Take to the stage to learn about ancient Greek theater and drama competitions.
Aspasia:Welcome, wanderer, to one of the most prestigious places in Greece: the theater.
("Who are you?")
Aspasia:My name is Aspasia. Though I am not original from Athens, I have climbed to the top of its social ladder using my wit and intellect. I've even earned the love of Perikles, one of the most powerful men in the city. The mind truly is a beautiful thing.
("What do you think of this place?")
Aspasia:I'd tell you, but I think it's best to let the actors speak for themselves.
("Let's begin the tour.")
Aspasia:The theater was where audiences gathered to watch plays. They were the highest form of art in Greece, and people saw theater as a symbol of complete harmony between the mortal and the divine. When you're done taking in the sights and sounds, come see me, and we'll take more. Until then, wanderer.
Theater representation, concept art by Caroline Soucy / 2017
Theater is not just part of geek culture, but was a major part of Greek culture.
In Athens, comedies and dramas originated from the dancing and singing performed by members of the cult of Dionysos.
Between 536 and 533 BCE, theater's burgeoning importance in Athens was demonstrated when the responsibility of organizing tragedies was entrusted to the archon - the highest ranking magistrate in the city.
From then on, theater grew rapidly in popularity, and soon a permanent space for performing and watching plays was built on the slope of the akropolis.
During the 5th century BCE, theater became intertwined with Athens's democracy.
It often functioned as an echo chamber for political ideas, and in some cases, it could even influence public opinion.
Asa result, in the 4th century BCE, Plato coined the term "theatrocracy" to describe his city's politics.
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Athenian dramatic contents featured three types of drama: comedies, tragedies, and raunchy satyr plays. These plays were not just dramatic stories, but complete performances accompanied by music, singing, and dancing. These elements combined to form an exquisite tribute to the god Dionysos.
Sadly, only a few plays from Classical Athens have survived; those of the famous tragedians Aiskhylos. Sophokles, and Euripides, and the work of the comic poet Aristophanes. Aiskhylos was born c. 525 BCE. He was part of a wealthy noble family, and was present at many famous battles, including the Battle of Marathon, the Battle of Salamis, and the Battle of Plataia. As a result, the Greco-Persian Wars heavily influenced his work as a playwright, and his first tragedy, "The Persians" was a celebration of the Battle of Salamis.
Sophokles was born a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BCE. He was a friend of Perikles, and was incredibly prolific writing over 120 plays in his lifetime, including "Oedipus Rex", "Ajax", and "Elektra".
Euripides was the youngest of the three tragedians, born in 480 BCE. Unlike Aiskhylos and Sophokles, he came from a modest family, and though his plays were not as celebrated as the other two, they became very successful after his death. He introduced many innovations to theater, especially in the field of music.
Aristophanes was a comic playwright, Though he is considered the "Father of Comedy", little is known about his life. What is known is that he was a proponent of peace, and that his plays often referenced Athenian politics. The most frequent targets in his plays were Kleon, Euripides, Sokrates, and the sophists.
Tetracdrachm of Thasos with head of Dionysos - 168-148 BCE (Hellenstic Greece)
Theatrical competitions were held in the sanctuary of Dionysos Eleutherios, god of wine and patron of drama.
Dionysos was the son of Zeus and a mortal woman named Semele.
Stories say that Zeus, who had fallen in love with Semele, appeared to her holding a lightning bolt in his hand.
Semele was tragically struck dead by the lightning, but Zeus managed to save her unborn child, keeping the embryo in his thigh until it fully gestated.
This is why the name Dionysos is sometimes thought to mean "born twice".
In Athens, theater was a part of the cult of Dionysos, and stage productions in the god's honor were held during festivals like the Lenaea and the Great Dionysia.
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The Theater of Dionysos as it exists today dates back to the 4th century BCE, when the statesman Lykourgos reorganized the sanctuary. It features a circular orchestra, with a stone skene or stage - in front of it. However, archaeologists believe that the original shape of the orchestra was a square.
In the Hellenistic period, 67 marble thrones reserved for city officials were added around the orchestra. At the center of this row was a seat meant for the priest of Dionysos. During the Roman period, a new stage was built in honor of both the god and the emperor Nero, and extra seats of honor were added around the edge of the orchestra.
Photo by James Anderson (1813-1877) of the Vatican statue of Euripides holding a theater mask / 1859
In Athens, there were three festivals that honored Dionysos
with drama performances:
The rustic Dionysies, the Lenaea, and the Great Dionysia.
For the rustic Dionysia, each deme of Attika organized their own Dionysiac procession.
The parades were full of phallic songs, dances, and symbols meant to signify fertility, and participants wore drunkard masks and sang bawdy lyrics about the god.
The Lenaea was the oldest Dionysian festival.
It was exclusively reserved for Greek citizens, and mostly made up of comedy performances.
Finally, the Great Dionysia was the most important festival.
Taking place over several days, it began with a parade called a phallophoria , followed by dithyramb contests, and ending with consecrated drama competitions.
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From 450 BCE onwards, the city of Athens gave poor citizens free theater tickets, which were valued at two oboloi. This initiative was provided for by a public fund called "theorikon" ("money for spectacles"), and it consisted of the distribution of special tokens, or symbola.
The purpose of theorikon may have been to make sure poor citizens weren't denied access to the theater. The service was later extended to all citizens, regardless of wealth.
Numerous bronze tokens for Athens's theater have been preserved. They resemble contemporary coins stamped with either the head of Athena, a lion, or an owl. On the reverse side, they feature letters from the Greek alphabet that correspond to different sections and seats in the auditorium.
