RWAAG Home, Drama-->
Advertisement:
If you click above and follow the links to a purchase then this site receives a commission for its support.
The word 'tragedy' means 'goat song' and comes to us from from Indo-European 'Tragos', 'Goat' and 'wed-2', 'To speak'. According to The encyclopedia of Indo-European Culturea goat entrails were used as a part of a Greek funeral ceremony as sops for the Greek canine of the underworld Cerberus. So the goat seems to be associated with the dead. It has also been said that the goat is quite friendly to the shepherd and so his death seems tragic. Goats are also associated with the god Dionysus.
Drama came to us from religious worship. Specifically it came from the worship of Dionysus, not Athene, not Zeus, and not Poseidon. The transition from religious worship occurred some time in the sixth century BCE. The conviction of the religion of Dionysus, that the worshipper can not only worship, but can become, can be, his god, is essentially dramatic.
Greek plays were often presented to honor the god Dionysus but mainly in Athens. They were given in the Greek month of Elaphebolion 11-13 (in March-April) for 7 to 8 hours each day. In Athens on the southwest slope of the Acropolis plays were presented on the round flag-stoned dance floor of the theater. This was the celebration of the Great Dionysia, a festival for the god Dionysus, but for men only.
In other parts of Greece festivals for the god Dionysus included women so the festival in Athens was unique, but it was also unique in that dramas were produced. The question of whether women participated in drama and what was her part is the subject of great debate. Most information has woman excluded from the theaters in Classical times. Before this the situation is fuzzy. The theater grew out of religious festivals and there is evidence that women participated in festivals where women played the part of a goddess in the Minoan Culture.
The distinction between what must have happened during the women's festivals and what happened in the Great Dionysia is clarified by Plato Republic, III, 394b,
"...there is one kind of poetry and taletelling which works wholly through imitation, as you remarked, tragedy, and comedy, and another which employs the recital of the poet himself, best exemplified, I presume, in dithyramb, and there is again that which employs both, in epic poetry and in many other places."
It was Aristotle who stated the origins of drama, Poetics, 4.1449a9ff:
It certainly begain in improvisations--as did also Comedy; the one originating in the authors of the Dithyramb, the other with those of the Phallic songs,..." Thus the thought is that drama began as recital and changed to imitation.
The Bacchae of Euripides is important because the drama actually includes Dionysus as one of the actors. It is confusing because in it one of the Maenads (Bacchae) says, "From Asia, from the dayspring that uprises, To Bromios(Dionysus) ever glorying we came." Euripides also refers to him as a new god. But this cannot be true because of the remarkable similarities of the cult of Dionysus to the cults depicted on the artifacts from the Minoan culture. In fact the name is found among the texts of the Mycenaean culture from Crete. This is dicussed by Carl Kerenyi in his book Dionysos on page 68. Euripides does admit to a Cretan source for drama when the Maenads sing,
Hail thou, O Nurse of Zeu, O Caverned Haunt Where fierce arms clanged to guard God's cradle rare, For thee of old some crested Corybant First woke in Cretan air The wild orb of our orgies, Our timbrel; and thy gorges Rang with this strain; and blended Phrygian chant And sweet keen pipes were there."
Of course the Corybants were male and the Maenads that worshiped Dionysus were female. The dithyramb is a frenzied dance and one can see this in the behavior of the Corybants. It is the Meanads in the Bacche that perform in this way. The connection between the dithyramb and the drama is suggested by The Bacchae, Line 296,
Prophesy Cleaves to all frenzy, but beyond all else To frenzy of prayer, Then in us verily dwells The god himself, and speaks the thing to be.
In drama, then the god can be said to speak, and because of the divine nature of his speech the future can describe. It seems as though it is the soul of spirit of a person that is in touch with god that thus can then speak. The realm of Dionysus often given as that of wine. But it may be that it is the ability of wine to affect the spirit of man that is really important. It is certainly the spirit that is the target of drama. In The Bacchae this seems to be the case when Teiresias says, line 277
"He found the liquid shower Hid in the grape. He rests man's spirit dim From grieving, when the vine exalteth him. He giveth sleep to sink the fretful day In cool forgetting."
