1. Aeschylus, 525-456 BC. The "father of tragedy', eldest of the great
Attic dramatists. Author (?) of Prometheus Bound; The Oresteia trilogy
(Agamemnon;
Libation bearers; Eumenides), etc.
2. Arion, VII c. BC. Lyric poet, inventor of dithyramb - choral song of
Dionysiac worship. Saved by a dolphin from the pirate ship.
3. Aristophanes, 427-388 BC. Great Attic dramatist of the genre of Old
Comedy. Author of Frogs (comical contest of the dead poets Aeschylus
and Euripides in the underworld); Clouds (ridicule of Socrates),
etc.
4. Aristotle 384-322 BC. Attic philosopher, father of formal logic. Author
of Poetics, a treatise on literary genres, famous for its interpretation
of tragedy, and other scholarly works.
5. Epicharmus VI c. BC. Sicilian philosopher and comediographer, author
of mythological burlesque drama - hilarotragoedia.
6. Euripides, 480-405 BC. Youngest and best preserved of the great Attic
tragedians, author of The Bacchae, Medea, Hippolytus, Electra, Trojan
Women, Iphigenia in Aulis, Alcestis, etc.
7. Herondas, III c. B.C. Author of mimiambi (mimes) - funny dramatic
sketches of everyday life.
8. Menander, 342-291 BC. Author of New Comedy. Wrote Dyscolos (Misanthrope),
etc.
9. Phrynichus, VI c. BC. Early Attic tragedian, predecessor of Aeschylus.
Introduced female masks.
10. Pratinas, VI c. BC. Greek dramatist from Peloponnessus, author of satyr
plays.
11. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus, ~4 BC.-AD. 65. Roman Stoic philosopher and
author of tragedies: Medea, Phaedra, Oedipus, Octavia (on contemporary
Roman subject), etc.
12. Sophocles, 496-406 BC. Great Attic tragedian, author of Oedipus
King, Antigone, Electra, etc.
13. Thespis, VI c. BC. ("The Inspired One') Semi-legendary inventor of
tragedy, performed from the wagon by actors masked with wine-lees. The
old law-giver Solon was quite dismayed with thespian deceptions and hit
the ground with his staff in anger.
NEWER NAMES:
1. Anouilh, Jean, 1910-1987. French dramatist. Expressed resistance to
the Nazi regime through the subjects of Greek tragedy. Author of Antigone,
etc.
2. Brecht, Berthold, 1895-1956. German dramatist and pacifist thinker.
Employed techniques and subjects of ancient theater. Author of Mother
Courage and Her Children, Antigone, etc.
3. Calderon de la Barca, Pedro, 1600-1681. Spanish dramatist of spiritual
type, author of Divine Orpheus, Life is a Dream, etc.
4. Cocteau, Jean, 1889-1963. French surrealist writer, artist and film-maker.
Author of Orpheus, Oedipus Rex (music by Stravinsky & Thiriet),
Infernal
Machine (Oedipus story), Antigone, The Madwoman of Shaillot,
etc.
5. Corneille, Pierre, 1606-1684. Master of French classical tragedy, author
of Medea, Cid, etc.
6. Gide, Andre?, 1989-1951. French writer. Reworked classical myths. Author
of Persephone (opera by Stravinsky), Prometheus Misbound, Oedipus,
etc.
7. Giraudoux, Jean, 1882-1944. French author. Employed Greek myths to satirize
the ills of modern society. Author of Trojan War Will Not Take Place,
Electra, etc.
8. Goethe, Iohann Wolfgang von, 1749-1832. Great German poet and thinker,
author of Faust. Among his dramatic work is Egmont, Iphigenia
in Tauris, etc.
9. Ibsen, Henrik, 1828-1906. Norwegian dramatist, predecessor of symbolist
movement. His masterpieces combine lyrics, satire and tragedy. Author of
Peer
Gynt, Brandt, Ghosts, etc.
