1. Greek Drama: Historical Context Origins & Subject Matter
The Greek Theater
Sophocles & the Tragedians
Structure

2. Historical Context c. 1300-1200 B.C. Trojan War (10 years)
c B.C. Homeric Greece
c B.C. Archaic Period
(Athens vs. Sparta)
c B.C. “The Golden Age”

3. Athens: 5th Century B.C.
Raphael’s The school of Athens

4. Government/Society “Golden Age of Pericles” (461-430 B.C.)
Representative democracy
Women lacked voting rights
Domestic slaves
Courts of Law
Sporting Events

5. Culture
Poetry
Drama
Painting
Sculpture
Architecture

6. Science & philosophy Socrates (469-399 B.C.) Plato (427-347 B.C.)
Empedocles (earth/air/fire/water) & Hippocrates (blood/phlegm/bile/black bile)
Socrates ( B.C.) Plato ( B.C.)
Aristotle ( B.C.)

7. Origins of Greek Drama
Dithyramb: improvisational choral poem in honor of Dionysus, god of fertility/wine/drama

8. Satyrs: mythological attendants of Dionysus (pointed ears, horns, goat legs)
Satyr-Play: celebrates lecherous living and indecent pleasures (sex, drinking)

9. Thespis: Father of Greek Drama (534 B.C.) Dionysian Festivals:
(Actor in addition to traditional dancers)
Dionysian Festivals:
Boisterous revelry  serious, philosophical
Playwriting competitions
3 related tragedies + 1 satyr-play
Three times per year
City Dionysia (spring)
(17,000 people)

10. Subject matter Generally based on Classical Mythology
Religious/Moral Quality
Dramatic Irony

11. The Greek Theater

12. Teatro Greco, Taormina, Sicily

13. Theater of Dionysus, Athens, Greece

14. Greek Theater, Berkeley, CA

15. eccyclema
deus ex machina

16. Actors
Males only
Elaborate costumes (long, flowing robes) and high boots w/ raised soles
Masks – represented the dominant emotion of character
Number of actors on stage never exceeded three

17. The chorus Representative of typical Athenian citizens
Alternating lyrics: strophe (“movement”) & antistrophe (“counter-movement”)
Functions of Chorus:
Sets tone/atmosphere of the play through their reactions to the action
Questions new characters coming on stage as to their purpose/identity
Adds beauty/theatrical effectiveness through song and dance

19. Sophocles Born in Colonus, outside of Athens Wrote 120 plays
Won “first prize” 18 times
7 plays remain:
Ajax
Antigone
Electra
Oedipus the King
The Trachiniae
Philoctetes
Oedipus at Colonus

20. Themes of Sophocles Supremacy and inscrutability of the gods
Faith in a moral order of the universe
Suffering as an inherent part of the human condition
Belief in the potential dignity of man

21. Structure of tragedy Prologos (pp.9-10) Parados (pp. 21-23)
1st Episode (pp )
1st Stasimon (p. 36))
2nd Episode (pp )
2nd Stasimon (pp )
3rd Episode (pp )
3rd Stasimon (p. 67)
4th Episode (pp
4th Stasimon (p. 73)
Exodos (pp )

22. τέλος