Plays

Question 1

How many actors in one play?

Answer 1

3

Question 2

What’s one person singing called?

Answer 2

Monody

Question 3

What’s a dialogue of singing called?

Answer 3

Kommos

Question 4

What were masks made of?

Answer 4

Linen, cork, wood

Question 5

What did tragic actors wear?

Answer 5

Either himation or chiton

Question 6

What’s a himation?

Answer 6

Costume which hanged down to below knees

Question 7

What’s a chiton?

Answer 7

Full length robe with a shorter cloak over top

Question 8

What were costumes like?

Answer 8

Close fitted, sleeved, ornate, colourful and patterned

Question 9

What were their shoes called?

Answer 9

Kothornoi

Question 10

What were their shoes like?

Answer 10

Soft soles, turned up toes, up to thighs

Question 11

Making fun of someone by name

Answer 11

onomasti komodein

Question 12

Structure of a traditional tragedy

Answer 12

prologue, parodos, alternating episodes and stasima, exodos

Question 13

Structure of an agon

Answer 13

each speaker sets out their argument then debate continues in stichomythia

Question 14

Language of tragedy

Answer 14

Written as poetry with strict metre. Split into iambics and lyric (sung with an aulos.) Chorus usually spoke in lyric and the characters in iambic

Question 15

Language of comedy

Answer 15

written in poetic metre and divided into spoken and choral sections. Obscene language common. Played with language and sound i.e. imitating the frogs. However, also included high-flown passages, especially in the choruses

Question 16

Characterisation in tragedy

Answer 16

Embodiment of character-types, consistent characters

Question 17

Characterisation in comedy

Answer 17

Less consistent, says or does something to fit the humour of the play. Questions or upholds stereotypes

Question 18

Athenian view of leaders

Answer 18

fifth-century Athenians saw rule bu a tyrannos as associated with the bad old days and with the Persians who had invaded Greece in the previous generation

Question 19

Bernard Knox’s view on heroism

Answer 19

Hero is someone who makes a decision rooted in his personal nature (physis) and maintains it to the point of self destruction. Inability to yield: he is faced with opposition but remains true to himself

Question 20

Function of agon in Bacchae

Answer 20

Incorporate themes e.g. agon between Tiresias and Pentheus. Pentheus argues that it’s impossible for Dionysus to have been born out of Zeus’ thigh and Tiresias tries to rationalise it, parallels debate between contemporary intellectuals about whether the gods should be taken literally or as metaphors.

Question 21

Function of agon in Frogs

Answer 21

Agon is central to Frogs as the reason Dionysus went to the underworld. Agon proves inconclusive but highlights that Aeschylus should win.

Question 22

Function of agon in Oedipus

Answer 22

Playwrights show off their skills as rhetoricians e.g. Creon uses the ‘argument from probability’ against Oedipus’ usurpation accusation.