The Greeks

The Greeks were the first major society to create and develop the act of story telling. Drama was used during these times to tell stories about the gods and other characters for entertainment. One god in particular that  was associated with drama was Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, pleasure, theatre and impregnation. He had many festivals named after him too, where people would watch theatre in a Greek pantheon (a viewing area that has been carved out of a mountain. As seen in the image above the stone seats were carved out a hill, it was Known as the Theatron) Since the seats were made from stone many people would bring cusions tosit on as the festival would last a very long time.

Origin of Dionysus

Dionysus was a son of Zeus and the princess Semele of Thebes. During the course of her pregnancy, the god's jealous wife Hera tricked Semele into asking Zeus to appear before her in his full glory. Bound by oath, the god was forced to comply and she was consumed by the heat of his lightning-bolts. Zeus recovered their unborn child from her body, sewed him up in his own thigh, and carried him until he was born.  https://www.theoi.com/Olympios/Dionysos.html for any additional information on the Greek God of wine and fertility.

The Greek Plays

Oedipus Rex by Sophocles

This classic tragedy is still read and performed today. In Oedipus Rex, a father leaves his own son, Oedipus, to die in a field. Rather than die, he is taken in by another family and raised. While with this family, Oedipus is told by an Oracle that he will murder his father and sleep with his mother. Despite his best efforts to prevent this from happening, he does both of these things.

Prometheus Bound by Aeschylus

Though Aeschylus wrote two other plays about Prometheus, Prometheus Bound is the most popular and influential. It is important to note that historians believe it unclear if Aeschylus truly wrote it. However, he is given the credit. In it, we follow the tragic life of Prometheus, the Titan who gave fire to mankind. Zeus ultimately punished him for his actions.

Medea by Euripedes

Euripedes is another important playwright from Ancient Greece and one of his best works was Medea. Medea was the wife of Jason, whom we know from the story, Jason and the Argonauts. As the play opens, Jason has just left Media for another woman. He promised to keep her on as a mistress.

However, Medea was unsatisfied with this arrangement and plotted her revenge. Part of the fun of this play is wondering who the villain of the story really was. Was it Jason for leaving her, or Medea for plotting her revenge?

The Persians by Aeschylus

The Ancient Greeks' struggle with the Persians was on people's minds for a long time. Sophocles penned his tragedy, The Persians, as a reminder of this time. In it, Sophocles focuses on Xerxes, the Persian Empire's feared leader, as he finds out about the Persians' loss at the Battle of Salamis.

Antigone by Sophocles

Antigone is another tragedy written by Sophocles. Here, we focus on Antigone who was the daughter of Oedipus and his mother, Jocasta. Sophocles uses this tale as a way to warn us against our own pride. In this story, Antigone witnesses her brothers fighting for the throne – a conflict that eventually killed one of them.

All of these plays would have had a chorus, a group of people that would all be in unison constantly. In class we tried to become a chorus however it is a lot harder than it seems as there would be no ques and such to tell the actors of the chorus what to do and when to do it. We had to do actions as one.