Greek Tragedy
Part II: Aeschylus
(525/524-456/55)
The Performance
Drama was originally choral lyric performed in the open air during daylight hours with limited use of props. A flute player, aulos, or two, accompanied the 12 (during Aeschylus' time) to 15 (for Sophocles singing members of the chorus. The all male cast wore elaborate robes, soft shoes (cothurni) and masks. Masks were used so men could play female roles and also because with a limit of three actors (two in Aeschylus' time), one actor had to be able to play several roles. Masks limited the amount of interaction among the characters. Speech tended to be monolgues or dialogues and stilted. In his article on Greek Tragedy (sadly, no longer available online), John Porter says"The language of tragedy is a lofty and quite artificial poetic dialect that does not vary: kings, peasants, slaves, foreigners -- all use exactly the same diction, with very little attempt at characterization through dialect or expression."
The structure of the tragedy followed the following pattern:
- Parados [when the chorus enters the orchestra]
- 1st Episode [dialogue scene]
- 1st Stasimon [choral song]
- 2d Episode
- 2d Stasimon
- 3d Episode
- 3d Stasimon
- [4th Episode]
- [4th Stasimon]
- Exodus [final scene of dialogue]
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The URL for this feature is
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa111197e.htm
This feature is copyright © 2000-2003 N.S. Gill.
Sources:
- Didaskalia - http://didaskalia.open.ac.uk/issues/vol2no2/Neuman.html
- Roger Dunkle - http://depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/tragedy.htm
- John Porter - Saskatchewan - http://homepage.usask.ca/~jrp638/index.html
