Module 2: Greek Theatre Flashcards
Catharsis
The process of releasing, and therefore providing relief from, strong or repressed emotions.
Who argued tragic plays were valuable because watching them provided catharsis?
Aristotle
Aristotle’s Tragedy Hierarchy
Plot
Character
Diction
Thought
Spectacle
Song
Aristotle: A tragic plot needs what three elements?
1) Reversal (perpetia): just when things are getting OK, it gets terrible again; 2) Recognition (anagnorisis): character finally realizes something (“that was my mother!); 3) Scene of suffering (exile, suicide, etc.)
What did Aristotle say tragedies should follow in order to avoid confusing audiences?
The three unities
Unity of Action
A tragedy should have one principal action
Unity of Time
The action in a tragedy should occur of a period of no more than 24 hours
Unity of Place
A tragedy should exist in a single physical location
Which of Aristotle’s three unities did theorists later tack on?
Unity of Place
Who Wrote “The Poetics?”
Aristotle
What did worshippers loft during the Dionysus rituals?
A giant phallus
What were the songs of the Dionysus festival called?
Dithyrambs (acting out the song instead of just singing it)
What was the Greek “birth of the actor?”
A single actor named Thespis stepped out from a chorus. He switched between characters using masks.
What was City Dionysia?
A festival with a theatre competition at its center.
Theatron
Seated section (“seeing place”) in Greek theatre
Orchestra
Flat part where the chorus performed in Greek theatre
Skene
Dressing hut where actors could change masks in Greek theatre
Paradoi
Side entrances (Greek theatre)
Deus Ex Machina
“God in the Machine”: Actor playing God could descend in a cart (Greek theatre)
Cothurni
Platform shoes (Greek theatre)
How did Plato feel about theatre?
Theatre is pointless, frivolous & “fun,” not helpful.
Who were the choregos?
In City Dionysia’s theatre competitions, chosen playwrights were matched with a prominent Athenian citizen, the choregos, who bankrolled the play.
Who was the “bad boy” of Greek drama?
Euripides, Wthe youngest and ballsiest of the three extant tragedians
Who were the three extant Greek tragedians?
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.
What was the “Happy Idea” in Greek theatre?
Comedy
What was Agave’s anagnorisis in Euripides’ “The Bacchae?”
She had beheaded her own son
Who wrote “Lysistrata?”
Aristophanes
How do most Greek comedies begin and end?
It kicks off with a “happy idea” and ends by restoring peace and order.
What is Lysistrata’s “happy idea?”
The wives of soldiers involved in the Peloponnesian War withhold sex from their husbands, thus ending the war.
What is the claimed “anti-war, feminist play?”
Lysistrata
