2. What did the chorus contribute to the drama?

singing, dancing, narrating, and acting

background and summary information to help the audience follow the performance
comments on themes, contemporary matters
the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their hidden fears or secrets
the songs and speeches of the Greek chorus gave the other actors time to take a break while allowing the scenery to be
adjusted and other changes made to the set.
weiner the importance of the greek chorus
considered chorus important all extant tragedies have a chorus
large number of lines
Aristotle regard the chorus as another actor
It engaged in dialogue with characters through its leader, the Coryphaeus, who alone spoke the lines of dialogue assigned
to the chorus.
The chorus became the Bacchae fulfill its classical function but also gives it a deeper narrative meaning
the chorus comments on the actions of the play, provides a moral voice and links the segments of the play temporally
describing Dionysian rites from within, expressing common reactions, and, most importantly, heightening the drama,
hysteria and passion of the play through dance and music. music and dancing like we saw on the vases last week
extolling the more benign, joyful and celebratory side of Dionysus
opposites to the maenads, Theban women, driven mad by Dionysus
maenads, in counterpoint to the chorus, are never shown openly on stage, nor are they given a voice darker side not
show, maybe the knowledge that such vicious practises never really existed
less than essential to the structure and plot of the play.
passive role as witnesses, their numbers alone making any interaction of the main figures a public rather than private
exchange.
Perfect audience no.
Frogs chorus of frogs, - funny annoying, joking with Dionysus
Initiates in Eleusinian mysteries
frogs appear as initiates, the audience would be startled not just at the change in the chorus identity but also at their
lacklustre costumes.
Parodying solemnity of actual religious rites, made funnier Dionysus does not equate himself with Iacchus, singing cult
hymn
Make fun of contemporaries - komodoumenoi Archedemus, Cleisthenes

The theatre at Thorikos is rather odd. Most Greek theatres were built into hillsides. This one, as you can see from this
angle, has a back. It's also odd for not being semi-circular. It's like a rather stretched ellipse. The theatre is Thorikos, Attica,
Greece. 525-480 BC Cavea Width: 55 meters rectilinear
Orchestra: Width 27 meters; (irregular rectangle)
There is no physical evidence for a circular orchestra earlier than that of the great theater at Epidauros dated to around
330B.C. Most likely, the audience in fifth-century B.C. Athens was seated close to the stage in a rectilinear arrangement,
such as appears at the well-preserved theatre at Thorikos in Attica.

Enlarged 480 425 BC 6000 people

Timber seats then stone
3rd size of theatre of Dionysus
skene building on the right?
Temple of Dionysus to the east
Small festivals
Athens small speaking area, seats
in smaller towns, theatre is used interchangeably with seats
no separate agora in Thorikos
altar important for deme
Altar of rural Dionysia, big deme festivals
Central to city life, not just plays
Irregular shape makes way for temple, religious aspect more important than theatrical one
but unusual in this respect no other theatre has a temple in it, imitation of Athens?
seating some seats seem to have number more important people, some made out of better
stone
victors lists comedy and tragedy
Theatre of Dionysus tragedy and comedy performed in original theatre 6 th century
Archaeological evidence complicated rebuilt
early theatre 25m diameter
no stage area big orchestra, no distinction of chorus and actor
audience on hill of Acropolis, natural amphitheatre, wooden seats evidence in Aristophanes 5th
century
Wooden skene at the back 1 large door
actors still with chorus in orchestra
wooden stage maybe, no evidence
5th century Pericles, golden age, included theatre area
roof of skene, for gods
not much funding using Persian timber
decorated by paintings, architectural paintings ie pillars or symbolic tree to indicate wood etc
stone seating hard to tell when it was installed
Attached to precinct of Dionysus
odeon back of skene led to stoa, temple of Dionysus in front
330BC just after Athens fell to macedon, Lycurgus wanted to restore memory of Athens
Set texts commemorate theatre with set texts, mirroring stone seating
relationship of looking back to the past to build a better Athens in the future?
10000? But the biggest capacity is without seating just on the hill
Murder of Agamemnon aegisthus short chiton with beard lunging towards Agamemnon
Agamemnon looking smaller, see through chiton
- inscription e e ? anguish or nonsense
pervasiveness of theatre scene where Agamemnon is killed

cant know what myth is like before stage

similar characteristics bathing, nakedness, bath sheets
involvement of Clytemnestra she kills him in play, Aegithsus comes out to gloat
another version of the myth?
relationship between play and pot? motives? Well known myth?
play 456BC, vase comes first

Vase Sicilian manfria group, lentini, 340 320

old man, infibulated penis mature man
old woman
Heracles is grotesque
Bore Telephus to Heracles.
central stairs leading down into orchestra?
Masks wooden stage off ground
CIRCA 360-350 B.C.
Curtain staging
Seated Dionysus, aulos, thyrsus
female acrobat
Wall behind with windows used for comic effect?
Satirical dance gangnam style
furry cosplay
Apulian calyx krater old woman on stage, old man hands in air,
Old woman offers old man as if giving a slave up for torture
three actors, each wearing a mask and padded costume; above them hangs a tragic mask. The
actor in the center is standing on his toes with his hands raised as if he were suspended from a
post; out of his mouth come the words, "he has bound my hands above." Evidently he is being
punished for a theft. The stolen goodsa dead goose and a basketlie on a platform to the right.
Also on the platform is an old man or woman, who gestures as if in remonstrance, uttering the
words "I shall furnish [testimony]." To the left is the guardian of the prisoner; he holds a stick as if
ready to beat the thief. The inscription that emerges from his mouth is nonsensical, either a spell
responsible for the raised arms of the thief or a representation of a foreign tongue. This foreign
language may characterize the speaker as a policeman, a profession often held by Thracians in
Athens. In the upper left is a male youth, nude except for a mantle; he is labeled tragoidos, "tragic
actor." The scene is apparently a parody of a court scene, a subject that lent itself to buffoonery.

Comic Angels and other Approaches to Greek Drama through Vase-Paintings

Taplin p 4 comedy by contrast openly recognises its context and its present spectators; aristophanes plays explicitly
declare their Athenian association

206 - The very occasion and act of theatre established that quite different conventions of communication and
understanding governed and determined the transactions taking place.

208 - Pericles had explicitly underscored the importance of works of monumental architecture for the celebration of
Athenian cultural values and their enduring capacity to impress upon future generations the glory and achievements of her
people.

Odeon of Athens made out of timber of captured Persian ships

208 .lycurgus He ordered that ofcial copies of the plays of the three great tragic poets, Aeschylus, Euripides and
Sophocles, be established and xed in effect making them permanent.

4. I've changed my form from god to human

421 The god gives his wine equally,
sharing with rich and poor alike.
1. Bacchae not crucial to our understanding of our text to know about Athenian history
But Aristophanes Athenian history large part of play in jokes

Saviour of city
alcibades Aeschylus views about alcibaides, naval battles, agon not interesting if we dont know why he changed his
mind
Time of political change
New type of politicians not just aristocracy, nouveau-riche, not to help the city, to benefit their own business
Mentions cleigenes, politician for business interest
Phrynichus mentioned in parabasis in frogs, assassinated after oligarchic revolution 411 bc, aristocrats forced to
leave politics, even lost
Slaves became citizens, after naval battle, change in socio-political landscape contrast with traditional aristocracy
losing citizenship
Political concerns represented in Bacchae- pentheus, young, inexperienced
reason why Dionysus can trick him
political instability
inexperienced young politicians historical point of view?