In 5th century Athens, a festival in honor of Dionysus was held called the City Dionysia where competitions in music, dance, poetry, and outdoor theatre performances took place. Here playwrights perfected three types of plays; comedies, tragedies, and satyr plays. A masked actor(s) would communicate with a group known as the Chorus; who summarized plot points and backstory to the audience. These elegant and incredible plays, not only expand our views on mythic characters and tales, but they reveal insight into the ancient cultural beliefs of Athenian Greeks. There were many playwrights, but the three most famous tragedians are as follows…
Aeschylus (525-455 B.C.) (Eh-skuh-lus) known as “the father of tragedy,” descended from a line of Eleusinian priests, and fought as a hoplite soldier against the Persians. Aristotle credits Aeschylus with first creating conflict between two characters in a play (before this the characters would only converse with the chorus members). His Oresteia trilogy, is the only surviving complete trilogy we have. Out of his 80- 90 plays, 7 are extant (surviving).
Sophocles (496 – 406 B.C.) (saa-fuh-kleez) came from a wealthy family, was highly educated, and well known and respected amongst statesmen. He is credited by Aristotle for the innovation of adding a third actor onstage to propel the plot, thereby reducing the importance of the chorus, as well as adding skenographia, or scene paintings. Out of the 30 competitions he entered, he won 24. Sophocles most famous plays are his Theban plays; Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus, and Antigone. Out of his 120 plays, 7 are extant.
Euripides (480- 406 B.C.) (yer-i-puh-deez) was a pioneer for portraying mythic heroes as more flawed, as well as developing internal character conflict to new heights with female characters like Medea and Hecuba. He commonly used the plot device Deus Ex Machina; where gods arrive to resolve the conflict at the end. It is said Euripedes socialized with Sophist philosophers, and owned a large library. He only won 4 competitions. Out of his 92 plays, 19 are extant.
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