THE GREEKS

Theatre History I: The Greeks

• The Harmony of a Whole Human(ity)
• Greeks saw people as a synthesis of what we would now call body, mind, and soul. They believed that for humans to function well, be happy as humans, and achieve their greatest potential, all aspects of humans needed nurturing, education, and training, and well-ordered expression. (Balance)

The Greeks

• Reaching for Excellence Within Limitations
• Within this framework of balance and harmony, the ancient Greeks prized the concept of “aretê” or “excellence” in themselves and in all things. The Greeks asked: “When was a human (or tool/animal/concept) at its best, or at the point at which it most fully and elegantly fulfilled its potential and purpose?”
• Aristotle would call this its “telos” or “purpose”. Greeks also asked: “At what point did it fall short of its potential or exceed its limits, and with what consequences?” Greek literature, philosophy, drama, art, myth, and history revolve around an exploration of these questions. Such a focus also helps to explain the Greeks’ celebration of competition, victory, and tragedy.

The Greeks

• The Cosmos on Its Own Terms
• The Greeks wanted to know the origins of things, and to identify the cause of events.
• They were willing to consider explanations that grew out of the evidence at hand.
• What are humans about? Well, let’s start with humans and what they do.
• How should one live? Well, let’s start with people who seem to live well.

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Precursor to Modern Philosophy

“Mortals think that gods are born, wear clothes, speak, and appear like they do. But if oxen, or horses, or lions had hands and could paint or sculpt as humans do, horses would paint horse-like gods and oxen the same, each fashioning bodies as their own. For the Ethiopians envision their gods black, whereas the Thracians theirs as blue-eyed and red-haired.”

• Xenophanes of Colophon

(c. 550 B.C.E.)

Theatre History I: The Greeks

Homer

Is the author (or at least one of the authors) of the Iliad and Odyssey.

Nearly all Greek literature (and that which grows from it) stems from, reacts to, or consciously departs from him.

The Greeks

The Iliad

• The Iliad takes place in the tenth year of the Trojan War.
• It begins when the Greek leader Agamemnon insults the hero Achilles.
• Achilles withdraws from the battle, which causes the Greeks to fail against the Trojans and their hero, Hector (just as Achilles intended).
• Achilles rejects all pleas to return to battle, but in order to save the Greeks while still saving face, he finally allows his friend Patroclus to fight in his place.
• When Hector kills Patroclus, Achilles returns to battle (even though he knows that this will lead to his own death) in a bloody rage.
• He kills Hector and desecrates his body (drags it around the arena). Through the intervention of the gods and Hector’s father, King Priam, Achilles regains a sense of his own humanity.

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The Greeks

• The Odyssey
• The Odyssey is about a “return” home from the Trojan War. It tells the story of Odysseus, the wily rogue and king of Ithaca, who struggles to bring himself and his crew home through a gauntlet of fantastic adventures, including a voyage to the Land of the Dead.
• Bad luck, bad choices, and unfortunate dining decisions cost him his crew and leave him the shipwrecked prisoner of a solitary island nymph, Calypso.
• The gods, however, with the aid of a marvelous seafaring people, help him to return home, only to find his wife (Penelope), son (Telemachus), and household under threat from a very unsociable group of suitors (that considers Penelope to be an eligible widow). Disguised as a beggar, Odysseus is reunited with Penelope, who has faithfully kept the suitors at bay. This story is at times humorous, horrific, and very human in its examination of choice, responsibility, coming home, growing up, and perseverance.

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Theatre History I: The Greeks

• Other writers of the time
• There were other epic poems from the time of Homer, but these works are either lost or come to us in fragments quoted by other authors.
• Hesiod
• Hesiod wrote two great poems: Theogony and the Works and Days. The Theogony tells of the birth of the gods and Zeus’ rise to power including the story of Prometheus’ theft of fire and the creation of Pandora. Besides bringing together earlier traditions, it suggests that Zeus (and justice) will triumph in the end. The Works and Days is a didactic poem about work and values. After moralizing to Perses about the need for every man to work for his own living, and slamming the “bribe-swallowing” magistrates, Hesiod details the why, when, and how of farm work. This poem contains illustrative myths (Pandora and the “five ages of man”) as well.
• Apollonius of Rhodes
• Apollonius of Rhodes composed the Argonautica which includes the story of Jason and the Argonauts.
• Note: Neither the Iliad nor the Odyssey tells the story of the Trojan War. The Iliad covers one 40-day episode in the final year of the 10-year war, and the Odyssey includes only a couple of minor incidents from the war, while telling the story of one man’s long journey home. The rest of the story of the Trojan War (such as the tale of the Trojan horse) is contained or mentioned in other works of literature.

CITY DIONYSIA

534 BC

City Dionysia 534BC

• State sponsored event.
• Three-day festival; each day, 15,000 to 17,000 Athenians would gather in the outdoor theater to see a tragic poet and his producer put on three tragedies (plus a satyr play).
• It is traditionally held that in 534 BC, Thespis first wrote and performed a part separate from the tragic chorus. He thus became the first “actor” and this is why we sometimes refer to actors as thespians.
• Scholars are uncertain if women attended City Dionysia. J. Michael Walton cites contemporary accounts that suggest that women did in fact attend. One account states that some women in attendance of Aeschylus’ Oresteia suffered miscarriages. Another: In Aristophanes’ comedy The Frogs, the character of Aeschylus states, satirically, that all decent women committed suicide after seeing one of Euripides’ plays; and although this comical remark is obviously not to be taken literally, it does indicate that women attended the theater.

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City Dionysia, 534 BC

• Shape and parts of Greek performance space:

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Greek Playwrights

• Aeschylus (525BC – 456BC) – first and foremost a soldier who fought at Marathon and Salamis. Wrote 80 to 90 plays. His Oresteia is the only extant trilogy from the Greek period. Reduced chorus to about 12 or 15 and added a second actor for a true exchange of dialogue.
• Sophocles (496BC – 406BC) – created superb plots. Wrote more than 100 plays and never finished lower than second place in competitions. Sophocles added a third character for more depth of plot. His Oedipus Rex is cited by Aristotle as the exemplar of Greek tragedy.
• Euripides (480BC – 406BC) – considered the most “modern” of the Greek playwrights because of his sympathetic portrayal of women, greater realism, mixture of tragedy with melodrama and comedy, and skeptical treatment of the gods. In his comedic plays, Aristophanes often parodied Euripides. Best known for his Medea and The Bacchae.

Greek Philosophers

• Socrates (469 – 399) – wandering philosopher. Never wrote. Forced by Athenian jury to drink hemlock, Socrates was thus killed for “corrupting the youth of Athens” and “impiety” (not believing in the gods of the state).
• Plato (496BC – 406BC) – student of Socrates; teacher of Aristotle. Plato wrote about and thus immortalized Socrates. Plato has the character “Socrates” say that poetry is inspired by the Muses and thus can be not rational. Plato devises or recants the “allegory of the cave” in which the imitation of an object is condemned (or given a lesser status).
• Aristotle (428BC – 348BC) – considered a methodical, incisive philosopher. His Poetics is the first document to analyze the structure and importance of Tragedy. Aristotle hailed acting; and called it “mimesis” and a worthy way to learn.

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