Greek Gods

It is said that the Greek theatre began back about 550 B. C. To 220 B. C..The main themes for Greek theatre was political and military based. Tradegy theatre came about in the late 6th century B. C., comedy theatre began around 486 B. C., and satyr plays were some of the most popular. The Greek theatre had a big impact on the Western drama and culture. The origin of Western theatre is found in ancient Greece where it was first developed in a state festival in Athens. The festival was honoring the Greek god Dionysus.

The archaic translation for the word ’tragedy’ is goat men sacrifice song. This indicates a link to the practices of the ancient Dionysian cults. It is not known for sure which of the fertility rituals became the basis from which the comedy and tragedy theatre began. All of the tragedies were performed in honor of Dionysus until the Hellenistic period. Greek tragedy was started around 534 B. C. In Athens, Greece. Thespis was the first author known, who wrote these scripts. He was known as the leader of the dithyrambs because he won the first theatre contest. It is believed that Thespis may have helped change the ‘dithyramb’ to ‘tragedy’, and instead of the actors singing, they spoke the script. Thespis is often called the “Father of Tragedy” because of his part he played in this transition.

Around the 4th century the ‘New Comedy’ came into the picture of theatre. New Comedy was based on the ordinary lives of the citizens. New Comedy had a lot of influence on Roman comedy an this can be seen in the works of Plautus and Terence. Melpomene is the muse of tragedy theatre and is depicted holding the tragic mask and wearing cothurnus. Thalia is the muse of comedy and is connected to the mask of comedy and comedy socks.

There were masks worn in the comedy and tragedy scripts, in ancient Greece. Each mask had a different look to show the different emotions the characters were depicting. The actors could also play different parts and also different genders without anyone noticing if they wore the masks. The men wore a wooden piece, called a prosterneda, in front of their chest to make it look like a woman’s breast. They also wore a progastreda in front of their belly. Some people call the mask, the Sock & Buskin.

Some of the most popular plays were: The Persians (472 B.C.), Seven Against Thebes (467 B.C.), The Suppliants (463 B.C.), The Oresteia (458 B.C.), Prometheus Bound (date still in debate), The Fall of Miletus (late 500 B.C.), The Life and Love of Athena (late 440 B.C.) The Sexual Rituals (late 440 B.C.), plus many more.