Greek Tragedy Research Paper

Theatre was an important aspect of Ancient Greece, as it honoured the gods in a festival called Dionysian. An example of a Greek play is Oedipus Rex, written by Sophocles. Throughout this tragedy, the main character, Oedipus, possesses hubris, which eventually leads to his loss of power and downfall. In Robert Fagles’ translation of Oedipus Rex, powerful dialogue, characters, and motifs demonstrate that excessive pride leads to the protagonist’s tragic downfall.

Greek drama was performed in the late 6th century BCE in ancient Greece. Tragedians like Euripides wrote very influential and popular plays such as the Bacchae. Greek tragedies lead to Greek comedies such as Aristophanes’ Lysistrata. Many of the Greek dramas have similar concepts, one of being duality. Without duality, the nature of our lives and the environment around us remains unbalanced.

The dramatic presentations of ancient Greece developed out of religious rites performed to honor gods or to mark the coming of spring. Playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides composed plays to be performed and judged at competitions held during the yearly Dionysian festivals. Those plays were chosen by a selection board and evaluated by a panel of judges. To compete in the contest, Greek playwrights had to submit three tragedies, which could be either based on a common theme or unrelated, and one comedy. However, relatively few of these ancient Greek plays survive today. Known as the "father of tragedy", Aeschylus introduced a "second actor" on stage, allowing for action and interaction to take place and establishing a

Greek tragedies were often influential plays performed throughout Greek society since the late 6th century BCE and are still performed in the present twenty first century on stages all over the world. Early Greek tragedy plays were rarely open to women and the actors were all male, women were played my males wearing famine masks. The performances were in open –air theaters that had very good acoustics that echoed the actors’ voices, eventually megaphones were utilized to amplify the actors’ voices in some costumes. Greek tragedies were often linked to religious beliefs mainly inspired by Greek mythology. Acts of violence was not allowed and the death of characters could only be heard and not seen. Greek tragedies always begin in the middle of events. The audience learned the beginning of the play and the expectations for the future events during the play, this is called En Medias Res- Latin for “in the middle of things”. Actors would sometimes speak to the leader of the chorus. The chorus was normally a group of people who would sing and on some occasions dance. The purpose of the chorus is as follows:

When considering ancient Greek life, theater was massively important. This is apparent by the Theater of Dionysius’ placement in the city state of Athens, with its close proximity to the Acropolis and the Parthenon. The Acropolis by definition meant the high point of the city state, and was on a plateau. Its raised status highlights its importance, thus radiating that importance onto nearby structures as well. Although the Greeks valued rational and reason, they also valued their emotional side as well. All plays were dedicated to the god of emotion – Dionysius. Much of what we know of the comedic aspects of Hellenic Greek theater productions comes from the plays of the playwright Aristophanes. Aristophanes’ plays express to the

Greek and Roman plays, and even Indeed ancient Indian plays (a common Indo-European Tradition), usually had a pivotal character that “held the play together”. Also there would be a Chorus that would come into play when the tragedy would begin unfolding. The Greco-Roman variants were almost always tragedies.

The playwright of Orestes is Euripides, who was very popular among the classic Greek culture. There are not many facts surrounding Euripides because of how long ago he was alive, but it is known that he may have been the most influential dramatists of his era, though there were many other great dramatists of that time such as Aeschylus and Sophocles. Euripides’ play Orestes is one of his more popular dramatic tragedies. Many wonder whether or not that this is a play that should be introduced into university schooling or brought to campuses to be shown. This will be revealed by going in depth about the life of Euripides and the play itself, critical interpretations of the play, and the different productions or adaptations of the play.

The playwright was a personal friend of Pericles and Herodotus of Halicarnassus, all famous Greek generals and play writes. After his death, he received heroic honors. Then there is Euripides, who lived from 485 to 406B.C. His plays are more exuberant than those of Sophocles and Aeschylus, often he has the heroes and heroines face difficult choices, which are finally solved by the sudden appearance of a god. Medea is probably his most famous play, and the Trojan Women can be interpreted as a protest against warfare. At the end of his life, he settled in Macedonia, where he wrote the Bacchae, a shockingly strange tragedy, which has been interpreted in many ways. His greatness was recognized by the comic poet Aristophanes, who gives Euripides many appearances in his plays and often parodies scenes from his tragedies. Lastly, there is Aeschylus, who lived from 525 to 456B.C.Aeschylus is one of the best-known Athenian tragic poets. In his plays, he addresses complex theological problems. For example, in the trilogy Agamemnon - Choephoroi - Eumenides, he describes how the gods punish a family for a series of murders. Aeschylus basic orientation was towards theology and religion. (Oates xxxiii) The Persians is a superb play, in which the Athenian victory at Salamis is celebrated, written seven years after the event. Aeschylus was highly esteemed, fifty years after his death, the comic poet Aristophanes wrote a play, The Frogs, in which Aeschylus

