THE MATERIAL FOUND BELOW COMES FROM ROBERT FAGLES'S INTRODUCTION, "GREECE AND THE THEATER," TO SOPHOCLES, THE THREE THEBAN PLAYS: ANTIGONE, OEDIPUS THE KING, AND OEDIPUS AT COLONUS. NEW YORK: PENGUIN, 1984.
Map of Greece
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Map of Athens
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1) Locations
Agora – Marketplace crowded with people
Acropolis – Temple of Worship up on a hill (Parthenon in Athens) “edge of the city”
2) Athens
- Most powerful city in Ancient Greece
- Port of Peraeus
- Imperial and Democratic
- Taxes other city states
- Wealthy, Festive, Leisure (p. 17 “The revenues of empire and profits from commercial operations…made possible that lavish expenditure on public festivals…”
3) Festival of Dionysus (p. 17-18 “Among these festivals the most famous and popular was the Dionysia)
- Vegetation/Fertility/Sexuality (p. 18 “Dionysus is the life spirit of all green vegetation…”)
- Drunkenness/Crowd Mentality
- Theater (p. 18-19 “Dionysus is often portrayed in contemporary vase painting as masked or even as a mask…”
- Madness
- Sexually Ambiguous
- Roman à Bacchus
4) Theater
- Seated 15,000
- Athens Theater SE of Acropolis (Parthenon)
- Actors in masks
- Male actors for female roles
5) Non-realistic Performance
- Diction (words)
- Delivery (voice)
- Gestures (choreography)
6) Chorus (p. 20 “In addition to actors and spectators, there was a third element of the performance, one older than either of these two. It was the chorus…”
- Chorus = Dance
- Older than Drama
- Thespis added Speech
- Thespis àThespian
7) Competition (p. 21 “For, like almost all Greek institutions, the festival of Dionysus was a contest.”
- 3 Dramatists (E.g. Sophocles v. Euripides v. Aeschylus)
- 3 Days
- 3 Prize levels
- 10 Judges (elected opening day)
8) Sophocles
- Won 1st place 18x
- Playwright and Army General
- Wrote 123 Plays (7 contemporarily available)
- Died @ 90 years
9) Politics
- Tribute Money displayed prior
- War orphans paraded in armor (p.22 “The orphaned children of those Athenians who had fallen in battle were cared for and educated by the city; once they had reached young manhood, they were paraded in the theater in full armor…”)
- Honors for academics and foreign heads of state
- Mockery of prominent figures via comic poets
10) Mythology
- Basis for Tragic Storylines
- Facts of Faith are inescapably valid
- Theme of Fate v. Effort
- Mythology was popular knowledge (p. 24 “Oedipus always kills his father and marries his mother…”)
- Historically Significant (p. 23 “These myths were the only national memory of the remote past…”)
Agora – Marketplace crowded with people
Acropolis – Temple of Worship up on a hill (Parthenon in Athens) “edge of the city”
2) Athens
- Most powerful city in Ancient Greece
- Port of Peraeus
- Imperial and Democratic
- Taxes other city states
- Wealthy, Festive, Leisure (p. 17 “The revenues of empire and profits from commercial operations…made possible that lavish expenditure on public festivals…”
3) Festival of Dionysus (p. 17-18 “Among these festivals the most famous and popular was the Dionysia)
- Vegetation/Fertility/Sexuality (p. 18 “Dionysus is the life spirit of all green vegetation…”)
- Drunkenness/Crowd Mentality
- Theater (p. 18-19 “Dionysus is often portrayed in contemporary vase painting as masked or even as a mask…”
- Madness
- Sexually Ambiguous
- Roman à Bacchus
4) Theater
- Seated 15,000
- Athens Theater SE of Acropolis (Parthenon)
- Actors in masks
- Male actors for female roles
5) Non-realistic Performance
- Diction (words)
- Delivery (voice)
- Gestures (choreography)
6) Chorus (p. 20 “In addition to actors and spectators, there was a third element of the performance, one older than either of these two. It was the chorus…”
- Chorus = Dance
- Older than Drama
- Thespis added Speech
- Thespis àThespian
7) Competition (p. 21 “For, like almost all Greek institutions, the festival of Dionysus was a contest.”
- 3 Dramatists (E.g. Sophocles v. Euripides v. Aeschylus)
- 3 Days
- 3 Prize levels
- 10 Judges (elected opening day)
8) Sophocles
- Won 1st place 18x
- Playwright and Army General
- Wrote 123 Plays (7 contemporarily available)
- Died @ 90 years
9) Politics
- Tribute Money displayed prior
- War orphans paraded in armor (p.22 “The orphaned children of those Athenians who had fallen in battle were cared for and educated by the city; once they had reached young manhood, they were paraded in the theater in full armor…”)
- Honors for academics and foreign heads of state
- Mockery of prominent figures via comic poets
10) Mythology
- Basis for Tragic Storylines
- Facts of Faith are inescapably valid
- Theme of Fate v. Effort
- Mythology was popular knowledge (p. 24 “Oedipus always kills his father and marries his mother…”)
- Historically Significant (p. 23 “These myths were the only national memory of the remote past…”)