"Mortal fate is hard. You'd best get used to it."
- Euripides, "Medea"
The Ancient Greek Theatre comprised the teaching and performing of theatrical acts during the celebrations of God Dionysus. It was developed by the end of the Archaic period and totally formatted during the Classical period – mainly in Athens. Theatrical acts bared both a religious and mysticism character, as well as social and political.
Here are some definitions and analysis
- Theatre of Ancient Greece
- Ancient Greek Theatre
- Introduction to Ancient Greek Theatre
- Theatre in Ancient Greece
Tragedy is a form of theatrical art which was conceived and flourished in Ancient Greece. According to Aristotle, tragedy is the highest form of art which transfers on stage the story of a human action. Tragedy should have a beginning, a middle part and an end, so that it can communicate the meaning of the story to the audience but not long so that it will become boring. While watching the tragic act, the audience experiences all sorts of feelings, ending up to “catharsis”.
Plato gives his own perspective, under which tragedy is the imitation of feelings derived from the imitation of an action – consequently, it is the imitation of an imitation, which is distant from reality.
- Greek Tragedy
- Ancient Greek Tragedy
- Classical Greek Tragedy and Theatre
- Tragedy: the basics
- Greek Tragedy: an introduction
- Elements of Greek Tragedy
- Plato and Aristotle on Tragedy
- Τραγωδία
Greek Comedy appeared in 486bc. almost 50 years after tragedy. Its’ basic characteristics are the use of a string of expletives, as well as the caustic satire. The main subject of each act was derived from the current social or political circumstances, especially those of peace or war and the corruption of the city-state.
At first, Comedy’s purpose was the entertainment of the audience, but gradually it became a mean of severe criticism to injustice, immorality, illegal actions and ruthless politicians.