CLST 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Satyr Play, Aeschylus, Enfant Terrible
Greek Tragedy
● Seen as high literary production dealing with difficult questions and choices
● Performed for an audience - part of a religious festival
● Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides
● Dionysus - god of wine, parties and theatre
● Everyone takes part - if you are a citizen you are probably a part of the show, if not you
are watching
● Tetralogy 3 related tragedies, then a satyr play - comedic relief after 3 tragedies
● Much less satyr plays survive bc they are less valued
● 35 surviving tragedies, 1 surviving satyr
● All the playwrights have different approaches
● Aeschylus is the oldest - religion, justice, older view of the world
● Sophocles - picks the best words and uses them the best - understands the human
condition - the norm
● Euripides - lots of people's favorite - enfant terrible - some of his plays are out there
● Developed over the course of the fifth century
● Seems to have originated from Choruses singing in praise of Dionysus - someone added
an actor having a dialogue with the chorus
● Another actor is added in the course of aeschylus’ lifetime
● All of the parts were played by men
● A feature of greek tragedy is that they explain what they are doing and repeat
themselves
● Usually drawn from myth - mortals as they interact with gods
● History is very rare but it was written about
● Rule, just rule, speech, justice, oratory, the idea of human law vs. Divine law - should the
law of the gods always supercede the law of the land?
Aeschylus
● 525/4 - 456/5 BCE
● He wrote 70-90 plays, only 7 survive intact
● He didn’t win his first victory in playwriting until his 40’s
● He was from Attica
● He lived in Sicily just before his death
● Aeschylus used the skene and the addition of the 3rd actor
● Orestia - the only surviving trilogy of tragedies
● Euphorion was Aeschylus’ son and tho he wasn’t as good, there is some dispute about
some of the different plays and who wrote them
● Prometheus bound is mostly agreed upon to be written by Euphorion
Prometheus Bound
● Prometheus knows he will not be chained to the rock forever
● Zeus throws a thunderbolt at Prometheus
● The chorus is your voice on stage
● Clear struggle between Prometheus and Zeus
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Document Summary
Seen as high literary production dealing with difficult questions and choices. Performed for an audience - part of a religious festival. Dionysus - god of wine, parties and theatre. Everyone takes part - if you are a citizen you are probably a part of the show, if not you are watching. Tetralogy 3 related tragedies, then a satyr play - comedic relief after 3 tragedies. Much less satyr plays survive bc they are less valued. Aeschylus is the oldest - religion, justice, older view of the world. Sophocles - picks the best words and uses them the best - understands the human condition - the norm. Euripides - lots of people"s favorite - enfant terrible - some of his plays are out there. Developed over the course of the fifth century. Seems to have originated from choruses singing in praise of dionysus - someone added an actor having a dialogue with the chorus.
