CLST 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Athenian Festivals, Satyr Play, Dionysia
15 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
WEEK 12
November 29, 2016
FINAL EXAM:
Decemper 17th 2-3
ONLY ON MATERIAL FROM WEEKS 7-12
Drama:
- Athenian Festivals featuring dramatic competitions
o Great Dionysia
▪ In late march, the principal venue for dramatic competitions: for tragedy,
satyr play, comedy, dithyramb (a music performance)
▪ A lot of people came
▪ **
▪ For the City Dionysia each tragic poets submitted to the archon eponymos
3 tragedies, sometimes connected in subject matter or only in general
terms (trilogy), and a satyr-play.
▪ Comic poets submitted only one comedy each
▪ The archon eponymous chose 3 tragic productions and 5 comic
productions and allocated to each a khoregos, who recruited and
maintained the chorus, hired a **
▪ It was expensive—the wealthy citizens funded the whole thing
▪ Prizes in drama contests:
• 10 judges, one from each tribe
o BUT a tie was possible so only 5 judges were chosen to
decide
• Dramatist: a crown and a money prize
• Khoregos: allowed to erect a victory monument topped by a **
▪ The Greek theatre was composed of:
• Orchestra
• Stage
• Parodoi
• Altar (for Dionysus)
• Skene: used as a changing room
• Seating
▪ Performances happened during the day because there weren’t any lights
▪ The trilogies were performed right after the other.
▪ Many theaters were built in wood then rebuilt in stone
▪ Stage Machinery
• ‘Deus ex Machina’ (‘god from the machine’)
• A crane was used to make gods appear and resolve complex
dramatic situations
• A sliding platform was used to bring out of the skene building
characters who could not simply walk, especially dead bodies
o Deaths could not be portrayed on the stage
▪ There were at most three actors
• But more than three characters—so the actors had to change
costumes
• Actors were all male
o To play a woman or an old man, they would wear masks.
They had to explain what their emotions were—the
audience could not see their facial expressions.
o They wore high boots to make them look taller and more
visible to the people in the back
▪ Tragedy:
• It probably developed from choral songs and dances in honour of
Dionysos
• Tragoidia = tragedy
• “songs of goats” or “song for the prize of a goat”
• Chorus of 12, then 15
• Chorus and actors sang and danced parts of the play
• Themes from mythology, but 3 “historical” plays are known, Fall
of Miletos, and Phoinissai both by Phrynikhos, and Persians by
Aiskhylos
• The traditional myths could be substantially changed
o The characters and storyline can change
• Tragedy as a form of inquiry:
o Gods rarely protagonists, humans and their experience are
the focus
o Great ethical issues and dilemmas of human life as
understood by the Athenians of the 5th century
o The approach to the subject matter is quite problematic and
open: values and accepted customs are questioned and their
contradictions and problems exposed
▪ This was at the time of Athenian democracy so it
was expected and understandable that things were
being questioned.
• Aiskhylos c.525-459 BCE
o Introduced the second actor
Document Summary
Athenian festivals featuring dramatic competitions: great dionysia. In late march, the principal venue for dramatic competitions: for tragedy, satyr play, comedy, dithyramb (a music performance: a lot of people came, for the city dionysia each tragic poets submitted to the archon eponymos. They had to explain what their emotions were the audience could not see their facial expressions: they wore high boots to make them look taller and more visible to the people in the back, tragedy: It probably developed from choral songs and dances in honour of. The presence makes things different: uncomplicated only care for food, sex, and wine, laughable because they are inept at doing almost everything, athenians were fond of satyrs because they showed the basic instincts of humans without limitations. No direct reference to contemporary politics and events. Fictional and real characters of the present and recent past, sometimes gods and heroes but in non-canonic roles.
