Introduction to Greek Drama

The Best veerence in Western literature to staying chorus of dancers in

Book 15 of The bad, where Humer dies the great shield of Achilles that
Hephaestus fashion know it, is wh lster Athenien invention, but is
derives om de Chorus, a group of pertas 30 men who sang and dann in
ein tive and now retellings of myths of the gats. To this day, at the ace of
Knossos in Crete, the stands an ancient ranglar anting oor, perhaps the
first stage tideeit. the edhe the circular performing arra af Creek theatres,
comes from the emai, te dance in a row, and biom urchestes, dancer

The Origins of the Drama

is genersily thought that worship of the god s included hymns sung by

Chorux of prisis Ust eventually the Cherus divided into two parts, ne
answering the other in wintiphonal response, that later one priest, with
dramatic infection and gesture narrated portions of the stories of the god,
and that a second speaker was eventually added so that the history of the
and might be shown not simply narrated. Thus, drama was bom

Because Greek tragedy presents the intersection of god and man and
asserts the unitation of human understanding and endessour, sacred
origin for drama seems likely. The presence of an alter in the orchestra
ground, the front-row seat in the amplithestre for the pries of Dionysus,
the absence of female perfurmers, the use of the mask and the
convention that forbids the show of violence onatage als puter to hieratic
origins

An Athenian natied Thespis is said to have been the one to add an

answerer to the Cherus in 534 BC. In honour of this imputet innovation,
he is called 'the father of the drama.

The Dramatic Festivals

Twice a year, in late January at the Lenau and in late Mancha the
Dionysis, the activity in Athens came to a halt and all cit numbering
15,000 to 20,000 repaired to the Theatre of Dionysus te the three days of
drama festival
The holidays were etc and religious, honouring the gods, celebrating
military and we actueenies, and presenting plave of unparalleled quality,

The Competition and Judgment

The selection and judging process showni popular desecracy in action
playwrights submitted either synapses. srple six or maths before the date
of performance, Czens selected by it then decided which of those
playwrights would be allowed to participate in that year's competition.
Each tragic playwright wes required to present Sour plays three
tragedies and a satys

The only extant example of the satys-play is the cyclops of Euripides,

dated perhaps 425 BC. It is assumed, from the Cyclops frum fragments,
and from scholarly immentary, that the saty plays spooled the trage
material of the playwrights preceding the plays Each comic playwright
presented one comety. The "City" "Creat Dionysia lasted three days,
with a different tetralogy and sumedy presented daily. Occasionally
there were tervale of particularly honoured works, but then, too, for a
single performance. A assigned to playwrights by lot and the rehearsal
period was ling. A wealthy citizen was designated to underwrite
rehearsal and production costs. At performance, 10 judges were chosen,
apuin by lot, from its submitted by each of the 10 divisions of the city,
10 votes were.com and 5 of the 10 were then drawn at random, and a
verdict announced The great skill and power of the Churus was
recognized by the fact that when the prize was awarded, it was the
Chorus-tramer, not the author, whose name was cited
The Physical Aspects of the Greek Theatre

The Creek theatres were aut uf door amphitheatre and Knitting without a
roof that has a central open space minde Timbers of sex inte hillsides
and built accommodate e people at one time. Ariatically they are nicious
s an, in the last row of the great theatre at Epidaurus, hear meine tisper
the stage bek The stage has bw parts an orchestr which circular playing
area with diameter of about 600 feet primarily try the Chorus, but
sometimes by actors, in the center stachia raised alar to Diccaux,
platform, called a roskenn prescerum) about 9 feet deep and 20 feet
long, raised above orchestra by a les steps and backed by the building
known as the skene henti. Central donible dours of the skene opened on
the platform the doors generally represented a palace or some other
relevant interior space, through these doors actors entered and exited
There may have been lateral doors as well. Inside, the skine anctioned as
a changing room for the actors and as a stotuge place for stage
machinery such as the mechane crane) and the ekkyklema resolving
platfirm on which a group of actors could be wheried out of the central
doors to represent in interior scene. Although some sort of mt must have
existed for costume and mask changes and for other tanie theatrical
purposes brum very early in theatre history, the skene as dramatic setting
ipalace, temple, cave, copse) perhaps began with the production in 458
BC of the Orentein On eittier side of the skin A passageway originally
called maodon, and later paredes, by which the Chorus entered and
departed
Masks
A mask was worn by every performer and was probably constructed of
linen All members of the Chorus wore identical masks. With the use of
masks, the two, and eventually there, actors assigned to each playwright
were able to come onstage as different characters in different scenes and,
as all performers were men, to play women's roles Manis emphasized
significant facial features-the cryptic saule of Dionysus, for example, in
the facchar, the suffering look of Oedipue
The Divisions of the Drama

