Ateneo Project
Ancient Drama & Literature
Rivendell School: Maiars
Literature
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks) after Paris
of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in
Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's
Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; the Odyssey describes
Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have survived
through fragments.
Greek theatre
Most Greek cities had a theatre. It was in the open air, and was usually a bowl-shaped arena on a hillside. Some
theatres were very big, with room for more than 15,000 people in the audience. All the actors were men or boys.
Dancers and singers, called the chorus, performed on a flat area called the orchestra. Over time, solo actors also
took part, and a raised stage became part of the theatre. The actors changed costumes in a hut called the "skene".
Painting the walls of the hut made the first scenery. The plays were comedies (funny, often poking fun at rulers)
or tragedies (sad and serious, with a lesson about right and wrong).
What were Greek plays like?
Greek actors wore masks, made from stiffened linen, with holes for eyes and mouth. Actors also wore wigs.
They wore thick-soled shoes too, to make them look taller, and padded costumes to make them look fatter or
stronger. The masks showed the audience what kind of character an actor was playing (sad, angry or funny).
Some masks had two sides, so the actor could turn them round to suit the mood for each scene. The best actors
and play writers were awarded prizes - a bit like the Hollywood Oscars and BAFTAs today. The most famous
writers of plays were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides for tragedy and Aristophanes for comedy.
Arts festivals and the Oracle
The arts, such as music, singing and poetry, played a part in Greek festivals. The Pythian Games took place
near Delphi every four years. Winners got prizes, just like winning athletes. Delphi was famous for its Oracle.
Here Greeks believed the sun-god Apollo answered questions about the future. People came to put questions to
the priestess of Apollo. She was called the Pythia. She gave Apollo's answers in a strange muttering voice.
What she said often had two or more meanings, so it was hard to say the Oracle was ever wrong.
Trojan War
In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans (Greeks)
after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important
events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably
through Homer's Iliad and the Odyssey. The Iliad relates a part of the last year of the siege of Troy; the Odyssey
describes Odysseus's journey home. Other parts of the war are described in a cycle of epic poems, which have
survived through fragments. Episodes from the war provided material for Greek tragedy and other works of
Greek literature, and for Roman poets including Virgil and Ovid.
Ateneo Project
Ancient Drama & Literature
Rivendell School: Maiars
The war originated from a quarrel between the goddesses Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, after Eris, the goddess
of strife and discord, gave them agolden apple, sometimes known as the Apple of Discord, marked "for the
fairest". Zeus sent the goddesses to Paris, who judged that Aphrodite, as the "fairest", should receive the apple.
In exchange, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all women and wife of Menelaus, fall in love with
Paris, who took her to Troy. Agamemnon, king of Mycenae and the brother of Helen's husband Menelaus, led
an expedition of Achaean troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years because of Paris' insult. After the
deaths of many heroes, including the Achaeans Achilles and Ajax, and the Trojans Hector and Paris, the city
fell to the ruse of the Trojan Horse. The Achaeans slaughtered the Trojans (except for some of the women and
children whom they kept or sold as slaves) and desecrated the temples, thus earning the gods' wrath. Few of the
Achaeans returned safely to their homes and many founded colonies in distant shores.
Whether there is any historical reality behind the Trojan War is an open question. Those who believe that the
stories of the Trojan War are derived from a specific historical conflict usually date it to the 12th or 11th
centuries BC, which corresponds with archaeological evidence of a catastrophic burning of Troy VII.[4]
Iliad
The Iliad (sometimes referred to as the Song of Ilion or Song of Ilium) is an ancient Greek epic poem attributed
to Homer. Set during the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of the city of Troy (Ilium) by a coalition of Greek
states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the
warrior Achilles.
Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions more or less
complete tale of the Trojan War.
Along with the Odyssey, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version
is usually dated to around the eighth century BC.[1] Recent statistical modelling based on language evolution has
found it to date to 760–710 BC.[2]
Odyssey
The Odyssey (Ancient Greek: Ὀδύσσεια, Odýsseia) is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed
to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second oldest extant work of
Western literature, the Iliad being the oldest. It is believed to have been composed near the end of the 8th
century BC, somewhere in Ionia, the Greek coastal region of Anatolia.[1]
The poem mainly centers on the Greek hero Odysseus (known as Ulysses in Roman myths) and his journey
home after the fall of Troy. It takes Odysseus ten years to reach Ithaca after the ten-year Trojan War.[2] In his
absence, it is assumed he has died, and his wifePenelope and son Telemachus must deal with a group of unruly
suitors, the Mnesteres (Greek: Μνηστῆρες) or Proci, who compete for Penelope's hand in marriage.
Among the most noteworthy elements of the text are its non-linear plot, and the influence on events of choices
made by women and serfs, besides the actions of fighting men. In the English language as well as many others,
the word odyssey has come to refer to an epic voyage.
Ateneo Project
Ancient Drama & Literature
Rivendell School: Maiars
Homer In the Western classical tradition, Homer is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as
the greatest of ancient Greek epic poets. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and
have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.
When he lived is unknown. Herodotus estimates that Homer lived 400 years before his own time, which would
place him at around 850 BC,[1] while other ancient sources claim that he lived much nearer to the supposed time
of the Trojan War, in the early 12th century BC.[2] Most modern researchers place Homer in the 7th or 8th
centuries BC.
The formative influence of the Homeric epics in shaping Greek culture was widely recognized, and Homer was
described as the teacher of Greece.
Aristophanes ; (446
BC –386
BC),
son
of
Philippus,
of
the deme
Cydathenaus,[3] was
a comic playwright of ancient Athens. Eleven of his 30 plays survive virtually complete. These, together with
fragments of some of his other plays, provide the only real examples of a genre of comic drama known as Old
Comedy, and they are used to define the genre.[4] Also known as the Father of Comedy[5] and the Prince of
Ancient Comedy,[6] Aristophanes has been said to recreate the life of ancient Athens more convincingly than any
other author.[7] His powers of ridicule were feared and acknowledged by influential contemporaries.
Ateneo Project
Ancient Drama & Literature
First Part of The Odyssey
Rivendell School: Maiars
Homer
Greek Masks
Ancient Greek Theatre