In greek tragedy what is the entrance of the chorus called

This is Thespis, who first moulded tragic song, inventing new joys for his villagers, when Bacchus led the wine-smeared? The young change all this. Length of time will discover many new things. But mine is mine. Dioscorides, Anth. The unknown poetry of the tragic Muse Thespis is said to have discovered and to have carried poems on wagons, which they sang and acted, their faces smeared with wine-lees.

Horace, Ars Poetica As of old tragedy formerly the chorus by itself performed the whole drama and later Thespis invented a single actor to give the chorus a rest and Aeschylus a second and Sophocles a third, thereby completing tragedy Diogenes Laertius III. Thespis: Of the city of Ikarios in Attica, the sixteenth tragic poet after the first tragic poet, Epigenes of Sicyon, but according to some second after Epigenes.

Others say he was the first tragic poet. In his first tragedies he anointed his face with white lead, then he shaded his face with purslane in his performance, and after that introduced the use of masks, making them in linen alone.

Attending a tragedy or comedy in 5th century BC Athens was in many ways a different experience than attending a play in the United States in the 20th century. To name a few differences, Greek plays were performed in an outdoor theater, used masks, and were almost always performed by a chorus and three actors no matter how many speaking characters there were in the play, only three actors were used; the actors would go back stage after playing one character, switch masks and costumes, and reappear as another character.

Greek plays were performed as part of religious festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, and unless later revived, were performed only once. Plays were funded by the polis, and always presented in competition with other plays, and were voted either the first, second, or third last place. Tragedies almost exclusively dealt with stories from the mythic past there was no "contemporary" tragedy , comedies almost exclusively with contemporary figures and problems.

In what follows, we will run through an imaginary but as far a possible, accurate outline of the production of a Greek tragedy in 5th century BC Athens from beginning to end.

The outline will bring out some of the features of creating and watching a Greek tragedy that made it a different process than it is today. Staging a play. Greek tragedies and comedies were always performed in outdoor theaters. Early Greek theaters were probably little more than open areas in city centers or next to hillsides where the audience, standing or sitting, could watch and listen to the chorus singing about the exploits of a god or hero.

From the late 6th century BC to the 4th and 3rd centuries BC there was a gradual evolution towards more elaborate theater structures, but the basic layout of the Greek theater remained the same. The major components of Greek theater are labled on the diagram above. Orchestra : The orchestra literally, "dancing space" was normally circular. It was a level space where the chorus would dance, sing, and interact with the actors who were on the stage near the skene.

The earliest orchestras were simply made of hard earth, but in the Classical period some orchestras began to be paved with marble and other materials.

In the center of the orchestra there was often a thymele, or altar. The orchestra of the theater of Dionysus in Athens was about 60 feet in diameter. Theatron : The theatron literally, "viewing-place" is where the spectators sat. The theatron was usually part of hillside overlooking the orchestra, and often wrapped around a large portion of the orchestra see the diagram above.

Spectators in the fifth century BC probably sat on cushions or boards, but by the fourth century the theatron of many Greek theaters had marble seats. Skene : The skene literally, "tent" was the building directly behind the stage. During the 5th century, the stage of the theater of Dionysus in Athens was probably raised only two or three steps above the level of the orchestra, and was perhaps 25 feet wide and 10 feet deep.

The skene was directly in back of the stage, and was usually decorated as a palace, temple, or other building, depending on the needs of the play. It had at least one set of doors, and actors could make entrances and exits through them. There was also access to the roof of the skene from behind, so that actors playing gods and other characters such as the Watchman at the beginning of Aeschylus' Agamemnon could appear on the roof, if needed.

Parodos : The parodoi literally, "passageways" are the paths by which the chorus and some actors such as those representing messengers or people returning from abroad made their entrances and exits. The audience also used them to enter and exit the theater before and after the performance. Greek Theaters Click here to explore more about Greek theaters in Perseus, with descriptions, plans, and images of eleven ancient theaters, including the Theater of Dionysus in Athens, and the theater at Epidaurus.