10. Marlowe, Christopher, 1564-1593. English dramatist, predecessor of
Shakespeare, author of the tragedy Dr. Faustus, etc.
11. Nietzsche, Friedrich W., 1844-1900. German philosopher in the strand
of romanticism - symbolism - existentialism; scholar of classics. Interpreted
Greek tragedy as the genre born out of the spirit of music and inspired
by the complementary contrasting principles of Apollo and Dionysus.
Author of The Birth of Tragedy, Thus Spake Zarathustra, Beyond Good
and Evil, etc.
12. O'Neill, Eugene, 1888-1953. American playwright. Re-worked ancient
Greek tragedies in modern life situations: Desire un der the Elms
(Phaedra story-type), Mourning Becomes Electra (Oresteia), etc.
13. Racine, Jean, 1639-1699. Grand master of French classicism, author
of tragedies Andromache, Iphigenia in Aulis, Phaedra, etc.
14. Sartre, Jean Paul,1905-1980. Philosopher of French existentialism,
dramatist, author of The Flies (Oresteia), etc.
15. Schiller, Friedrich von, 1759-1805 - Dramatist, scholar, predecessor
of German romanticism; author of tragedies Don Carlos, Mary Stuart,
Wilhelm Tell, etc.
16. Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616 (?). The Bard of English tragedy and
comedy.
17. Soyinka, Wole, 1934- Nigerian playwright and essayist, author of the
play: The Bacchae of Euripides: a Communion Rite.(Dionysiac sacrament
of universal nature find a particular parallel in the Yoruba ritualism;
the story of Pentheus finds a renewed transcendental, personal and social
interpretation.)
DRAMATIC FESTIVALS:
1. Dionysia - Spring festival of Dionysus, celebrated with dramatic contests
in tragedy and comedy. Each of contesting tragedians produced, in a row,
three tragedies and a satyr play.
2. Didaskalia - "Instructions' - Annual records of dramatic festivals of
Athens.
3. Eleusinia - The fall festival of great mysteries of Eleusis, focused
on the myth of the Mother and Daughter, Demeter and Persephone, the goddesses
of grainfields, death and rebirth. The secret rites included the sacred
drama, which the initiates were not to divulge. Aeschylus, a native of
Eleusis, was influenced by its holy agenda, and at some point barely escaped
lynching byAthenian mob, which found in his tragedies desecration of the
mysteries.
4. Leitourgia (liturgy) - "Public Service' - honorary volunteered expence
of wealthy Athenians to support theatrical performances at dramatic festivals.
The sponsor was called choragos, and his duty - choregia, chorus-provision.
5. Lenaea - Winrter festival of wine-press, an occasion of dramatic performances.
DRAMATIC GENRES:
1. Atellana (Atellae - city in Campania): Ancient Italic folk farce, prototype
of Commedia dell' Arte.
2. Comedy: "Merry procession song' - The Old Comedy by Aristophanes, with
its political invective and often zoomorphic chorus, differs from the New
Comedy by Menander, Philemon and Diphilus, which is close to the genre
as we know it today. Plautus and Terence in Rome followed the pattern of
the New Comedy. The genre probably originated from the rites of fertility.
3. Dithyramb: Surname of Dionysus; choral song of praise to the god or
hero with inner dialogue.
4. Hilarotragoedia: "funny tragedy' - Dramatic parody of mythological plots,
popular in the Greek colonies of Italic coast (Graecia Magna).
5. Mime: "Copy.' Herondas, III c. B.C., wrote mimiambi (iambic mimes) -
dramatic sketches of everyday life. In Roman times, women could perform
in mimes (actress = mima). Totally silent mime is called pantomime, "all-mime.'
6. Satyr play: An addendum following three tragedies, merry drama on mythological
subject with the chorus of satyrs.
7. Tragedy: "Goat-song' - Serious drama, predominantly on mythological
subject, concerned with human suffering, conflict and atonement. Origins
of the genre have been hypothetically traced in the expiatory customs of
primeval hunters (Burkert; Guepin); ritual purification and scapegoat-type
sacrifice (Girard); in the in the annual death and revival of the spirit
of vegetation (Harrison; Cornford); in the funeral rites and hero-cult
(Ridgeway).
