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greek theatre > context > Flashcards

context Flashcards

1
Q

fate and free will in Oedipus

A
  • Herodotus says even the gods could not escape the fates and so feared them
  • Success of Athens over Persia may have seemed a victory over fate
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2
Q

Hubris in Oedipus

A
  • written 430BC, at the start of the Pelopennesian war, a war against a powerful enemy. Play could be a warning.
  • Sophists proposing scientific explanations for natural phenomena
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3
Q

Reason and logic in Oedipus

A

anaxagoras suggests the sun was a ball of fire and the moon was rock

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4
Q

when did stone theatres start to be built?

A

late fourth century (wooden ones until then)

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5
Q

who was the centeral seat of the prohedira/klismoi reserved for?

A

the priest of Dionysus

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6
Q

When was the orchestra a trapezoid?

A

5th century

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7
Q

when did the skene come about?

A

probably didn’t exist in ealry tragedy. By middle of 5th cnetury was a large wooden hut with a double door entering on the the stage

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8
Q

what was the wheel platform called?

A

ekkyklema

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9
Q

what was the crane called?

A

mechane

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10
Q

when did black figure vases shift to red figure vases?

A

around the 5th century BC

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11
Q

When did Athens stop making vases?

A

was a maajor centre of production in the 6th century BC

around 400 BC, decline in Athenian pottery, but vases have survived from southern Italy

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12
Q

how many chrous memebers were there in tragedy?

A

15

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13
Q

how many Athenians per year would be in a chorus

A

over 1000 (dithyrmabic contests)

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14
Q

what would the choregos do?

A

-select the members of the chrous for the play he was financing

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15
Q

what would the auletes do?

A

acompany the chorus with an aulos (a double reed instrument)

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16
Q

what were the roles of the chrous?

A
  • part of the action
  • create mood
  • offerred commentary or moral opinion
  • break between scenes
  • symbolise time passing
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17
Q

How many members would be in the chorus for comedy?

A

24

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18
Q

what is a monody?

A

a solo song, often at a moment of great distress

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19
Q

what is a kommos?

A

a formal song at a moment of hightened emotion involving dialogue between the actor and the chrous

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20
Q

what did the masks of each genre look like?

A 
Tragedy = solemn
comedy = build farce. Often paradoied appearance of political figures
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21
Q

how were the masks helpful?

A

would allow actor to play multiple roles and make it easier for the audience to recognise the characters

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22
Q

what was a chiton?

A

an ornately decorated full length robe

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23
Q

what was a himation?

A

cloak reaching the knees

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24
Q

describe tragic costumes

A
  • closesly fitted
  • ornate and colourful
  • reflecting the grand and heroic characters of the genre
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25
Q

what were Kothornoi?

A

soft leather boots that reached up to the thigh

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26
Q

Describe comic costumes

A

short tunic and tights
thick padding around midriff
oversized leather phallus

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27
Q

describe a satyr play

A
  • chorus members are stayrs (contrast the serious main characters)
  • maintain the characters and structure of a greek tragedy
  • happy atmostphere and rural background
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28
Q

what was the moral issue with tragedy?

A

no violence allowed on stage due to moral subject matter

no direct political comment allowed

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29
Q

when did tragedy begin?

A

from late 6th century BC

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30
Q

what other ideas did tragedy orignate from?

A
  • lyrical perfomances of epic poetry
  • masks worn in riutal worship of Bacchus
  • music and dance in Dionysiac ritual
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31
Q

how many actrs were orignailly on stage?

A

only one

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32
Q

what did Aeschylus contribute to tragedy?

A
  • wrote the persians (only surviving greek tragedy concerned with contemporary events)
  • added a second actor
  • first to present plays as trilogies
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33
Q

What did Sophocles contribute to tragedy?

A
  • added a third actor and painted scenary

- wrote more than 100 plays but only 7 survive

34
Q

what did Euripides contribute to tragedy?

A
  • sympathy towards victims of society e.g. women
  • thought provoking and unsettling
  • realism and clever dialogue
35
Q

what happened to cmedy in the 4th century BC?

A

chrous became less imoporatnt

play became less political

36
Q

when was the first comedy perfomed?

A

487BC

37
Q

what does the word ‘comedy’ stem from?

A

Greek words for revel and song

38
Q

who would judge the 5 comic playwrights?

A

10 ordinary citizens

39
Q

were slaves in the audience?

A

Athens was democratic, but was a slave economy, so probably not

40
Q

were women in the audinece

A

perhaps, but were not the target audience

41
Q

who WOULD be in the audeince

A

anyone with a vote. Theoric fund. seen as civic duty to attend

42
Q

what best describes greek theatre?

A

a multi-media event

43
Q

how did Aristophanes approach theatre?

A
  • he reuses tragedies plot, characters and language
  • rivals trageides impiortant messages with his own
  • offers aspects of escape and fantasy
  • politically pertinent
  • blends satire and theatricality
44
Q

how did people respond to Aristophanes?

A
  • unpopular with the state for his criticism of leadership

- given awards for is political message to unify athens

45
Q

what often gave Aristophanes’ plays their names?

A

His animal choruses
the birds
the wasps

46
Q

smut in aristophanes

A

shocking to our modern sensibilites

  • comedy grew out of abuse and obscene language used at Dionysiac rituals
  • allowed grotesque themes not accpetable in daily life
  • touch on taboos
  • sexual morality has chnaged so much!
47
Q

does Aristophnaes reflect Athens?

A
  • in order to flourish in a competeive enviornemtn, he must reflect a world and values that his audience understand
  • he was on the more conservative side of the radical divide
  • portrays ideas of a more moneyed background. Sympathy for sparta. Questions ideas of citizen rights
48
Q

who was Cleon?