Votive relief of a poet receiving Dionysos and his procession. Copy of a Greek original of the 1st cent. BCE / 1st cent. BCE (Hellenistic Greece)
The Great Dionysia was supervised by the head magistrate known as the archon, who was assisted by twelve other magistrates.
Among his duties, the archon picked choregoi - rich Athenian citizens responsible for providing the budget for rehearsals and performances.
Two days before the Dionysia, a ceremony called the proagon took place where playwrights introduced their work.
The Dionysia finally began in earnest with a procession to the god's temple, followed by sacrifices and a symposium.
The next two days centered on dithyramb contests, while the final four days were dedicated to drama competitions.
The contests' outcomes were decided by ten judges, who were appointed at random by the archon.
The judges placed their votes in an urn, and five of the votes were randomly picked to determine the winner.
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The choregia was an important and obligatory public service.
Each year, several months before the Dionysia, the archon would appoint three choregoi to fund tragedies and three to fund comedies. The appointed citizens were selected based entirely on how wealthy they were.
The choregoi's duties were focused mainly on funding the chorus; specifically their recruitment, costuming, and support. They also had to provide a rehearsal space. If a play won a dramatic contest, the choregoi provided the victors with a sumptuous meat.
Being a choregos granted opportunities for great prestige and public approval. When a play won a prize at the festival, its choregos was crowned alongside the playwright. Furthermore, the victorious choregos was expected to erect a monument near the theater with an inscription celebrating his achievements.
Terracotta statuette of a seated comic actor wearing his mask/400-200 BCE (Classical / Hellenistic Greece)
All Athenian stage actors were male, regardless of whether they were playing men or women.
Tragedies originally featured only one actor performing alongside a chorus, eventually reaching a maximum of four.
Adding more roles opened up the opportunity for dramatic dialogue.
During performances, they prepared themselves in the skene, a building that served as a backstage area, before emerging onto the proskenion, or stage.
The skene could be painted to represent backdrops like palaces, temples, and tombs.
Its roof was reserved for appearances by the gods.
These "gods" could be moved around with a crane called a mechane. which produced spectacular visual effects.
Onstage, actors wore masks and elaborate costumes.
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Actors in the 5th century BCE came, as far as we know, from theatrical families, and were strictly divided between comedy and tragedy.
For example, both Aiskhylos and Euripides had at least one son who performed as a tragic actor. Similarly, Aristophanes probably had six offspring who became comic poets or actors. All of these actors and poets came from wealthy families, which was probably the norm at the time.
In the 4th century BCE, actors began to eclipse poets in popularity, becoming successful celebrities who travelled from city to city. One of the most popular destinations for actors was Makedon, as king Philip II of Makedon was allegedly a big fan of drama.
Orchestra and cavea of the Epidauros theatre / Contemporary
The centerpiece of the theater was the orchestra, or "dancing place".
It was a large circular area that hosted choral performances,
religious rites, and, presumably, acting.
Choruses were composed of men wearing masks and costumes.
Any Athenian citizen could be choreutai as long as they were selected by the chorus director.
Chorus members also served as the equivalent of a curtain, as their entrance and exit marked the beginning and end of the play.
New costumes and masks were produced for the chorus for every new play, and they were often just as impressive and elaborate as the performances.
For example, Aristophanes's comedies featured the chorus dressing as wasps, frogs, birds, clouds, and islands.
One of his plays, "The Knights", even had men riding other men dressed as horses.
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Comic and tragic actors used their voice to deliver the words of the play, but they also relied on non-verbal communication and body language to perform their role.
Actors had their own specific way of gesturing called cheironomia, which means "law of the hands". Due to the large spaces they performed in, as well as the masks they wore, actors depended on broad movements and systematized gestures to clearly relay their emotions to the audiences
The different postures, or schemata, that made up cheironomia were taught in gymnasia, rhetoric schools, and theater schools. While much of the repertoire of gestures has been lost, historians have been able to reconstruct parts of cheironomia by examining the art on some ancient vasees.
Theatre of Thasos / 2005
Athens' theatron, or performance space, could seat up to 17,000 people - nearly a tenth of the population of Attika.
Its excellent acoustics made it ideal for drama, but it was also sometimes used for political meetings and parades.
The theater was accessible to everybody. This did not mean that seating was free, though.
The first rows were normally where priests and public officials sat, while the central part of the auditorium was reserved for ambassadors and guests of honor.
There is also evidence that men and women sat seperately.
In general, theater audiences were emotional and noisy.
During performances, they would shout, curse, and throw things depending on their mood, and their reactions were just as much as a party of the experience as the acting.
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Originally, a play's text and music was not meant to be preserved, and the play's performance was supposed to be a unique experience reserved for theatrical competitions. The text could be kept by the families of actors and authors, but otherwise it was not widely available.
Over time, drama’s increasing popularity beyond Attika made the re-performance of older plays more fashionable. Consequently, theatrical scripts started circulating more freely in the form of papyrus scrolls.
The process of copying scripts was performed in special workshops by literate scribes. The copies were not always perfect, and occasionally the play's text would be changed. These changes were still performed, and as a result numerous versions of different plays were circulated through Athens between the 4th and 5th centuries BCE.
It wasn't until the 4th century BCE that the Athenian orator Lykourgos implemented a decree that created a fixed canon for tragedies featuring final and definitive versions of the. plays of Aiskhylos, Sophokles, and Euripides.
Aspasia:Hello again, wanderer. I hope your visit was entertaining. Though all art forms in important in Greek culture, non had the same prestige as theater, which provided a unique experience with every performance. Is there anything else you'd like to do?
("I'm ready for the quiz.")
("Take on the next suggested tour.")
("Take me on a random tour.")
([LEAVE] "That's all for now.")
Aspasia:Then I will leave you be. Farewell, wanderer.
