The history of Greek Tragedy
(From the Yale – New Haven Teachers Institute)
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The background
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Sophocles was one of three (Sophocles, Aeschylus, Euripides) great tragedians who lived and wrote
in 5th century B.C. Athens.
Tragedy was performed in Athens at the three annual festivals of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine
and revelry.
Theater began as a sort of religious worship in this polytheistic society.
On three successive days at the festival, three tragic poets (they were not called playwrights at this
time), who had been selected competitively earlier in the year, each presented a tetralogy consisting
of three tragedies and a satyr-play.
The festival was a celebration of life and fertility. People would dress up as goats or sheep because
they were considered the most fertile animals, they would sing the “goat song” and finally watch a
sad play. The word “tragedy” comes from the Greek word “tragos” which means “goat song”.
At the close of the festival, ten judges who had been chosen by lot, determined winners and awarded
prizes (medals), similar to our Olympic medal winners today.
The modern parallel for tragedy is actually the opera.
The Productions
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The poets chosen to compete at the festivals were assigned actors, chorus, extras, and musicians by
the state, but were responsible for almost all aspects of production. They wrote the plays, composed
accompanying music, directed the production, supervised rehearsals, and in earlier times, acted the
role of the protagonist.
The cost of the production was paid for by the choragus, a wealthy citizen appointed by the
government to do this as a public service. The privilege of backing plays was considered a great
honor, and the choragus shared the praise and awards given the poet if their play won first prize.
Because attendance was a civic and religious obligation as well as a source of entertainment,
admission to the theater was originally free. When it eventually became necessary to charge for
tickets, the state provided funds for all citizens who could not afford the price. For those who could
afford it, the price was two obols (see below), which was about equal to the wages an unskilled man
might earn for a day’s work. (Note the contrast between what modern theater has become: now,
attendance is considered a luxury and cost is prohibitively expensive.)
Obols
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Plots of the plays were taken from the great cycles of mythology. Myths and legends recorded what
was thought to be the collective social, political and religious history of the people.
o These stories included many problems of human life and the nature of the gods.
o The custom requiring use of these mythological stories in tragedy satisfied an essential
requirement of the religious function of drama, for it enabled the poets to deal with subjects
of great moral dignity and emotional significance.
o From a dramatic point of view, the use of plots and characters already familiar to the
audience gave the poets many opportunities for the use of irony and subtle allusions
that are not available to the modern playwright.
The Theater
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The word theatre comes from the Greek word “theatron” which means the “seeing place.” The Greek
theater was built in the open air and was generally quite large; the Theater of Dionysus at Athens, for
example, had more than 17,000 seats. The first rows of seats were stone thrones for principle citizens and
the priests of Dionysus. (Today, first row seats are often reserved for wealthy dignitaries, etc.) The theaters
were usually built into hollowed-out hillsides, and despite their size had excellent acoustics, so that words
spoken by the performers could easily be heard in all sections. It was shaped like a horseshoe and had rows
of stone seats rising upward and backward in tiers. Because of its association with religion, theaters were
often located near sanctuaries.
The circular area at ground level which was enclosed on three sides by the U-shaped theatron was known as
the orchestra, or dancing place of the chorus. (This is the same area in which the orchestra is seated for
modern performances.) In its center was a small altar to Dionysus on which sacrifices were made.
There were items of technical equipment in use. For special effects, there were devices for imitating
lightning and the sound of thunder, and there were other noise makers. A wheeled platform or eccyclema was
rolled out of the skene (wooden building used as a dressing room), to reveal a tableau of action which had
taken place indoors, mainly scenes of violence. The “machine” was one that could be mounted on the roof
of the skene and was used to bring about the miraculous appearance of the gods.
*For obvious reasons, the plays had to be performed using the daylight.
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Costumes
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Women were not allowed to take part in any of the productions, and were usually seated in the audience
toward the back in or near the slave sections. Males therefore had to play female roles, and this tradition
continued through Shakespeare’s time. Large masks were worn by the actors which prevented the audience
from identifying their faces, and helped to eliminate the physical incongruity of men impersonating women.
Masks helped the audience identify the sex, age and social rank of the characters, but also allowed for one
male to perform as multiple characters. Finally, the masks had small voice projection devices built into
them and were large enough that the people in the very back of the theater could hear and see them clearly.
