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Greek Drama
Drama has been widely known all over the world as form of different kinds. Drama can be a
form of ritual, imitation, entertainment etc. Today, dramas are not only performed on stage but
through technologies as well- plays, movies, television shows or radio shows. I can also be of
varied genres depending on its storyline. It tragic, comical, musical, love story, etc. One of the
pioneering civilization that made drama possible today are the Greeks, native from Athens or
Greece. Greece is not only known for their great literary pieces and personalities, but it is also
the home of Greek Drama.

The Greek drama began as a religious observance in honor of Dionysus. To the Greeks this god
personified both spring and the vintage, the latter a very important time of year in a vine-
growing country, and he was a symbol to them of that power there is in man of rising out of
himself, of being impelled onwards by a joy within him that he cannot explain, but which
makes him go forward, walking, as it were, on the wings of the wind, of the spirit that fills him
with a deep sense of worship.

From very early times, stories of his life were recited at the religious festivals held in honor of
Dionysus, and then stories of other gods and of the ancient heroes were told as well. It was from
these beginnings that the drama came.

Originally, the story was told in the form of a song, chanted at first by everyone taking part in
the festival, and later by a chorus of about fifty performers, and at intervals in the song, the
leader would recite part of the story himself. By degrees, the recitation became of greater
importance than the song; it grew longer, and after a time two people took part in it and then
three; at the same time the chorus became smaller and of less importance in the action of the
drama, until at last it could consist of only fifteen performers.

A Greek drama was in many ways much simpler than a modern drama. There were fewer
characters, and usually only three speaking actors were allowed on the stage at once. There was
only one story told and there was nothing to take the attention of the audience away from this.

The Chorus, though it no longer told the story, was very important, for it set the atmosphere of
the play, and lyrics of haunting loveliness hinted at the tragedy that could not be averted,
because of terrible deeds done in the past, or if, indeed, there might be any help, the imagination
was carried forward on wings of hope.

The Chorus also served another purpose. In the modern drama, when the tragedy of a situation
becomes almost too great for the audience to bear, relief is often found in some comic, or partly
comic, episode, which is introduced to slacken the tension.

In the great Greek dramas, the Chorus is a constant reminder that, though they cannot
understand or explain them, there are other powers in the world than the wild passions of men.

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The great dramatic festival of Athens was held in the spring in the theatre of Dionysus, to the
south-east of the Acropolis. The theatre in Athens never became an everyday amusement, as it
is today, but was always directly connected with the worship of Dionysus, and the performances
were always preceded by a sacrifice.

The festival was only held once a year, and whilst it lasted the whole city kept holiday.
Originally, admission to the theatre was free, but the crowds became so great and there was
such confusion and sometimes fighting in the rush for good seats, that the state decided to
charge an admission fee and tickets had to be bought beforehand.

Even then, there were no reserved seats, except for certain officials who sat in the front row. In
the time of Pericles, complaints were made that the poorer citizens could not afford to buy
tickets, and so important was the drama then considered, that it was ordered that tickets should
be given free to all who applied for them.

An Athenian audience was very critical, and shouts and applause, or groans and hisses showed
its approval or disapproval of the play being acted. Several plays were given in one day, and a
prize was awarded to the best, so the audience was obliged to start at dawn and would probably
remain in the theatre until sunset.

Structure of Greek Theater

The theatre is a great semi- circle on the slope of the Acropolis, with rows of stone seats on
which about eighteen thousand spectators can sit. The front row consists of marble chairs, the
only seats in the theatre that have backs, and these are reserved for the priests of Dionysus and
the chief magistrates.

Beyond the front row, is a circular space called the orchestra, where the Chorus sings, and in the
center of which stands the altar of Dionysus. Behind the orchestra, is the stage on which the
actors will act, at the back of which a building is painted to look like the front of a temple or a
palace, to which the actors retire when they are not wanted on the stage or have to change their
costumes.

That is the whole theatre and all its stage scenery. Overhead is the deep blue sky, the Acropolis
rises up behind, and the olive-laden hills are seen in the distance. Much will have to be left to
the imagination, but the very simplicity of the outward surroundings will make the audience
give all their attention to the play and the acting.

