Ancient Greek Theater

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Ancient Greek Theater

• Oedipus the King
• April 2, 2008

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Ancient Greek Theaters

• Orchestra dancing space
• normally circular space for the chorus
• Theatron viewing place
• where the spectators sat
• Skene tent
• building directly behind the stage usually
  decorated as a set
• Parodos passageways (physical and poetic)
• used by chorus and actors to enter and exit the
  stage

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• Theaters were usually outdoors.
• Actors wore masks, so they could play several
  characters at once.
• Usually only a few actors (2 or 3) and a chorus
  were involved.

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Festivals Competitions

• Plays performed at religious festivals honoring
  Dionysus
• Usually performed only once, unless there was a
  revival
• Funded by the polis (city-state), and it was
  always a competition

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Structure of Greek Tragedy

• Prologue
• Parodos
• Episode
• Stasimon
• alternating episodes and stasima
• Exodos

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Chorus

• Chorus- a group of twelve or fifteen performers
  who sang and danced the odes they represented
  elders (leading citizens). Their spokesman, the
  choragos, had speaking parts during the scenes.
• The chorus comments on what is happening in the
  play.

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Prologue

• gives background information spoken by one or
  two characters

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Parodos

• first song sung by the chorus

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Episode

• characters and chorus talk
• action

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Stasimon

• characters leave, chorus sings a reflective ode
• Ode- one of the songs which the chorus performed
  between episodes

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Exodos

• last song by the chorus moral

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Ancient Greek Tragedy Terms

• Anagnorisis-Recognition it was the hero's
  suddenly becoming aware of a real situation and
  therefore the realization of things as they
  stood a perception that resulted in an insight
  the hero had into his relationship with often
  antagonistic characters within Aristotelian
  tragedy.

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Terms, cont.

• Catharsis-The purification of the emotions by
  vicarious experience, esp. through the drama
• Dramatic Irony-the incongruity created when the
  (tragic) significance of a character's speech or
  actions is revealed to the audience but unknown
  to the character concerned the literary device
  so used, orig. in Greek tragedy

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Terms, cont.

• Fate-The principle, power, or agency by which,
  according to certain philosophical and popular
  systems of belief, all events, or some events in
  particular, are unalterably predetermined from
  eternity. Often personified.
• Hamartia-The fault or error which entails the
  destruction of the tragic hero

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Terms, cont.

• Hubris-Presumption, orig. towards the gods
  pride, excessive self-confidence
• Peripetia-In classical tragedy (and hence in
  other forms of drama, fiction, etc.) a point in
  the plot at which a sudden reversal occurs. In
  extended use a sudden or dramatic change a
  crisis.

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Sophocless Theban Trilogy

• Oedipus the King
• Oedipus at Colonus
• Antigone