A
  • powerful and popular political leader

- grew up in same deme as Aristophanes and was often lampooned with persoanl venom that made plays more exciting

49
Q

How was socrates protrayed?

A

as a deluded buffoon. Extreme satire e.g. the clouds

50
Q

what were Aristophanes’ [political messages in the frogs?

A
  • impotrance of poets (homer and warfare, Hesoid and agriculture)
  • ideas of citizenship (mocks that cleophon does not deserve his citizenship)
51
Q

How did artistophanes portray women?

A
  • 411C, explosion of women on aristophanes’ satge
  • -> Lysistrata
  • contrats his early career
  • asks questions about power (like Antigone had)
52
Q

what was the role of wmen in society?

A
  • huige role in religion
  • ideals are presented by male sources
  • prespcriptive not descriptive (Pericles)
  • high priestess of Athens probs in audeince
53
Q

what can be said about women at the Thesmaphoria?

A
  • housewives on stage is a strong comic stereotype
  • no invisble - part of the athenian fabric
  • paranoia about athenian citizenship
  • -> Pericles’ citizenship law
54
Q

how was the city Dionysia political?

A
  • front rows reserved for important indidviduals
  • theatre seats divided by tirbes
  • cost two obols a day (theoric dund)
  • public businesses ceased, law courts were lcosed and prisoners got day release
  • the review
  • judging (randomised to avoid bribery)
  • parade of tribute and proclomation of honours (day two)
  • eponymous archon was a leadingh politician
55
Q

How was the city Dionysia Theatric?

A
  • loud and opionated audience (ord-bearers)
  • choregos trained a theatric chorus
  • proagon
  • in latter part of 5th century, day two is when comic plays were performed
  • days 3-5 were for tragic plays
  • eponymous archon drew lots for winner
  • day one dithyrmabic competitions
56
Q

How was the city Dionysia religious?

A
  • torchlight procession the evening before
  • komos and pompe on day one
  • grand opening by priest of Dionysus
57
Q

HWat happened to theatre in the late fourth century?

A
  • spread through the Greek speaking world
  • actors could reach star status and be rich
  • famous old plays were revived and some were even adopted by the Latin pseaking wrold (Seneca)
58
Q

What were the Eleusinian mysteries?

A
  • yearly initiations for the cult of Persephone and Demeter
  • kept a secret
  • involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, so scholars suggest Psychedelic drugs
59
Q

Role of the gods in the Frogs

A
  • Dionysus is cowardly, comic and mocked
  • Hercales is mocked
  • underowlrd is Athenian
60
Q

What happened at Arginusae?

A
  • 406BC
  • Athenaisn won buyt did not go back for drowining and dead due to a storm
  • assmebly voted to execute the generals
61
Q

How is the Polis presented in the Frogs?

A
  • aristocrat and slave both represnented
  • Democracy collsapses a year after the play is released
  • class tensions
  • explosion of creativity had died
62
Q

what is interesting about the portrayal of Aeschylus and Euripides in the frogs?

A

each exhibits the persona their tragic hero would

63
Q

what key dates relate to Oedipus the king?

A
  • 431: start of Peloppenisian war
  • 430Bc: Athenian plague
  • 430BC: play written
64
Q

How does Pericles’ funeral speech relate to Oedipus the king?

A
  • describes Athens
  • pattern to others
  • ideas of freedom and democracy are valued
65
Q

what is a sophist?

A

a philosophy teacher
critical of gods
use rhetoric to get their way

66
Q

what is a tyrnat?

A

a single person holding all the power

67
Q

How does Thucydide’s descirbe the 430BC Athenian plague?

A

-utter hopelessness

68
Q

when was The Bacchae written?

A

-406BC (Euripides’ last play)

69
Q

why is the prologue in Bacchae interesting?

A
  • Euripides often opened with a god expalinign what was happening, but tey did not usually sustain such a major role
  • His mask wears a serene smile, nbut he has come to punish
70
Q

What is an Oreibasia?

A

mountain dancing

outisder would respond with revulsion fear and suspicion

71
Q

What is the role of Tiresias in the Bacchae?

A
  • usually linked to objtecive truth

- gives ingenious arguments instead of knowledge n this play

72
Q

What is the role of Cadmus in the Bacchae?

A
  • strikingly human, despite mythic status

- -> heightens our emotional response

73
Q

What is the role of Pentheus in the Bacchae?

A
  • enclosed and stubborn
  • contrasts solidarity of the Maenads
  • Tyrannous, isolated and killed
  • initaite reisiting inititaion
74
Q

What is the role of the chours in the Bacchae?

A
  • unusual
  • foreign
  • take sides with vengence
  • women
  • citizens of Thebes not represented
75
Q

what were expectations of a Kyria?

A

-marry as young as 13, stay in domestic sphere

76
Q

describe Cadmus’ family

A

married Harmony
had two daughters: Semele and Agave
Semele had an affair with Zeus

77
Q

what is a dithyramb?

A
  • prossesional song to accompany a god in to a city
  • themes the audeiencew would be familiar with e.g. birth of a god
  • early themes of Tragedy were Dionysus based –> opening scene of Baccahe re-enacts genisis of the whole genre
78
Q

what is the relevance of cross-dressing in the Bacchae?

A
  • Pentheus becomes docile when dressed a a woman
  • in mystery cult the boundaries were dissolved
  • mirrors
79
Q

what is the significance of mystery cult to Baccahe?

A
  • emotional and political significance

- “Dionysus created a light”

80
Q

what is the significance of the polis to Baccahe?

A
  • cult of Dionysus suspends and reverses the norms of the Polis
  • -> scandalous as it challnges the patriarchy
  • rituals imporant for well being of Polis
  • Greece rejecting tyranny while tragedy was emerging

greek theatre (6 decks)

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