مکتب های ادبی ( Greek Drama )

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Greek Drama 

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* The art of drama developed in the ancient Greek city-state of Athens in the late sixth century BC From the religious chants honoring Dionysus arose the first tragedies, which centered on the gods and Greece’s mythical past * In the fifth century BC, Greek audiences enjoyed the works of four master playwrights ;Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides were tragedians * The early works focused on the good and evil that exists simultaneously in the world as well as the contradictory forces of human nature and the outside world * Aeschylus, whose Oresteia trilogy examines the common tragic themes of vengeance and justice, brought tragedy to the level of serious literature * Of the scores of plays Sophocles wrote, only seven survive into modern times, and of these, the greatest one is Oedipus the King 

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* The last great tragedian, Euripides, questioned traditional values and the ultimate power of the gods * In his Medea, Euripides explores the choices that humans make under difficult situations * Both Sophocles and Euripides wrote plays about Antigone; the one by Sophocles survives; the one by Euripides survives only as a fragment * C. M. Bowra pointed out in his book Classical Greece that ‘Greek tragedy provides no explicit answers for the sufferings of humanity, but it . .. shows how they happen and how they may be borne.”’ * The myth of Orestes, as seen in Aeschylus’s Oresteia trilogy and Euripides’s Orestes introduces other major themes in Greek tragedy, namely justice (divine, personal, and communal) and vengeance * Comedy most likely also developed out of the same religious rituals as tragedy 

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* Aristophanes used biting satire in plays such as The Birds and Lysistrata to ridicule prominent Athenian figures and current events * Later comedy relied less on satire and mythology and more on human relations among the Greek common people. * Greek drama, with its universal themes and situations, continues to be relevant for modern audiences. 

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REPRESENTATIVE AUTHORS Aeschylus (c. 525 BC-c. 456 BC) * Aeschylus was the earliest of the best-known ancient Greek tragic dramatists ٠ He lifted the dramatic presentations from a choral performance to a work of art + He also added a second actor on stage, allowing for dialogue, and reduced the number of the chorus from about fifty to about fifteen * With Aeschylus, tragic drama was presented through action, not through recitation 

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Aeschylus took part in the City Dionysia probably for the first time in 499 BC, and he won it for the first time fifteen years later His masterpiece is the Oresteia trilogy, which was produced in 458 BC Aeschylus’s work was affected by contemporary politics, especially the Greco-Persian Wars that raged through his homeland Aeschylus’s plays are of lasting literary value because of their lyrical language, intricate plots, and universal themes He wrote about ninety plays, of which seven have survived Aeschylus died about 456 BC in Gela, Sicily. 

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Aristophanes (c. 450 BC-c. 385 BC) + Aristophanes was born about 450 BC, possibly on the island Aegina + His plays are the only examples of Old Comedy (comedy that focuseslargely on political satire rather than human relations, the focus of New Comedy) that have survived in their complete form. Aristophanes’s themes and work generally reflects the social, literary, and philosophical life of Athens, and many of his plays were inspired by events of the Peloponnesian War Among the most well-known are The Birds and The Frogs + He use witty dialogue, his satire, and the inventiveness of his comic scenes ٠ Aristophanes died about 385 BC in Athens, Greece. 

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Crates (c. 449 BC-424 BC) + Flourishing in the mid-fifth century BC in Athens, Crates is considered the founder of Greek New Comedy According to Aristotle, Crates abandoned traditional comedy which centered on invective and introduced more general stories that relied on well developed plots Crates was also the first to stop using iambic rhythm + Some of his work :Wild Beasts, Daring Deeds, and Neighbors. 

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Cratinus (c. 520 BC-423 BC) * Cratinus was regarded in antiquity as one of the three great writers of the Old Comedy period * Only fragments of his twenty-seven known plays survive, but they are enough to show that his comedies, like those of Aristophanes, seem to have been a mixture of parodied mythology and reference to contemporary events * Cratinus died about 423 BC 

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Epicharmus (c. 530 BC-c. 440 BC) + Epicharmus was born about 530 BC * He is seen as the originator of Sicilian, or Doric, comedy He is credited with more than fifty plays, but only a few lines survive He is credited with more than fifty plays, but only a few lines survive Many of his plays were mythological burlesques: He even satirized the gods + His lively style made his work more akin to New Comedy than the Old Comedy of his time * He died about 440 BC 