When the play begins, there will only be three actors on the stage at once. They will wear very
elaborate costumes, and a strange-looking wooden sole called a cothurnus or buskin, about six
inches high, on their shoes, to make them look taller and more impressive, and over their faces a
curious mask with a wide mouth, so that everyone in that vast audience will hear them.

There will be no curtain and the play is not divided into different acts. When there is a pause in
the action, the Chorus will fill up the time with their song. If it is a tragedy, we shall not see the

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final catastrophe on the stage, but a messenger will appear who will give us an account of what
has happened.
All this is very different from the way in which a modern play is given, but some of the greatest
dramas the world possesses were written by Athenian dramatists and acted on this Athenian
stage more than two thousand years ago.

ANCIENT GREEK PLAYWRIGHTS

Aeschylus (c. 525-456 BCE)
The first of the three classical playwrights of 5th century Athens, Aeschylus was born near
Athens in 525 BCE, in the village of Eleusis. His father was called Euphorion, and was of noble
descent. As a young man, Aeschylus would have been influenced by two historic events: the
exile of Hippias, a dictator, in 510 BCE, and the establishment of democracy in Athens under
Cleisthenes in 508 BCE.

Aeschylus was a soldier in his youth, and took part in the Persian Wars. His epitaph (self-
authored as an entry for a contest in 489 BCE) depicts him fighting at Marathon in 490 BCE, a
battle that is considered to be among the most important moments in Athenian history. At
Marathon, the Athenians defeated the Persians and halted a Persian invasion. His brother,
Cynegeirus, died fighting at Marathon. Aeschylus may also have fought at the battle of Salamis,
a sea battle that defeated an even larger Persian invasion force.

His first win at the drama festival (City Dionysia) came in 484 BCE, although scholars do not
know the name of the trilogy that won. We, however, know the name of his winning trilogy for
the festival in 472 BCE -- The Persians -- sponsored by Pericles himself, then an aspiring
politician.

The Persians deserves mention because the play is about the Persian defeat at Salamis, and it
was unusual for the plays at the festival to deal with topics other than the pantheon of Greek
myth. Aeschylus left Athens in 471 BCE to attend court at Syracuse, ruled by the tyrant Hieron,
a famous patron of the arts. When he returned to Athens for the festival in 468 BCE, a twenty-
eight year old named Sophocles, competing for the first time, won first place over the great
Aeschylus.

A prolific writer, Aeschylus had written between seventy and ninety plays by the time of his
death in 456 BCE. Only seven of his plays have survived: Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers,
and The Eumenides (these three plays compose the tragic trilogy known as The Oresteia), The
Persians, Seven Against Thebes, The Supplicants, and Prometheus Bound. Some scholars
believe that Prometheus Bound may be wrongly attributed to Aeschylus.

Most of his plays were written for the annual Athenian drama competition, the City Dionysia,
which Aeschylus won thirteen times. At this festival, three chosen dramatists would perform
three tragedies and a satyr play. The Oresteia is the only complete Greek tragic trilogy extant
today.

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Aeschylus was prosecuted for revealing the mysteries of Eleusis in one of his plays. Although
he was eventually proven innocent, this accusation remained a stain on his character. Driven
from the city by growing social and political unrest, Aeschylus died far away from Athens, in
Sicily, in 456 BCE.

Sophocles' (C 496-406 BCE)

Sophocles' work is considered the pinnacle of Greek tragedy. Born in near Athens in 496 BCE
in the town of Colonus, in his ninety-year lifespan he witnessed the rise and fall of the Athenian
Golden Age. Sophocles was the son of a wealthy manufacturer.

He grew up during the Persian Wars, and was chosen to participate in the victory celebrations
for the Greek naval victory at Salamis in 480 BCE. It was an honor that suggests that the young
Sophocles was particularly talented and handsome. Indeed, he is thought to have performed
some of the roles in his early plays, but was unable to continue as an actor due to problems with
his voice.

