Do a critical overview of the historicity of drama, tracing it to the Greek City-State of Athens.
Answers
Explanation:
Introduction: An Overview of Classical Greek Drama
Let's begin by overviewing what we'll cover in the next two sections of the class: Classical Greek Tragedy (Section 2) and Greek Comedy (Section 3).
According to Aristotle, the Athenians developed tragedy first, with comedy following a generation or so later. While this assessment is essentially correct, the truth seems to have been somewhat more complicated. Comic dramas as opposed to comedy itself—that is, humorous performance pieces versus the formal genre of "comedy"—appear to have evolved alongside their tragic counterpart, perhaps even before it. The satyr play, in particular, which consisted of a farcical rendition of myths more often treated seriously and featured a chorus of rowdy, irreverent satyrs (half-human half-animal spirits of the wilderness notorious for their lust and gluttony), emerged early in the tradition of Greek theatre, though exactly how early is not clear. Nevertheless, the historical sources for theatrical performances in the Classical Age focus largely on tragedy as the hub of early dramatic activity, even if its pre-eminence probably looks clearer in hindsight than it may have seemed in the day.
Tragic choristers (click to see larger image)Three tragedians emerge from the fifth century BCE as the principal practitioners of classical Greek tragic drama: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Theirs are the only tragedies preserved whole. First and foremost, Aeschylus lived a generation earlier than the other two so his work provides our first hard look at Greek drama. Even if his plays may seem static and slow-moving to modern viewers, there can be little doubt they were exciting, novel and controversial in their day