Ancient Greek theatre was totally awesome and lasted from around 550 BC to 220 BC. They had these crazy festivals in Athens to honour the god Dionysus, and that's where they started doing plays. They came up with three types of plays: tragedy, comedy, and satyr play.
Tragedy
Tragedy plays were like the OGs. They probably came from this cult song thing called dithyramb, and some dude named Arion of Lesbos was the first to write poetry in that style. Then this guy Thespis came along and added an actor who actually talked to the chorus. People loved it, and they started doing these plays at the Dionysus festival in Athens. Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were the big shots in the tragedy. Aeschylus was all about innovation, adding more actors and dialogue. Sophocles was super popular and even added painted scenery to the mix. Euripides was known for making the audience think with his thought-provoking plays. These guys were like the rock stars of their time.
According to Aristotle, tragedy is all about telling a serious story that grabs your attention. It's performed by actors, not just through narration. It aims to make you feel pity and fear and then give you a sense of release or "catharsis" from those emotions.
When Aristotle talks about "embellished speech," he means that the dialogue should have a nice rhythm and maybe even be sung. The different parts of the play can be expressed through spoken verses or songs.
Aristotle breaks down tragedy into different components. First, there's the plot, which is like the overall story or sequence of events. It should evoke pity and fear and show a change from bad to good or good to bad.
Then there's the character, which is all about the moral and ethical traits of the people in the play. You get to know their personalities and see how their choices affect the story. In a really good tragedy, the character and the plot should work together and make you feel pity and fear.
Next is thought, which is basically when the characters reason and explain things. They give you background info and help you understand what's going on. And there's diction, which is just a fancy word for the way they talk or the language they use.
Melody is also important, but it's not just about music. It can also mean the way they move and dance on stage. And finally, there's a spectacle, which is everything you see in the play, like the set, costumes, and props.
So, in a nutshell, Aristotle is saying that tragedy is a powerful and emotional form of storytelling where the plot, characters, dialogue, movement, and visuals all work together to create a memorable experience.
Aeschylus
79 titles of Aeschylus' works are known (out of about ninety works), both tragedies and satyr plays. Seven of these have survived.
The Persians
Seven Against Thebes
The Suppliants
Prometheus Bound
The Oresteia Trilogy:
1. Agamemnon
2. The Libation Bearers
3. The Eumenides
Sophocles
Sophocles wrote 130 plays, 17 of which are spurious; the Suda lexicon counted. Of all Sophocles's tragedies, only seven remain intact:
Ajax
Antigone
The Women of Trachis
Oedipus Rex
Electra
Philoctetes
Oedipus at Colonus
Euripides
Euripides wrote either 75 or 92 plays, of which survive eighteen tragedies and the only complete surviving satyr play, the Cyclops.
Medea
The Bacchae
The Trojan Women
Electra
Hippolytus
The Women of Troy
The Phoenician Women
Alcestis
The Children of Heracles
Ion
Comedy
So, when it comes to Athenian comedy, there are three main periods: Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, and New Comedy. Old Comedy is the oldest one, and we have some of the plays by Aristophanes from that time. They're still around and give us a glimpse into the humour of the past. Middle Comedy is kind of lost to us now. We only have bits and pieces of it, like small fragments written by Athenaeus of Naucratis. Finally, there's New Comedy, which we know about mainly from the bigger pieces of papyrus that contain works by Menander. So, in a nutshell, Old Comedy is the most complete, Middle Comedy is like a mystery, and New Comedy is a bit more fragmented but still gives us some insight into the comedic style of the time.
The comedy plays were hilarious. Aristotle said they were all about laughable people doing dumb stuff that didn't end in disaster. They had a set structure with different parts. The Chorus would come in first, dressed in crazy costumes like giant bees or kitchen utensils, and they would sing and dance. Then there would be this witty contest or debate between the main actors, with crazy plot twists and fast scene changes. The Chorus would then talk to the audience and even speak for the playwright. And the grand finale was another awesome song and dance routine by the Chorus. Aristophanes and Menander were the big comedy playwrights. They made fun of politicians, philosophers, and other artists. Sometimes they even roasted people who were in the audience. Menander brought in new elements like romantic leads and more suspense.
Old Comedy (archaia)
Aristophanes, born way back in 446 BC, was like the king of Old Comedy. He wrote plays that were packed with political satire and filled with naughty jokes about sex and poop. Seriously, he didn't hold back. He loved making fun of important people and institutions of his time. Just look at how he portrayed Socrates as a total goofball in The Clouds, or his hilarious play Lysistrata, which was all about women using their "charms" to stop a war.
