The History Of Greek Theater Term paper
While the free essays can give you inspiration for writing, they cannot be used 'as is' because they will not meet your assignment's requirements. If you are in a time crunch, then you need a custom written term paper on your subject (the history of greek theater )
Here you can hire an independent writer/researcher to custom write you an authentic essay to your specifications that will pass any plagiarism test (e.g. Turnitin). Waste no more time!
The History of Greek Theater-
Theater and drama in Ancient Greece took form in about 5th
century BCE, with the Sopocles, the great writer of tragedy. In his
plays and those of the same genre, heroes and the ideals of life were
depicted and glorified. It was believed that man should live for
honor and fame, his action was courageous and glorious and his life
would climax in a great and noble death.
Originally, the hero s recognition was created by selfish
behaviors and little thought of service to others. As the Greeks grew
toward city-states and colonization, it became the destiny and
ambition of the hero to gain honor by serving his city. The second
major characteristic of the early Greek world was the supernatural.
The two worlds were not separate, as the gods lived in the same world
as the men, and they interfered in the men s lives as they chose to.
It was the gods who sent suffering and evil to men. In the plays of
Sophocles, the gods brought about the hero s downfall because of a
tragic flaw in the character of the hero.
In Greek tragedy, suffering brought knowledge of worldly
matters and of the individual. Aristotle attempted to explain how an
audience could observe tragic events and still have a pleasurable
experience. Aristotle, by searching the works of writers of Greek
tragedy, Aeschulus, Euripides and Sophocles (whose Oedipus Rex he
considered the finest of all Greek tragedies), arrived at his
definition of tragedy. This explanation has a profound influence for
more than twenty centuries on those writing tragedies, most
significantly Shakespeare. Aristotle s analysis of tragedy began with
a description of the effect such a work had on the audience as a
catharsis or purging of the emotions. He decided that catharsis was
the purging of two specific emotions, pity and fear. The hero has
made a mistake due to ignorance, not because of wickedness or
corruption. Aristotle used the word hamartia , which is the tragic
flaw or offense committed in ignorance. For example, Oedipus is
ignorant of his true parentage when he commits his fatal deed.
Oedipus Rex is one of the stories in a three-part myth called
the Thebian cycle. The structure of most all Greek tragedies is
similar to Oedipus Rex. Such plays are divided in to five parts, the
prologue or introduction, the prados or entrance of the chorus, four
episode or acts separates from one another by stasimons or choral
odes, and exodos , the action after the last stasimon. These odes are
lyric poetry, lines chanted or sung as the chorus moved rhythmically
across the orchestra. The lines that accompanied the movement of the
chorus in one direction were called strophe , the return movement was
accompanied by lines called antistrophe . The choral ode might
contain more than one strophe or antistrophe.
Greek tragedy originated in honor of the god of wine,
Dionysus, the patron god of tragedy. The performance took place in an
open-air theater. The word tragedy is derived from the term
tragedia or goat-song , named for the goat skins the chorus wore in
the performance. The plots came from legends of the Heroic Age.
Tragedy grew from a choral lyric, as Aristotle said, tragedy is
largely based on life s pity and splendor.
Plays were performed at dramatic festivals, the two main ones
being the Feast of the Winepress in January and the City Dionysia at
the end of March. The Proceeding began with the procession of choruses
and actors of the three competing poets. A herald then announced the
poet s names and the titles of their plays. On this day it was likely
that the image of Dionysus was taken in a procession from his temple
beside the theater to a point near the road he had once taken to reach
Athens from the north, then it was brought back by torch light, amid a
carnival celebration, to the theater itself, where his priest occupied
the central seat of honor during the performances. On the first day of
the festival there were contests between the choruses, five of men and
five of boys. Each chorus consisted of fifty men or boys. On the next
three days, a tragic tetralogy (group made up of four pieces, a
trilogy followed by a satyric drama) was performed each morning. This
is compared to the Elizabethan habit of following a tragedy with a
jig. During the Peloponnesian Wars, this was followed by a comedy each
afternoon.
The Father of the drama was Thesis of Athens, 535 BC, who
created the first actor. The actor performed in intervals between the
dancing of the chorus and conversing at times with the leader of the
chorus. The tragedy was further developed when new myths became part
of the performance, changing the nature of the chorus to a group
appropriate to the individual story. A second actor was added by
Aeschylus and a third actor was added by Sophocles, and the number of
the chorus was fixed at fifteen. The chorus part was gradually
reduced, and the dialogue of the actors became increasingly important.
The word chorus meant dance or dancing ground , which was
how dance evolved into the drama. Members of the chorus were
characters in the play who commented on the action. They drew the
audience into the play and reflected the audience s reactions.
The Greek plays were performed in open-air theaters. Nocturnal
scenes were performed even in sunlight. The area in front of the
stages was called the orchestra , the area in which the chorus moved
and danced. There was no curtain and the play was presented as a whole
with no act or scene divisions. There was a building at the back of
the stage called a skene, which represented the front of a palace or
temple. It contained a central doorway and two other stage entrances,
one at the left and the other at the right, representing the country
and the city.
Sacrifices were performed at the altar of Dionysus, and the
chorus performed in the orchestra, which surrounded the altar. The
theatron, from where the word theater is derived, is where the
audience sat, built on a hollowed-out hillside. Seated of honor, found
in the front and center of the theatron, were for public officials and
priests. he seating capacity of the theater was about 17,000. The
audience of about 14,000 was lively, noisy, emotional and
unrestrained. They ate, applauded, cheered, hissed, and kicked their
wooden seats in disgust. Small riots were known to break out if the
audience was dissatisfied. Women were allowed to be spectators of
tragedy, and probably even comedy. Admission was free or nominal, and
the poor were paid for by the state. The Attic dramatists, like the
Elizabethans, had a public of all classes. Because of the size of the
audience, the actors must also have been physically remote. The sense
of remoteness may have been heightened by masked, statuesque figures
of the actors whose acting depended largely on voice gestures and
grouping. Since there were only three actors, the same men in the same
play had to play double parts. At first, the dramatists themselves
acted, like Shakespeare. Gradually, acting became professionalized.
Simple scenery began with Sophocles, but changes of scene were
rare and stage properties were also rare, such as an...
MLA Style
. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 25 May, 2012 from
<http://essaymania.com/115345/the-history-of-greek-theater->
More College Papers
The Idatarod- essay
The Idatarod-
Picture this: You are going to travel over one thousand
miles across Alaska---by car?
by train? by plane? NO!! You are travelling by dogsled -
your only companions on this journey will be eleven to
fourteen of the most honest, loyal and strong dogs that you
can find. For
The First Time essay
I had just finished my first day of work at my new job and was very optimistic. I was very happy when I heard Sophia and Vicki s voice on the answering machine, both asking me to go out with them. When I called Sophia back, she said that she had already talked to Christina, Diana and Danielle, and
The History Of Video Games essay
In 1949, a young engineer named Ralph Baer was given an assignment to build a television set. He wasn't supposed to build just any television set, but one that would be the absolute best of all televisions. This was not a problem for Baer, but he wanted to go beyond his original assignment and incor