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Eupolis (c. 445 BC-c. 411 BC) * His first playwas produced in 429 BC, but only fragments of his plays survived to modern times + Eupolis focused his satire on Athenian demagogues, wealthy citizens, but also concerned himself with serious subjects, such as how Athens could dominate Sparta in the ongoing Peloponnesian War + He was friends with Aristophanes, but their relationship broke down as they each accused the other of plagiarism + Eupolis died about 411 BC while he was still a young man, likely fighting in the war 

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Euripides (c. 485 BC-406 BC) + Euripides was born about 485 BC in Attica + In 441 BC he won his first victory at the City Dionysia in which he competed twenty-two times + Nineteen of his ninety-two plays survive + His most famous plays are ¥ Medea, produced in 431 BC Y Hippolytus (428 BC) Y Electra (417 BC) Y Trojan Women (415 BC) Y ton (c. 411 BC) ” Iphigenia at Aulis and Bacchae (both in 405 BC, posthumously) 

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Euripides designed the tragic fate of his characters to stem from their own flawed natures. The gods look upon his characters’ suffering with apparent indifference His plays are usually introduced by prologues and often end with the providential appearance of a god, an action known as deus ex machine the deus ex machina includes a god’s epilogue that reveals the future fortunes of the characters. Euripides died in 406 BC in Macedonia. 

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Menander (c. 342 BC-c. 292 BC) * Menander was born about 342 BC * In modern times, he is considered to be the supreme dramatist of New Comedy, but, during his lifetime, he was less successful * Of his more than one hundred plays, only eight won prizes at Athens’ dramatic festivals He produced his first play in 321 BC The only play of his to survive intact is Dyscolus, which won a festival prize in 317 * The Roman writers Plautus and Terence adapted many of Menander’s works * Menander died about 292 BC 

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Phrynichus (c. 420 BC) * Phrynichus was an Athenian poet of the Old Comedy period and a contemporary of Aristophanes and Eupolis + He began producing plays in 430 BC and won two victories in the City Dionysia + Those two plays are Monotropos and Muses 

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Sophocles (c. 496 BC-c. 406 BC) * Sophocles was born about 496 BC in Colonus, near Athens * He first won the City Dionysia in 468 BC, defeating Aeschylus + He went on to write a total of 123 tragedies for this annual festival, winning perhaps as many as 24 times and never receiving less than second prize * Of his seven extant plays, his most well-known is Oedipus the King, which was performed sometime between 430 BC and 426 BC * This play became a paradigm for Freud's theory of the Oedipus complex and it also provided the prototype for the family plots in countless literary works created across the centuries ٠ He reduced the size of the chorus and added a third actor onstage + He is noted for his use of irony and his complicated web of puns, many of which cannot be conveyed in modern languages 

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+ He served as a treasurer in the Delian League , was elected as one of ten military and naval commanders + He served as one of ten members of the advisory committee that organized the financial and domestic recovery of Athens after its defeat during the Peloponnesian War at Syracuse in 413 BC + Sophocles died in 406 BC in Athens. 

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Sophron (c. 430 BC) + Sophron of Syracuse lived and wrote in the early to mid 400s BC + Plato was fond of Sophron’s work and carried it with him + Sophron is believed to have influenced the work of Greek poets Theocritus and Herodas 

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REPRESENTATIVE WORKS > Lysistrata >» Medea > Oedipus at Colonus * Oedipus the King > Oresteia > Prometheus Bound > Antigone > Bacchae > The Birds » Dyscolus » The Frogs 

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THEMES Tragedy The first forms of Greek drama were tragedies The theme of all tragedy is the sadness of life and the universality of evil,’ wrote noted scholar Paul Roche in The Orestes Plays of Aeschylus The inference the Greeks drew from this was not that life was not worth \ living, but that because it was worth living the obstacles to it were worth \ overcoming. Aeschylus transformed tragic drama into great literature His plays focused on the plights, decisions, and fates of individuals who were intrinsically intertwined with their community and their gods 

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In Aeschylus’s works, gods controlled the actions of mortal men and women Self pride caused humans to defy the will of the gods, which led to punishment A Sophoclean tragedy generally revolved around characters whose “tragic’'or personal flaws caused them to suffer Of the three tragedians, the characters of Sophocles are generally considered to best reflect the true state of human experience Their tragic fate arises from their own inability to deal with the difficulties that the gods placed upon them or from their own passions The tragedies of Euripides often questioned traditional and widely accepted social values. 