Sophocles was popular in Athens, and, perhaps as a result of the patriotism he developed as a
young man, remained in Athens throughout his life despite multiple summons from local rulers
to visit other cities and regions. A close friend of Pericles, he held several public offices
throughout his life in addition to being a leading dramatist.

His public career seem to have started when he was elected treasurer of the Delian League in
443 BCE, and general of the Athenian army in 441 BCE. Under the command of Pericles, he
participated in the military campaign against Samos.

Revered by modern scholars for his treatment of the individual and for the complex issues that
his plays address, Sophocles was also revered by his contemporaries: he received the first prize
for tragic drama over Aeschylus at the drama festival (the City Dionysia) held in 468 BCE,
when he was twenty-eight years old. He wrote around one hundred and twenty-three plays for
the Athenian theatre, and won twenty-four festivals -- he placed second in every festival that did
not win.

Only seven of his plays, however, have survived intact. They are (in the order in which they are
thought to have been written): Ajax, Antigone, and The Women of Trachis, Oedipus the King,
Electra, Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. From the fragments remaining, and from
references to lost plays in other works, scholars have discovered that Sophocles wrote on an
enormous variety of topics.

He also introduced several key innovations, including ending the tradition of writing trilogies
on connected topics at the City Dionysia, introducing painted background scenery, changing the
number of speaking actors from two to three, and enlarging the chorus from twelve to fifteen
men.

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Sophocles was also a founder of the cult of the god Asclepius in 420 BCE, an activity which
may have been connected to the establishment of a public hospital. He was also the father of
two sons, one of whom went on to become a playwright. Sophocles died in 406 BCE.

Euripides (c. 485-406 BCE)

Euripides inclusion among the great Athenian dramatists is sometimes debated by scholars, who
see his plays as irreverent misrepresentations of the Greek religion, filled with too many
unrelated ideas. These scholars note that while Euripides' plays were included in the drama
festival (the City Dionysia) twenty-two times, he only won five times.

Sophocles was popular in Athens, and, perhaps as a result of the patriotism he developed as a
young man, remained in Athens throughout his life despite multiple summons from local rulers
to visit other cities and regions. A close friend of Pericles, he held several public offices
throughout his life in addition to being a leading dramatist.

Euripides' supporters claim that he deserves mention along with Aeschylus and Sophocles
because he was bold and irreverent: he was willing to look beyond religious orthodoxy to
critique Greek culture and religion. Many of the protagonists in Euripides' plays are female, and
through this less-explored perspective, he was able to examine well-known stories in a
completely new way. His supporters also point to Euripides willingness to enter into the
psychology of his characters.

Born in Phyle, outside of Athens, legend tells us that Euripides was born on the same day as the
great Greek victory at Salamis in 480 BCE. Euripides took part in the Sophist movement, an
intellectual group who were known for their unorthodox and unsettling views. Euripides
himself was apparently a curmudgeon, preferring to do most of his writing in a secluded cave
on the island of Salamis.

Unlike Sophocles, he was not interested in an official position in the Athenian state. He
developed friendships Socrates and Anaxagoras, both unconventional philosophers, as well as
the General Alcibiades did. The sophist Protagoras supposedly recited a treatise that argued
against the existence of the gods at Euripides' house.

Euripides left Athens in 408 BCE at the request of King Archelaus of Macedon, a famous
patron of the arts. Although his reasons for leaving Athens at such an advanced age are unclear,
Euripides' non-traditional, and sometimes heretical, ideas undoubtedly made him unpopular in
the increasingly unstable Athens.

Although we only know eighty of their titles, Euripides is thought to have written ninety-two
plays, of which nineteen tragedies are extant today. Unlike Aeschylus or Sophocles, who are
represented by only a few of their works, Euripides leaves a substantial dramatic legacy,
including (in the order in which they are thought to have been written) the Medea , Hippolytus ,
Trojan Women, the Bacchae , and Iphigenia in Aulis .
Euripides was known, for example, as an opponent of the Athenian democracy that had
developed during his lifetime. Euripides died in Macedon around 406 BCE.
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