Greek Drama

The Festivals

Dionysus was a cult in the Near East, introduced to Greece around 13th C. BCE. God of wine and fertility.

Four festivals in honor of Dionysus:

1. Lenaia — January
2. Rural Dionysia — December
3. Anthesteria — no drama produced at this festival
4. City Dionysia — last festival to be established, but became the largest and most significant.

Tragedy — tragodos or "goat song"

Dithyramb — choral singing and dancing.

Thespis was the first to win the competition for best tragedy.

534 BCE — prize established for best tragedy.

Peisistratidae — came to power in 560 BCE, overthrown in 510.

Hamartia — the one weakness that is the undoing of the protagonist. "Missing the mark"

Prometheus Bound (468 BCE?) by Aeschylus — Prometheus is punished by Zeus, but will not give in.

Oedipus Rex (430-425?) by Sophocles — what is the weakness of Oedipus?

Medea (431) by Euripides — Medea was a foreign woman whom Jason met and married during his heroic exploits. He eventually makes plans to marry one of his own race, without regard to how this would make his wife and children feel. Medea murders her children to get back at him. In the end she is rescued by the chariot of Apollo.

Deus ex machina — the machinery used to lift actors above the stage. Also, the plot device by which characters are saved from their fate just in time.

Old Comedy

The Frogs (405) by Aristophanes — Dionysus and his slave Xanthias go to Hades to retrieve Euripides.

Lysistrata (411) also Aristophanes - the Greeks are about to go to war, the women go on strike and withhold sex from the men to stop them.

404 BCE — Philip of Macedon conquers Greece. Greece becomes more cosmopolitan during this time, known as the Hellenistic Period.

New Comedy — the only work we have is that of Menander (342-291)

Influence on Roman tragedy and comedy:

Livius Andronicus (240-04 BCE) translated Greek drama into Latin.

Plautus and Terence — comedy

Seneca - tragedy