Ancient Greek Comedy Essay, Research Paper

The plays in ancient Greece were made up of several genres. One of these genres was comedy. Comedy came from two main factors, the major one being known as the Choral Element which has ceremonies to encourage fertility at the Festival of Dionysus. The second influence was from Sicilian mimes that performed sometime very rude performances where they would make mocking allusions to audience members throughout the show.

A parody is an amusing imitation that is usually a piece of writing or music that deliberately copies another work in a comic or satirical way. A satire is the use of wit, especially irony, sarcasm, and ridicule, to attack the vices and follies of humankind. A satyr play is a comic play that mocked a mythological subject and included a chorus of satyrs.

The gods of Ancient Greece were held very important to the people of those times because they believed that anything that happened to them was the result of the gods jurisdiction over them.

Citizenship was an important part of the society, it was also difficult to obtain. Usually if your father was a citizen then that gave you citizenship and the right to own land and vote for government. The Oligarchy is on top then the Democracy (Males, Non-slaves then Natives) and after that there are the Non-Citizens. In the different regions and cities of Greece, there were classes but in the city of Athens, there was metics, slaves and citizens, which were the major of the population. Women were not allowed to vote for government as that was left to men. They were also forbidden to attend the Olympics.

Athens and Sparta were two allies that helped each other in the times of the Persian War, these two nations began to despise each other in decades following the Greek victories of 479 BC and resentment began to arise. The peace struck in 446/445, which officially ended the fighting, for thirty years. Soon after, there were new arguments that arose in the 430s over how each of the two states should treat the allies of the other led to the subsiding of the peace. When they tried to settle, the disagreements collapsed, the result was the overwhelming war of twenty-seven years that modern historians call the Peloponnesian War. The powerful Spartans and most of its allies in the Peloponnesian region (Southern Greece) fought the Athenians and its allies. The war lasted until 404 BC and involved almost the entire Greek world. This war, which was so unusually long, affected all aspects of the Athenian culture. Aristophanes expressed many comic views that the war brought and he performed a large number of productions during those 27 years.

It is suspected that the wealthy and important were seated at the front; these seats were classed as the best. Stone coins were used to mark out were everyone sat. The stone coins matched the marking on the seat, so everyone new where they were going to sit, similar to a numbering system. Giving less important people coins that were away from the front row would help save the seats for the more important people.

Aristotle thought that a technique called Catharsis was absolutely necessary in a tragic play, as it is used to make the audience feel as if they had a part in the sorrow of the characters.

Theatre was something that the Greeks were very proud to have because they were one of the pioneers of theatre. A theatre was basically a large stadium built into a curved hillside or otherwise known as an amphitheatre.

Only men acted in the Greek theatre as women were not intended to be artistic enough, they were thought to stay at home and be domestic. The rule of three actors was: there are no more than three speaking parts on stage at any one time; all parts are divided among the protagonist (the first actor and main character), the deuteragonist (the second actor), and the tritagonist (the third actor).

Masks define characters in the play and the mood of the play. They had to be lively and colourful so that everyone could see them, as did their costumes that were fashioned from linen. The masks were made from clay and designed with very large nose and eyes.

The chorus in the earlier plays was usually made up of 12 amateur actors and later grew to 15. Every classical Greek tragedy has a chorus. Listening to recordings of actual performances can also help a person get an idea of what is was like. The chorus is thought to be the main factor in the choral songs.

The Chorus of a play had to have specific pre-requisites, which were:

+ Commenting on actions

+ Giving people a good idea of the story line in time and space

+ Being the gap between the characters and audience

+ Occasionally take direct action in the story

+ Makes the audience feel that the play is something real and happening to them so they feel more emotional

+ May both be an actor and a narrator

+ Relieves lyrics

+ Using emotions through song and dance

+ May sympathise towards one or more of the characters

+ Can represent a female or male perspective opposed to an actor or favoring one.

Aristophanes was the greatest ever comic writer. He wrote great song and dance, with 44 total productions and 11 of them are still produced today.

Section Two

Socrates was a renown Greek philosopher and teacher. Believing that man s nature leads him to act correctly and in agreement with knowledge, he felt that man s evil and wrong actions came from stupidity and the lack of research why people act as they do. Socrates is known for the quotes the unexamined life is not worth living and no man knowingly does evil. Socrates decided to devote himself all to seeking the truth and finding goodness in humanity.

The Sophists were migrant teachers who taught grammar and public speaking during the second half of the 400 s BC, which was vital in such ancient democracies as Athens.

The Sophists were a group of people believing that human law is not part of the natural existence, but is merely custom made up by people. They say, Men who are clever enough to evade laws have no moral obligation to obey them. Plato described Socrates as going against the Sophists because their ideas were vague and contradictory, and especially their teachings could destroy the social order.

Well known Sophists include Protagoras, Gorgias, and Antiphon. Protagoras was in believing that old customs and ceremonies should be followed so society could be held together not for the purpose that society actually were taught for. Gorgias became well known for his greatly sceptical ideas which made people think deeply. Antiphon expressed the difference between natural law and civil laws which man makes. He believed humanity could often serve to its own advantage by evading the law, which it created, and following his natural desires, if he could get away with it that is.