Aristophanes wasn't the only funny guy in town, though. There were plenty of other comic poets in Athens around the same time, like Hermippus and Eupolis, who were also trying to crack people up.
But here's the really cool part: Aristophanes' style of comedy didn't just disappear. It had a lasting impact on later European writers like Rabelais, Cervantes, Swift, and Voltaire. They totally borrowed his technique of making political jabs in a clever and silly way. It's like dressing up serious criticism as pure buffoonery. Smart move, right?
So yeah, Aristophanes was a comedic genius who knew how to use laughter to make a point and leave a lasting legacy.
Old Comedy, sometimes, is called Aristophanic comedy.
The Clouds (423 BC), a satire on the misuse of philosophical argument directed chiefly against Socrates.
The Frogs (405 BC), a satire on Greek drama directed chiefly against Euripides. Other Old Comedy writers include Cratinus, Crates, Pherecrates, and Eupolis.
The Acharnians: A farmer who takes matters into his own hands to end the Peloponnesian War.
The Knights: Cleon, depicted as a villainous Paphlagonian leather-seller.
The Wasps: A jury-obsessed father and his son, highlighting the corruption and absurdities of the Athenian legal system.
The Birds: A fantastical play where two Athenians persuade birds to create a utopian city called "Cloudcuckooland" above the clouds.
Lysistrata: A bold and comedic play that portrays women's attempts to end the Peloponnesian War by withholding sex from their husbands.
Middle Comedy
So, when it comes to Middle Comedy, it's a bit tricky to pinpoint exactly when it started because some of the later works of Old Comedy writers, like Aristophanes, could be considered part of the Middle Comedy period. But generally speaking, Middle Comedy refers to the comedies that came after Aristophanes but before Menander.
In Middle Comedy, there were a few key differences compared to Old Comedy. First, the role of the chorus was diminished, so they didn't have as much influence on the plot anymore. Second, instead of impersonating or personifying public figures on stage, the focus shifted to more general targets of ridicule. They made fun of things like literature and society in a broader sense.
During this time, there was also a trend of poking fun at mythology through parody. And we start to see the emergence of stock characters, like courtesans, parasites, party animals, philosophers, and even a proud and showy cook who liked to flaunt his culinary skills.
So, Middle Comedy was a time of transition in Greek comedy, moving away from the political satire of Old Comedy and exploring new comedic styles and characters.
New Comedy:
So, after Alexander the Great died in 323 BC, a new kind of comedy emerged called New Comedy. It stuck around until about 260 BC during the rule of the Macedonian rulers. It's kind of like the sitcoms and comedies we see today that focus on social situations and manners.
The famous playwrights of this genre were Menander, Philemon, and Diphilus. They took what their predecessors had done and put a spin on it. Instead of focusing on big political issues, they started portraying everyday life. They moved away from the satire and crazy antics that Aristophanes was known for and instead focused on relatable characters and their everyday quirks.
In a way, New Comedy paved the way for the comedy shows we enjoy now, with their funny and relatable situations. It's like they brought the humour down to earth and made it more about regular people and their daily lives.
List of New Comedy Plays
Dyscolus (“The Grouch”)
Perikeiromenē (“The Shorn Girl”),
Epitrepontes (“The Arbitration”),
Samia (“The Girl from Samos”).
The Brothers (Adelphoi)
The Girl from Andros by Menander
The Self-Tormentor (Heauton Timorumenos) by Terence (Roman playwright influenced by New Comedy)
The Eunuch (Eunouchos) by Terence
All the performers in these plays were dudes. They did all the acting, singing, and dancing. Sometimes there were three actors, and if they needed another one, he couldn't have an important role. Comedy plays were cool because they could talk about current events and make fun of important people. Aristophanes and Menander were like the kings of comedy.
History:
In history, there were two big names: Herodotus and Thucydides. Herodotus wrote this massive history book about the clash between Europe and Asia, with the Persian War as the climax. He must have done a ton of research and talked to people who remembered stuff from when he was a kid. It's a pretty epic work, even though it's a bit messy in places. Thucydides, on the other hand, was all about politics and power. He was a general himself, so he knew what he was talking about. He spent 20 years in exile and used that time to dig deep and get the truth. His history of the war is super detailed and looks at the psychological and chance factors that shape people and nations. He even included speeches by his characters to give more insight.
So, yeah, Ancient Greek theatre and history were totally rad and still influence stuff today.
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