Greek Theater, TragedyRitual, Performative Realities

Aristotle’s Poetics

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Agenda

• Origins of Drama– Phallic Procession, Komasts, etc.

• Athenian Dramatic Festivals– Ritualized Secularism

• Drama: Production Elements• Aristotle’s Poetics

– Drama Explained?–Antigone via Aristotle

Origins of Drama

“Goat-Song,” Phallic Procession, Komasts, etc.

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Aristotle on Origins

• ethnic-geographical• psychological-anthropological• Dionysian-ritual

Aristotle

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Cultic Parallels-Precursors

• Komos– (Dionysian) revel

» (also term for dramatic production)

• Phallic procession– Dionysian phallus pole

on parade

Komasts: archaic Corinthian vase

Procession of the Phallus Pole

Proto-Drama (?): komos-like Performance of the Return of HephaestusProtocorinthian vase painting , 600-575 BCE

HephaestusDionysus

padded, phallic costume

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Athenian Dramatic Festivals

Ritualized Secularism

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Historical-Political Sketch

• Archaic Greek tyranny (600s-500s BCE)

– democratizing despotism– Dionysian reorganization

• Athens– Pisistratus (r. 561-572 BCE) & City/Greater

Dionysia› 1st tragedies ca. 534 BCE

– Democratic developments, 511-› 1st comedies 486 BCE

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Athenian Dionysia

• Rural Dionysia (Dec.)• Lenaea (late Jan/Feb)

– 440/430 dramatic competition instituted

• Anthisteria (Feb)• City/Greater Dionysia

(late March)– principal dramatic festival

at Athens

Dionysus

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Greater Dionysia: Program• Assignment of choruses• Proagōn

– preview of plays

• “Introduction” processional– to and from Academy

• Official parade (pompē)• Preliminary ceremonial

– theater purified– public honors– tribute displayed

• Poetic/dramatic contests– Dithyrambic choruses

(10 + 10)

– Comedy (5 plays)

– Tragedy (3 tetralogies)» tetralogy = sequence

of…› 3 tragedies

› 1 satyr drama

by an individual poet, and presented in a single day

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Tragedy: Ritualized Secularism

• Dual Focus (Barlow)– ancient, mythic, heroic,

archetypal– contemporary, political,

communal, skeptical

• Ambivalent affirmation– Vernant– Hall

Theater at Epidaurus

Theater

Viewing/Performing Space

Acropolis with Theaters

Roman Theater

Theater ofDionysus

Parthenon

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altarentry (parodos, eisodos)entry (parodos, eisodos)

low wooden stage with skene (from ca. 420 BCE)

Basic Design: Theater of Dionysus ca. 420 BCE

skene (stage building)

wooden bleachers

stone seats (dignitaries)

steps

theatron (“viewing place,” auditorium, theater)

kerkis (“wedge”seating section)

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orkhēstra (“dancing space” for

chorus)

Drama: Production Elements

Tragic chorus, masked, dancing, singing (ancient vase) 17

Coryphaeus (chorus leader)

Playwright Demetrius

Satyr choreuts (chorus members)

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Dionysus and Ariadne Queen-character

Himeros (= Eros) Heracles(Pappo)silenos

Pronomos (piper) Charinus (kithara player)King-character

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Human, Other ResourcesPersonnel (all male)• poet (poiētēs)• producer (khorēgos)• director (didaskalos,

“teacher”)• actors (hupokritai)• chorus and “chorus

leader” (koruphaios)• piper

Gear• masks• costumes• props• scenery• special effects

– mekhanē» crane to lower gods et

al.

– ekkuklēma» trolley to wheel out

corpses etc.

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Tragedy: Structure & Elements• prologue

– portion preceding parodos• parodos

– chorus entry• episodes

– segments between major choral numberrs

• stasima (sing. stasimon)– major choral numbers (not

including parodos)• kommos

– lamentation scenes (chorus-character sung dialogue)

• exodos– portion following last stasimon

• stichomythia– rapid back-and-forth

dialogue• agōn

– debate scene• messenger speeches

– description of off-stage action

Aristotle’s Poetics

Drama Explained?Antigone via Aristotle

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Poetics: Approach

Method• definition• classification• analysis• teleology• critical evaluation

Critical foci• organic coherence• plausibility / realism• emotional power• utility / enjoyment

– therapeutic value

– educational value

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Poetics: Critical Vocabulary

• Plot, muthos– simple

– complex

– episodic

– anagnorisis

– peripeteia

– hamartia

– complication / reversal

• Ethical component– ethos-“temperament”

– thought

– hamartia

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Antigone via Aristotle (discussion)

Criteria fulfilled• Royal family

(superior)• pity• reversal (peripeteia)

for Creon• catharsis

– Creon’s

– but ours??

Criteria left wanting• Dual protagonists –

Antigone, Creon– violates Aristotelian

economy of plot??

• Pity for Antigone?– or admiration: noble

defiance of patriarchy?

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Antigone via Aristotle??

• fit– royal family

(superior)

– felt pity» emphasis plot

– role reversal – Creon» peripeteia

– catharsis» Creon’s

• dual protagonists – Antigone, Creon– violates Aristotelian

economy of plot??

• didn’t feel pity for Antigone– noble defiance of

patriarchy

“A tragedy, then, is the imitation of an action that is serious and also, as having magnitude, complete in itself; in language with pleasurable accessories, each kind brought in separately in the parts of the work; in a dramatic, not in a narrative form; with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its catharsis of such emotions.” (7-8)

Aristotle on Tragedy

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