Great Dionysia

Great Dionysia, also known as City Dionysia, was one of four annual festivals held in ancient Greece in honor of Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and fertility. Centered in Athens, with additional festivals held in allied city-states of the Athenian Empire, Great Dionysia was a theatrical event featuring three main types of plays: comedies, tragedies, and satyr plays. Historians believe that Great Dionysia was first established sometime during the sixth century B.C.E. and peaked in popularity during the fifth century B.C.E.

The historical significance of the festival arises not only from its prominent place in Athenian classical culture but also from the literary quality of the dramatic works it featured. Dramatists including Aeschylus, Aristophanes, Euripides, and Sophocles presented plays at Great Dionysia, and their works are widely considered to be among the most important surviving examples of foundational literature in the Western tradition.

Background

The annual Dionysian festivals were among the most important religious observances in the ancient Athenian calendar and consisted of four distinct events: Lenaea (held in January or February), Anthesteria (held in February or March), Great Dionysia (held in March or April), and Rural or Lesser Dionysia (held in December). Lenaea also included dramatic performances, as did Lesser Dionysia, although Lesser Dionysia was typically limited to repeat performances of the plays that had been featured at Great Dionysia earlier in the year.

Some sources state that Great Dionysia was held over a five-day period in early spring, while others give a total length of seven days. In either case, the festival mainly functioned as a celebration marking the end of winter. Great Dionysia began with religious observances, followed by a night of wine-fueled revelry. Poetic and athletic competitions were then held in advance of several days of dramatic performances, and the plays staged at Great Dionysia included comedies, tragedies, and satyr plays. In the dramatic tradition of ancient Athens, comedies were plays featuring ridiculous characters who made blunders or otherwise foolish but ultimately harmless mistakes. Tragedies usually drew on Greek myths or familiar episodes from epic poems or oral traditions, and dealt with serious subject matter and dramatic situations of a political or social nature, with far-reaching consequences. Satyr plays were whimsical parodies, featuring elaborate choruses and lighthearted jokes and revelry.

According to historical accounts, the theatrical performances in Athens were attended by as many as sixteen thousand people. All male citizens were eligible to attend, but the plays were closed to women, members of the slave class, and foreign-born Athens residents without full citizenship rights. Where possible, plays were staged in amphitheaters, and the orphaned children of men who died defending the city were honored with seats in the front row.

The multiday period of dramatic presentations also followed a set structure, with each day featuring a succession of three tragedies written by a single playwright, followed by a satyr play. Five comedies filled the final day of performances, after which a winning playwright was chosen. Great Dionysia ended with a symbolic procession and the crowning of a Dionysian idol.

Impact

The impact of ancient Greek drama on the Western dramatic and literary tradition was enormous. While ancient Greek comedies and tragedies are believed to have originated before Great Dionysia became a regular celebration, the festival's heyday marked the period during which these forms reached full maturity in the Athenian literary tradition. Narrative conventions that continue to define Western literature to this day had their genesis in these works and were most famously explained in Poetics, a work of literary theory authored by the well-known philosopher Aristotle.

In Poetics, Aristotle explores the nature of dramatic and narrative structure. Simply explained, classical narrative structure includes a beginning that establishes a problem, a middle that complicates it, and an end that resolves it, either favorably or negatively. Aristotle also discusses supplementary concepts that shape narrative and dramatic works, including mythos (plot), ethos (character), lexis (manner of speech), opsis (spectacle of setting or presentation), peripetia (dramatic reversals of fortune), mimesis (acting or representing characters), and catharsis (the release of emotional tension following a climactic plot event). Dramatic works written by the great playwrights of classical Athens form the basis of Aristotle's discussion, and many of these works debuted or were performed as part of Great Dionysia.

The course of the drama festival's history also marked several important advancements in the evolution and maturation of ancient Greek drama, particularly with regard to its tragic form. Aeschylus is widely regarded as the originator of Greek tragedy, and scholars believe that his works were the first to introduce multiple characters interacting with one another. Sophocles, who is thought to be the most honored and decorated playwright in the history of Great Dionysia, further innovated the tragedy by using deeper and more complex forms of character development. Euripides was the first to feature female characters with speaking roles and intelligent characters belonging to the slave class, and he also developed and advanced the convention of using satire as a form of social commentary.

While the Western theatrical tradition went into an extended period of decline after the fall of the Roman Empire, the culture of the ancient Greeks enjoyed a dramatic revival during the Renaissance. In this highly influential period of European history, philosophers, scholars, writers, and artists returned to the great works of classical civilizations, including ancient Greece and ancient Rome, as sources of inquiry and inspiration. Popular plays featuring narratives focusing on secular rather than religious life were created and produced for the first time in centuries, with the works of English dramatist William Shakespeare generally being regarded as the most important and enduring examples of such literature. Shakespeare's plays drew directly from the structural and narrative conventions established by Aristotle and the great ancient Greek dramatists, with the majority of his work falling into the traditional genres of comedy and tragedy.

Bibliography

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MacLennan, Bruce. "City Dionysia." University of Tennessee-Knoxville, 14 Sept. 1999, web.eecs.utk.edu/~mclennan/Classes/US210/City-Dionysia.html. Accessed 22 Nov. 2016.

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