ANCIENT GREEK THEATER

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ANCIENT GREEK THEATER
The theater of Dionysus, Athens
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Origins of Greek Drama (1)

• TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED YEARS AGO, two thousand years
  before Shakespeare, Western theatre was born in
  Athens, Greece.  Between 600 and 200 BC, the
  ancient Athenians created a theatre culture whose
  form, technique and terminology have lasted two
  millennia, and produced plays that are still
  among the greatest works in theatre. There have
  been only two other periods in theatre history
  that equaled the greatness of ancient Athens
  Elizabethan England and the Twentieth Century.
  Elizabethan England produced one great playwright
  in Shakespeare, but Athens produced at least five
  great playwrights. The Twentieth Century produced
  thousands of fine plays and films, but they owed
  much to the innovations of the ancient Athenians.

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Origins of Greek Drama (2)

• Ancient Greeks from the 5th century BC onwards
  were fascinated by the question of the origins of
  tragedy and comedy. They were unsure of their
  exact origins, but Aristotle and a number of
  other writers proposed theories of how tragedy
  and comedy developed, and told stories about the
  people thought to be responsible for their
  development. Here are some excerpts from
  Aristotle and other authors which show what the
  ancient Greeks thought about the origins of
  tragedy and comedy.

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Aristotle on the origins of Tragedy and Comedy

• Indeed, some say that dramas are so called,
  because their authors represent the characters as
  "doing" them (drôntes). And it is on this basis
  that the Dorians the Spartans, etc. lay claim
  to the invention of both tragedy and comedy. For
  comedy is claimed by the Megarians here in
  Greece, who say it began among them at the time
  when they became a democracy c. 580 BC, and by
  the Megarians of Sicily on the grounds that the
  poet Epicharmas came from there and was much
  earlier than Chionides and Magnes while tragedy
  is claimed by certain Dorians of the Peloponnese.
  They offer the words as evidence, noting that
  outlying villages, called dêmoi by the Athenians,
  are called kômai by them, and alleging that
  kômôdoi (comedians) acquired their name, not from
  kômazein (to revel), but from the fact that,
  being expelled in disgrace from the city, they
  wandered from village to village. The Dorians
  further point out that their word for "to do" is
  drân, whereas the Athenians use prattein.
  (Aristotle Poetics Chapter 3)

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The Cult of Dionysus

• The theatre of Ancient Greece evolved from
  religious rites that date back to at least 1200
  BC. In northern Greece, in an area called Thrace,
  there arose a cult that worshipped Dionysus, the
  god of human and agricultural fertility.
• The cult's most controversial practice involved
  uninhibited dancing and emotional displays that
  created an altered mental state. This altered
  state was known as ecstasis, from which the word
  ecstasy is derived. Dionysiac, hysteria and
  catharsis also derive from Greek words for
  emotional release. Ecstasy was an important
  concept to the Greeks, who would come to see
  theatre as a way of releasing powerful emotions.
• Though it met with resistance, the cult spread
  south through the tribes of Greece over the
  ensuing six centuries. During this time the rites
  of Dionysus became mainstream and more civilized.
  By 600 BC they were practiced every Spring
  throughout much of Greece.

Bust of Dionysusfound at Romancity of
Herculaneum
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Staging an ancient Greek play

• Greek plays were performed in an outdoor theater,
  used masks, and were almost always performed by a
  chorus and three actors (no matter how many
  speaking characters there were in the play, only
  three actors were used the actors would go back
  stage after playing one character, switch masks
  and costumes, and reappear as another character).
  Greek plays were performed as part of religious
  festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, and
  unless later revived, were performed only once.
  Plays were funded by the polis, and always
  presented in competition with other plays, and
  were voted either the first, second, or third
  (last) place. Tragedies almost exclusively dealt
  with stories from the mythic past (there was no
  "contemporary" tragedy), comedies almost
  exclusively with contemporary figures and
  problems.

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Parts of a Greek Theater (1)

• Greek tragedies and comedies were always
  performed in outdoor theaters. Early Greek
  theaters were probably little more than open
  areas in city centers or next to hillsides where
  the audience, standing or sitting, could watch
  and listen to the chorus singing about the
  exploits of a god or hero. From the late 6th
  century BC to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC there
  was a gradual evolution towards more elaborate
  theater structures, but the basic layout of the
  Greek theater remained the same. The major
  components of Greek theater are labeled on the
  diagram.

