Greek tragedy

The Greek tragedy (of Tragodia - Bocksgesang ) was created as part of the official celebrations in Athens in honor of the wine god Dionysus. The tyrant Pisistratus ( 600 - 528/527 BC ) brought the cult of Dionysus to the state cult of Athens and led the annual Great Dionysia as a multi-day festival. In the year 534 BC, the poet Thespis introduced here to the first tragedy in which he faced the singing and dancing chorus of the 7th century BC Dithyrambos incurred the first time a single actor. Their heyday was the Greek tragedy 490-406 BC The most famous tragedians were Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.

Actions

The Greek tragedy deals with the fateful entanglement of the protagonist who is caught in a hopeless situation so that it can only be guilty by any action. The approaching, more and more clearly looming catastrophe can not be avoided despite great efforts of the people involved. The tragic character is also described with the attribute " guiltless guilty." Topics covered range from philosophical to religious and existential issues such as:

• The question of being
• The individual and the world
• Men and gods
• Crime and Punishment
• Character and destiny.

The fate or the gods bring the actor into an inextricable situation, typical of the Greek tragedy conflict, which has the inner and outer collapse of an entity. There is no way not to be guilty without abandoning its values ​​(which is a tragic actor not possible). A good example is Oedipus the King by Sophocles.

Construction

The structure follows the basic format:

• The prologue: part of the tragedy before the entry of the choir
• The episode: part between whole choral songs
• The Exodus: Part after the last choral song
• Choral parts: 1 the parodos: the first part of the whole choir presentation
• 2 the Stasimon: a choral and solo singers together sung choral song

This basic structure was not changed. A fixed convention was the change between choirs ( Liedvers ) and the mono- and dialogues of actors ( Spielvers ). Due to the linear storyline parallel actions or other important events which have not been shown to the public directly, had to be offered otherwise. This could be done in several ways, including the Teichoskopie ( Mauerschau ), the messenger report, the deus ex machina, or by Ekkyklema.

Representation

But not only the strict construction of the tragedy had to be respected, it was also next to the following conventions should be noted:

• The actors wore masks. There are not received masks ( only reduced versions in the museum of Lipari Italy), but you can find pictures on vases. The mask was a rigid, frightening appearance.
• The individuality and identity of the actor was dropped.
• They simplified the actor the role play.

From the accompanying music only fragments have been preserved.