2. General Information
• Classical tragedies were composed within a definite structural
framework, with occasional minor variations in some plays.
Greek tragedy was performed without intermissions or breaks.
• In the history of Greek drama, early Greek plays were part of a
religious ceremony. They were enactments of religious
celebrations- performed in Athens.
3. Elizabethan vs. Greek Theater
• Much like Elizabethan England, ancient Greece only allowed
men to participate in the plays. It had minimum scenery. Actors
had to provide clues to the setting. As Elizabethans, the
audience was familiar with traditional tales and ancient legends
on which the plays were based. They did not attend to learn
WHAT it was about but HOW a playwright interpreted it.
• The main dissimilarity was that the drama was rooted in
religion NOT entertainment. Performances of Greek tragedy
involved a great deal of ritual. Tragic festivals were religious in
nature because they were celebrations of the god Dionysus. In
fact, the theater was a temple.
• The plays were performed each year at the Festival of
Dionysus, in which the great writers of the time would
compete. These festivals were dedicated to the Greek god
Dionysus, god of wine and fertility.
4. Elements of Tragedy
• The subject is serious.
• The tragic hero or heroine (protagonist) is of noble birth and
displays a nobility of spirit which the audience admires.
• The protagonist is pitted against forces beyond his or her
control.
• The protagonist makes decisions that lead to a “no-win”
situation.
• The protagonist struggles courageously until his or her fall.
• The protagonist, though defeated, usually gains a measure
of increased wisdom, self-awareness, or nobility.
5. Greek Tragedy
• The style of Greek tragedy was ceremonial. Music
played a great part in the performance; however, since
none of this music has survived, we cannot be certain
what it sounded like. We also cannot be certain how
much of the play text was spoken, chanted, or sung, or
what kind of movement was used by the chorus.
• We do know that the Greek theater allowed for
tremendous spectacle, including earthquakes,
avalanches, and gods descending from the sky. Masks
and colorful costumes were worn by the performers.
Without a doubt, performances were vivid and very
exciting.
6. Structure of G reek T ragedy
• Prologue - the opening scene that introduces the
conflict of the play - the background of the story is
established, usually by a single actor or in a dialogue
between two actors. Sophocles' contemporaries often
included a monologue in which a character delivers the
necessary background directly to the audience.
• Parodos - the entrance of the chorus, usually chanting
a lyric which bears some relation to the main theme of
the play. The parados is an example of a choral ode.
These odes supply exposition, comment on action, and
contribute to thematic development. Odes also can
suggest the passage of time.
• Episode – the counterpart of the modern act or scene -
the plot is developed through action and dialogue
between the actors, with the chorus sometimes playing
a minor role.
7. Structure of Greek Tragedy, Cont.
• Stasimon- the choral ode. A stasimon comes at the end
of each episode so that the tragedy is a measured
alternation between these two elements.
• Exodos- the final action after the last Stasimon, ended
by the ceremonial exit of all the players.
• The chorus is not an uninvolved group in Sophocles'
plays. The group often interacts with principal
characters, engaging in dialogue. The choragos, or
chorus leader often speaks for the entire chorus in
these moments.
• In Sophocles' plays, these devices meld into a compact
drama. The action is usually limited to one setting and
to a single day. There are few digressions; the play
moves swiftly and directly, and the plot is often
compressed.
8. Structure of Greek Tragedy, Cont.
• Partly as a result for this compression, offstage action is very
important in Greek tragedy. For example, the Greeks made no
attempts to portray violence onstage. Consequently, the
messenger becomes an important figure in Sophocles' plays and
those of other Greek playwrights. The messenger acts as a
traditional figure of exposition-the witness who comes to tell
others of events that have transpired elsewhere.
9. Greek Terminology
• Epithet- an adjective or descriptive phrase which describes a
noun, EX: John “The Great”
• Chorus- consists of twelve to fifteen elders (men)
• Choragos- the leader of the chorus
• Ode- indicates the end of a scene - also used to provide the
chorus’s response to the proceeding scene.
• Lyric Poem- verse which focuses on emotions and thoughts
• Protagonist-one who plays the first part, chief actor; the main
character (the central or primary personal figure)
• Deuteragonist-is the second most important character; sidekick
who accompanies the main protagonist, the main character or
hero, in a narrative; the playwright Aeschylus introduced the
deuteragonist
• Tritagonist-the third most important character, after the
protagonist and deuteragonist
10. 1. To provide background information
for the audience
2. To talk and give advice to the main
characters
3. To interpret important events that
occur in drama
Function of the Chorus
11. Aristotle’s Definition of Tragic Figure
• The character must be a person of stature.
• The character must be neither totally good nor totally evil.