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Comedy Comedy was the other major form of Greek drama Greek comedies often made fun of people, particularly politicians, military leaders, and other prominent figures Greek comedies were varied productions, ranging from the intellectual to the bawdy; some comedies were satirical, some slapstick They included such devices as verbal play, parody, metaphor, and allegory. ٠ Greek comedy is divided into three periods. Y Old Comedy ¥ Middle Comedy ۶ 

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+ Aristophanes, the most noted comic playwright, used satire to make fun of the leaders and institutions of his day Y He often placed them in absurd situations, such as the one in The Birds, in which the heroes try to build ‘‘Cuckoo City,”” a peaceful community in the sky * Old Comedy; the first phase of ancient Greek comedy emerged during the fifth century BC Primarily known through the surviving work of Aristophanes * sometimes referred to as Aristophanic comedy; the high-spirited satire of public figures and events characterize these plays * Though they are filled with songs, dances, and buffoonery, they also include explicit political criticism as well as commentary on literary and philosophical topics 

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Middle Comedy, dating from the closing years of the fifth century BC to nearly the middle of the fourth century BC, represents the transition from Old Comedy to New Comedy Comedies from this period make good-humored attacks on classes or character types rather than individuals The playwright Menander introduced the New Comedy in about 320 BC Like Old Comedy, it satirized contemporary Athenian society, but the ridicule was far milder NewComedy also differed from Old Comedy because it parodied average citizens—fictitious characters from ordinary life—rather than public figures, and it had no supernatural or heroic elements The plays of New Comedy often focus on thwarted lovers and concealed identities and contained a host of stock characters, such as the cruel father, the clever slave, and the conceited cook 

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Struggle and Rebellion + Greek tragedies depicted struggle and suffering deriving from conflict typically between the state and individuals, between human law and divine law, or between free will and fate + In many Greek tragedies, the hero is the person who rebels against the established order of things ¥ Antigone defies her uncle Creon, king of Thebes, when she performs burial rites for her brother Y In doing so, Antigone obeys her religious beliefs and expresses her familial loyalty and disobeys the royal decree that her rebellious brother may not be buried ¥ At the end of the play, Creon, who has placed his decree above the command of the gods, is himself punished through the suicides of his wife and son 

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Sophocles’s Oedipus the King reports what happens when individuals think they can escape their divinely ordained fate As the myth and the play bear out, despite their efforts to circumvent fate, Oedipus fulfills this prophecy. 

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The Common Man + Both tragedies and comedies dignify the common man + Members of Greek royalty and upper classes create a world filled with ¥ Adultery v incest ۷۶ madness 2 + who provide a stable environment amidst this debauchery v the shepherds Y Craftspeople ۷ yeomen farmers ¥ nurses 

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Sophocles and Euripides endowed these secondary characters with common sense and sensitivity In Sophocles’s Antigone, for example, the men serving in Creon’s guard offer their king advice and even disagree with him Comic writers introduced stock characters, such as the orphan, the young lover, and the master of the house as protagonists instead of relying solely on imperial characters. Menander’s plays particularly emphasized a civilized world in which the rules of humanity prevail. 

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Mythology and the Gods Early Greek drama, both tragedy and comedy, drew from the stories of mythology and legend These myths illuminated universal problems, ones that could pertain to situations plaguing fifth-century Greece as well as to past events The ancient Greeks believed that tragedy should deal with illustrious figures and significant events, thus the pantheon of gods is ever-present and, often, omniscient Aeschylus’s plays, for instance, show the justification of the gods’ ways in relation to humankind or the comprehension of the form of justice meted out by the gods 

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+ The gods might punish the characters, as Zeus punishes Prometheus in Prometheus Bound + The gods might settle the seemingly insurmountable conflicts the characters face, as when Athena decrees that the Furies must give up their torment of Orestes in the Oresteia + The religion of the Greeks, what in modern times is called mythology, provided drama with ¥ paradigmatic plots and universal subjects Y allowing the dramatists to comment on topical events without limiting their ¥ scope to contemporary events and personalities * The gods also played a prominent role inOld Comedy, for example Cratinus’s Dionysalexandrus + Aristophanes’s work parodies tragedy. In all, the Greek gods and goddesses take a central role in the lives of dramatic characters 

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٠ The defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War contributed to the sense of disillusionment that the ancient Greeks felt with their legendary heroes and gods + with the rise of the New Comedy, writersmoved away from mythological subjects toward common subjects of human relationships and family life 