Greek tragedy and to a lesser extent Greek comedy are divided into
episodes separated by Choral songs.
Names of Structural Divisions
Prologue: whatever dialogue precedes the entry of the Chorus This may
be a single speech of an actor or dialogue between actors.)
Parodos: the entry of the Chorus, in choral song Episode: a scene of
spoken dialogue.
Choral Song: any song of the Chorus after its entrance. Episode and
choral song, also called stasimon, alternate throughout the play.
Exodos: the concluding dialogue of the play, followed by the departure
of the Chorus
Specific Types of Scenes and Songs
Ephymnia: refrains between choral stanzas.

Epirrhema: alternation of choral song with iambic speech from actor

Kommos: a shared lament between Chorus and actor(s) Paean: a song of

praise to a god.

Additional Theatrical Terms

Protagonistes: the lead actor in a drama.
Deuteragonistes: the second actor in a drama.
Tritagonistes: the third actor in a drama.
Strophe, Antistrophe, and Epode: the usual pattern of a choral ode, in
which the meter and length of the first stanza (the strophet, sung by half
the Chorus, is mirrored in the second stanza (the antistrophe. sung by the
other half of the Chorus, followed by a shared and metrically different
final stanza (the epode).

Trilogy: the three-play unit in which tragedies were originally composed

Satyr-Play: the fourth play that a tragic playwright was expected to
present; it parodied aspects of the trilogy and was performed at the
trilogy's conclusion.
Tetralogy: the name given to the four-play group of trilogy and satyr
play
Greek Tragedy

The history of Western drama begins in the mid-sixth century at Athens.

The high period of Greek drama runs from the sixth to the mid-third
century, with special attention paid to the fifth century, when most of the
plays that we possess were produced.
Almost everything about the origins of tragedy is disputed, because the
evidence is scanty, and scholars disagree profoundly about how reliable
most of it is. Unfortunately, the very real questions about how tragedy
began have become entangled with two issues of great importance for its
interpretation: how religious tragedy was and how democratic it was.
Scholars tend to assume that if tragedy began as a ritual dance, must be
interpreted as a religious event: if it began under the democracy, it is
likely to be engaged with specifically democratic values. Neither of
these assumptions is necessarily true. Tragedy could have continued to
serve the same religious, social, and political functions through time, or
it could have changed as circumstances changed. However, because
scholars assume that we would know something crucial about tragedy if
we knew its origin, they become too invested in different possible
accounts,
The Greek word for tragedy is tragoidia, which breaks down
etymologically to tragos (goat) and ode (song). But in the classical
period the regular term in use was not the singular noun, tragoidia
(tragedy), but the personal plural tragoidot (the tragic singers). In either
case we have no problem with the second part (song), since the songs
(odes) of the Chorus, which in Aeschylus can comprise half the drama,
are sung formally in lyric meters and, the genre is traditionally derived
from those who sang and danced for Dionysus. But what have goats to
do with tragedy? Ancient and modern scholars have considered a range
of possibilities. One explanation is that a goat was the original prize for
the tragic competition, and hence tragedy is song for the goat for
tragoidoi, singers for the goat). Alternatively, the fact that Dionysus was
accompanied by goat-men (satyrs), combined with Aristotle's
pronouncement that tragedy originated from something rather satyric,
led others to conclude that tragedy was so named from these original
performers-tragedy is thus song of the goat(s) and trigoidot (the goat-
singers). The more recent view is that y developed out of a choral
performance at the sacrifice of e tragedy thus becoming song at the goat.
was honoured it Athens with #

