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Timeline of Greek Drama | Dionysus | Comedy, Tragedy, and Dythyramb | The Theatre | Sophocles | "Antigone" by Sophocles | Links & Resources
Greek_Theatre
INTRODUCTION: 
 
  Ancient Greece was the birthplace of the drama of the Western World. By the 5th century BC dramas were presented at religious festivals.  These grew out of the worship of the god Dionysus.
 
  Attending a tragedy or comedy in 5th century BC Athens was in many ways a different experience than attending a play in the 20th century. To name a few differences, Greek plays were performed in an outdoor theater, used masks, and were almost always performed by a chorus and three actors. No matter how many speaking characters there were in the play, only three actors were used; the actors would go back stage after playing one character, switch masks and costumes, and reappear as another character. 

 

  Choruses of men were dressed in goatskins to represent satyrs--beings who were half man and half goat, attending Dionysus. Tragedy gets its name from the costumes and recitations of the chorus--tragos (goat) and ode (song).

  At the Greater Dionysian festival three contests were held for dramatists. One was in comedy, one in tragedy, and one in the dithyramb (an elaborate choral ode sung by a chorus of 50 singers).

  Plays were funded by the polis, and always presented in competition with other plays, and were voted either the first, second, or third place. Tragedies almost exclusively dealt with stories from the mythic past.  Comedies almost exclusively with contemporary figures and problems.

  From the contests came some of the world's greatest dramatists. Little is known of them, and only a few plays survive. Those that remain are magnificent.