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Love + Love as a dramatic theme was first introduced in the comedic plays + The New Comedy plots emphasize romantic intrigue, such as a young man’s efforts to win the bride of his choice + Menander’s plays might introduce perverse complications; for example In The Arbitrators 

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STYLE Structure " As set out by Aristotle in his Poetics in 350 BC, tragedy generally follows a set sequence of events 1. First, the hamartia takes place 2. The unexpected turn of events that brings this error to light is known as the peripeteia 3. the hero's recognition of this error is the anagnorisis 4. Last comes the catharsis, the release of the emotions of fear and pity that the tragedy has aroused in the audience 

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Oedipus’s act of killing Laius and marrying Jocasta is the hamartia in Oedipus the King According to Aristotle, the peripeteia and the anagnorisis are most effective when they occur at the same time Oedipus, who discovers the identity of his biological father and recognizes then that his wife is his biological mother; thus his situation is reversed, moving swiftly from happiness to misery Old Comedy also had a distinct structure . The first part is the introduction or prologue, in which the plot is explained and developed . Next comes the parabasis New Comedy, however, articulated the plot much more clearly and featured characters who devised intrigues and tricks to achieve certain goals مر 

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Chorus The Greek chorus played a crucial role in Greek plays Members of the chorus—twelve to fifteen actors—remained on stage throughout the entire play and periodically recited poetic songs in unison the chorus observed and interpreted the actions of the play, reacted to characters and events, and even probed the characters with questions and gave advice In some plays, the chorus helped advance the plot. In other plays, it introduced major themes writes Michael Grant in Myths of the Greeks and Romans The chorus complements, illustrates, universalizes, or dramatically justifies the course of events it comments or moralizes or mythologizes upon what happens, and opens up the spiritual dimension of the theme or displays the reaction of public opinion 

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+ the role of the chorus changed over time and in the hands of the three great tragedians ¥ In the Suppliants, the chorus is actually the protagonist, while in Agamemnon, the play’s themes find clearest expression in statements recited by the chorus ¥ In Sophoclean drama, the chorus could be interpreted as a group of characters with a distinct point of view. ¥ In some of Sophocles’s plays, as in Ajax and Electra, the chorus is most closely attached to the title character ¥ In Antigone and Oedipus at Colonus, the chorus is made up of city elders who present their opinions on the events they are witnessing Y in Three Great Plays of Euripides, in the works of Euripides, ‘‘The chorus perform in the role of sympathetic listeners and commentators, or provide the audience with a kind of musical and poetic relief from the difficulties or horrors of the action 

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+ Comedy also made use of the chorus Y In Old Comedy members of the chorus often stirred up trouble among characters ¥ the New Comedy used the chorus primarily as a small band of performers who served to entertain the audience or provide musical interludes between scenes. 

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Satyr Plays + Satyr plays were a blend of tragedy and comedy + The underlying themes of the plays were usually of a serious nature + their plots and tone were absurd and designed for humorous effect. + They featured obscene visual and verbal humor as well as characters called satyrs, which are half-man, half-animal, and Silenus, a mythical horseman + Satyr plays were shorter than tragedies, had their unique choral dance, and used more colloquial speech + Like tragedies, satyr plays drew their themes and subjects from mythology. + Because Euripides’s Cyclops is the only satyr play that has survived in its entirety, little information is known about them, however. 

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Deus Ex Machina Literally meaning ‘‘god from the machine," deus ex machina was the entry of a god or gods at the end of the play to save the protagonist The machina, a staging device, was a crane that flew in the gods or heroes at the end of the play Euripides and Aristophanes both frequently employed a deus ex machina to facilitate the ending. + For example, the deus ex machina was used in Medea to bring Helios, the sun god, to save Medea from the wrath of Jason as well as to allow her to take the bodies of their sons, thus depriving her husband of even the solace of their proper burial. 

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Unity Ancient Greek tragedies upheld what Aristotle later named the unities of time, place, and action Unity of time required that the action of the play take place in twenty-four hours or less Unity of time required that the action of the play take place in twenty-four hours or less Unity of action required each event cause the following event without extraneous action or subplots some critics note that Aristotle's rule regarding the unity of time was not strictly followed Aristotle believed that observance of the unities contributed to the intensity of the audience’s experience in viewing the play, particularly the cathartic response.