STAGE DEVICES:
1. Amphiteater - Crater-like round theater, rising from the stage in its
center up to the outer seat rows.
2. Buskins (kothournoi) - High-soled platform-shoes of Greek actors, to
make the figure look taller.
3. Masks - Common attribute of cult and ritual around the world, associated
with ancestral worship. Greek drama had a set of character-type masks,
tragic or comic.
4. Orchestra - Dancing floor, the stage of ancient Greek theater.
5. Theater (Gk. theao- look) - Formally, the sanctuary of Dionysus, patron
of drama; place of dramatic performances.
6. Scene - Initially, a tent at the back stage of Greek theater, place
for the actors to change. Tented wagons were first used for make-shift
theatrical entertainment by Thespis and his group.
7. Proscenium - Platform in front of the scene.
8. Thymele - Altar of Dionysus in the middle of the orchestra.
INTERPRETIVE TERMS OF TRAGEDY:
1. Agon - Fight, contest, competition: Tragic action; clash of opposing
norms. Episodes of conflict on stage; tragic plots, even the structure
of dramatic festival - competition between playwrites - reveal the agonistic
nature of the genre.
2. Anagnorisis - Recognition: Aristotle's term (cf. peripeteia; catharsis).
Realization of the truth coming as a result of tragic events.
3. Apate - Decption, tragic mistake.
4. Ate - Blind delusion, insanity; uncontrollable destructiveness (also,
goddess of guilt).
5. Catharsis - Purification: Aristotelean term of the purpose of tragedy,
achieved through pity and fear.
6. Deus ex machina - God from the machine: Dramatic/ scenic device to introduce
divine intervention as a solution to a problem.
7. Hamartia - Error, a flaw of judgement or moral character, conductive
of a tragic guilt (Plato, Aristotle).
8. Hubris - Arrogance, self-righteousness, forgetting one's limits: the
most common cause of divine punishment and destruction. The nature of hubris
may be very rude (Polyphemus) or rather noble (Prometheus).
9. Irony - Rhetoric device of ambiguous meaning, assertion through denial
or vice versa. Socratic irony is that of a teacher under the mask of a
simpleton, to provoke and then dismiss conceited views in a diatribe. Tragic
irony transpires in a dialogue or verbal exchange between the chorus and
protagonist, to provoke the action in anticipation of the opposite results.
Irony adds a subtly comical dimension to tragedy.
10. Peripeteia - Change of situation, sudden turn of events: Aristotle's
term of tragic action (cf. anagnorisis; catharsis).
STRUCTURE OF TRAGEDY:
1. Antistrophe - Counterpart to the strophe, a portion of the choral song.
2. Chorus - Collective personality dominating the stage of Atthic drama.
Chorus consisted of amateur actors - choreutes, lead by choryphaeus, the
chorus-leader. Chorus, believed to represent the voice of community, danced,
sang, spoke with the main characters and commented on the action, without,
however, influencing the course of tragic events.
3. Choryphaeus (coryphee) - the leading actor of the chorus.
4. Commos (threnos) - Emotional song of grief or exhortation; ritual lament.
5. Deuteragonist - Second actor, making for a dramatic dialogue. Introduced
by Aeschylus.
6. Episodium (episode) - After-the-song: the action-portion of tragedy
following after the choral part.
7. Exodus - Concluding song of the chorus leaving the orchestra.
8. Hypocrites - "Answerer' - a semi-professional actor of Greek drama.
9. Hyporchema - Choral dance.
10. Monody - Single-song: Singing part of individual character.
11. (Parabasis) - Going over: Central part of the Old Comedy, when Chorus
marches across the orchestra and address to the public.
