Drama Terms

Question 1

Tetralogy

Answer 1

Tragedy competition format
Trilogy + Satyr play
Only complete trilogy is the Orestaia, only Satyr play Cyclops

Question 2

Archon

Answer 2

Official of Athens
Originally elected, later by lottery
One of them was in charge of organizing festivals
Picks entrants

Question 3

Satyr Play

Answer 3

4th play of a Tetralogy
Only complete one is the Cyclops
Tragicomedy

Question 4

Prologue

Answer 4

Opening scene of a Greek play

Tells you which story will be told

Question 5

Parados

Answer 5

The chorus’s entry song

Also apart of the theater that people enter/exit by

Question 6

Exodus

Answer 6

Exit song of the Chorus

Usually imparts the moral

Question 7

City Dionysia

Answer 7

Biggest drama festival held in Athens
Honors Dionysus
3 Tragedy tetralogies, 5 Comedy plays

Question 8

Lenaia

Answer 8

Smaller Athenian drama festival
Originally just Comedy (5) but later 2 Tragedies
Focused on wine, but later included drama

Question 9

Parabasis

Answer 9

All the actors leave the stage and the chorus adresses the audience directly
Only in Old Comedy
Usually includes in-jokes and stuff the poet wanted to say

Question 10

Agon

Answer 10

Debate/Contest between 2 characters

For example the end of the Frogs

Question 11

fabula palliata

Answer 11

Roman drama term
“In Greek Dress” (referring to the pallium, a greek cloak)
Roman dramas based on greek drama

Question 12

fescennine verse

Answer 12

Rude/Vulgar poetry

Would evolve into Roman Comedy

Question 13

Atellan farce

Answer 13

Improvised, masked, farce performances
Leaned heavily on stock characters
Banned by Emperor Tiberius

Question 14

Menander

Answer 14

The biggest name of Late Comedy
Only fragments survive
All of our knowledge of his work comes from the Roman poets that claimed to be imitating him

Question 15

Livius Andronicus

Answer 15

First person to write literature in latin
Greek man that translated Homer and others into latin
Wrote New Comedy plays in latin

Question 16

Naevius

Answer 16

Invented fabula praetexta (National Drama)
Wrote frequently in the New Drama style
Imprisoned/Exiled for including politicians in his dramas

Question 17

Sophistry

Answer 17

Misleading arguments

Taught by the Sophists to help people win arguments

Question 18

Golden Fleece

Answer 18

The treasure Jason was after on Colchis
Gold haired, winged ram skin
Came from the animal used to save Nephele’s Children
Helle fell off into the Hellespont

Question 19

Minotaur

Answer 19

Theseus kills this Cretan monster
Head of a bull, body of a man
Eats people
Spawned when the wife of Minos slept with poseidon’s favorite bull

Question 20

katabasis

Answer 20

Trips to the underworld

Odysseus, Orpheus

Question 21

Dramatic Irony

Answer 21

When the audience knows something the characters don’t. Used for either suspense or comedy

Question 22

Miasma

Answer 22

Religious pollution

For example the curse fo the Atredaie is a result of the miasma on their house for all the child-feeding

Question 23

Katharsis

Answer 23

Most important purpose of Tragedy according to Aristotle

Watching a tragedy purges negativity from the soul

Question 24

anagnorisis

Answer 24

Sudden revelation
Ultimate form is paired with peripeteia
Oediups murdered his father and married his mother

Question 25

peripeteia

Answer 25

Sudden reversal of fortune

Most powerful part of a plat if paired with a revelation

Question 26

Haimon

Answer 26

Son of Creon and Eurydice

Kills himself when Antigone, his fiance, kills herself

Question 27

Polyneices

Answer 27

Son of Oedipus
Fights with his brother over Thebes
Creon refused to let him be buried, Antigone ignored this

Question 28

Eteocles

Answer 28

Brother of Polyneices
Was the brother allowed to be buried
Was the winner of the power struggle but still ended up dead

Question 29

Ismene

Answer 29

Sister of Antigone
Initially refuses to help her
Takes her side and demands equal punishment when Antigone is caught

Question 30

Laius

Answer 30

Father of Oedipus
King of Thebes, retook it after a coup against his father
Killed because of the prophecy

Question 31

Cadmus

Answer 31

First king of Thebes and first Greek hero
One of the 3 great monster slayers before Heracles
Introduced the alphabet to Greece (Phoenician)

Question 32

Agave

Answer 32

Daughter of Cadmus, mother of Pentheus
Falls under the indluence of Dionysus
Tears apart her son in madness

Question 33

Xanthias

Answer 33

Servant of Dionysus

Repeatedly saves Dionysus by pretending to be Heracles

Question 34

Aeacus

Answer 34

Grandfather of Achilles
Story about him building Troy
Was the judge of the European shades in Hades

Question 35

Helios

Answer 35

Sun Titan, drives the Chariot of the Sun
Father of Phaethon that nearly burned the world
Owner of the sacred Red Bulls Odysseus finds

Question 36

Galatea

Answer 36

Object of Polyphemus’s desire

Question 37

stichomythia

Answer 37

Rapid fire dialogue between 2 characters

ex. Dionysus/Xanthias in the Frogs prologue

Question 38

Choregos

Answer 38

Rich man appointed with training/Equipping a Chorus

Competed to have the best chorus for pride

Question 39

ekkyklema

Answer 39

Scenes brought out on a Skene
Used to show interior scenes
Shows the result of violence (on-screen was banned)

Question 40

Aidos

Answer 40

Respect, veneration, sense of shame

Virtue for women

Question 41

Sophrosyne

Answer 41

Self control, moderation

Opposite of Hubris

Question 42

aischyne

Answer 42

Shame

Hides hidden and dark/impure desire

Question 43

Actaeon

Answer 43

Theban hero trained by Chiron

Offended Artemis, transformed into a stag, and was mauled by his hunting dogs

Question 44

Aedile

Answer 44

2-4 Public Officials
In charge of public buildings and games
Chooses plays and arranges for productions

Question 45

Tibicen

Answer 45

Someone that plays the Tibia (Aulos in Greek)

Question 46

Iambic Senarii

Answer 46

a L a L | a L a L | a L s L

Standard meter for spoken word