Hermes

  43. Dionysus • God of Wine • Partying (Revelry)

  44. Hera • Queen of gods • Women • Marriage • Childbirth

  45. Demeter • Goddess of Harvest • Agriculture • Fertility • Fruitfulness • Mom to Persephone

  46. Hestia • Goddess of Hearth • Home • Community

  47. Athena • Goddess of wisdom • Practical arts • War

  48. Aphrodite • Goddess of love and beauty

  49. Artemis • Goddess of hunting and the moon.

  50. The End

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