1. 470-399 B.C.E.
Guess who?

3. Festival for Dionysus
Honoring the God of Wine
Begins when the leaves appear on the grapevines;Spring
One of the most important events of the year.
Its focus became the theater.
Writers, actors and spectators, were regarded as sacred servants
of Dionysus during the festival.

4. The ancient Greek theater
Three major parts:
Orchestra,
Altar,
Skene,
Parados,
Koilon.

5. This is where it all began: the Theater of Dionysus in Athens.
Sixth century B.C.E. when Thespis first added a speaking actor to
the chorus’ performances of choral song and dance.

6. Festival’s Famous Competition
Writers submitted their performances to be judged for prestigious awards.
Actors wore bright robes and masks whose colors were symbolic.
The all male actors performed outdoors, in daylight to an...
Educated audience of 10,000 or more who identified
the fixed expressions on each mask.
The actors height increased with thick soled boots and
wiglike protrusions on top of the masks.

7. Based on the fixed expressions relate the mask to a character in literature.

8. Ancient Greek masks
worn by the Chorus

9. Aeschylus (c.525-456 B.C.E.)
•Father of Greek Tragedy
Oresteia Trilogy
Concentrated on a single passion
Plays reveal Greek traditions
of greatness.
Introduced a second actor on stage
Wrote ninety tragedies
CLYTEMNESTRA SLAYING HER HUSBAND
An original painting by A. Russell

10. Sophocles
496-406 B.C.
•Understood the cultural spirit of Athens
•Oedipus cycle
•Wrote 125 plays over 60 years
• lived to be in his 90’s
•Characters were more human and alive
•Characters maintain sense of balance and restraint
•Music and dance still played a vital role.
•Increased the chorus from 12 to 15
•Used grand and majestic language in his odes.
•Inspired by the gods
•Overwhelmed the spectators with terror
and compassion
•Combines the struggles of humanity with the
irresistible march of fate
•Added a third actor
•Added, carefully arranged and painted scenery

11. Aristophanes
456 -380 B.C.E.?
•Known for his lyrical melodies
•Plato enjoyed his humor
•Clouds-ironically demeaning the
most moral person in pre-
Christian life
•Greek comedy, adopting the
disguise of buffoonery to attack
some prevailing form of cant and
hypocrisy
•Four of his plays are passionate
and eloquent pleas for peace
•Lysistrata

12. Euripides 480-406 B.C.
•Wrote 92 plays
•Lived alone with his books in a cave.
•He was a pacifist, a free thinker, and a humanitarian
The Bacchae, he explores the psyche of men
attempting to deny a natural life-force such
as sexuality or emotional release
The Medea, he takes a penetrating look at a
woman who has lost the interest of her
middle-aged husband..
Hecuba documents the cruelty of Greek warriors
who enslave the Trojan queen and sacrifice her
daughter at the tomb of Achilles.
•Didn’t cater to intolerant and violent Athenians
•Introduced the common man to the stage
•Exiled from Athens to Macedonia

13. Delphi Sphinx
•Solve the Riddle:
•What animal walks on:
•Four legs in the morning
•Two legs in the afternoon
•And three legs at night?

14. 384 - 322 B.C.E.

15. •Student of Plato
•Founded the school of Lyceum •Tutor of Alexander the Great
•Built the first great library of antiquity

16. •Raphael’s School of Athens hangs in The Vatican

17. •Now on to Aristotle’s View of Tragedy from his Poetics
•Comedy shows man to be worse than what he is in real life
•Tragedy represents man as better than he is in actual life
He believed that Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripides accomplished this ideal in their plays.
Tragic dramatists throughout Western Civilization followed his ideals of a tragedy.
•Tragedy: initiation of an action that is serious, complete and of a certain magnitude.
•Arouses pity and fear in the audience
•Its goal is for the tragic hero to reach a catharsis of emotions
•Most important part is PLOT or ACTION
•Each drama must have a reversal of fortune: Good to bad; prosperity to adversity to failure;
ignorance to knowledge.
•Character must be: heroic; true to life; prosperous; consistent in action; morally good
•Character must have Hamartia and Hubris
•Tragedy provides an outlet for undesirable emotions
•Aristotle’s theories must not be taken too literally

18. And finally on to….
Sophocles’
Oedipus Rex
What is his tragic flaw?