The Theban Plays of Ancient Greece

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The Theban Plays of Ancient Greece
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History of Greek Theater

• Greek drama began as part of seasonal festivals
  honoring Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility.
• Plays were usually produced in the spring, during
  the harvest, which was symbolic of renewal and
  rejuvenation.
• Stories were well known to the audience (think
  Cinderella). Audiences wanted to see a fresh
  take on a familiar story.

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• Three tragedies were performed as well as one
  satyr play, a comedy about the gods.
• The plays were watched in open air amphitheaters
  (15,000- 40,000 people).
• The plays were judged by a committee and a winner
  would be announced. Winners were highly honored.

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A birds eye view of the theater
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Theater above the Temple of Apollo at Delphi
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Your view as an audience member would look like
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• Because the audience was so huge, and people were
  often seated far away from the stage (or
  orchestra), the actors needed to make themselves
  larger than life.
• So the actors wore masks. Some scholars believe
  that the actors also wore high-heeled shoes
  called kothornoi.

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Special Effects in Greek Theater

• The ekkyklema, or rolled out thing, was a
  mechanical device to roll out characters (dead)
  or other things behind the scenes actions.
• This helped to prevent gory or murderous scenes
  from taking place on stage.

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Special Effects in Greek Theater

• The mechane was a pulley device used to raise
  actors in the air, which helped to represent
  actors flying in air.

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The Greek Chorus

• The Greek tragic chorus was a group of 15 men who
  would sing and dance, but their role was also to
• respond to the play in a manner the playwright
  hoped the audience would (or to represent the
  ideal spectator).
• reflect on what has happened and what might
  happen next (also known as foreshadowing).
• speak to and advise central characters regarding
  what they (the main characters) should do.

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Images of the Greek chorus
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Images of the Greek chorus
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Images of the Greek chorus
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• Interesting fact
• The first actor came from the ancient Greek
  chorus.
• According to legend, Thespis of Athens became the
  first actor in the Western world when he stepped
  outside the Greek chorus and entered into a
  dialogue with it.
• This is why actors are called thesbians.

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Sophocles

• He was born around 496 B.C. during Greeces
  golden age, and died around 406 B.C.
• He wrote around 123 plays, but only seven remain
  in existence.
• At the age of 28 he won first prize at the Athens
  drama festival and after that never finished
  lower than 2nd place.

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Sophocles, continued

• He was very interested in showing how a persons
  life is shaped by his choices and whims of chance
  (the fate free will debate).
• The dangers of excessive pride (hubris) became a
  theme that Sophocles often touched upon.

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The Theban Cycle

• Sophocles wrote three plays, a trilogy, that
  centered around the royal house of Thebes
  (Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus, and
  Antigone).
• Antigone , the third play in the series was
  actually written first, then Oedipus the King
  (the first play), and finally Oedipus at Colonus
  (second play).
• The three plays are linked together by specific
  characters but the themes and issues are
  drastically different in each.

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Elements of Greek Tragedy

• Aristotle, an ancient Greek philosopher, studied
  the plays of his time and noticed a trend in the
  main characters.
• Aristotle coined the phrase tragic hero and found
  that many of the heroic figures contained similar
  characteristics.

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The Characteristics of a Tragic Hero

• A tragic hero is larger than life and shows no
  one is immune to tragedy.
• A tragic hero must rise to good fortune and then
  fall to death or defeat.
• A tragic hero usually falls because of a flaw in
  his/her character known as a tragic flaw
  (hamartia).
• A tragic hero inspires pity and fear in his/her
  audience.

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The Tragic Process

• The experience of the tragic hero can be outlined
  as seven different steps in a sequence of
  actions.
• 1. Initial Incident this is the action that gets
  the play moving, often some kind of conflict or
  problem.
• 2. Rising Action this event pushes the tragic
  hero toward his peak of fortune.
• 3. Climax this is the turning point when the
  tragic heros fortunes begin to turn for the
  worse.

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The Tragic Process, continued

• 4. Falling Action this is when the world of the
  tragic hero begins to collapse.
• 5. Anagnorisis this moment of recognition
  allows the tragic hero to become aware of what
  has happened, what went wrong, and what the truth
  is. The tragic hero has suffered from mental
  blindness, mistaking appearance for reality and
  clinging to an unreliable truth.

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The Tragic Process, continued

• 6. Catastrophe despite the tragic heros
  anagnorisis, he or she cannot prevent the
  inevitable death or defeat which results from the
  mistakes made.
• 7. Order Restored this is the time when, after
  the tragedy plays itself out, the world manages
  to keep going it is the time when the strength
  of the human species is demonstrated because the
  tragedy teaches all of us but destroys only a
  few. The audience then walks away with a feeling
  of catharsis.