Dionysus: Influential Through Time
THEATRE OF DIONYSUS: GREEK INFLUENCE THROUGH TIME Twenty-five hundred years ago, Western theatre was born in Athens, Greece. Between 600 and 200 BC, the ancient Athenians created a theatre culture that has influenced theatre through history. They created plays that are still considered among the greatest works of world drama. Their achievement is Greek theatre took place in large hillside ampitheatres. The players included a chorus and their leader, and the lines were more chanted than spoken. The chorus performed in the orchestra, not on a raised stage. The use of masks represented characters and high-soled boots worn added height to the players. Thespis is where it all began. Little is known of this man. It is uncertain whether Thespis was a playwright, an actor or a priest, yet it is his name with which the dramatic arts are associated in our word "Thespian". Thespis performed his plays on wagons and seats were set up for performances in the market place of Athens. The original word for 'actor' was hypokrites, meaning 'answerer,' for the actor answered the chorus. Thespis is said to have introduced and been the first actor, later called protagonistes (first competitor). Th
Ancient Athenians had begun to question how nature worked, how society should work, and what man's role was in the scheme of things. Historians such as Thucydides and Herodotus were heard and scientists and mathematicians like Thales, Hippocrates, Archimedes became known. They may have played drums, lyres and flutes, and chanted as they danced around an effigy of Dionysus. Greek drama was influenced by five playwrights over the 200 years following Thespis. Each set of three tragedies was followed by the performance of a satyr play, a short mocking of a myth related to the theme of at least one of the tragedies. Tragedy did not develop by chance. Free thought after years of religious dictatorship spawned the next great era in theatre. Previous to the invention of the skene, entrances could only be made through the two ramps which led onto the orchestra. Later a hall was added, incorporating or obliterating the Older Temple, and a second temple built further south. The chorus in Menander's plays resembled a modern chorus, singers and dancers who provided filler between acts. The chorus is often a direct participant in the action. Most important about TDA is the influence that Greek theatre has on modern theatre.
Common topics in this essay:
Greek Comedy,
Euripides Medea,
Cult Dionysus,
Aeschylus' Oresteia,
Aeschylus Sophocles,
Phrynicus Aeschylus,
Temple Dionysus,
Athens Greece,
Ancient Athenians,
Sophocles Greek,
greek comedy,
terrace wall,
century bc,
actors chorus,
resembled modern,
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centuries bc,
athenian festivals,
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