C C 303 Lecture 20: November 16: Greek Tragedy
Document Summary
Tragedy and empire: athens believed it held a special place as the most civilized, most educated state in the entire greek world. Influx of intellectuals, workers, and resources athenian culture, production, innovation flourished. Tragedy and democracy: tragedy was a key institution of the athenian state, to be entertained and to be educated in the workings of the democratic state, pericles dominated athenian democracy in second half of the 5th century bce. Tragedy in performance: background characters (chorus, grotesque masks, gods are characters that play an important part in the action. Satyrs (half human/half goat): origins in choral hymns (dithyrambs, chorus of young men sang choral meters (dithyrambs) about great gods and heroes, semi-lege(cid:374)dar(cid:455) thespis (cid:894)(cid:1009)(cid:1007)(cid:1008) bce, he(cid:374)(cid:272)e (cid:862)thespia(cid:374)(cid:863)(cid:895, stepped away from the chorus and started responding to it. I(cid:374)stitutio(cid:374)alized i(cid:374) athe(cid:374)s at the festi(cid:448)al of (cid:862)dio(cid:374)(cid:455)sus the free(cid:863) i(cid:374) (cid:1009)0(cid:1006) bce: many theatrical performances took place, athenians worshipped dionysus the free.
