Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and
Aristophanes,

Festival of Dionysus, the god of grapes, wine, “ritual madness and
religious ecstasy” (“Dionysus” in Wikipedia)

In several myths, he is ritually killed and dismembered and his parts
scattered

Throughout the land (like Osiris)

Parallels agricultural cycle of death in winter and rebirth in spring

Four Dionysiac celebrations each winter in Athens

The point was to guarantee fertility of soil

Also fertility of the community

Became contests for the best plays where winning playwrights won great
prizes

March-April – celebrating the end of winter

Were also periods of relaxation from traditional roles, dress, and
inhibitions

3 tragedies and a satyr play (erotic and comic)

Free to everybody since rich people paid
Right below the Parthenon (the Acropolis) in the center of Athens
Theatrical performances began in the 6th century (500’s) BCE as
part of the cult of Dionysus.

“The winners received monuments to display the tripods they had won.
The monument that displayed the winners’ tripod would be placed
around the theater and along a street that led East; the Street of the
Tripods” (“Theater of Dionysus” Wikipedia)

One of the major winners was Aeschylus, who won in 458 BCE for his
Oresteia: Agamemnon, Choephori, and Eumenides. It is 3 plays that start
with Clytemnestra’s revenge on Agamemnon for killing her daughter
Iphigenia, goes through Orestes dilemma in that he must kill his mother,
and ends with Athena founding the jury system. Innovation of Aeschylus
was to have two actors: “to intensify the dramatic value of each agon,
the confrontation between antagonists” (Jacobus 38).

 Orchestra
– where chorus sang & danced
 Proskenion – “scene house” – a place for the
actors and a background for the action
 One at Epidaurus:
 Mekane
– booms or derricks to lower actors
down to stage to simulate Gods entering
(deus ex machina)
 Tragedy – “song for the sacrificial goat”
 Agon – dramatic confrontation,
 single actor against the Chorus
 Masks – so one actor can do
 several parts

Strophe: choral ode, sung by Chorus as it moved from right to left

Antistrophe: sung as Chorus moved left to right

Parodos: Songs sung while moving onto the stage

Stasima – sung while standing still

In Antigone: the Chorus consists of men loyal to the state

Satyr play: comic & erotic. Played with phallus, a mock penis.

Comedy: in Greek theater, it “shows people from a lower social order
than the nobility, who are the main figures in a tragedy” (Jacobus 36).
 Fifth
century BCE
 Sophocles: (441) Antigone, Oedipus Rex,
Oedipus at Colonus, Ajax, and Electra
 Euripides – Medea, The Trojan Women, and
The Bacchae
 Aristophanes - comedies like The Frogs,
Lysistrata, The Clouds
 Rulers
of Thebes, King Laius and Queen
Jocasta, heard that their son, Oedipus,
would kill his own father so they had him
taken out to die on the hillside with his feet
pinned together. But he was found and raised
by the king and queen in Corinth. He found
out the prophecy at Delphi, so ran away from
Corinth, afraid he would kill the king of
Corinth. On the way, he got into a quarrel at
a crossroads with Laius and killed him. Then
he arrived in Thebes, solved the riddle of the
Sphinx (who had been besieging Thebes), and
married Jocasta since he was a local hero.
 Jocasta
and Oedipus had four children:
Eteocles and Polynices (sons) and Antigone
and Ismene (daughters). Then the city began
to suffer a plague. Oedipus found that it was
because he had killed his actual father and
married his actual mother. Jocasta hanged
herself. Oedipus took out his eyes and left
with his two daughters.
 Eteocles and Polynices fought over who
would rule Thebes. They died fighting.
Creon buried Eteocles but not Polynices. The
play starts.