The 411 on
Greek Theatre
with help from
Profs. Chuck Whetzel & Vic Holtcamp
of
The University of South Carolina
“The past is a foreign country; they
do things differently there.”
- Leslie Poles Hartley
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Once upon a time,
there was a goat..
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
It wasn’t the goat’s fault..
per se.. but people started
singing songs to it. They
were called dythyrambs.
dythyrambs.
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
The crops grew, the grapes
matured and pretty soon,
they started to praise the
grape god, Dianysos, with
songs about the goat, called
GOAT SONGS.
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
They even created
GOAT
PEOPLE
called SATYRS
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
GOAT SONGS =
TRAGOS ODE
OR
TRAGEDY
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
THINGS WERE ALSO
VERY ROWDY
OR
KOMOIE
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
KOMOIE ODE =
ROWDY SONGS
OR
COMEDY
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
IT’S NOT THE
GOAT’S
FAULT!
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
WILD & CRAZY GUYS!
Who: Greeks = Athenians = the Polis. ~
14,000 in attendence
When: 5th century BCE 472 - 388 BCE (plus a
late play by Menander in 316)
What: Comedy and Tragedy, all were musicals
Where: Theatre of Dionysus
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Theatron: Seeing Place
Orchestra: Dancing Place
Skene: Back wall
Paradoi: Entrances
Proskenion: front porch
Thymele: Altar
Ekkyklema: Wheeled cart
Mechane: Crane for flying
in gods
Periaktoi: a pair of
revolving, 3-sided flats
set into the skene
“Parts is Parts”
Thymele
Proskenion
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Theatron: Seeing Place
Orchestra: Dancing Place
Skene: Back wall
Paradoi: Entrances
Proskenion: front porch
Thymele: Altar
Ekkyklema: Wheeled cart
Mechane: Crane for flying
in gods
Periaktoi: a pair of
revolving, 3-sided flats
set into the skene
“Parts is Parts”
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Theatron: Seeing Place
Orchestra: Dancing Place
Skene: Back wall
Paradoi: Entrances
Proskenion: front porch
Thymele: Altar
Ekkyklema: Wheeled cart
Mechane: Crane for
flying in gods
Periaktoi: a pair of
revolving, 3-sided flats
set into the skene
“Parts is Parts”
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Theatron: Seeing Place
Orchestra: Dancing Place
Skene: Back wall
Paradoi: Entrances
Proskenion: front porch
Thymele: Altar
Ekkyklema: Wheeled cart
Mechane: Crane for flying
in gods
Periaktoi: a pair of
revolving, 3-sided flats
set into the skene
“Parts is Parts”
Thymele
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Would indicate:
Gender
Ethnicity
Social Class
All characters were
masked (Onkos early)
Conventions for what
specific colors meant
No masks have
survived, but images
have.
MASKS
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
The Chorus
12, then, 15 men
Paid for by the
CHOREGUS
Rehearsed/Trained for up
to 11 months
Singing and Dancing
crucial - mostly in unison,
sometimes split in two
groups
Accompanied by, at least,
a flute player
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Why a Chorus?
Collective Character Threatens to take action
Often expressed author’s
point-of-view
Ideal Spectator: Reacts how
author wants audience to
react
Establish mood
Add spectacle
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
The Actors
Greek term was Hypokrites
‘ΥΠΟΚΡΙΤΗΣ - Literally
means “The Answerer”
By Oedipus Rex, you
could have 3 speaking
actors who doubled up on
roles
All men
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Why Not Try Your Luck?
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Why Not Try Your Luck?
Contest for writers and actors
Tragedy: 3 playwrights, 4 plays each (3 tragedies
and a Satyr play)
Comedy: 5 playwrights, 5 individual plays
Religious observance to the god Dionysus
(January and March)
Considered an integral part of the life of the
Polis.
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
I Love a Parade…
Procession of the statue of
Dionysus
The “Proagon”, where the
playwright and actors were
presented to the public
The “Pompe”, a
procession of sacred
objects – Paco Sux
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
And then …
The “10 Generals”
poured a libation
(liquid sacrifice)
Announcement of
citizens who had
done special service
to the state/polis
Display of tribute
from vassal states
Parade of ephebes
(young men) whose
fathers had been
killed in battle
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
Can we please talk about some actual theatre?
