Tragic Hero:
-Has tragic flaw, usu. hubris: Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance
-Goes from high to low
-Is an important person
-Suffers psychically/emotionally
Characteristics of Greek drama:
-Uses story that will be familiar to audience
-Late point of attack - point in story after the characters and setting are established, but a little while before the climax
-Violence takes place offstage
-Messengers used to tell characters about offstage action
-catharsis: emotional purgation that returns balance (Oedipus is banished and Thebes is restored)
-arouses pity and fear in audience
Actors: all men, usu. 3 actors who played multiple parts, masks
Chorus: comments on play, dialogue w/actors, sings and dances
Structure:
Prologue - one or two characters give mythological background of play
Parodos - chorus enters - they are the "moral voice" of the play
Episode - action with characters, dialogue, monologue
Stasimon - chorus summarizes previous episode in verse
Exodos - end of play; chorus gives speech, "moral of the story"
Actors:
- 3 male actors represented all characters, using masks
- chorus of 12, some could act as incidental, non-speaking characters (like Oedipus' daughters Antigone and Ismene)
Sophocles (born 495 BC, died 405 BC)
- only 7 out of his 120 plays remain
-1st playwright to add third actor
-1st playwright to write tragedies that stand on their own, not as part of a trilogy
Origins of Greek Drama
-late 7th century BC, first plays called "tragedoi," sung by groups of men dressed as satyrs
-6th century BC, Pisistratus creates Dionysia, a 3-day state religious festival in Athens
-Thespis was a famous actor and the first playwright, winning the Dionysia in 536-533
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