Greek tragedy

The term tragedy comes from the Greek word for “goat song.” The origins of Greek tragedy are unclear; however, scholars believe the genre branched out of choral verses sung in honor of the god Dionysus, also known by its Roman name, Bacchus. Performers were men wearing masks and goat skins who would sing and dance in the orchestra, an open circular space. In time, the performance grew to include heroic stories and a main actor. According to some sources, the playwrights Aeschylus and Sophocles added more actors to the plays.

In the fifth century BCE, the state of Athens established tragedy as an official cult. Greek tragedies were performed every year at a state festival in honor of Dionysus. Greek theaters were in the open, usually on a hillside, and a performance could last all day. Although surviving evidence is scarce, it is believed that performances were open to all Greeks.

Background

The central events of the Dionysia, the Athenian festival celebrated to honor Dionysus, were performances of tragedies and, eventually, comedies as well. The first tragedy performed at the Dionysia was believed to be authored by Thespis, an actor and playwright, in the fifth century BCE. During the Dionysia, three days were allocated for performances and three playwrights presented a set of three tragedies each. The remaining days were set aside for comedic performances. There were numerous tragedies written during the fourth and fifth centuries BCE, although most have been lost. Plays continued to be staged and re-staged from one century to the next, well into the second century BCE.

Tragedies then were similar to what we know today as musicals and opera. Plays were composed in verse and included dances. There were choral parts meant to be sung and sometimes danced. The choral parts were divided into strophe, antistrophe, and epode or after-song. Sometimes the actors sung their responses to the chorus, and they also interacted with the audience.

The plot of a Greek tragedy usually involves a central protagonist or hero, who suffers adversity due to some combination of hubris or pride, fate, and the actions of the gods. While some tragedies end badly for the characters, others offer a satisfactory ending or solution. Tragedies were created deeply infused in the social, political, and religious environment of ancient Athens. Greek tragedy, then, should be understood as an art form developed and experienced in specific religious, cultural, and historic contexts.

Greek tragedy also deals with issues of the self and personal responsibility in the face of divine interference, as can be appreciated in tragedies such as Seven against Thebes and Oresteia by Aeschylus; Ajax, Trachiniae, Oedipus Tyrannus, Electra, and Philoctetes by Sophocles; and Medea, Hecuba, Hyppolytus, and Heracles by Euripides. In each of these, a major character faces a crisis and a moral response is required.

For centuries, ancient Greek drama has been subject to much analysis, starting with the ideas of Aristotle on tragedy. Contemporary scholars continue to debate the ways in which Greek tragedy is relevant today.

Topic Today

Greek tragedy plays were composed and performed in the context of socio-political developments of the time: the rise of Athens, slavery, the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, and the emergence of Alexander the Great as a world power. Despite its ancient origins, however, Greek tragedies have remained current in Western culture. The concept of a tragic protagonist, an individual who is neither evil nor a paragon of virtues, and who undergoes adversity and transformation, continues to resonate with readers and audiences today.

Nineteenth-century thinkers developed an understanding of tragedy gleaned from Greek drama, which shaped modern understandings of the genre. For many intellectuals, for example, the play Oedipus Rex presented the ideal tragic model. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche pointed out the two core elements of tragedy: Apollonian wisdom and Dionysian passion, which are always in open conflict. These views on cultural tensions that are developed from Greek tragedy deeply influenced the arts and sciences in the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries.

Greek tragedies are a common cultural referent and have continued to be performed and re-interpreted in theater, literature, and other art forms. Interpretations by different producers and artists have varied, as have the receptions by audiences. The plays were popular with ancient Greek audiences because they represented important events at the time and evoked strong religious and nationalist feelings. While the texts remain the same, the meanings drawn by audiences do not. The contemporary audience will interpret them from the social, cultural, and historic context of their time.

Greek tragedy has provided fodder for some of the most innovative productions in contemporary arts and literature. Plays such as Electra, Medea, and Oedipus Rex, for example, have resonated with modern audiences dealing with the issues of slavery, identity, inequality, religion, immigration, and war. Many people appreciate Greek tragedy for its melodramatic elements. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, however, it has also served to explore political and social issues. Greek tragedy on stage, screen, or in literature, for example, can still be related to many modern-day problems such as gender and race inequality, homelessness, violence, war, autonomy, personal responsibility, and other social and personal issues.

Beginning in the late twentieth century, some authors and scientists have drawn therapeutic insights from Greek works. Since the 1960s and 1970s, there have been important works published about the devastating psychological effects of war, comparing the soldiers of Greek epic drama with war veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The Greek plays were written close to thirty centuries ago and for a different society, yet they have much to teach about trauma and the difficulties veterans face in adjusting to civilian life. Anxieties caused by combat, grief, alienation, and other stressors are as critical today as they were in ancient times. The timelessness of classical Greek drama, then, highlights the universality of the human experience. Written to be performed centuries ago, the core themes of Greek tragedies continue to resonate with society today as they did when ancient Athenian audiences first enjoyed them.

Bibliography

Carter, D. M. The Politics of Greek Tragedy. Liverpool: Liverpool UP, 2011. Print.

Dillon, Matthew, and Lynda Garland. The Ancient Greeks: History and Culture from Archaic Times to the Death of Alexander. New York: Routledge, 2012. Print.

Easterling, P. E., ed. The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1997. Print.

Foley, Helene P. Reimagining Greek Tragedy on the American Stage. Berkeley: U of California P, 2012. Print.

Goldhill, Simon. Sophocles and the Language of Tragedy. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Gregory, Justina, ed. A Companion to Greek Tragedy. Hoboken: Wiley, 2008. Print.

Kitto, H. D. F. Greek Tragedy. New York: Routledge, 2011. Print.

Lawrence, Stuart. Moral Awareness in Greek Tragedy. New York: Oxford UP, 2012. Print.

Michelakis, Pantelis. Greek Tragedy on Screen. New York: Oxford UP, 2013. Print.

Scodel, Ruth. An Introduction to Greek Tragedy. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. Print.