Greek tragedies were first performed at religious festivals. Plays with music, dancing, and masks were the plays that honored the god Dionysus. People were captivated in the twists presented on familiar tales from Greek mythology. No-win situations for the heroic but doomed characters. The cast might have been limited but the musical chorus made it better. When comedy came along, there was fun in seeing the play and laughing really hard. We owe a great debt to the ancient Greeks.

The word tragedy is defined as a play which deals with tragic events that ends in an unpredictable way. The ending is horrific because it displays the destruction of the protagonist, this leaves the audience with such a bad feeling. In the early 6th century, ancient Greek’s created the concept of theatre that still highly influences modern day one-act plays. Tragedy and other forms of plays are still very commonly used today and might not be of existence if it wasn’t for the ancient Greek’s. When looking at the Ancient Greek play, “Antigone” by Sophocles’ compared to the modern day one-act play “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell, the audience begins to understand the influence that ancient Greek tragedy has on one-act plays today.

Around the fifth century B.C. tragedies were a very new and popular form of playwriting amongst the people of Ancient Greece. One of the first playwrights of Ancient Greece that mastered the art of writing tragedies was the well know Sophocles. One of Sophocles’ famous plays is called Oedipus the King which was the model for the guidelines used in the book Poetics which was written by Aristotle

Theater in ancient Greece was considered the climax of the days long cultural festival of The City Dionysia. At the festival, various types of plays were shown but one of the most popular was tragedy. These tragedies show the main character, usually a god or person of myth, going through human suffering and the terrible sequence of events that followed; and were produced in 472- 401 BCE. In order for a play to be performed at The City Dionysia festival; tragic playwrights would first have to appeal to the state official that was organizing the festival by submitting ideas to him and his committee. The ideas submitted were outlines of main themes and points of interest to be performed in the play. If a playwright was selected by the state official and his committee, then they received a financial backer and a chance to compete in the drama competition of the festival. The state official, or his committee, was likely pushing their own agenda and choose playwrights that matched their ideals. This is just one example of how theater in ancient Greece was used to influence the morality of Greek culture by using the stories of tragedies, like those of Euripides.

Hundreds of years ago Greek plays were very popular. People would plan to go to these plays for entertainment and to have fun with their friends. These plays would also help to teach the audience all about Greek mythology. The main character in these plays often had something tragic occur at the end, such as death. This character was the referred to as the “tragic hero.” A couple hundred years later a Greek philosopher named Aristotle described tragedy with 4 simple elements, nobility of the character, the flaws of the tragic hero, the start of the tragic hero’s downfall, and his/her punishment. In Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone there is a character that shows this definition of tragedy by the end of the book and or play. This is usually caused by something called hubris, excessive pride. Things Fall Apart, Oedipus, and Antigone all fulfill Aristotle 's definition of tragedy.

Tragedy as a form works differently than modern drama when compared to the ancient Greeks. When it comes to modern drama, the main character is usually an ordinary person, someone who is middle class. Where as with Greek tragedy, the main character is someone important and noble, such as a king or queen. Modern drama revolves around everyday problems such as social, economical, or personal conflicts. Greek Tragedies seem to be very linear. It’s mostly about the hero making a bad decision from the beginning of the play, which leads to his or her downfall in the end. Although, they were of higher ranking, ancient Greek’s beliefs made the main character powerless to avoid their fate, which was controlled by the gods. As far as conventions go, Greek Tragedies are very unified. The tragedy of the royal protagonist will go through only one time span, a day or less, one setting, and one story. In a modern tragedy, however, the ordinary protagonist’s story goes through multiple realistic settings and a realistic time line. Also, the story would contain multiple plots, which may contain flashbacks.

Tragedy comes from the word “tragoidia,” which means “goat song.” In Ancient Greece, the goat was an animal that was widely associated with Dionysus (Powell 68). Tragedy is, according to Aristotle, “an