The Historics Of Greek Theatre

The plays were presented at festivals in honor of Dionysus, including the Great Dionysia at Athens, held in the spring the Rural Dionysia, held in the winter and the Lenaea, also held in the winter following the Rural Dionysia. The works of only three poets, selected in competition, were performed. In addition to three tragic plays (a trilogy) each poet had to present a satyr play - a farcical, often bawdy parody of the gods and their myths. Later, comedy, which developed in the mid-5th century BC, was also presented. The oldest extant

Aeschylus is said to have written about 90 plays. His tragedies, first performed about 500 BC, were presented as trilogies, or groups of three, usually bound together by a common theme, and each trilogy was followed by a satyr drama (low comedy involving a mythological hero, with a chorus of satyrs). The titles of 79 of his plays are known, but only 7 have survived. The earliest is The Suppliants, a drama with little action but many choral songs of great beauty it is believed to be the first play of a trilogy about the marriage of the 50 daughters of Danaüs, which included the plays The Egyptians and The Danaïds. The Persians, presented in 472 BC, is a historical tragedy about the Battle of Salamís, the scene being laid in Persia at the court of the mother of King Xerxes I.

The remaining three plays, Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides, produced in 458 BC, form the trilogy known as the Oresteia, or story of Orestes. In Agamemnon, one of the greatest works of dramatic literature, King Agamemnon returns home from Troy and is treacherously murdered by his faithless wife Clytemnestra. In the second play, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, returns to Argos and avenges the murder of his father by slaying his mother and her paramour Aegisthus. This act of matricide is punished by the avenging goddesses, the Erinyes.

According to tradition Euripides was born in Salamis on September 23, about 480 BC, the day of the great naval battle between the Greeks and the Persians. His parents, according to some authorities, belonged to the nobility according to others, they were of humble origin. Their son, in any case, received a thorough education. His plays began to be performed in the Attic drama festivals in 454 BC, but it was not until 442 BC that he won first prize. This distinction, despite his prolific talent, fell to him again only four times. Aside from his writings, his chief interests were philosophy and science.

The form of the Greek physical theater evolved over two centuries interestingly, the permanent stone theaters that survive today as ruins were not built until the 4th century BC - that is, after the classical period of playwriting. The open-air theaters may have consisted of an orchestra - a flat circular area used for choral dances-a raised stage behind it for actors, and a roughly semicircular seating area built into a hillside around the orchestra, although modern scholars debate the layout of particular theaters. These theaters held 15,000 to 20,000 spectators. As the importance of actors grew and that of the chorus diminished, the stage became higher and encroached on the orchestra space.

The Seven Against Thebes, produced in 467 BC, is based on a Theban legend, the conflict between the two sons of Oedipus, Eteocles and Polyneices, for the throne of Thebes. It is believed to be the third play of a trilogy, the first two being Laius and Oedipus. Prometheus Bound, a work of uncertain date, portrays the punishment of the defiant Prometheus by Zeus. It is probably the first play of a Promethean trilogy, the others being Prometheus Unbound and Prometheus the Fire-Bringer.

Some topics in this essay:
ANCIENT THEATERS, Oedipus Colonus, Rural Dionysia, BC Salamís, Eumenides Erinyes, Hippius Athens, BC Sophocles, Greeks Persians, Oedipus Tyrannus, BC Menander, century bc, oedipus tyrannus, 480 bc, 5th century bc, tragic poets, 406 bc, 5th century, oedipus colonus, sophocles euripides, aeschylus sophocles, antigone oedipus, antigone oedipus tyrannus, life ancient greece, 4th century bc, aeschylus sophocles euripides,