Origin of Greek Drama
Primarily, Drama originated in Greece and the modern
western drama has its historical roots in the mid sixth century at Athens. The
period in which Greek drama rose to a position of eminence ranges from sixth to
mid third century while it was the fifth century when Greek drama observed
remarkable perfection and the evidence is that most of the dramatic texts which
faced tests of the times and survived till date are the ones which were
produced during fifth century.
Genres of Drama:
Greek drama has three uniquely different genres which
include:
Serious Drama: Serious Drama or tragedy traditionally believed to be presented in 534.
Satyr-Drama: Satyr -drama originated in 500.
Comedy: Comedy
which historically originated in Athens in 486.
Drama, in its earlier stages of development, has been
closely linked or associated with celebrations of religious nature. It, generally,
dealt with ritualistic ceremonies of religious worship of gods.
Homer
If we trace the earlier origins of Greek literature,
we find the towering figure of Homer (a great epic poet of unrivalled stature).
Greek literature together with Greek drama owes a great deal to this poetic
genius. He is one of the most famous figures in the Greek poetry.
He is credited not only for originating Greek poetry
but also establishing literary, philosophical and scholarly foundations of
western literature. He is most famous and well-known for his two great epic
poems written in the heroic manner.
Homer’s ‘Iliad’ celebrates, Achilles, the great Greek
hero of the Trojan war whereas ‘Odyssey’ is about the return of Odysseus from
that war. Both seminal works deliver standard versions of mythological gods.
Homer’s works mostly influenced later Greek literary artists specially the
dramatists. They appropriated Homer’s poetic style, themes and diction into
their own works.
His influence on Aeschylus, a great Greek dramatist,
was so remarkable and evident that he was described as serving up “slices from
the banquet of Homer”. Many of the critically acclaimed works of even modern
critics are focused at analyzing textual appropriations of Homer’s seminal work.
Homer’s Achilles:
Homer’s Achilles is one of the significant
explorations of what it means to be a truly “tragic” hero, a man whose pursuit
of honor leads to the death of his dearest friend and finally his own. But when
he appears in Euripides’ Iphigeneia at Aulis, we behold an unproductive youth,
full of sound and fury, unable to rescue the damsel in distress.
Homer may be three centuries former than the
tragedians of the fifth century, but his impact upon them was seminal. Homer
himself was looking back to an former age, what we call the late Bronze Age
(1500–1100), a tradition which he passed on to the dramatists. Both Homer and
the tragedians represent people and stories not of their own time, but of an
earlier, lost, and idealized age of heroes.
Athens and Greek Drama
Greek dramas were mainly written and performed in
Athens which was the hub of all cultural activities in ancient Greece. However,
it is surprising to find out that Athens was not the leading city of Greece in
terms of cultural political and economic development in the sixth century. However,
it was at Athens that all three distinct sorts of Greek drama were performed in
public competitions in late sixth and early fifth century.
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Athens attained this status when she brought underneath
her control Greek region Attica. And witnessed economic boom by discovering and
utilizing products of Attic soil which mostly included olives, olive oil and
clay for pottery.
Tyrants
The Greeks of the seventh and sixth centuries practiced
an uneasy mix of genetic monarchy, aristocracy, popular unrest and ‘tyranny’.
In modern times, tyranny has quite negative connotations and it refers to the
rule of a tyrant who is fundamentally a dictator.
Though, for Greeks, it is an archaic Greek term used
to refer to ‘one-man rule’ who has assumed the role of a ruler after rescuing a
state from an internal stasis or civil unrest. Thus, these were the tyrants who
determined future course of activities for Athens and led her to a state of self-respect
and eminence under democracy and attracted artists to their courts at Athens.
Furthermore, these were the tyrants who imparted a communal
sense of ethnic identity by eliminating all partitions within the society.
Another unique act of tyrants was the creation and establishment of a single
festival of Dionysus at Athens, the City Dionysia, which brought all other
local festivals to an end by providing an integrated site for official
celebrations for the people.
This was the festival where tragedy was firstly
performed in 534 as part of cultural program which commanded the foundations of
the development of the Greek drama leading to satyr-play, and finally comedy.
Tragedy
The traditional date for the formal introduction of a dramatic
form ‘tragedy’ is given as 534. But clearly tragedy was not ‘invented’
overnight. We should assume some kind of choral performances in the sixth
century developing into what would be called ‘tragedy’.
Thus, satyr drama is not the original form and it was
developed after tragedy. Primarily, it would accompany the tragic performances
of three competing playwrights but progressively it was removed from the tragic
competitions. Later at some point during the fourth century satyr-drama becomes
its own distinct genre. Comedy began later than tragedy and satyr-drama, the acknowledged
first date being the Dionysia of 486.
Comedy
The ancient critics divided comedy at Athens into three
different chronological phases:
Old Comedy: roughly synonymous with the classical fifth century (486
-385).
Middle Comedy: (385–325, or “between Aristophanes and Menander”).
New Comedy: (325 onward).
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