Table of Contents:
1: Drama.
2: Origin of Drama, Greek Drama and Its Evolution.
3: Kinds of Greek Drama.
4: References
1:Drama:
Drama is the physical impersonation of fictive characters to an assembled audience in order
to evoke thoughts and stir emotions in the audience.
2:Origin of Drama:
Origin of the drama can be traced back to ancient Greece. Drama originated in ancient
Greece in their annual celebrations performed in the month of April, in honour of god
Dionysus. Dionysus was an ancient Greek god of wine, grape,wine making and theatre. He
was also known as "Bacchus" in Roman mythology. Dionysus was considered one of the
twelve Olympian gods and was associated with pleasure, festivity, and ecstasy.
Ancient Greeks used to celebrate an annual festival in the month of April in honour of god
Dionysus. In those celebrations they used to praise him and sang songs in his honour. The
way of celebration was that a group of people would assemble in a circle and would sing
songs in respect of god Dionysus .That group of people would call the chorus. It was that
chorus- very initial form of Greek drama.It implies that initially there was no actor and no
dialogue in Greek drama.
2(a):Arrival of Thespis:
With passage of time Thespis-a renowned playwright introduced the first actor in Greek
drama . The Greek drama was now composed of dialogue, because of introduction of the
first actor, as well as singing or chorus . The first actor would talk to the chorus, so dialogue
became 10 to 20% and the rest was chorus or singing.
2(b):Arrival of Aeschylus:
That form of drama, with one actor, was practised for a long period of time. After that
Aeshcylus-a renowned playwright introduced second actor in Greek drama .with introduction
of second actor the dialogue part in Greek drama increased and become 20 to 50% because
then 2 actors would talk to each other as well to the chorus. Aeshcylus contributed to Greek
drama by reducing the significance of chorus which was essential for Greek drama.
furthermore, he contributed to Greek drama by exploring profound and philosophical themes
in his tragedies, and wrote trilogies- a series of three interconnected plays that shed light on
different aspects of a mythological story or theme. He wrote seven tragedies . Among them,
The Suppliants, The Persians are famous and one trilogy which is known as Oresteia(
collection of three plays namely Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers, and The Eumenides).
2(c):Arrival of Sophocles:
Sophocles was another famous Greek playwright. He introduced a third actor in the Greek
drama. Now most of the part of Greek drama became dialogues because three actors were
involved in talking with one another as well as with the chorus. at the time of Sophocles
Greek drama was at its peak. Sopocles not only contributed to Greek drama by introducing a
third actor but also added costumes and rubes to it. His famous plays were: Oedipus Rex ,
Antigen, and Electra.
2(d):Euripides Arrival:
After Sophocles, Euripides-another ancient Greek playwright- also made other significant
contributions to Greek drama by introducing more realistic characters and challenging
traditional moral, and societal norms, portraying flawed heroes and strong female
characters. His famous plays were: Medea, and The Trojan Women.
Greek drama was then adopted by the Romans by making some changes in it. Unlike
Greeks, Romans presented short plays instead of long trilogies. They mostly portrayed less
philosophical and serious themes and depicted comedies. They also removed the prominent
role of the chorus which was used as means of separating episodes.
3:Kinds of Greek Drama:
There were three sub kinds of Greek Drama: Tragedy, Satyr Plays, and Comedy.
Tragedy originated in the annual festival which was clebrated in honour of god Dionysus in
order to praise him, and sang song to mourn his death.
The satyr play, a genre of ancient Greek drama which provided a lighthearted contrast to the
serious themes of tragedies. Satyr plays featured mythical heroes in a happy, rural setting,
with the chorus members being satyrs. Satyrs were spirits with human and horse-like traits.
These plays were performed after the tragic trilogy in competitions. With passage of time,
the need for satyr plays decreased because of the changing tastes of the audience. Only
one traditional satyr play, Euripides’ Cyclops, has survived, but fragments of others have
been discovered.
Greek comedy, another kind of Greek drama was characterized by satire, political criticism,
and farcical scenes, that was often performed during the religious festival of Dionysus. It is
believed that Greek comedy originated from satyr plays.
Aristophanes was a famous writer of Greek comedy and only his plays survived.
His well known plays were The Clouds, The Wasps , The Birds , and Lysistrata.
References:
1: Aristotle's Poetics.
2: English-Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theories.
