Greek Theater
History and Development
Theater of Dionysus - History
• Regular part of the communal life of the city
• Began as a dance - oldest element was a chorus group of dancers
• "Chorus" in Greek means dance not song (think of
the word choreography)
• Although primitive dances occur throughout many
cultures, only Athenian Dionysian festivals turned
into drama!
The First Actor - A Hypocrite
• Who introduced the first actor? Thespis, which is why
actors are called thespians
• Why break the chorus? Began most likely w/ a playwright
separating a person from the group so the single figure
could answer questions or issues of the group -- allows
more than just the chorus' messages b/c there is someone to
play off
• Greeks called this first actor hypokrites, which in Greek
originally meant "to answer"
• The connection from hypokrites to hypocrite-- think about
it: an actor does an impression of what they are not, and a
hypocrite betrays what they are by symbolically doing
something w/ a mask (becoming someone else)
Theater in Sophocles’ Day
• Plays in theater of Dionysus were an act of worship
• Dionysus: god of fertility -- all living, growing things, especially the
vine
• Festival took place in early spring (when things bloom!)
• Theater only in season for the three-day festival, so heavily attended
• 3 days of song and religious procession
• 3 days of tragedy competition
• Each day one poet (dramatist) presented 3 original tragedies and a
fertility play
• Each afternoon a comic poet offered a comedy
Performances
• Plays were performed only once
• Funded by the polis
• Plays were presented in competition w/
one another
• Tragedies dealt w/ stories from the
mythic past
• Comedies with contemporary figures
and problems
Why Tragedy Specifically?
• The chorus represents the people
• The chorus chant would lament the anguish or
sins/misdeeds/issues/problems of the year
• Tragedy is a framework wherein these issues can
be aired, and everyone can experience the
cleansing – sort of like confession
• Catharsis – allows people to collectively
experience a release of tension and come away
pure
Setting the Stage
• Theaters were outdoor
• Three actors wore masks, alternated
them to play different roles (changed in
the skene area)
• A chorus also occupied the orchestra
(performance space), moving, singing,
and responding to the action of the play;
acted as a kind of collective conscience
Layout
Skene - literally “tent” decorated as a backdrop
and used as a changing
area
Orchestra - literally “dancing
space” - performance space
where chorus interacted w/
the actors; often included an
altar to Dionysus in the
center
Theatron - seating area
Parados - entrance/exit
(think “parade route”)
Amphitheater at Delphi
Identify the Theater’s
Elements
Skene
Orchestra
Parados
Theatron
Play Structure - Overview
• After a prologue spoken by one or more
characters, the chorus enters, singing and
dancing. Scenes then alternate between
spoken sections (dialogue between
characters, and between characters and
chorus) and sung sections (during which the
chorus danced)
Play Structure - Components
• Prologue: One or two characters give the mythological
background
• Parodos: Sung by the chorus as it first enters the orchestra
and dances
• Episodes: When the characters and chorus interact
• Stasimons: At the end of each episode, the other
characters usually leave the stage and the chorus dances
and sings a stasimon, or choral ode. The ode usually
reflects on the things said and done in the episodes, and
puts it into some kind of larger mythological framework
• Exodos: At the end of play, the chorus exits singing a
processional song which usually offers words of wisdom
related to the actions and outcome of the play
Geography of the Play
http://wapedia.mobi/en/Ancient_Thebes_(Boeotia)
Story of Oedipus
• O considers himself the son of Polybos,
King of Corinth, but in reality he wsa to
have been exposed as a baby on Mt.
Kithaeron to die – his ankles fastened
with a pin holding them together. But a
shepherd took pity on him and carried
him to Corinth
• O grows up a prince of Corinth – son of
Polybos and Merope
O Receives Bad News
• O overhears a conversation that
intimates he is not Polybos’ son
• He goes to the oracle at Delphi, who tell
him he is destined for tragedy – that he
will kill his father and marry his mother
• The threat of patricide (a serious
transgression) is so strong he banishes
himself from Corinth to escape the
prophecy
Story of Oedipus, Part 3
• In his wanderings he meets an old man
with some friends at a crossroads
• There is a quarrel and O kills the old
man
• O continues on and finally comes to
Thebes, where the sphinx terrorizes the
city
The Riddle of the Sphinx
• What goes on four legs in the morning,
two legs at noon, and three legs at
evening?
Oedipus Takes the Throne
• O, strong in intellect, solves the riddle
and the sphinx kills herself
• The people are grateful, crown him king
of Thebes since their king Laius has
been killed while on a journey
• O marries Jocasta, the widow queen,
and they have two sons and two
daughters
Thebes Plagued
• 15 years of fake prosperity pass – the
gods are disgusted
• The land is sterile; nothing will grow;
animals do not bring forth young, no
children are born alive
• Thebes is threatened with extinction,
and the people come to O asking him to
help them again
The Questions
• Who has caused the gods to so harass
Thebes? What was the crime?
• How can Thebes be saved, (if indeed it can
be)?
• The play is not calm – it is fraught with
tension, fear, boldness, moving almost to
hysteria
• The play concerns not only the life or death of
an individual, but an entire polis – a whole
people