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Parts of a Greek Theater (2)

• Orchestra The orchestra (literally, "dancing
  space") was normally circular. It was a level
  space where the chorus would dance, sing, and
  interact with the actors who were on the stage
  near the scene. The earliest orchestras were
  simply made of hard earth, but in the Classical
  period some orchestras began to be paved with
  marble and other materials. In the center of the
  orchestra there was often an altar. The
  orchestra of the theater of Dionysus in Athens
  was about 60 feet in diameter.
• Theatron The theatron (literally,
  "viewing-place") is where the spectators sat. The
  theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking
  the orchestra, and often wrapped around a large
  portion of the orchestra (see the diagram above).
  Spectators in the fifth century BC probably sat
  on cushions or boards, but by the fourth century
  the theatron of many Greek theaters had marble
  seats.
• Scene The scene (literally, "tent") was the
  building directly behind the stage. During the
  5th century, the stage of the theater of Dionysus
  in Athens was probably raised only two or three
  steps above the level of the orchestra, and was
  perhaps 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep. The scene
  was directly in back of the stage, and was
  usually decorated as a palace, temple, or other
  building, depending on the needs of the play. It
  had at least one set of doors, and actors could
  make entrances and exits through them. There was
  also access to the roof of the scene from behind,
  so that actors playing gods and other characters
  (such as the Watchman at the beginning of
  Aeschylus' Agamemnon) could appear on the roof,
  if needed.
• Parodos The parodoi (literally, "passageways")
  are the paths by which the chorus and some actors
  (such as those representing messengers or people
  returning from abroad) made their entrances and
  exits. The audience also used them to enter and
  exit the theater before and after the performance.

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TRAGEDY

• Tragedy, derived from the Greek words tragos
  (goat) and ode (song), told a story that was
  intended to teach religious lessons. Much like
  Biblical parables, tragedies were designed to
  show the right and wrong paths in life.
• Tragedies were not simply plays with bad endings,
  nor pathos (another Greek word, meaning pitiable
  people or events). They depicted the life voyages
  of people who steered themselves on collision
  courses with society, life's rules or simply
  fate. The tragic protagonist is one who refuses
  to acquiesce to fate or life's rules, either out
  of character weakness or strength. Most often,
  the protagonist's main fault is hubris, a Greek
  (and modern English) word meaning arrogance. It
  could be the arrogance of not accepting the hand
  that life deals (i.e., fate, as in Oedipus Rex),
  the arrogance of assuming the right to kill
  (Agamemnon), or the arrogance of assuming the
  right to seek vengeance (Orestes). Whatever the
  root, the protagonist's ultimate collision with
  fate, reality or society is inevitable and
  irrevocable.

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The Culture that Created Tragedy

• Tragedy did not develop in a vacuum. It was an
  outgrowth of what was happening at the time in
  Athens. One one hand, Greek religion (see
  Bullfinches Mythology) had dictated for centuries
  how people should think and behave. On the other
  hand, there was a flourishing of free thought and
  intellectual inquiry. Athens in the 4th and 5th
  centuries BC was bustling with radical ideas like
  democracy, philosophy, mathematics, science and
  art. It boasted philosophers like Plato,
  Socrates, Aristotle, Epicurus and Democritus, the
  first known historians Thucydides and Herodotus,
  scientists and mathematicians like Thales,
  Hippocrates, Archimedes, and later Euclid
  (euclidean geometry), Pythagoras (the pythagorean
  theorem), Eratosthenes, Hero (the steam engine!),
  Hipparchus and Ptolemy. In these respects -- a
  blossoming of free thought after years of
  religious dicta -- ancient Athens resembled
  Renaissance England, which not coincidentally
  spawned the next great era in theatre.

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The School of Athens
The School of Athens, 16th-century painter
Raphael's vision of Athenian culture.  Plato and
Aristotle (center) are surrounded by other Greek
thinkers.  The fresco even incorporates elements
of Greek geometry, such as the Golden Ratio.
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Aeschylus, the First Playwright
Greek playwright whose tragedies are the first
known plays. Born at Eleusis (as in "Eleusian
Mysteries"), he was a soldier in the Athenian
army, and fought in the Athenian-Persian war,
most notably at the historic battle of Marathon
in 490 BC. Aeschylus shares with Thespis and
Sophocles the credit for turning the Greek
religious ceremonies into theatre. He added a
second character (the antagonist), drama and
majesty to the previously hymn-like ceremony
called the dithyramb. In all, he wrote 80 plays,
of which seven survive. Most of his plays were
trilogies entered in annual Athenian drama
competitions. Only one trilogy survives complete
The Oresteia (458 BC), consisting of Agamemnon,
The Choephoroi (sometimes called The Libation
Bearers), and Eumenides (sometimes called The
Furies). The Oresteia depicts the murder of
Agamemnon by his wife Clytemnestra, and the
pursuit of justice by his son and daughter,
Orestes and Electra.
Aeschylusc525 - 456 BC
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Sophocles