Dionysus number celebrations: the Rural Dionysia (festivals held in the

various inc communities around Attica). the Lenala in late January
Anthesteria (Flower Time) in mid Febru ry, and the City Dionysia in late
March or early April Drama was produced principally at two of the
festivals, the Lenaia and the City Dionysia. There is sime evidence that
previously performed plays could be restaged at the various celebrations
of the Rural Dionysis around Attica, but the two principal festivals for
the performance of drama were the Lenaia and the City Dionysia at
Athens. While the festivals honoured the god Dionysus and the plays
performed in a theatre adjoining his sacred precinct, they were also state
occasions run by the public officials of Athens, part of the communal
life of the city (polis). At Athens dramatic competitions were part of the
festivals of Dionysus, Aristotie tells us un Poetics that tragedy developed
from those who led the dithyramb, ind that the dithyramb was connected
with Dionysus; it has become traditional to seek the origins of tragedy in
the rituals of Dionysus. The introduction of satyr-drama was connected
by certain ancient sources with a saying, "nothing to do with Dionysus"
and explained by some as an attempt to retain the presence of Dionysus
within drama.
Chorus in Greek Tragedy

The best-known traditional element of Greek tragedy is the chorus-the

onstage performers of song and dance which functions as a single voice
or even a single idea in material form. Individual members of the chorus
were unnamed, anonymous individuals who were addressed either in the
singular or in the plural. In the absence af explict stage directions, the
alternating dialogues among protagonist, chorus, and the other actors
divide the play into discrete secues: these provide the structure for Greek
tragedy. Aristotle in his Avce named and defined these elements: the
parados is sung as the chorus arrives at its section of the stage called the
orchestra, the atasimon is performed while the chorus occupies the
orchestra; the prologue occurs before the chorus makes its first
appearance; the episode is the activity between the songs, and the
exodos is the activity that follows the final choral song.
Chanting in unison, the chorus presented its dialogue in the form of
songs, while dancing, often to the accompaniment of a drum and a
flutelike instrument called an aulos. Choral songs had several functions:
to provide interludes between episodes, to break up long dialogue
sections, and to create scene transitions. The chorus had a leader
(coryphaeus) who served as its spokesman.

Greek tragedy was written in meter, consisting of rhythmical patterns of

long and short syllables. In contrast, English meter consists of stressed
and unstressed syllables. Unlike some English poetry, Greek verse did
not use rhyme. The chorus employed a variety of complicated meters, at
times unique to each choral ode. These choral odes consisted of two sets
of stanzas, called the strophe and the antistrophe, Actors tended to use a
meter called iambic trimeter (alternating short and long syllables),
Occasionally, to indicate rapid action, anapests (two short and one long
syllable) were used. The speeches of actors would be long (rhesis) or
short (stichomythia) alternating lines.
Chanting in unison, the chorus presented its dialogue in the form of
songs, while dancing, often to the accompaniment of a drum and a
flutelike instrument called an aulos. Choral songs had several functions:
to provide interludes between episodes, to break up long dialogue
sections, and to create scene transitions. The chorus had a leader
(coryphaeus) who served as its spokesman.

Greek tragedy was written in meter, consisting of rhythmical patterns of

long and short syllables. In contrast, English meter consists of stressed
and unstressed syllables. Unlike some English poetry, Greek verse did
not use rhyme. The chorus employed a variety of complicated meters, at
times unique to each choral ode. These choral odes consisted of two sets
of stanzas, called the strophe and the antistrophe, Actors tended to use a
meter called iambic trimeter (alternating short and long syllables),
Occasionally, to indicate rapid action, anapests (two short and one long
syllable) were used. The speeches of actors would be long (rhesis) or
short (stichomythia) alternating lines.
The chorus has multiple functions. The odes summarize the preceding
action or speculate about its significance; both help clarify the issues for
the audience. By anticipating the horrifying acts to come, the chorus can
act as a kind of companion to the audience: a shock prepared for is a
shock mitigated just enough to keep people in their seats. Generally the
chorus stands (like the audience) outside the action, but (unlike the
audience) makes comments and often has a stake in the outcome. The
chorus also functions as a normative standard against which the
protagonist struggles.