The basic structure of a Greek tragedy is fairly simple. After a prologue spoken by one or more characters, the chorus enters, singing and dancing. What is the correct order of a Greek play? What are the 3 main parts of a Greek Theater? What is the stage of a Greek Theatre called? Who are the 3 most famous Greek playwrights? Who is the greatest tragedian?

What were the key features of the Greek performances? What does a Greek chorus do? Why did the Greek chorus wear masks? What is chorus give example? Where does the chorus stand in Greek Theatre?

What are the two main purposes of the Greek chorus? In ethos the tetrameter is more dance-like and potentially less serious; it often accompanies more agitated action or emotion than is found in adjacent iambic scenes.

They seem to have been chanted. Anapaests consist of a seqence of metra of the form v v - v v - or equivalents formed by substituting one long for two shorts or vice versa: e. Sometimes choral anapaests serve as a long prelude to the parodos-lyric Aesch. Lyric portions of the plays are normally written in antistrophic composition.

That is, stanzas are grouped in pairs each pair being of unique form : the first stanza of a pair is called a strophe , the correspondinging stanza with the same metrical pattern is called the antistrophe. Usually the antistrophe follows immediately after its strophe, but occasionally a short stanza called a mesode appears in between, or responsion occurs over a distance as with Hipp.

Each parodos or stasimon may have one or more pairs of strophes and antistrophes the commonest patterns are two or three pairs.

Sometimes a choral ode will end with an additional stanza not in corresponsion not paired , called an epode. The basic structure can be viewed as one of acts and act-dividing songs, the beginning of a new act being apparent normally from the entry of a new character after a song. Nevertheless, one needs to be aware of the terminology that has become traditional in the description of Greek plays.

Prologue : the part of the play preceding the entry of the chorus, usually two scenes sometimes three, rarely one. The first of these scenes may be a prologue-monologue , esp.

The monologue-speaker may be a god, a minor character , or a the major character. Such a speaker normally addresses the audience more or less directly though not quite so informally as in comedy , and full dramatic illusion does not take hold until the conclusion of the speech. In Sophocles, the opening is usually fully dramatic from the start. In a few plays there are no prologue-scenes and the exposition begins immediately with the entrance of the chorus Aesch.

Parodos : entry of the chorus and the name of the song they sing or of the chanted anapaests plus song sung as they enter. The first entry of the chorus was perhaps traditionally onto an empty "stage," but in some plays an actor is present as the chorus enters and may or may not be acknowledged in their song. In late fifth-century tragedy, as dialogue-scenes had become more important dramatically and the chorus correspondingly less important, an amoibaion sometimes takes the place of the parodos, reducing the chorus' autonomy in the drama.

Episode : the scene s between the parodos and the first stasimon or between two stasimons. The Prologue, or opening speech, introduces the situation and theme, typically a soliloquy or dialogue in iambic trimeters.

This number of Episodes and Stasima four each is not obligatory. The content of the tragedy will naturally have shaped the form. Other types of lyric sections may separate Episodes or separate the last Episode from the Exodos. Usually the dividing line between dialogue and choral-song sections is clear, but sometimes the lines are blurred. A good example of this variation, essentially reversing the roles of Chorus and characters, is Iphigenia at Aulis —, a logical place for a Stasimon, in which Clytemnestra and Iphigenia chant or sing lyric verses and the Chorus caps off the set piece with comment in two iambic trimeters.

This overview of the formal structural elements of Ancient Greek tragedy defers to commentaries and other intensive treatments of individual tragedies for less technically set structural aspects of Ancient Greek tragedy such as overall trajectories of plot, character, characterization, thematic development and emotional content.

The formal elements given by Aristotle in Chapter 12 of the Poetics help one understand those other most important features of specific Ancient Greek tragedies. Meter is the rhythm of the speech and the song.