theatre

What did hughes say?

 “Greek religion made a lot of noise"

What did Goldhill say?

 

“ The festivals were about a lot more than just watching plays"-

Renshaw said what

‘He is described as a god “most terrible and most gracious to mankind” - to those who oppose him he brings great suffering, but to those who honour him he offers release from the pains of life’

Golden

 

'The immediate cause of Oedipus' ruin is not fate or the gods - what causes his ruin is his own strength and courage'

Draw a mindmap about religion in Oedipus

Draw a mindmap about family and relationships within Oedipus

what is katharsis

Katharsis- is the purification and purgation of emotions through dramatic art, or it may be any extreme emotional state  that results in renewal and restoration.

Perseus dance vase

Perseus Dance Vase 420BC

 

Red-figure
✅Only representation of fifth century actors in front of an audience
✅Raised stage
✅Sickle and pouch identifying actor as Perseus
✅Beard on the first spectator suggests an older figure
✅Actors pose suggests comic performance or pantomime
✅Chairs are klismoi and perhaps suggest the front row seats of the theatre
❌Vase is badly damaged, making interpretations difficult
❌Many questions around interpretation
❌The actor is not wearing the traditional attire of a comic actor (ie odder costume, mask, exaggerated phallus
❌It is very simplistic

Analysis of medea vase

-Figure Calyx Krater
Athens
✅Final scene of Euripides' "Medea"
✅Central characters who appear in play
✅Use of Ekkyklema (wheel bodies of sons)
✅Use of Mechane (life Medea off stage so saved by a deus ex machina)
✅Use of different levels
❌No furies in the play
❌Jason not in traditonal tragic costume- naked chest
❌In play, Medea took her sons with her
❌Coukd be based on a different version of the myth or artistix interpretation
❌Not fully accurate representation of the stage (NO MASKS, NO SKENE, MORE THAN THREE CHARACTERS PRESENT AT ONCE)
❌Vase has differnt decorative purpose

 

What is the agon like in tragedy and an example?

Agon in tragedy -Lengthy debate in tragedy - almost like legal oppositions.

 Example - Tiresias and Oedipus

How did Aristotle define a Tragic Hero

Aristotle defined the heroes having a noble birth, therefore educated

2- Excessive behaviour (often hubris)

3- Reversal of fortune

4-Must bring their own downfall

 

Other characteristics:

Must suffer more than he deserves

Doomed from start

Noble in nature but

have imperfections

Understand their downfall

Cause both fear and empathy

Ideally a king or leader

Intelligent enough to learn/ reflect

General role of chorus

Role of chorus- to denote that time has passed, heighten peoples feelings and thoughts, add a human element in tragedy, in Oedipus represent ordinary people.

whats the origins of comedy

Origins of comedy - worship of Dionysus included a komos ( a dance when men would go into the street, drink, sing and dance in honour of the god

An element of the komos was the phallus - leather icons held aloft

Dionysus is seen as a 'life force' so the phallus represents this view and also the precarious nature of childbirth and the growing of crops (new life etc)

Historical background

405 BC war will end 18 months later

Spartans asked for peace twice

In 404 BC Athens accept terms of defeat

• Reducing navy, destruction of long walls, end of democracy

Time of unease and uncertainty

To pay troops, they melted down objects and statues on the acropolis

Athenian assembly put generals to death after arginusae - because they didn't collect the bodies

 

Alcibiades - reveals secrets of the eleusian mysteries, and desecrates herms, leaves to sparta and has an affair with spartas kings wife, and puts himself in exile.

Bacchae background

Dionysus' birth:

• Mother was a mortal, Semele and his father was Zeus

• In the myths Zeus is either asked by Semele herself or Hera tricked her into getting Zeus to reveal his true self

  • Mortals cannot handle this so Semele explodes and in the remnants Dionysus (baby) is left

• Zeus sews the baby into his thigh

• He is then born a full God as he grew from Zeus 

 

Semele has 3 sisters who have father Cadmus- old king of Thebes and has passed his crown and throne to Pentheus (agaves son)

In order to prove himself as a god to his family he has sent all the women in Thebes crazy

Importance of the polis in frogs mindmap

Draw a mindmap about religion in Bacchae

Fagles speech oedipus

Oedipus is his own destroyer

what did garvie say with regards to oedipus

'The man who thinks he knows, or can find out everything, is in fact ignorant even of his own identity'

MINDMAP on chorus and structure of bacchae

Chorus and structure in oedipus!

What did Hall state regarding Oedipus

Hall states that the psychological violence is more intense than the physical violence in the play

What did Hall say regarding to Frogs

'Aristophanes' form of comedy intimately related to democracy'

What did Taplin say

tragedy and comedy were perceived as part of political life in Athens" - Taplin

Garvie quote on oedipus character

"it it Oedipus, with the relentless search for the truth whom we admire" Garvie

Garvie quote on sight and blindness

Tiresias is physically blind, while Oedipus, the physically sighted knows nothing" Garvie

Roisman quote on bacchae

no parent can watch Agave's recognition and not sympathise" - it is "the most tragic in Greek theatre"

Roisman

Bettendorf commentary on frogs

the "primary function" of Frogs is "political action"- Bettendorf

Dover on comedy

one purpose of Greek comedy was to entertain the audience through parody