Tragedy is particular product
of the Athenian democracy. In the late 6th century BCE, the Athenians drove out
the family of tyrants who had ruled the city for decades and established the
only true democracy in western history. Almost all political offices were
chosen by lot, and the assembly of all Athenian citizens voted directly on all
important issues. It was during the 5th century that Athens became the most
powerful city of Greece. After joining with other Greek cities to repel an
invasion by the Persian Empire, the largest empire in the world at the time,
Athens became an imperial power herself, conquering other Greek cities;
eventually, though, the Athenians stretched their power too far and collapsed. Sparta
and her allies conquered Athens in 404, and, although the democracy was
restored and continued throughout the 4th century, Athens would never regain
the glory she had achieved a century earlier.
5th-century Athens was almost
unparalleled in its cultural achievement, from philosophy and science through
architecture and the visual arts. Tragedy was the premiere literary genre of
this period, and it is fitting that the apex of the democracy should be
symbolized by a genre of poetry that involves the entire body politic.
Performed at one of the major festivals of the city, the Great Dionysia, each
tragedy was part of a contest. Three playwrights would be chosen by a city
official, and each playwright would produce three tragedies and a satyr-play (a
kind of farce intended to lighten the mood after three tragedies), all four
plays being performed in a single day. The audience consisted of about 15,000
citizens, and the festival itself became a pageant of Athenian power and glory.
We know of many playwrights
from this century, but the works of only three survived the end of antiquity
and the Middle Ages, in which so much of ancient literature was lost.
Fortunately, the three poets we have were universally considered to be the
best: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. From Sophocles, who won 20 victories
(compared to Aeschylus' 13 and Euripides' four) we have the seven plays chosen
by ancient critics as his finest: Ajax, The Women of Trachis, Electra,
Philoctetes, and the so-called “Theban plays,” Oedipus Tyrannus,
Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. These three plays are
not a trilogy per se; they were not written in order or performed
together at one festival. In fact, about forty years separates the first play
written, Antigone, from the last,Oedipus at Colonus! Each
play, therefore, should be considered a separate work, and while Sophocles
alludes to his earlier work, he pursued different goals and used different
methods for each one.
The Genre of Greek Tragedy
Greek legend attributed to
Thespis the invention of acting (hence we call actors “thespians”). Drama was
born when, instead of just narrating events, an actor assumed a character and
interacted accordingly with the chorus, who were also now seen as persons
specific to the drama (hence, in the Antigone, the chorus is made
up of the elders of Thebes). Both actor and chorus performed wearing elaborate
costumes and masks. According to the philosopher Aristotle, Sophocles'
predecessor Aeschylus added the second actor and Sophocles himself the third.
With these three actors playing multiple roles (by changing their masks
backstage!), a complete story could be acted out, and gradually the role of the
chorus diminished. In the plays of Sophocles, the chorus rarely achieves the
role of a real character as it so often does, for instance, in the plays of
Aeschylus.
The plays followed a fairly
strict structure, with a prologue, the entrance of the chorus, and then several
episodes separated by choral odes. The dialogue of the plays is written in
meter, but was spoken, like the plays of Shakespeare, whereas the choral odes
were written in a more complicated meter to which the chorus could sing and
dance. The plays also include a kommos, in which the main
character(s) lament in song with the chorus. All in all, the form of Greek
tragedy occupies a place somewhere between Shakespeare and opera. It is
important, all the same, for modern readers to remember that they are getting a
small portion of what the original audience received, for they are reading
a librettowithout the benefit of any music or the often elaborate
costumes and scenery.
Conventions of the Genre
The most important convention
of the Greek stage was the wearing of masks with attached wigs by all
performers. As such, facial expression, which plays so large a role in modern
theater, was not a factor. Additionally, the elaborate costumes worn by the
actors and chorus members were often the most striking visual element. Staging
was usually limited to the painted background behind the stage. Greek tragedies
are all set outside, so this background usually depicted the exterior of the
main characters' residence—in the Antigone's case, the palace of
Thebes. Changes of scene are rare in Greek tragedy, and props are kept to a
minimum. The action of the drama takes place over a single day. In addition to
the chorus and the three actors, mute characters could also appear on stage as
needed. In front of the stage proper, which was not raised from the ground as
in modern theaters, was a circular area called the orchestra, in which
the chorus performed its dances. These would have musical accompaniment
provided by an aulos, a double pipe like a modern oboe.
The Chorus
Since Greek tragedy grew out
of the performances of lyric poetry sung by large choruses, it is only natural
that the chorus should remain a large part of Greek tragedy. Every play's
chorus (usually fourteen men) took on an identity appropriate to the play. For
example, in the Antigone, they are old men of Thebes; in
Aeschylus' Eumenides, they are the dread goddesses, the Furies.
The word chorus in Greek
means “dance,” and the chorus' main function was to sing and dance lyric odes in
between dramatic episodes. These odes comment on the action of the preceding
episode. An ode (also called a stasimon) usually consists of
alternating stanzas, the strophe and antistrophe,
which are in the same meter. Since odes are composed in lyric meters (as
opposed to chanted iambic trimeters of the dialogue), these stanzas would be
very complicated. Additionally, the main character(s) of a play could join the
chorus in a kommos, a lyric song sung by both character and chorus
at a point of heightened emotion.
The chorus was never on stage
at the beginning of a play. Instead, after the play's prologue, the chorus
members marched into the orchestra, the circular area beneath the
stage where they danced. As they marched in, the chorus chanted a parodos to
introduce themselves. The parodos is neither a lyric song or ordinary dialogue,
but is metrically between these modes.
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