classics key terms

agon

competition or formal debate

auletes

one who plays the aulos

aulos

wind instrument

bathos

anti-climax

Battle of Arginusae

406 BC athens beat sparta at sea

catharsis

purging of emotion

chiton

robe

choral odes

songs performed by the chorus

choregos

financial backer

tragic chorus

15 men

comedic chorus

24 men

city dionysia

most important dramatic festival

day of pots

festival for the dead

demagogue

political leader who appeals to the people

demes

139 villages

dithyramb

choral dance sung for dionysus

double determination

2 causes for an event

drachma

former monetary unit in Greece

dramatic irony

audience knows what will happen, protagonist doesn't

ecclesia

group of politicians who debate in athens

eisodos

the way onstage

ekkyklema

wheel platform

embellished language

actors speak in verse

endogamy

marrying within the community

eponymous archon

leading politician of athens, runs the city dionysia.

exodus

final scene

gourmand

someone who likes food

hamartia

tragic flaw

himation

cloak to the knees

human phallus

enlarged penis worn in comedy

iambus/iambics

spoken sections

kingship

loyalty to the king

kommos

lyrical song of lamentation

korthornoi

boots

lenea

competitions in late january

liturgy

tax on the rich

lyrics

sung sections of a play

maenads

female followers of dionysus

mechane

crane

messenger speech

events happen off-stage

monody

ode sung by single actor

oikos

house

orchestra

dancing area

parabasis

midpoint of play, tone change

parados

first choral passage

Pelopponesian War

Athens versus Sparta

Pelopponesian War dates

431-404 BC

peripeteia

reversal of fortune

physis

nature

polis

city state

pollution

tainted in the eyes of the gods

pompe

religious procession

proagon

introduction to festival

prohedria

seats at the front

prologue

opening scene

rural dionysia

festival held in Attica in mid-winter

satyr

tragicomedy

satyr-play

relief after 3 tragedies

scatalogical

bodily functions

stasimon

choral ode after parados

stichomythia

two characters speak alternating lines

theatron

watching area

the 400

coup in 411 BC

theoric fund

fund for the poor to see plays

thyrsus

ritual staff for bacchants