There can be no doubt, in The Bacchae that women are the primary worshipers of Dionysus. Yet in that context they are forced. In another context they behaved as Ariadne did in Homer, Iliad, Book XVIII: "Furthermore he wrought a green, like that which Daedalus once made in Cnossus for lovely Ariadne. Hereon there danced youths and maidens whom all would woo, with their hands on one another's wrists. The maidens wore robes of light linen, and the youths well woven shirts that were slightly oiled. The girls were crowned with garlands, while the young men had daggers of gold that hung by silver baldrics; sometimes they would dance deftly in a ring with merry twinkling feet, as it were a potter sitting at his work and making trial of his wheel to see whether it will run, and sometimes they would go all in line with one another, and much people was gathered joyously about the green. There was a bard also to sing to them and play his lyre, while two tumblers went about performing in the midst of them when the man struck up with his tune." It seems significant that the story of Ariadne is a tragedy with her ultimate death and ressurection as the wife of Dionysus. In this story Dionysus can also be identified with the Minotaur and his death. The activity on the island of Naxos appears to be an orgy where Ariadne is transformed to the wif e of Dionysus and the Minotaur is transformed to the god Dionysus. As far as Ariadne is concerned this is suggested by Homer in the Odyssey when he says, book XI, "Artemis killed her on the Isle of Dia at a word from Dionysos" In a sense it is a double transformation that is quite consistent both with the worship of Dionysus and the Tragedies to to celebrate this god.
In this story Dionysus is associated with the sacrifice of a bull. In Athens he is more associated with the sacrifice of a goat. The word 'tragedy' means goat song and comes from Indo-European 'ghaido-', 'goat' and 'wed-2', 'To speak'. Even so in The Bacchae Dionysus is associated with a bull, line 923,
"And is it a Wild bull this, that walks and waits Before me? There are horns upon thy brow! What art thou, man or beast? For surely now The bull is on thee!"
The origin of Comedy is not so clear. The Greek word 'κωμῳδός' has been translated as 'revel singer' but I am not so sure. The festival of Dionysus is called an orgy not a comedy, yet the physical description is similar. Comedy seems like it may be more related to the Minoan culture than tragedy.
The theater seems to have arisen out of religious ritual. It was the custom in Minoan Greece for a person to the dressed up to portray a god or goddess in a religious festival. Minoan art pictures a goddess surrounded by dancing adorants that seem to depict this. The morality of later Greek classical plays supports this idea. Because a goddess was often the most important deity, women were often important participants in this ritual. It seems as though the original purpose of the theater was to help people act out how they were to behave, perhaps in the presence of a deity.
The artists of the golden age of Athens created the roles of some of the most interesting women in the history of the theater. There were a wide variety of women portrayed. The Athenian treatment of women is very comprhensive and more so than any other treatment. The significance of the women of Greek drama for the human race is one of immortal meaning. Men like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are as profound as spiritual teachers as the prophets of Israel. In addition the lyrics of these works rank among the finest poems ever written. The works graple with a wide range of human social conditions including: war, tyranny, social injustice, political corruption, the breakdown of domestic fidelity, and patriotism.
The stories that the classical Greeks told were about the peoples who lived in Greece before and during the Trojan war. There was about a 700 year time lapse between when the people lived and when their stories were written down. The peoples and the culture had changed dramatically. The way women related to society had changed, their religion had changed, their customs had changed, their economy had changed, their warfare had changed, their politics had changed. This period was one of dynamic cultural and political change. We are fortunate that the Greeks responded the way they did, because much of our society is based upon the foundation that they laid down.
The Greeks invented western theater out of a religious procession involving dancing. They developed the chorus and were the first to write tragedies and commedies. The physical form of the theater developed from a Greek dancing circle against a hillside for spectators. Later developments included the multilevel stage.