12. Parodos - Opening song of the chorus entering the orchestra.
13. Protagonist - Main character, individual actor introduced by Thespis.
14. Stasimon - Standing choral song.
15. Stichomythia - One-line intense verbal exchange in iambic meter between
the characters of the drama or the character and chorus, usually of agonistic
nature.
16. Strophe - Portion of choral song, symmetrically followed by the anti-strophe.
17. Tritagonist - The third character on stage, invention of Sophocles.
MOST RENOWN TRAGIC CHARACTERS:
1. Agamemnon - King of Mycenae, leader of the Greeks against Troy, murdered
by his wife Clytemnestra on his return home. (Aeschylus; Seneca)
2. Ajax - Greek hero of the Trojan War, greatest after Achilles, a victim
of his own pride and self-reliance. Angry with Greek chieftains for not
passing on to him Achilles' armor, Ajax slaughtered the herd of cows, in
a fit of insanity mistaking them for Greek leaders; later committed suicide
out of shame. (Sophocles)
3. Antigone - Daughter of Oedipus from his mother Iocaste; followed her
father in exile; later buried her outlaw brother Polynicus against the
order of the new ruler and was buried alive in a cave. (Sophocles)
4. Andromache - Trojan princess, loving wife of Hector, lost her husband,
her country and her baby-son, killed by the Greeks, who would not allow
Hector's progeny to live. (Euripides; Seneca)
5. Cassandra - Trojan princess, prophetess beloved and doomed by Apollo.
No one ever believed her. (Aeschylus, Agamemnon)
6. Clytemnestra - Queen of Mycenae, in the absence of her husband Agamemnon
married his cousin and killed her husband on his return, avenging the death
of her sacrificed daughter Iphigenia. (Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides;
Seneca)
7. Electra - Daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, together with her
brother Orestes killed her mother, avenging the death of the father. (Aeschylus;
Sophocles; Euripides)
8. Heracles - Greatest hero of Greek legends, no stranger to comedy as
well as tragedy. In a fit of insanity, killed his wife and children - a
crime he had to expiate by his famous twelve labors. A great womanizer,
he died painfully as a result of his second wife's misconstrued attempt
to secure his fidelity. (Sophocles; Seneca)
9. Hippolytus - Chaste son of Theseus from the Amazon Hippolyte, a victim
of the fatal attraction of his stepmother Phaedra. (Euripides; Seneca)
10. Iphigenia - Eldest daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra, sacrificed
on the altar of Artemis to secure the success of the Trojan War. Mystically
transported from the altar to the barbaric region of Tauris (modern Crimea
in the Black Sea), Iphigenia became the high priestess of the local Artemis,
worshipped with human sacrifices. Years later she recognized in one of
the intended victims her long-lost brother Orestes, and fled with him back
to Greece, where she established the cult of Artemis Brauronia in Attica.
(Euripides)
11. Medea - Barbaric sorceress who fell in love with Jason, helped the
Argonauts to fetch the Golden Fleece and fled to Greece as Jason's wife.
Later abandoned by her husband, she took her revenge by killing her own
children from Jason. (Euripides; Seneca)
12. Oedipus - Trying to avoid the oracle of Apollo to be the killer of
his own father and the husband of his mother, Oedipus solves the riddle
of Sphinx and fulfills this very predicament. (Sophocles; Seneca)
13. Orestes - Son of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra; killed his mother, avenging
the death of the father, and was chased by maternal Erinyes till his acquittal
by the Athenian court Areopagus. (Aeschylus; Sophocles; Euripides)
14. Pentheus - Young king of Thebes, cousin of Dionysus; he resists the
new god and dies as a Dionysiac victim, torn apart by the crowd of bacchant
women, with his own mother at the head. (Euripides)
15. Phaedra - Cretan princess, daughter of Minos, second wife of Theseus,
falls in love with her stepson Hippolytus with disastrous consequences.
(Euripides; Seneca)
16. Prometheus - Titan who stole fire from the gods and gave it to humans;
Zeus punished him by endless torments on the top of the mountains of Caucasus.
(Aeschylus)