Greek drama

And the Antigone by Sophocles

Why Greek drama is important

• It stands at the beginning of Western Civilization which we have inherited.

• It influenced the literature of the Romans, and through them, the Middle Ages.

• It endures as great literature, when so much from the past is lost, and some of what is not lost is not great.

• It addresses fundamental human conflicts and concerns.

Our Greek vocabulary heritatage

• Many words have come down to us from Greek drama, though they often denoted something different back then.

Orchestra

• Nowadays we define it as an ensemble of musicians, especially string players, who perform a classical repertoire.

Orchestra

• In Greek times, this was the sacred circle devoted to the worship of the God Dionysus.

• Dionysus was the Greek god of “sex, drugs, and rock-and-roll.”

• His worship involved states of possession, “ex-stasis.” Ecstacy

• The orchestra was what we would call the stage. It is where the actors performed.

The Chorus

• Nowadays a chorus is a group of singers in a choir.

• It also is part of a song that is repeated.

• Sometimes we talk about a chorus as though everyone speaks in agreement.

• But that’s not how the Greeks knew it.

Chorus continued

• The chorus was originally the main body of ecstatic worshippers of Dionysus.

• They sang and danced for the god, for whom there was an altar in the middle of the orchestra.

• They wore masks and took on roles.

Thespis, the first actor

• Eventually, one person stood out from the chorus and began acting as a single human being. We know him by name: Thespis.

• He was the first actor.

• To this day “thespian” refers to an actor or actress, especially one on the stage, as opposed to film, video, or Youtube.

• Plays were written that had only one actor. Unfortunately, none of those survive.

What did the chorus do?

• On stage during entire tragedy.

• Sang and danced choral odes, which were the most poetic part of the play.

• Sometimes interacted with characters, either as a group of through a leader called a Choragos.

• Usually represented public opinion, such as that of old men, or of the women of the palace, or of the army at battle.

Chorus, continued

• They commented on the action of the play.

• Represented public opinion or public morality.

• Provided breaks in the action. “Interludes,” though the plays were continuous.

• The playwright wrote the music and choreographed the dance.

The Greek Theatre: physical presence

• Greek theatres were originally built on hillsides.

• Word “theatre” from theasthai "to behold" (related to thea "a view, a seeing; a seat in the theater," theates "spectator") + -tron, suffix denoting place.

• A “Place to Behold.”

• Or “A seat in a theatre.”

• You can sit and behold, but you’re in a Greek theatre.

Greek Theatre, physical aspects

• We have talked about the orchestra, the sacred space.

• And “theatron,” the seats or spectacle.

• The building behind the orchestra was called the skene. From it we get an important English word. What is it?

• The skene was the background to the play. It was a place where actors and chorus got dressed, and where they could make entrances and exits.

Greek theatre, physical aspects, contd.

• Greek theatres for tragedy and comedy were build outdoors.

• Sometimes they faced a harbor or a beautiful mountainside.

• Greeks often build theatres, temples, and public buildings to be in relationship with their physical environment.

• A number of Greek theatres survive today all around the Mediterranean Sea.

• Some of them host occasional performances of reconstructed Greek plays, both comedy and tragedy.

Customs and conventions

• All actors were male; women’s roles played by men.

• They wore masks; actors apparently did several roles.

• Entered and made exit through from theasthai "to behold" (related to thea "a view, a seeing; a seat in the theater," theates "spectator") + -tron, suffix denoting place. .

• Chorus entered first through a special door, the parados. We get an English word for “procession” from it.

Conventions, continued

• Violence might be discussed, but it never happened in the sacred orchestra.

• Messengers were important—minor characters who related news onstage.

Major tragic poets

• Aeschylus: introduced a second actor, allowing dialogues on stage.

• Seven Against Thebes tells the story of Polyneices and Eteocles.

• The Oresteia, a trilogy, based on the return of Agamemnon after the Trojan War, his death, along with Cassandra, by the hands of his wife Clytemnestra and her lover.

• Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, The Suppliants.

• Story of murder and revenge and the healing of the human soul.

Major Tragic Poets

• Sophocles. Died 406 B.C.E.

• The most beautiful boy in Athens. Led the ceremonial procession after the victory at Marathon, 480 B.C.E.

• Had a political and military career. One of the important citizens of Athens in his time.

• Brilliant poet, musician, choreographer.

• Only 7 of his 120 tragedies survive, though we know their names and subjects.

Sophocles

• Added a third actor to the stage, allowing for more dramatic interaction.

• Reduced the size of the chorus. May have hung canvas backdrops on skene.