Shakespeare was voted man of the millenium which is a tribute to his impact. In Midsummer Night's Dream choice. He was able to create his own world. This is a precedent for Hollywood. Shakespeare was, in turn, influenced by the Greek Myths. He includes Theseus in this play and the fairies may have been inspired by Greek gods and goddesses. The ancient Minoan culture was fond of the image of the butterfly and I wonder if this was the source of our image of fairies. The image of a ring for this culture consists of ladies dancing but their heads and arms are in the form of insects. This image can be viewed at: Click here
Shakespeare knew little Latin and much less Greek so any influence was mostly hearsay and translation. Shakespeare did include references to Greeks in his works such a s the reference to Duke Theseus in the Midsummer Night's Dream, but even in this work there is little reference to the Greek Pantheon. He prefers fairies and their king Oberon and Queen Titania to nymphs with Zeus and Hera. His Puck is an English version of Hermes. Of course the form of his theater owed much to Greek drama, but it had adapted in over 2000 years to no longer be a religious exercise as it had been for the Greeks. Even so, in the Elizabethan theater women were sill not allow to perform.
Greek drama established the form of the theater which is still followed today. Even movies follow the basic form and format.
They are all roles conceived by men, because all the ancient Greek playwrights were men. And the actors were usually men, too. Of course, they turned to the women in their lives as models, because the women in the plays were frequent and important. But it seems fairly likely that women attended the theater but maybe only the hetari or courtesans. Women participated heavily in religion so it is possible they participated fully in the theater, but they were excluded from the festival where the dramas that have come down to us were performed. In the Minoan culture women were chosen to act out the role of the goddess.
There were women characters in Greek plays and there do not seem to be women playwrights. Whether women performed and whether women attended is a matter of much debate. It seems unlikely that they performed in the men's religious festival but they may have performed in a woman's festival. There is little question that women attended in the audience of the plays. The real question is what kind of women. Proper women probably stayed at home. It may have been that the hetaerae and women slaves were the only attendees.
Masks were important in ancient Greek drama. In the ancient Greek theater all performers were men with their personality determined by a mask.
What masks looked like: Click Here Ancient Greek masks were made of wood and in time they rotted away. All that are left are a few pictures or sculptures of them.
Though there is little documentation it seems likely. Though masks are illustrated they are not shown being worn. But personalities are imaged that could only be represented by a mask. And it seems customary for both sexes to act out the role of a deity in a religious ceremony. Notice the heads and hands of the following dancing goddeses: Click here The figures seem to have the heads and hands of insects. If this is the representation of women dancing then they may well have had masks to bring about the desired effect.
The goddesses did not wear masks, but the women who represented and portrayed them may have.
Ancient Greek masks were usually carved of a light wood, but you can use paper mache. The ancient masks included a device like a megaphone to help the actors to project their voices.
Mask links:
The stage is in the center of the theater following: Click here
The most significant Greek plays include:
Bibliographies:Women in Greek Drama A Bibliography, Univ. of Sask
Books:
Web Pages:
The Organizing Committee of the 13th INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL OF ANCIENT GREEK DRAMA 2009, welcomes international theatre groups who have productions of ancient Greek plays (tragedies/comedies) original, (not adaptations) to submit their works with a screener DVD to the Festival Selection Committee of the Cyprus ITI, by the end of January 2009.
The Festival is organized by the Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute in co operation with the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Cyprus Tourism Organization and it is held at the following venues:
In their application packages the theatre companies are requested to include the following materials and information:
Mr. Neophytos Neophytou Executive Director Cyprus Centre of the International Theatre Institute 38 Regaena Str., 1010 Nicosia Cyprus Tel: +357 22 674920 Fax: +357 22 680822 E-mail: ccoiti@cytanet.com.cy
Recorded Productions:
Links:
A site on ancient greek theater is available at: Click here
An example of a Greek Theater: Click here
General design of Greek theaters: Click here
Pages on special theater topics:
To ask a question about this topic note the topic (Drama) and Click here
Past Questions and Answers about Women in Greek Drama
Advertisement:
If you click above and follow the links to a purchase then this site receives a commission for its support.
RWAAG Home, Drama-->
created 1999??? last edit- 20090428
