Origin And Development Of Athenian Drama

Question 1

Why do you have to be careful of ancient sources?

Answer 1

Athenians creates own ‘history of drama’

Question 2

What’s a dithyramb?

Answer 2

Choral dance performed in honour of Dionysus, competition between 10 tribes

Question 3

When and where were dithyrambs invented?

Answer 3

In Corinth late 7th century

Question 4

What’s the first date for tragedy?

Answer 4

534 BCE according to one source

Question 5

How many choruses did each tribe present in a dithyramb?

Answer 5

1 of 50 men and 1 of 50 boys

Question 6

How did tragedy come about?

Answer 6

Thespis stepped out from a dithyramb

Question 7

When was the first satyr play?

Answer 7

501 BCE

Question 8

What is a satyr play?

Answer 8

Parody of a tragedy

Question 9

What is a satyr?

Answer 9

Half animal/ half human mythological woodland creature

Question 10

What’s the one surviving satyr play?

Answer 10

Cyclops by Euripides

Question 11

Features of a satyr play?

Answer 11

Follow Dionysus= drinking, dancing, revelling, basic appetites for good drink and sex

Question 12

What did satyrs look like?

Answer 12

Bushy tails, snub noses, pointed ears, large phalluses

Question 13

How many tragic playwrights are we aware of?

Answer 13

50

Question 14

How did comedy emerge?

Answer 14

From the kommos

Question 15

First recorded entry of a comedy

Answer 15

at the City Dionysia 486

Question 16

When was Aristophanes alive?

Answer 16

450-386

Question 17

How many of Aristophanes’ plays survive?

Answer 17

11 out of 40

Question 18

When did Aristophanes begin his career?

Answer 18

early 420s- writing at the same time as Sophocles and Euripides. Wrote during the Peleponnesian War between Athens and Sparta

Question 19

Differences between tragedy and comedy

Answer 19

comedy allowed a fourth leading actor, comic chorus consisted of 24 rather than the 12/15 of tragedy. Actors broke the ‘fourth wall’

Question 20

Costumes of comic actors

Answer 20

short tunic, cloak reaching just below the waist, tights. Whole costume thickly padded making the actor seem short and round and also enables him to fall and roll about. Oversized leather phallus

Question 21

Masks of comic actors

Answer 21

Facial features grossly exaggerated/ridiculously large

Question 22

Plot differences between tragedy and comedy

Answer 22

comedy had loose plots where tragedy was carefully developed. Many had a conflict as a central feature and finished with a happy ending, often involving a banquet or wedding. Tragedy set in myth but comedy with characters from everyday Athenian life - comic prologues longer so they could introduce the plot which would be unfamiliar

Question 23

Key themes of comedy

Answer 23

Satirising political figures, war with Sparta, the workings of democracy, parodying poets such as Homer and tragic playwrights, most notable Euripides. Mocking the grandeur of tragedy, depicting the gods as cowardly and ridiculous