Greek Theatre

Question 1

What is an agon?

Answer 1

A formal debate in which the playwright can showcase opposing arguments

Question 2

What was an auletes?

Answer 2

An aulos player, each chorus was accompanied by one

Question 3

What was an aulos?

Answer 3

a double reed musical instrument similar to an oboe

Question 4

Who were the Bacchants?

Answer 4

female followers of Dionysus

Question 5

What was Bacchism?

Answer 5

The cult worship of Dionysus

Question 6

What was a Catharsis?

Answer 6

A word meaning ‘cleansing’ or ‘purification’

Question 7

What was a chiton?

Answer 7

A full length robe- ornately decorated

Question 8

What were the choral odes?

Answer 8

songs performed by the chorus

Question 9

Who was the choregos?

Answer 9

the financial backer attached to a playwright to support the production of the plays

Question 10

what was the crane?

Answer 10

A device which raised an actor above the level of the skene building

Question 11

what was a deme?

Answer 11

A village or district of Attica

Question 12

What was the dithyramb?

Answer 12

A choral song sung in honour of Dionysus

Question 13

What was the parados?

Answer 13

the entry way into the orchestra from each side of the theatre

Question 14

What were the Eleusinian Mysteries

Answer 14

An important religious cult in honour of Demeter and her daughter Persephone. Anyone who wished could be initiated into the cult

Question 15

What was the eponymous archon?

Answer 15

A leading politician of Athens who was responsible for running the City Dionysia.

Question 16

What was the exodus?

Answer 16

The final section of a play

Question 17

What was a hamartia?

Answer 17

A word which meant ‘mistake’ in a tragedy- such a mistake would lead to a disastrous outcome

Question 18

What was hubris?

Answer 18

A range of behaviours from outrageous or excessive behaviour through to physical or sexual assault

Question 19

What were the iambus?

Answer 19

The spoken sections of the play (Iambics)

Question 20

What was a kommos

Answer 20

A formal song sung in moments of heightened emotion involving dialogue between an actor and the chorus

Question 21

what was a komos?

Answer 21

a loosely organised revel through the streets with song and dance

Question 22

What were kothornoi?

Answer 22

Soft leather boots which reached up to the thigh

Question 23

What was the Lenaea?

Answer 23

A drama festival held in Athens in late January

Question 24

What was a lyric?

Answer 24

The sung sections of a play. Choral odes are always composed in lyric, and accompanied by dancing , but the characters sometimes also sing in lyric at particularly emotional times

Question 25

Who were the maenads?

Answer 25

An alternative name for the Bacchants

Question 26

What is a monody?

Answer 26

A solo song by an actor, often sung at moments of great distress

Question 27

what does 'oikos' mean?

Answer 27

literally 'house' this term is used to describe a household or family unit

Question 28

what is the orchestra?

Answer 28

the 'dancing area' below the theatron where the chorus performed

Question 29

what is the parabasis?

Answer 29

A section of comedy in which the chorus addresses the audience directly, speaking in the voice of the playwright

Question 30

what is the parodos?

Answer 30

the first ode which the chorus perform while coming into the theatre

Question 31

What was the peripeteia?

Answer 31

A terrible reversal of fortune in tragedy

Question 32

What does 'physis' mean?

Answer 32

Personal nature, something you are born with and cannot be changed by circumstances

Question 33

what does 'pietas' mean?

Answer 33

duty to the family, to the state and to the gods

Question 34

What does 'polis' mean?

Answer 34

the word for a Greek city state

Question 35

What was a pompe

Answer 35

A grand religious procession

Question 36

What was the proagon

Answer 36

An event which acted as a preview and introduction to the festival

Question 37

What was the prohedria?

Answer 37

the front row seating in the theatron reserved for VIPs

Question 38

What is a prologue?

Answer 38

the opening of the play which sets the scene

Question 39

What was the Rural Dionysia

Answer 39

a drama festival held in the rural demes of Attica in mid-winter

Question 40

What was a satyr?

Answer 40

A mythological creature who was a follower of Dionysus. Half human and half animal

Question 41

What was a satyr-play?

Answer 41

A play which parodied tragedy and was presented along with three tragedies by the same playwright

Question 42

What was the 'simpulum'

Answer 42

A ritual ladle used for pouring libations and sacrificesw

Question 43

What was the skene

Answer 43

A wooden hut used as a backdrop and for actors to change

Question 44

What was a sophist?

Answer 44

A group of influential philosophers in fifth century Athens, whose interests included religion, ethics, rhetoric and science

Question 45

What was a 'stasimon'

Answer 45

The name for a choral ode after the parados

Question 46

What is a stichomythia

Answer 46

A dialogue in which two characters speak alternate lines of verse. This makes exchanges punchy, and is particularly appropriate for the agon.

Question 47

What was the theatron?

Answer 47

The seating area in a Greek Theatre

Question 48

What was the Theoric Fund

Answer 48

A fund provided by the Athenian state which ensured that poorer citizens could afford to attend the City Dionysia

Question 49

What was a thyrsus?

Answer 49

A ritual staff made of a fennel stalk carried by the followers of Dionysus

Question 50

What is tragic irony?

Answer 50

where the playwright contrasts the characters limited knowledge with the audience's wider understanding

Question 51

what was a tribe?

Answer 51

A political division in Athens. there were 10 of them

Question 52

What was 'tyrannos'

Answer 52

A tyrant or king (not necessarily a negative meaning)

Question 53

What is the wheel platform

Answer 53

A wooden platform on wheels brought on stage which showed a scene from off stage