Ancient Greek Theatre
In the Beginning…
• Theatre evolves out of religious festivals that date back
to 1200 BC
• In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace, a cult arose
that worshipped Dionysus, the god of fertility, wine and
procreation (and eventually theatre). This Cult of
Dionysus, which probably originated in Asia Minor,
practiced ritual celebrations which may have included
alcoholic intoxication, orgies, human and animal
sacrifices, and perhaps even hysterical rampages by
women called maenads.
Cult of Dionysis
• The cult's most controversial practice involved, it is believed,
uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that created an
altered mental state. This altered state was known as 'ecstasis',
from which the word ecstasy is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and
'catharsis' also derive from Greek words for emotional release or
purification. Ecstasy was an important religious concept to the
Greeks, who would come to see theatre as a way of releasing
powerful emotions through its ritual power. Though it met with
resistance, the cult spread through the tribes of Greece over the
next six centuries. During this time, the rites of Dionysus
became mainstream, more formalized, and symbolic. The death
of a tragic hero was offered up to Dionysis rather than the
sacrifice of say, a goat. By 600 BC these ceremonies were
practiced in spring throughout much of Greece.
The Dithyramb
• An essential part of the rites of Dionysus was the dithyramb. The
word means 'choric hymn'. This chant or hymn was probably
introduced into Greece early accompanied by mimic gestures
and, probably, music. It began as a part of a purely religious
ceremony, like a hymn in the middle of a mass describing the
adventures of Dionysus. In its earliest form it was lead off by the
leader of a band of revelers, a group of dancers, probably
dressed as satyrs dancing around an altar. It was probably
performed by a chorus of about fifty men dressed as satyrs -mythological half-human, half- goat servants of Dionysus. They
may have played drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as they
danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Some accounts say they
also wore phallus-like headgear. It was given a regular form and
raised to the rank of artistic poetry in about 600 BC
The Dithyramb continued
• Introduced into Athens shortly before 500 BC,
dithyramb was soon recognized as one of the
competitive subjects at the various Athenian festivals.
For more than a generation after its introduction the
dithyramb attracted the most famous poets of the
day. By this time, however, it had ceased to concern
itself exclusively with the adventures of Dionysus and
begun to choose its subjects from all periods of
Greek mythology. In this way, over time the dithyramb
would evolve into stories in 'play' form: drama.
Thespis
• In about 600 BC, formal lyrics for the dithyramb
were written down. Some time during the next 75
years, an actor was added who interacted with
the chorus. This actor was called the protagonist,
from which the modern word protagonist is
derived, meaning the main character of a drama.
Introduce a second speaker and one moves from
one art, that of choric chant, to another, theatre.
Tradition ascribes this innovation to one Thespis,
and even gives him a date; he is said to have
performed Athens about 534 BC.
Athenian Drama Compeitions
• In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus, changed
the Dionysian Festivals and instituted drama
competitions. Thespis is said to have won the first
competition in 534 BC. In the ensuing 50 years, the
competitions became popular annual events. A
government authority called the archon would
choose the competitors and the choregos, wealthy
patrons who financed the productions. Even in
ancient Greece, the funding of the arts was a way
of tax avoidance. In return for funding a production,
the choregos would pay no taxes that year.
Amphitheatres
• During this time, major theatres were constructed,
notably the theatre at Delphi, the Attic Theatre and
the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens. The Theatre of
Dionysus, built at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens,
could seat 17,000 people. During their heyday, the
competitions drew as many as 30,000 spectators.
The words theatre and amphitheatre derive from the
Greek word theatron, which referred to the wooden
spectator stands erected on those hillsides. Similarly,
the word orchestra is derived from the Greek word for
a platform between the raised stage and the
audience on which the chorus was situated.
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Performances
• Plays were performed in the daytime. The annual
drama competitions in Athens were spread over
several, entire days. Actors probably wore little or
no makeup. Instead, they carried masks with
exaggerated facial expressions. They also wore
cothornos, or buskins, which were leather boots
laced up to the knees. There was little or no
scenery. Initially, most of the action took place in
the orchestra. Later, as the importance shifted
from the chorus to the characters, the action
moved to the stage.
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Styles of Greek Theatre Tragedy
• Between 600 and 500 BC, the dithyramb had evolved
into new forms, most notably the tragedy and the ‘satyr’
play. Tragedy, derived from the Greek words tragos
(goat) and ode (song), told a story that was intended to
teach religious lessons. Much like Biblical parables,
tragedies were designed to show the right and wrong
paths in life. Tragedies were not simply plays with bad
endingsTragedy was viewed as a form of ritual
purification. They depicted the life voyages of people
who steered themselves or who were steered by fate on
collision courses with society, life's rules, or simply fate.
Protagonist
• The tragic protagonist is one who refuses out of
either weakness or strength to acquiesce to fate.
