Search

[German Version] I. Antiquity – II. Middle Ages to the Present I. Antiquity In the so-called Old Attic Comedy of the 5th century bce, as represented by the 11 extant comedies of Aristophanes (c. 450–385; the comedies produced i…

[German Version] I. Antiquity 1. The etymology of the word τραγῳδία/ tragōdía indicates the genre’s cultic roots. Contrary to the traditional interpretation (“goat song”), Burkert understands the term to mean a song (…

[German Version] I. Greco-Roman Antiquity – II. Drama and Religion – III. Drama and the Christian Tradition …

[German Version] I. History of Religion 1. Cultic originsa. a. Theatrical performances are attested long before the institutionalization…

[German Version] (497/496, Athens – 406 bce), Athenian tragedian, who had his debut in 470. Seven of his plays (out of probably 113) have survived: Ajax and the Trachinian Women, written in t…

[German Version] Derived from the Greek adjective τραγικός/ tragikós, tragic originally suggested nothing more than association with the art of tragedy. According to Aristotle ( Poet. 13, 1453 a 30), Euripides was the “most tragic” playwright, sinc…

[German Version] At the Great Dionysia (Dionysus), the most important festival of Athens, each of the final three days was marked by the performance of three tragedies followed by a satyr play as a burlesque conclusion. In the case of Aeschylus, the satyr play shared subject matter with the trilogy, but this does not seem to have been the case with Sophocles and especially Euripides, who sometimes substituted a tragedy for the satyr play ( Alcestis, 438 bce). Archaeological evidence indicates that the satyr play was introduced into the festival program between 520 and 510 bce; the first author known by name was Pratinas from Phlius. The satyr play was probably intended to restore the Dionysian atmosphere to the festival, which threatened to vanish in the tragedies, and integrate rural elements into the central urban festival. Of the numerous satyr plays, only the Cyclops of Euripides has survived complete; portions of the Dictyulci of Aeschylus and the Ichneutae of Sophocles have also survived. Central to the satyr play was a chorus of 12 (later 15) singers dressed as satyrs, hybrid creatures in the retinue of Dionysus, with full beards, stump noses, bald heads, horse ears, and erect phalluses, always accompanied by their father (Pappo)silenus. They are characterized by exuberant vitality, lechery, guile, and often cowardice. A typical motif of the satyr play was the separation of the satyrs from their mast…