Since the consequences of the action in tragedies are generally frightful,

the chorus response can sound like the voice of humanity itself. By
framing and elevating the ideas inherent in the action, the chorus is
offering them to the audience for its own speculations. Finally, the
chorus stands in opposition to the dreadful notion that the universe is
without meaning. Its monumental task is to make sense of the suffering
it has witnessed onstage, thus keeping order intact and chaos at bay.
Bernard Zimmerman in Greek Tragedy: An Introduction explains the
different ways the tragic poets used the chorus: In Aeschylus [the
chorus] serves as a vehicle of the dramatic action, and in Sophocles
becomes a distinct dramatis persona with a minor part in that action. The
Euripidean chorus, by contrast, dismayed at what is happening around
and in part because of it, no longer participates in the action but only
sympathizes with the actors.
Introduction to Aeschylus
Life Aeschylus, the son of Euphorion, was born in the last quarter of the
sixth century BC, probably about 513 or 512 BC. The great Persian
Wars occurred during his early manhood, and he fought, certainly at
Marathon (where his brother was killed in action) and probably also at
Artemisium, Salamis, and Plataea. He is said to have begun at an early
age to write tragedies and he won his first victory was in 484 B.C. In or
about 476 BC, he visited Sicily and produced The Women of Etna at the
new city of Etna which Hieron had founded. In 472 BC, he produced his
The Persians at Athens, with Pericles s as his choregus (official sponsor)
and re-produced it, presumably in the next year, in Sicily.

Back in Athens in 468 BC, he was defeated by the young Sophocles, but
won again in 467 BC with a set of plays including The Seven against
Thebes. In 458 BC, he presented the Oresteia (Agamemnon, The
Libation Bearers, The Eumenides). He died in Gela, Sicily, in 456 or
455 BC, leaving behind him an epitaph which might be rendered as
follows:
Under this monument lies Aeschylus the Athenian, Euphorion's son,
who died in the wheatlands of Gela. The grove of Marathon with its
glories can speak of his valour in battle The long-haired Persian
remembers and can speak of it too.

He left behind more than seventy plays (the exact number is uncertain),
of which seven have survived. He is said to have won first prize thirteen
times while he lived, but after his death his tragedies were often
produced again, and in competition with living poets he won more prizes
still.
Under this monument lies Aeschylus the Athenian, Euphorion's son, who
died in the wheatlands of Gela. The grove of Marathon with its glories
can speak of his valour in battle The long-haired Persian remembers
and can speak of it too.

He left behind more than seventy plays (the exact number is uncertain),
of which seven have survived. He is said to have won first prize thirteen
times while he lived, but after his death his tragedies were often
produced again, and in competition with living poets he won more prizes
still.

Works

Aeschylus wrote more than seventy plays but only seven plays, as well
as many fragments, survive. Moreover, only four are truly complete. The
Persians (472 BC), a single play with no link to the (lost) Shot anym
produced with it, is the only surviving tragedy whose subject
Aeschylus wrote more than seventy plays but only seven plays, as well
as many fragments, survive. Moreover, only four are truly complete. The
Persians (472 BC), a single play with no link to the (lost) Shot anym
produced with it, is the only surviving tragedy whose subject

matter is taken from contemporary history; it stages the defeat of the

Persians and the return of Xerxes.
The Oresteia (458 BC) is the only surviving trilogy-in all probability a
form invented by Aeschylus. It comprises three connected tragedies:
Agamemnon, on the return of the victorious King Agamemnon and his
murder by his wife Clytemnestra; Libation Bearers, on the revenge of
his son Orestes and the murder of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus; and
Eumenides, on the trial and acquittal of Orestes at Athens.
The Seven against Thebes (467 BC) is the conclusion of a trilogy that
covered the fate of the Labdacids; the two plays that preceded it (Laius
and Oedipus) are lost, but may be reconstructed from the second
stasimon of the surviving tragedy. The first play focused on Laius and
his death in consequence of his disobedience to Apollo. The second was
devoted to Oedipus' discovery of his parricide and Sharon incestuous
marriage and its consequences: Oedipus' self-blinding and his curse
upon his sons. The third, surviving, tragedy begins with the
The third, surviving, tragedy begins with the siege of Thebes, defended
by Eteocles, by an Argive army led by Polynices, and ends with mutual
fratricide and the defeat of the Argives.

