Greek and Roman Art

Greek and Roman Art

Grinning masks, padded fat suites, and enlarged genitals all have something in common. They were part of a comedy in the classical Greek theater. The theater originated around 400 B.C. and different types of plays were common. The comedy and tragedy is what I will focus on along with the theater itself and some terms from the theater.

The theater itself was held outside in an amphitheater. The auditorium originally had seat made of wood, but later stone was used. The seats were shaped in a half circle of bleacher like seating on one side of the stage. Sometimes there was a more elaborate chair front row center. This chair was used for the priest of the city. The city counsels and soldiers had there own sections to sit in close to the priest. In the city of Dionysus the front row seats were labeled for high-ranking officials. The soldiers were forced to come to the plays so they could learn from the mistakes made by characters in the plays (Ross, 29).

Behind the stage stood a small hut called the skene. The skene was were the actors changed costumes. In later theaters this was decorated with columns. In front of the stage was the orchestra, meaning "dancing place". The chorus preformed there with not only song but dance as well (Ross, 30). There was normally a single musical instrument most likely a flute, but it could have been a lute. The chorus was the most expensive part of the play. The chorus had many functions

Functions of the chorus

1. An agent: gives advice, asks, and takes part

2. Establishes ethical frameworks, sets up standard by which action will be judged

3. Ideal spectator - reacts as playwright hopes audience would

4. Sets mood and heightens dramatic effects

5. Adds movement, spectacle, song, and dance

6. Rhythmical function - pauses / paces the action so that the audience can reflect.

(Website1)

The actors of the Greek theater were their playwrights, but by 449 B.C. there were contest for actors. There is some evidence that there were only three actors used for a play and they relied on costume changes to account for all the characters in a play. All the actors were men. To finance the production the playwright applied to the archon. He was the religious leader, but he was not the one who paid for the play. The archon chose a wealthy citizen to pay for all the expenses. The wealthy citizen, or choregai, had to pay because it was his civic and religious duty. The state was responsible for the auditorium, prizes for the production, and payment to the actors (Website1).

There were different types of plays preformed. The Greek tragedy had three well known playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Sophocles was probably the most successful. He wrote about 120 plays and won contests 24 times. The other plays never scored below second place (Website1). His most well know play of Oedipus the King was an ideal example of a tragic play, according to Aristotle (Ross, 39). Sophocles was also responsible for adding the third actor. Some characteristics of Sophocles plays were his emphasis on individual characters, he reduced the role of the chorus and fixed the chorus at 15 members instead of 50, used complex characters that were psychologically well motivated, the characters were subjected to a crisis leading to suffering and then to self recognition, scenes were very suspenseful and climatic, his poetry was clear and pleasing, he didn't use a lot of visual effects, and his theme emphasized the choice of people (Website1). Sophocles was more than a playwright. In Athens he helped with the running of the city and also served as the cities army commander (Ross,38)

Another type of play is the Greek comedy. Old Comedy was written before 400 B.C. and New Comedy written after. Old Comedy was mostly political satire. Making fun of the government stopped after 400 B.C. with a new ruler. The Macedonians under the leadership of