Background Information (page 1)
Greek Drama--Introduction--Origins
Greek Drama: Out of Ritual
David Adams Leeming
NEXT: Greek Drama Introduction Continued--The Theater
Greek Drama--Introduction--Origins
The Temple of Apollo at Delphi. |
Greek Drama: Out of Ritual
David Adams Leeming
| You probably never thought of religious services as being forms of drama, but in ancient Greece they were. Greek drama grew out of religious rituals honoring Dionysos, the god of wine and fertility. During these old celebrations, worshipers would dance around the altar of the god of wine and ecstasy, singing hymns to the wild, passionate accompaniment of the flute. |
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| At some point during the sixth century B.C., these Dionysian celebrations became an annual festival held in Athens at a large outdoor amphitheater. Eventually, the dancing choruses of worshipers began competing for prizes (a bull or a goat). Tradition has it that a man named Thespis transformed these hymns into songs that still honored Dionysos but also told the story of a famous hero or even another god. Then Thespis added another innovation: One chorus member would step away from the others to play the part of that hero or god. This actor wore a mask and entered into a dialogue with the chorus. Drama as we know it was born when the playwright Aeschylus added a second individual actor to the performance, creating the possibility of conflict. (Thespis is immortalized in the word THESPIAN, which refers to an actor or actress.) |
| WORD ORIGINS: TRAGEDY = combination of the Greek words "tragoidia", based on "tragos", or "goat", AND "aeidein", "to sing"--hence "goat song". Maa...maa...maa! |  |
| By the end of the fifth century B.C., this annual festival, called the Dionysia, had become a four-day extravaganza. Public business was suspended; prisoners were released on bail. As many as fourteen thousand spectators gathered in the open-air Theater of Dionysos to watch as playwrights chosen by the city magistrates competed for prizes in tragedy and comedy. After an opening day of traditional choral hymns, three dramatists in each category presented their plays over the next three days. Each morning, one of the playwrights presented three tragedies and a satyr play, and that afternoon, another playwright presented a comedy. The tragedies, which had heroic characters and unhappy endings, were serious treatments of religious and mythic questions. The satyr plays were comic and even lewd treatments of the same themes. The comedies differed from the tragedies in having ordinary people as characters and happy endings. |
| http://www.nexuslearning.net/books/Elements_of_Lit_Course4/Collection%2011/Greek%20Drama,%20Out%20of%20Ritual.htm |
NEXT: Greek Drama Introduction Continued--The Theater
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