Athenian Tragedy part 1

Example: Sophokles, Antigone, written 442 BC

Attic Theatre:

Developed from choral performance where choruses sing poetry and dance.
Choral poetry and dance common in the Greek world.
Choral poetry would deal with mythical stories
Greek drama, with chorus and actors may have developed gradually.

Developments not only in Athens:

Aristotle, Poetics 1448 a-b.
Indeed, some say that dramas are so called, because their authors represent the characters as "doing" them (drôntes). And it is on this basis that the Dorians lay claim to the invention of both tragedy and comedy. For comedy is claimed by the Megarians here in Greece, who say it began among them at the time when they became a democracy, and by the Megarians of Sicily on the grounds that the poet Epicharmas came from there and was much earlier than Chionides and Magnes; while tragedy is claimed by certain Dorians of the Peloponnese. They offer the words as evidence, noting that outlying villages, called dêmoi by the Athenians, are called kômai by them, and alleging that kômôdoi (comedians) acquired their name, not from kômazein (to revel), but from the fact that, being expelled in disgrace from the city, they wandered from village to village. The Dorians further point out that their word for "to do" is drân, whereas the Athenians use prattein.

Drama in Athens:

A Place of great innovation, especially under the democracy.
All dramatists whose works are preserved are Athenian (already seen as particularly excellent in antiquity)

Tragedy:
Aischylos (c. 525-456)
Sophokles (c. 495-406)
Euripides(c. 480-406)

Comedy:
Aristophanes (c. 450-380’s)
Meander (342-291)

Original choral performances: chorus of 50.
Sometime in the Archaic period: 2 actors and chorus. (Aischylos’ plays)
By the mid-C5th chorus reduced to 12-15 people.
Sophokles credited with introducing a third actor.

A play consists of dialogues between the chorus and a character, or between two characters on stage, if there is a third character three-way conversations are still rare.
Over time dramatists begin to use this rigid scheme more freely.

The chorus:
- usually plays a group of people somehow involved in the action (e.g. Theban elders in Antigone). They set the scene, comment on the action, provide crowd reaction (and suggest to the audience how to react).
- between scenes they dance and sing, offering general reflections on the action, drawing general conclusions and calling upon specific gods.
- only the chorus leader (koryphaios) has dialogue, all others only participate in dancing and singing as a group.
e.g.
Antigone, 2nd Stasimon (582-630) – follows a discussion between Kreon, Ismene and Antigone about which course of action is right. At the end the chorus introduces the character who enters for the next scene.

CHORUS
Those who live without tasting evil (582)
have happy lives—for when the gods
shake a house to its foundations,
then inevitable disasters strike,
falling upon whole families…. (586)
…
I see this house’s age-old sorrows, (593)
the house of Labdakos’ children,
sorrows falling on the sorrows of the dead,
one generation bringing no relief
to generations after it—some god
strikes at them—on and on without an end.
For now the light which has been shining
over the last roots of Oedipus’ house
is being cut down with a bloody knife
belonging to the gods below—
for foolish talk and frenzy in the soul.
Oh Zeus, what human trespasses
can check your power? Even Sleep,
who casts his nets on everything,
cannot master that—nor can the months,
the tireless months the gods control. (608)
…
[The palace doors open]
CHORUS LEADER
Here comes Haemon, (627)
your only living son. Is he grieving
the fate of Antigone, his bride,
bitter that his marriage hopes are gone? (630)