The Suppliant Maidens (463 BC) was either the first or the second play
of a trilogy devoted to the story of Danaus and his fifty daughters. It
deals with the arrival of the Danaids in Argos, pursued by their cousins,
the sons of Aegyptus, and the Argives' decision to grant the fugitives
asylum. All we know of Egyptians is the title, which explains why it has
been considered either as the first play focusing on the pursuit of the
Danaids by their cousins and ending with their flight, or as the second
beginning with the surrender of the Danaids to the sons of Aegyptus
after an Argive defeat and ending with the murder of the sons of
Aegyptus by their cousins on the wedding night. The third play,
Danaids, is better known: it began with the discovery of the corpses and
was devoted to the trial of Hypermestra, the only Danaid who disobeyed
her father and spared her husband, her vindication by Aphrodite, and the
eventual reconciliation of her sister to marriage.
Herington, 1986) point out that the major themes of the play are entirely
consistent with the themes observable elsewhere in Aeschylus' plays and
tend to accept the ancient and unanimous attribution of Prometheus
Bound to Aeschylus. This play, the only surviving part of a trilogy, was
followed by Prometheus Unbound, devoted to the loosing of Prometheus
by Heracles, who killed the eagle and released the Titan from his bonds.
The content of Prometheus, the Fire Carrier is not clear: according to
some, it was the first play of the trilogy and staged the bringing of the
fire to men, but many think that it concluded the trilogy with the
establishment of a cult of Prometheus at Athens and its associated torch
race.
The Story and the Story Behind the Story

Atreus (son of Pelops) reigning in Argos, banished his brother Thyestes,

who had corrupted his wife Aerope and disputed his rule. When
Thyestes returned in the guise of a suppliant, his life was spared by
Atreus but only that he might suffer a more horrible injury. Pretending to
celebrate his home-coming by a special feast, Atreus slew and served up
to him his two young children. The father, misled for the moment, with a
cry of agony kicked over the table and uttered a curse: May the entire
race of Pelops perish this same way! He was afterwards banished a
second time together with his third son Aegisthus, then a mere infant
Of Atreus we hear no more, but he was succeeded on the throne by
Agamemnon and Menelaus, who ruled conjointly in Argos. The two
brothers married two sis rs, Clytemnestra and Helen. In the course of
their reign they were visited by Paris or Alexander, son of King Priam,
whom they hospitably entertained. Paris repaid their kindness by
seducing Helen, the wife of Menelaus, and carrying her off with a
quantity of treasure on board his ship to Troy, leaving the husband
Agamemnon, against the wish of his oldest advisers, espoused
Agamemnon, against the wish of his oldest advisers, espoused

arrying her off with a

his brother's quarrel, and assembled a vast fleet of a thousand ships to

avenge the rape and recover Helen. The male population of Argos.
except those too old for military service and those too young, embarked
on the enterprise. The government was left in the hands of Clytemnestra
assisted by a body of elders who remained behind. At the moment of
setting out, the attitude of Heaven was declared by a significant omen.
Two eagles differently marked were observed preying together on a
pregnant hare. From this omen the prophet Calchas drew a twofold
conclusion partly favourable, partly the reverse. Recognising in the two
birds the two kings different in nature but now unanimous for war, he
foretold from their action that Troy should one day fall and her gathered
riches be despoiled. But as the fate of the hare and her unborn young
must be displeasing to Artemis, the protector of such creatures, he saw
reason to dread the displeasure of the goddess against the army when
assembled at her own port of Aulis, which had been assigned as the
point of departure for the fleet.
Shot on Then, taking leave of the sign, in language vague but
ominous ,he deprecated the occurrence of a storm which must lead to a
monstrous sacrifice, breeding enmity between a husband and a wife, and
entailing vengeance for a child.

As the prophet had feared, so it fell out. The fleet was detained by foul
weather at Aulis; the ships began to go to pieces: provisions were
running short, and every resource suggested by the diviners proved vain.
Agamemnon himself was impatient under these trials and would perhaps
have seized the excuse for abandoning his design, leaving it to Heaven
to punish the seducer of his brother's wife. Before taking this step,
however, he was informed of a remedy which would prove efficacious.
This was nothing less than the sacrifice of his own daughter, Iphigenia,
to Artemis. The cruel alternative now lay before him, either of killing his
child, or of refusing a personal sacrifice on behalf of the allies whom he
had summoned to take part in a personal quarrel. After weighing the
motives on either side, his calculating head got the better of his heart. In
a moment of moral obliquity he consented to the sacrifice, and the fleet
sailed. Ten years of labour and privation awaited him at Troy.
Agamemnon captured Troy in the tenth year, destroyed the city and its
temples, killed or enslaved the people, and set sail for the home. On the
sea, a terrible storm struck the fleet and Agamemnon, with a single
galley, made his way back to Argos, the Shot on hst of his ships being
sunk or driven out of sight and knowledge. With Al he brought his
mistress, Cassandra, captive princess and prophetees of tree