3 Major surviving tragic
playwrights
1 major surviving comic
playwright
1 minor surviving comic
playwright
How do we know that? Lots
of fragments quoted in
other sources – mostly, by
THE ROMANS
Thespis
• Semi-legendary - 1st name on 1st list of
playwright winners
• 1st Actor - stepped out of chorus - dialogue
• None of his work has survived
• His name is where we get the term
“Thespian” to describe an actor
Aeschylus: 525 - 456 BCE
• “The Order of Things”
• Introduced the second actor, hence dialogue,
hence all theatre in the West
• So popular that after his
death, his plays continued
to be subsidized by the
state
• Wrote 70+ plays.. we have 7
• Most commonly known is
his trilogy of The Orestæia
- tells the founding myth of
Athenian law and justice
Sophocles: 497 - 406 BCE
• “Man’s Place in the Order of Things”
• Had a 3rd actor available
• Wrote 123+ plays, we’ve
got…7
• Most popular is
Oedipus Rex (the trilogy
includes Oedipus at
Colonus and Antigone)
• Fragments of Inachos
were found inside a
mummified crocodile
in 2003.
Euripides: 484 - 406 BCE
• “Man in his Relationship
to his Fellow Man”
• Wrote 92+ plays, we
have…18
• Won only 4 times
• Tragedy for Euripides is
more human than for
Sophocles and Aeschylus
• Some Feminists consider
him the first feminist
author.
• Most famous play:
Elektra
Aristophanes: 445 - 386 BCE
• Greatest Greek Comedic writer.
11 extant plays
• Comedy derived from the same
things that we laugh at today:
spouses, neighbors, the
government, intellectuals,
stupid people, bodily functions –
Old Comedy (hey, now…)
• Most famous play is Lysistrata
ΛΥΣΙΣΤΡΑΤΑ (411 BCE), the
women turn out their husbands
until they end the
Peloponnesian War (which
Athens was in the process of
losing).
• May have caused Socrates’
death – The Clouds.
Menander: 342 - 291 BCE
• Neil Simon of his day – wrote
New Comedy – lotsa farce - not
so much politics – sexual humor
is curbed, too!
• Probably a military general, he
may have gotten his sense of
humor from his Middle Comedy
writer/Uncle Alex.
• Over 100 plays – mostly
fragments left, but lots of thinly
veiled stealing by Plautus.
Papyrus published in 1959:
Dyskolos – full play.
• Only won eight times – his rival,
Philemon, was more popular,
but was almost unknown just
100 years later.
Aristotle
• Think: Tutor to Alexander
the Great
• That little world conquest
thing.
• hoi Poetikoi
• 6 elements of tragedy (slightly
different version works for comedy, too,
though his original rules for comedy were
lost.) DESCRIPTIVE.
• Inherent Human Imitation
(theatre is not reality, but MIMESIS – an
imitation of reality which is inherent in
every culture.)
If we have time…
CHORUS: Ah welladay, my King! ah woe
For all our heroes' overthrow-For all the gallant host's array,
For Persia's honour, pass'd away,
For glory and heroic sway
Mown down by Fortune's hand to-day!
Hark, how the kingdom makes its moan,
For youthful valour lost and gone,
By Xerxes shattered and undone!
He, he hath crammed the maw of hell
With bowmen brave, who nobly fell,
Their country's mighty armament,
Ten thousand heroes deathward sent!
Alas, for all the valiant band,
O king and lord! thine Asian land
Down, down upon its knee is bent!
- Aeschylus, The Persians
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
LET’S REVUE
Thespis
Aeschylus
Orestaeia
Sophocles
Oedipus
Euripides
Elektra
Aristophanes
Lysistrata
Menander
Dyskolos
Aristotle
Ars Poetica
Mimesis
goat song
tragos ode
rowdy song
komoie ode
Theatron
Orchestra
Skene
Proskenion
Thymele
Ekkyklema
Mechane
Periaktoi
Paco Sux
Ephebes
GREEK
THEATRE
ΘΕΑΤΡΟΝ ÈΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ
ΛΛΗΝΙΚΟΥ