The actors themselves had to be competent singers because many of their lines were chanted to music.
The masks worn were made of light-weight materials such as stiffened linen, leather, or light wood, and
were painted in a realistic fashion.
Besides the masks, actors wore large, extremely thick robes and platform-like shoes to make them appear
“larger than life.”
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The Function of the Chorus
The chorus, the nucleus from which tragedy evolved, continued to have a central place in dramas
throughout classical times. Being a member of a chorus was a lot like jury duty is for us today, as this was a
civic duty. The chorus, unlike the actors, consisted of non-professionals who had a talent for singing and
dancing and were trained by the poet in preparation for the performance. The standard number of
members of a chorus started out as 12, but was raised to 15 by Sophocles. In the earliest plays the
chorus was the most important; later the actors became more and more important, and in the end the
chorus was little more than a decoration to separate the episodes.
The use of the chorus varied depending on the method of the playwright and the needs of the play being
performed. The first function of the chorus was to chant an entrance song called the “parodos” as they
marched into the orchestra. Once the chorus had taken its position, it engaged in dialogue with the
characters through its leader, who alone spoke the lines of dialogue assigned to the chorus, as well as sang
and danced choral songs.
The chorus often acted as the “ideal spectator”, as in Oedipus Rex, wherein it clarifies the experiences and
the feelings of the characters in everyday terms and expresses the conventional attitude toward the
developments in the story. The chorus might also act as the subconscious of a character in a play.
(Staler and Hilton serve the purpose of the Greek chorus in The Muppet Show.)
In general, the chorus could serve up to seven functions:
1. to create its odes (a choric song of classical Greece, often accompanied by a dance and performed at a public
festival or as part of a drama.)
2. to introduce and question new characters
3. to point out significance of events as they occurred
4. to establish facts
5. to affirm the outlook of society
6. to cover the passage of time between events
7. to separate episodes
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Eventually, the chorus was “weeded out” of all performances. The main reason for this was the
introduction of additional actors and increasing sophistication in their dramatic use, and the more personal
and complex nature of the stories chosen for dramatization.
The Structure of a Tragedy
In ancient tragedies, scenes of dialogue alternate with choral songs. This allowed the chorus to comment in
its song in a general way on what has been said or done in the preceding scene. Greek tragedy was
performed without intermission or breaks.
The tragic play has a formal, stylized framework: prologue, parodos, episode, stasimon, and exodus. The
Prologue is the opening scene, in which the background of the story is established, usually through
monologue by a single actor, or in an expository dialogue between two actors. The Parodos was the
entrance of the chorus, usually chanting a lyric which bore some relation to the main theme of the play.
The Episode is the counterpart of the modern act or scene, in which the plot is developed through action
and dialogue between the actors, while the chorus sometimes plays a minor role. The Stasimon, a choral
ode, came at the end of each episode so that the tragedy is a measured alternation between episode and
choral comment. The Exodos was the final action after the last stasimon, ended by the ceremonial exit of
all the players.
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Terms to Know
A skene (where we get the word “scene” from) - was a covered structure where the actors changed their
costumes during the performance, which was sometimes used as the backdrop of the play.
An oracle: 1a. A shrine consecrated to the worship and consultation of a prophetic deity, as that of Apollo
at Delphi. b. A person, such as a priestess, through whom a deity is held to respond when consulted. c. The
response given, through such a medium, often in the form of an enigmatic statement or allegory.
Fate: The supposed force, principle or power that predetermines events.
Hubris is excessive pride, often leading to the downfall of the protagonist or hero.
Anagnorisis means “recognition”- the point when the protagonist recognizes the truth of a situation,
discovers another character’s identity, or comes to a realization about himself. This usually occurs too late,
however.
A catharsis is a purifying or figurative cleansing of emotions for the audience, especially pity and fear; a
release of emotional tension, after an overwhelming experience that restores or refreshes the spirit.
Peripeteia is a reversal of circumstances.
Hamartia is the tragic flaw or mistake which leads to the protagonist’s downfall.
A Sphinx is a monster with a human female head and breasts and a lion’s body with wings, known to offer
riddles in exchange for assistance.
A strophe is a. The first movement of the chorus in classical Greek drama while turning from one side of
the orchestra to the other. b. The part of the choral ode sung while this movement is executed.
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Mrs. Verrochi
Literature