• Reduced size and importance of chorus. They became the representation of public opinion, enacting such bodies as the old men of the city, or the women, or some other group.

• Choral odes are poetic masterpieces.

• Allowed influences of gods, with human choice and error.

Euripdes

• Died 406 B.C.E. Younger contemporary of Sophocles.

• More of his tragedies survive, than any other tragic poet, 19.

• Wrote Medea, Trojan Women, The Bacchae, and Cyclops, (the only extant satyr play.) and Alcestis, (tragedy with elements of satyr play)

Euripides

• "He was a problem to his contemporaries and he is one still; over the course of centuries since his plays were first produced he has been hailed or indicted under a bewildering variety of labels. He has been described as 'the poet of the Greek enlightenment' and also as 'Euripides the irrationalist'; as a religious sceptic if not an atheist, but on the other hand, as a believer in divine providence and the ultimate justice of divine dispensation. He has been seen as a profound explorer of human psychology and also a rhetorical poet who subordinated consistency of character to verbal effect; as a misogynist and a feminist; as a realist who brought tragic action down to the level of everyday life and as a romantic poet who chose unusual myths and exotic settings. He wrote plays which have been widely understood as patriotic pieces supporting Athens' war against Sparta and others which many have taken as the work of the anti-war dramatist par excellence, even as attacks on Athenian imperialism. He has been recognized as the precursor of New Comedy and also what Aristotle called him: 'the most tragic of poets' (Poetics 1453a30). And not one of these descriptions is entirely false.—Bernard Knox[62]

Aristotle, the Smartest Guy in the World

• Polymath

• Politics, Poetics, Physics, Metaphysics

• Became the great authority for many centuries.

Aristotle

• Died 322 BCE.

• Student of Plato, teacher of Alexander the Great

• Knew more about Greek drama, especially tragedies, than anybody before or after.

• Read plays that are lost to us, saw them performed.

• Explained drama in a work called Poetics.

Aristotle’s Unities

• This is what Aristotle thought a great tragedy had.

Aristotle unities: Place

• All the action took place in one location. For example, in Oedipus Tyrannos and Antigone, the action is all in front of the palace.

Aristotle Unities, contd.

• Unity of plot.

• No sub-plots, as in modern novels, movies, and TV series.

• Everything in the play was focused on the central conflict.

Aristotle’s Unities, contd.

• Unity of TIME.

• Everything occurred in real time (the action took place on stage as it might in reality) or else at least within a 24-hour period.

• No great gaps of time. All is compacted.

More on Aristotle

• He makes many other observations about tragedy in his Poetics.

• Whatever he wrote about comedy is lost to us.

• There is a great book and movie, The Name of the Rose, which is about the recovery of Aristotle in the Middle Ages, and his loss.

Deus ex machina

• Literally, “god from a machine.”

• Means a contrived ending in which a god is called down from on high.

• Aristotle thought deus ex machina endings sucked. So do most modern critics.

• Sophocles’ play Philoctetes, has a deus ex machina ending, in which Heracles comes down to resolve the conflict between Philoctetes and Odysseus. But it’s a great play. Research it for extra credit.

Tragedies

• Greeks had an agonistic view of life. Excellence, or arête, was shown through struggle.

• These struggles could be athletic, aesthetic, or intellectual.

• They loved debate, dialectic, and rhetoric.

• Plays were presented in competitive settings.

• People saw a bunch of plays in one day, then a winner was announced.

Sophocles

• Sophocles emerged victorious in dramatic competitions at 18 Dionysia and 6 Lenaia festivals.

• Of his 120 plays, 7 survive.

• Oedipus Tyrannos, Oedipus at Colonus, Antigone.

• Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra, and Philoctetes,

Importance of tragedy

• Greek ladies were admitted.

• Poor men were given a day’s wages in Athens to attend tragedy.

• Considered a moral lesson for the city, or polis.

Antigone

• The importance of the Oedipus legends, which all the audience would have known.

• Aristotle said one of the most powerful forms of tragedy involves the family.

• Oedipus was a man who could understand the universal human condition without knowing who he as an individual was.

Oedipus

• “Swollen foot” vs. “The One Who Knows.”

• His children are his siblings.

• His brother-in-law Creon is also his children’s uncle.

• Has many of the characteristics of Raglan and Campbell’s hero monomyth

• Is a tragic her brought low by his particular hamartia, which is hubris, overwhelming pride.

Antigone, the problem

• What happens if law and justice for society conflicts with the laws of religion and conscience?

Antigone, a double tragedy

• Who is the tragic hero or heroine of the play? Why do you think that?