• Greek tragedy playwright noted for his portrayals
  of Oedipus and his great craftsmanship. He first
  gained notice in 468 BC when he defeated
  Aeschylus in the annual Athenian tragedy
  competition. Over his lifetime he won 18-20
  competitions and finished second often. Outside
  of the theatre, he was first a soldier, then a
  strategos (general) and later a government
  official. When he was 90 years old, his sons took
  him to court to prove him incompetent of handling
  his own affairs. He read from his play Oedipus at
  Colonus and was so eloquent the jury ruled him
  mentally competent. Sophocles' innovations
  included the addition of a third actor and
  greater emphasis on inter-personal drama rather
  than god-human conflict. He was the best
  craftsman of the Greek playwrights, and Aristotle
  modeled his theories about drama in Poetics on
  Sophocles' Plays.

Sophocles496 - 406 BC
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Euripides

• Ancient Greek tragedy playwright. Along with
  Aeschylus and Sophocles, he is credited with
  turning Greek religious ceremonies into modern
  theatre. His contributions include the prologue,
  an opening scene which sets the stage for what is
  to come, and the deus ex machina, a storytelling
  device that ties up the loose ends. His most
  important contribution was realism he focused on
  personal instead of religious subjects, depicted
  ordinary people as well as nobility, mixed comedy
  and drama, and frequently used female
  protagonists. His 90 plays, of which 19 survive,
  are considered the most modern in the Ancient
  Greek canon. The most highly regarded is The
  Bacchae (406, produced after his death). Others
  include Medea, Electra and The Trojan Women.

Euripidesc480 - 406 BC
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Comedy

• Tragedy was not the only product of Athens'
  flourishing theatre culture comedy also thrived.
  Not only did the Greeks produce many lasting
  comedies, they also cast the molds for many
  Roman, Elizabethan and modern comedies.  
• The historical development of comedy was not as
  well-recorded as that of tragedy. Aristotle notes
  in The Poetics that before his own time comedy
  was considered trivial and common .
• The credit for Comedy is put forward not only by
  those of Greece proper, who allege that it
  originated under their democracy, but also by the
  Megarians of Sicily, since the poet Epicharmus,
  who came much earlier than Chionides and Magnes,
  belonged to that country. Tragedy too is claimed
  by certain Dorians of the Peloponnese. In each
  case they cite the evidence of language. They say
  they call outlying villages komai, which the
  Athenians call demoi and they assume comedians
  got their name not from komazein, 'to revel,' but
  because they wandered from village to village
  (kata komas), being excluded contemptuously from
  the city. They add also that the Dorian word for
  'doing' is dran, and the Athenian word prattein.

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Aristophanes

• Ancient Greek comedy playwright. He helped create
  a style of comedy that was known as Greek Old
  Comedy. It was a mix of topical satire and
  silliness, often aimed at Athenian politicians,
  celebrities and intellectuals. His early plays up
  to Thesmophoriazusae (410 BC), were very
  traditional in form, using the chorus heavily as
  well as the parabasis, a speech addressed to the
  audience. His subsequent plays beginning with The
  Frogs (405 BC) had more elaborate plots and
  presaged Greek New Comedy.
• Eleven of his 40 plays survive and are performed
  today. Most notable are The Frogs, famous for its
  comical debate between Euripides and Aeschylus,
  The Clouds, which lampoons Socrates and other
  Athenian high-brow thinkers, The Birds, Peace,
  Lysistrata, The Parliament of Women and
  Thesmophoriazusae, the last three about the role
  of women in society.

