The first dramatists
In the 6th century B.C. The tiny rural town of Athens has developed into Greece's most powerful and cultured city-state. At midsummer each year, city officials chose the three poets to perform in the Dionysia the next year. This was a festival which was instituted in memory of the wine god Dionysus by Peisistratus, a king of Athens. The Dionysia was to become the Athenian year 's main festival; and the three poets who named planned three tragedies for it (comedies were added in later years).
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| Early Greek dramas retold legends of the Trojan War, already over five centuries old. This vase painting (about 540 B.C.) shows Achilles slaying the queen of the Amazons. |
The three plays were related in sequence (a "trilogy") at times but not necessarily. Any poet was the official liability of an affluent citizen who incurred the costs of his works. Having a "backer" (choregus) to be chosen as one of the biggest distinctions Athens could bestow. The plays had to be based on themes taken from Greek tradition or the stories of her princely families-specifically those events mentioned in Homer 's poetry. Nonetheless, occasionally playings were approved based on more recent events.
For the five or six days that the festival lasted, a sacred peace was declared in the city; no violence was allowed, not even in the playful action. On the first day, everybody went out to the village of Eleuthera in a procession from Athens, where the ancient wooden statue of Dionysus was enshrined. Starting here, the bust was taken back to the city in triumph. City leaders, bishops, influential visitors, the poets, their writers, the rich sponsors, and the chorus came in the procession representing the worshipers' culture. The playings were conducted during the hours of daytime for the next three days. When everything was over, the prize-winning dramatist was chosen by the appointed jury of citizens. The festival closed in praise of the prophet, with dithyrambs-choral songs.
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| The Greek theatre at Delphi, set in a wooded hollow of the hills, was built during the fourth century B.C., restored later by the Romans. With 35 tiers of stone benches, it seated 5000 people, was so well designed that each member of the audience could hear the actors clearly. |
Originally, these competitions were held in the agora or market place of the region. Since the fall of the wooden seats there in 499 B.C., the case was moved to a theater ("a place for seeing") scooped out at the foot of nearby Acropolis hill, opposite Dionysus temple. Their actors performed at an ensemble called a circle dancing spot. In the center of the room stood an altar of the prophet, and the crowd sat on the hills. The actors suited up in a tent on the side of the arena and put on their masks.
The Greek name for the actors' tent was the skene-our word "scene." In later years, a wooden structure (the proscenium) was replaced by the stage, in front of which the actors performed on a raised platform. Much later an intricate stone structure replaced the wooden building. It was here that Aeschylus the poet (525-456 D.C.) performed his first successful play in 484 B.C. A second and later a third attached to the single character came from Thespis Aeschylus. Not only did he perform in his own plays; he taught the other actors and the chorus as well.
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A Greek vase painting of Orestes (center) at Delphi, a scene from Aeschylus' tragedy Eumenides. The play was the third in his great trilogy the Oresteia, first performed in 458 B.C. |
In AD 458 Aeschylus introduced the Oresteia, his great trilogy. Yet other, younger poets came to the fore by this time. Among them were Sophocles (around 496-406 B.c.), Euripides (around 480-406 B.c.), and Aristophanes (around 448-380 B.C.) To Sophocles, the gods offered every gift: riches, safety, long life, ability, and popularity. On the other hand, Euripides was viewed as a troublemaker and skeptic, with skepticism. Aristophanes was the great satirical dramatist, whose works ridiculed everyone from the philosopher Socrates to warmongering politicians.
In 400 B.C. The Athenian plays were popular all over Greece. Professional actors grouped in troops under Dionysus' protection had taken them from place to place. After Aeschylus' death, the older plays started to be resurrected in his memory and played alongside the Dionysia at other festivals. The theaters were constructed in every area. Yet a new form of satire had come into fashion. It was no longer topical as Aristophanes' but focused on a few stock scenarios and characters: stubborn old men, talkative old ladies, gay teens, and clever slaves. Greek drama's last artistic time has been over.
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| Runaway slaves were stock characters in Greek comedy of the second century B.C. This terra-cotta figure made at a Greek colony in southern Italy, shows an actor playing a slave seated on an altar, as if seeking refuge. |
We started with the Greeks because they left us with our oldest, and some of our best, plays. They owe the fundamental language of dramatic art to them too. The very word drama ("the thing is done") was theirs. The Western world drama, with the Greeks, took on a recognizable form.
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