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Before the lesson

The history of the Ancient Greece theatre and its drama

A vast majority of historians agree that drama and theatre have their roots in ancient religious customs. During such ceremonies, the ancient Greeks praised the god Dionysus, the god of wine and wild nature. It is not surprising that initially such festivals were full of wine drinking and ecstatic dances of men and women. Since the VII century BC, the ceremonies praising the god Dionysus have started to civilize. Among all, they comprised the choral singing worshiping the god. The choirchoirchoir was led by the CoryphaeusCoryphaeusCoryphaeus whose role was to choose the songs called dithyrambsdithyrambdithyrambs. Thespis, living in the VI century B.C. was probably one of them. Was he any special? He was, coming up with a revolutionary idea to make one person stand out from the choir. The chosen one didn't initiate the singing like the Coryphaeus did, but actually answered the whole group. This resulted in the creation of a sort of dialogue. The actors and the drama itself came along. Among the festivals worshiping Dionysus, The City and Rural Dionysia stood out. Although it may be hard for now, try to match the following terms with the two festivals.

The names of the two genres of drama indicate the character of the individual plays.

Tragedy = tragos (a goat) + ode (song)
Comedy = komos (a joyful retinue) + ode (song).

These names probably indicate that:

• the members of the choir praising the Dionysus in songs wore goat leather to look more like the satirists and silenuses who surrounded the god of wine;

• the retinue of peasants from Athens wearing costumes with funny elements (such as big genitalia), was singing facetious songs and telling (sometimes quite unsavoury) jokes.

The tragedy was part of the religious ceremonies. Therefore, it was important that everyone heard and saw it well. It was, of course, the specific seating plan that was responsible for good visibility for the audience. The acoustics were supported by:

• the tubes embedded in masks thanks to which the voice of the actors was amplified,

• resonators (in a form of copper hemispheres) functioning as loudspeakers. They were set up in the amphitheatreamphitheatreamphitheatre in order to reinforce the words of the actors and the choir singing. It was necessary due to the numerous audience. The oldest amphitheatre built in stone - the theatre in Athens - could accommodate even 17 000 people.

As the drama has developed, the role of the choir was reducing in order to enhance the actors in the play. However, the role of the choir, assembling dozens of peoples, didn't change much. The choir played a role of a narrator (remember this term refers to the epic, not the drama). Therefore, it was commenting on the ongoing situation and adding information about the past or future events.

At the end of our journey, look at some information about the costumes and accessories used in the theatre.

Keywords

greek theatre, tragedy, comedy, drama

Glossary