Aristophanesc448 - 380 BC
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THEATRICAL ITEMS
GREEK MASKS USED IN "DRAMAS" AND THE THEATRE
Greek actors in a detail from a vase.  Note the
masks and cothorni
From Aristophane's "Birds"
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Famous Greek Theaters (1)
The Theater of Dionysos in Athens could seat
approximately 15 thousand in simple stone benches
on the slope of the Acropolis. The seats
partially surround the orchêstra, which is a
dancing area of packed earth, about 20m in
diameter. This is where the chorus spends most of
its time. In its center is the altar of Dionysos
lt!thymelêgt(about 1m high). On either side of
orchêstra is an entry path (eisodos), used both
by the audience to get to its seats and by the
chorus for its entries and exits. Some scholars
think that there was a small stage (8X3m., 1m
high) between the orchêstra and skênê (not shown
on diagram) it would have steps down to the
orchêstra.

• The Theater of Dionysos

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Famous Greek Theaters (2)

• The Theater of Epidauros is the largest surviving
  theater in Greece it held about 12,000
  spectators.  This theater was connected, not with
  Dionysus, but with cult of Asclepius, the healing
  god. The theatre of the Asklepieion of Epidaurus
  is the ideal specimen of the achievements and
  experience of the ancient Greeks on theatre
  construction. It was already praised in antiquity
  by Pausanias for its symmetry and beauty. It has
  the typical Hellenistic structure with the three
  basic parts the cavea, the orchestra and the
  stage-building (skene). The longest radius of the
  cavea is 58 m. while the diameter of the
  orchestra is about 20 m. The lower of the two
  diazomata (sections) is divided with 13 stairways
  into 12 cunei (with 34 rows of benches) and the
  upper with 23 stairways into 22 cunei (with 21
  rows of benches). The stage-building included a
  main room with four pillars along the central
  axis, and one square room at each end. The
  proskenium had a facade with 14 half-columns
  against pillars. Two ramps on either side led to
  the stage while monumental double gates stood at
  the two entrances.

Theater of Epidauros
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Theater of Epidauros
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Famous Greek Theaters (3)
Stage building (skene) with colonnades on all
sides, may have had 3 stories. Seats divided
horizontally by a diazomata. Lower section of
seats had 26 rows, upper section 17. Entered
through paradoi, special entrances at diazomata,
and another entrance at the highest point of
auditorium. History Total capacity of 5500
people. Dimensions Skene building 15.35 m x
6.22 m.
Theater on Delos
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Famous Greek Theaters (4)
The theater at Delphi is build further up the
hill from the Temple of Apollo and it presented
the seated audience with a spectacular view of
the entire sanctuary below and the valley beyond.
It was built in the 4th c. B.C. our of local
Parnassus limestone and was remodeled several
times subsequently. Its 35 rows can accommodate
around five thousand spectators who in ancient
times enjoyed plays, poetry readings, and musical
events during the various festivals that took
place periodically at Delphi. The lower tiers of
seats were built during the Hellenistic and Roman
periods.
The theater at Delphi
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Famous Greek Theaters (5)

• The biggest ancient theater is located in an
  area, 22 km. S.W. of the city of Ioannina. At
  present times every year in the summer time at
  this ancient theater of Dodoni, someone can see
  marvelous acting of ancient comedies and
  tragedies.

The theater at Dodoni
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Famous Greek Theaters (6)

• It was probably built by king Philip II around
  the middle of the 4th century B.C. In the 2nd and
  3rd centuries A.D. large-scale rearrangements and
  additions were made so that the theater's
  function could face the needs of the performances
  of the time. The theater at Philippi. Under the
  Greeks the seating came all the way down to the
  circle and the theater was used for
  drama--tragedies and comedies. Under the Romans
  the first several rows were removed in order to
  enlarge the circle and protect the audience from
  the entertainment, which was more likely to be
  contests of gladiators and wild animals.

Philippi the theater
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CONCLUSION

• The ancient Greeks believed that individuals
  should be free as long as they acted within the
  laws of Greece. Individuality, as the Greeks
  viewed it, was the basis of their society. The
  ability to strive for excellence, no matter what
  the challenge, was what the Greeks so dearly
  believed in. This strive for excellence was the
  method from which they achieved such phenomenal
  accomplishments. These accomplishments astound us
  to this day. They also believed in the balance of
  mind and body. Although many of them strove to
  become soldiers and athletes, others ventured
  into philosophy, drama, pottery and the arts.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

• http//www.perspicacity.com/elactheatre/library/gr
  eektheatre/index.htmlTragedy
• http//www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/ptext?docPer
  seustext1999.04.0039queryAthens2C20Theater2
  0of20Dionysos
• http//www.culture.gr/2/21/211/21104n/e211dn02.htm
  l

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THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION