1. Mr. Helton AP English Literature
Greek Drama
Mr. Helton AP English Literature

2. Basic Theatre Terms
The theatre (theatron) was set up around an orchestra – “dancing place”; a circular area where the chorus chanted lines and danced.
Chorus – a group of a dozen or so men who chanted lines and danced. The chorus often provided commentary and interpretation of the action on the stage/skene.
Skene – A stage building that served as dressing rooms as well. The wall of the skene that faced the theatron was often painted as a background.

3. Greek Theatre

4. Deus ex machina
Deus ex machina – “God from the machine”; gods were often lowered from the ceiling (as though descending from the heavens) to rescue characters/resolve problems.
Today, the term deus ex machina is used to describe an improbable, or too-easy, resolution to a story.

5. Cothurni/buskins
Actors would often wear padded costumes and cothurni (or buskins) to make them appear larger than life.

6. Greek Tragedy: Format
Greek tragedies follow a five part format as follows:
Prologue: opening speech or dialogue that gives the necessary exposition to follow the action.
Parodos: The chorus enters and gives its take on what the audience has heard in the prologue.
Episodia: several episodes follow where the main characters often debate or discuss the play’s conflicts.
Stasimon: Following each episode, the stasimon is a choral ode where the chorus responds to and interprets the preceding episode.
Exodus: The last scene, the exodus provides the resolution, and the characters leave the stage.

7. Tragedy
A classical or literary tragedy presents courageous individuals who confront powerful forces within or outside themselves with dignity, thereby revealing the depth of the human spirit in the face of failure, defeat, or death.
Protagonists of tragedies (especially Greek ones) are usually extraordinary: kings, princes/princesses, etc. Great men and women who are brought from happiness to agony.
The protagonist’s high standing is important because it makes their fall more terrifying.
The protagonist’s fall is usually the result of some error or flaw that destroys them (hamartia).

8. Tragic terms
Hamartia: the internal tragic flaw that the protagonist has that leads him or her to disaster. Examples are pride/hubris, ambition, passion, etc.
Catharsis: the purging of negative emotions, such as pity and fear, that allows the audience to feel compassion for the protagonist.
Reversal/Peripeteia: The moment when the protagonist’s life takes that sudden, tragic turn
Recognition/Anagnorisis: The protagonist learns previously unknown information that causes him/her to understand and accept the situation

9. Irony
Tragedies are often filled with irony because things often turn out radically different than the protagonist thinks they will
Because of this, tragedies have a lot of dramatic irony (sometimes called tragic irony) where the character’s words and actions are understood by the audience, but not the character.

10. Oedipus rex (“Oedipus the king”)
Abandoned by his parents as a baby because of a prophecy which stated that he would kill his father and marry his mother
As a man, he found out this prophecy and left his home in Corinth as insurance that it would not come true (he did not know these people were not his real parents)
In a fit of rage, he killed his real father on the road and was eventually awarded the dead man’s widow as a reward… his real mother. They had four children.