• An error of judgment or a weakness in the character causes the
misfortune.
• The character must be responsible for tragic events.
• Action involves a change in fortune from happiness to misery.
12. Parts of the Theatre
• Theatron - the area in which the audience sat.
It was shaped like a horseshoe and had rows
of stone seats rising upward and backward in
tiers. In the first row were stone thrones for the
principal citizens and the priest of Dionysus.
• Orchestra - The circular area at ground level
which was enclosed on three sides by the u-
shaped theatron.
• Thymele - an altar to Dionysus on which
sacrifices were made and which was
sometimes used as a stage prop during plays.
13. Parts of the Theatre, Continued
• Parodos - entrance passage
• Skene - a wooden structure, the dressing room
• Proscenium - the level area in front of the skene on
which most of the play's action took place
• Eccyclema - a wheeled platform which was rolled
out of the skene to reveal a tableau of action that
had taken place indoors (mainly scenes of violence
)
14. Sophocles
• 496-406 B.C.
• Sophocles, (about 496-406 B.C.), was the second of the three great
Greek writers of tragedy. The others were Aeschylus (28 yrs older)—
the earliest of the three—and Euripides (12 years younger). He was
considered the greatest of the ancient Greek playwrights.
• Sophocles' plays deal with a struggle of a strong individual against
fate. In most of the plays, this individual chooses a course of action
that the chorus and the lesser characters do not support. This course
costs the individual suffering or even death, but it makes the
individual nobler and somehow benefits humanity. Sophocles did not
create ordinary characters who could be used to criticize
conventional morality as Euripides did. The Greek philosopher
Aristotle said that Sophocles portrayed people as they should be and
that Euripides portrayed people as they are
• Sophocles was known for his musical, poetic, and dramatic talents
• At the age of seventeen, he was the choragos, or chorus leader, in a
dramatic celebration of Greece's victory over Persia
15. Sophocles, Cont.
• When he was twenty eight, he caused a
sensation by winning first prize for tragedy at
the festival of Dionysus, defeating Aeschylus,
the leading playwright of the day.
• Over the next sixty-two years, Sophocles went
on to win twenty-four first prizes and seven
second prizes in thirty-one competitions--the
best record of any Greek playwright.
16. Sophocles, Cont.
• Wrote more than one hundred and twenty tragedies, of
which only seven survive today . These are Ajax,
Antigone, Trachinian Women, Oedipus Rex, Electra,
Philoctetes, and Oedipus at Colonus. Part of a play
called The Trackers was found in 1907. Sophocles
wrote one of his greatest plays, Oedipus at Colonus,
when he was nearly 90.
• His plays always contain a moral lesson--usually a
caution against pride and religious indifference.
• also a great technical innovator: He added a third actor
to Aeschylus's original two, introduced painted sets,
and expanded the size of the chorus to fifteen.
17. Sophocles, Cont.
• Sophocles wrote the three tragedies about King Oedipus of
Thebes and his family over a forty-year period
• began with the third part of the story, Antigone, first performed in
442 B.C
• Twelve years later, Sophocles backtracked and wrote the first
part of the story, Oedipus the King.
• The last year of his life Sophocles wrote the middle segment,
Oedipus at Colonus.
18. SOPHOCLEAN DRAMA
Sophocles created the form of tragic drama that has become
dominant in Western literature. Instead of the explicitly
theological concerns and cosmic scope of his great predecessor,
Aeschylus, he focuses his plays on one or two protagonists of
heroic proportions and engrossing, complicated character. While
retaining Aeschylus' mood of deep religious seriousness,
Sophocles deals with the question of divine justice and the
problem of suffering in a more naturalistic way. He depicts the
moral and emotional issues of credible, if grandiose, human
beings, rather than cosmic themes. His focus remains clearly on
the human rather than the divine world.
19. Sophoclean Chorus
• "The chorus," Aristotle says in the remark mentioned previously,
"should be included as one of the actors and should be a part of the
whole and share in the dramatic action, not as in Euripides, but as in
Sophocles." This assessment of the Sophoclean chorus seems to fit
the plays that have survived. In all of them the chorus takes its full
share in the events onstage. It can even be deceived or misled, either
by the protagonists (Ajax) or by the same delusions or lies that blind
major protagonists (Oedipus Tyrannus, Trachinian Women, Electra).
It can also act as the agent of deception and even become
temporarily at odds with the protagonist, as in Philoctetes. It can be at
odds with or hostile to the main hero, as in Antigone and, initially, in
Oedipus at Colonus.
20. The Oedipus Myth
• Characters and Terms:
• King Laios
• Queen Jocasta
• Thebes
• Oracle at Delphi
• Oedipus
• Corinth
• Sphinx
• Chorus
• Choragos
