History Of The Greek Theatre

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Aristotle used the word “hamartia”, which is the “tragic
flaw” or offense committed in ignorance. For example, Oedipus is
ignorant of his true parentage when he commits his fatal deed.
Oedipus Rex is one of the stories in a three-part myth called
the Thebian cycle. The structure of most all Greek tragedies is
similar to Oedipus Rex. Such plays are divided in to five parts, the
prologue or introduction, the “prados” or entrance of the chorus, four
episode or acts separates from one another by “stasimons” or choral
odes, and “exodos”, the action after the last stasimon. These odes are
lyric poetry, lines chanted or sung as the chorus moved rhythmically
across the orchestra. The lines that accompanied the movement of the
chorus in one direction were called “strophe”, the return movement was
accompanied by lines called “antistrophe”. The choral ode might
contain more than one strophe or antistrophe.

Greek tragedy originated in honor of the god of wine,
Dionysus, the patron god of tragedy. The performance took place in an
open-air theater. The word tragedy is derived from the term
“tragedia” or “goat-song”, named for the goat skins the chorus wore in
the performance. The plots came from legends of the Heroic Age.
Tragedy grew from a choral lyric, as Aristotle said, tragedy is
largely based on life’s pity and splendor.

Plays were performed at dramatic festivals, the two main ones
being the Feast of the Winepress in January and the City Dionysia at
the end of March. The Proceeding began with the procession of choruses
and actors of the three competing poets. A herald then announced the
poet’s names and the titles of their plays. On this day it was likely
that the image of Dionysus was taken in a procession from his temple
beside the theater to a point near the road he had once taken to reach
Athens from the north, then it ...