Most often, the protagonist's main fault is hubris,
a Greek, word meaning false or overweening
arrogance. It could be the arrogance of not
accepting ones destiny (i.e. as in Oedipus Rex),
the arrogance of assuming the right to kill or the
arrogance of assuming the right to seek
vengeance Whatever the root cause, the
protagonist's ultimate collision with fate, reality, or
society is inevitable and irrevocable.
The Culture that Created Tragedy
• Tragedy did not develop in a vacuum. It was an
outgrowth of what was happening at the time in
Athens. One hand, Greek religion had dictated how
people should behave and think for centuries. On the
other, there was a birth of free thought and
intellectual inquiry. Athens in the 4th and 5th
centuries BC was bustling with radical ideas like
democracy, philosophy, mathematics, science and
art. It boasted philosophers like Plato, Socrates, and
Aristotle. In these respects -- a blossoming of free
thought after years of religious dicta -- ancient Athens
resembled Renaissance England, which not
coincidentally spawned the next great era in theatre.
• In essence, the ancient Athenians had
begun to question how nature worked, how
society should work, and what man's role
was in the scheme of things. Tragedy was
the poets' answer to some of these
questions -- How should one behave? How
can one accept the injustices of life? What
is the price of hubris? Read a soliloquy from
a Greek tragedy, or from Hamlet or
Macbeth, and what you will hear is these
questions being asked.
Great Playwrights
• Around 484 BC there appeared on the Athenian
theatre scene a playwright named Aeschylus.
Aeschylus turned the dithyramb into drama. He
added a second actor (the antagonist) to interact
with the first. He introduced props and scenery and
reduced the chorus from 50 to 12. Aeschylus'
crowning work was The Oresteia, a trilogy of
tragedies first performed in 458 BC. They tell the
legend of Agamemnon, the Greek war hero who was
murdered by his wife Clytemnestra, and the pursuit
of justice by his children, Orestes and Electra.
Aeschylus makes a point that has been echoed for
centuries since: that the root of evil and suffering is
usually human arrogance.
Great Playwrights
• Sophocles' contribution to drama was the addition of
a third actor and an emphasis on drama between
humans rather than between humans and gods.
Aristotle used Sophocles' play, Oedipus Rex for his
classic analysis of drama, The Poetics. Sophocles'
plays are suffused with irony. In The Oedipus Trilogy,
Oedipus seeks the truth about his father's murder.
The truth that awaits him, however, is that he is the
murderer. Sophocles' plays are about the folly of
arrogance and the wisdom of accepting fate.
Sophocles believed in the Greek gods, but his plays
are suffused with existential insights.
Great Playwrights
• Euripides has eclipsed both Sophocles and
Aeschylus in modern popularity. The attraction
to him stems largely from his point of view,
which finds a strong echo in our attitudes. His
plays were not about Gods or royalty but real
people. He placed peasants alongside princes
and gave their feelings equal weight. He
showed the reality of war, criticized religion, and
portrayed the forgotten of society: women,
slaves, and the old.
• Euripides is credited with adding to the
dramatic form the prologue, which "set the
stage" at the beginning of the play, and the
deus ex machina, which wrapped up loose
ends at the close. Aside from those devices,
there is less contrivance, fate or philosophy in
Euripides than in either Aeschylus or
Sophocles. There is instead a poignant
realism. During his life, Euripides was viewed
as a heretic and was often lampooned in
Aristophanes' comedies. Extremely cynical of
human nature, he became a bookish recluse
and died in 406 BC, two years before
Sophocles.
Comedy - Great Playwright
• Greek comedy had two periods: Old Comedy,
represented by Aristophanes; and New
Comedy. Aristophanes used three actors, a
chorus that sung, danced, and sometimes
participated in the dialogue. The Chorus's
address to the audience reveals the author's
opinion. In these speeches, he ridicules the
Gods, Athenian institutions, popular and
powerful individuals, including Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides. Aristophanes
invited satire aiming his lampoonery at those
who stuck their heads above the crowd:
New Comedy
• By 317 BC, a new form had evolved that
resembled modern farces. The use of overt
satire, topicality and the pointed lampooning
of celebrated characters to be found in
Aristophanes' style were replaced by
mistaken identities, ironic situations, ordinary
characters and wit. This period is called New
Comedy. From these works they were
incorporated into Shakespeare's Comedy of
Errors, Stephen Sondheim's A Funny Thing
Happened on the Way to the Forum.
• Unlike Aristophanes, these characters were not
celebrities but ordinary people. The chorus in
resembles a modern chorus -- singers and
dancers who provided filler between acts;
sometimes portrayed them as drunken
audience members. Characters were classic
comedy archetypes, such as the curmudgeonly
old man in The Grouch, who would become
staples of comedy. Most of all, the style of
comedy with its emphasis on mistaken identity,
romance and situational humour, became the
model for subsequent comedy, from the
Romans to Shakespeare to Broadway.