Satyr play

A satyr is a genus of ancient drama, which was introduced by Pratinas around 500 BC in Athens.

On the tragic agon of the Great Dionysia three tragedies and a satyr play of three tragedians were listed. The satyr is a cheerful, liberating stoppage that followed the three tragedies. Tragedies and satyr-play form a tetralogy. Formally, the satyr play is structured the same as the tragedy in Prolog, parodos, stasima & Epeisodia and Exodus.

In the Athenian satyr plays annotated a group of satyrs, led by a Silenus, who also appears as an actor in the Epeisodien, what is happening. " This is the classical satyr play, as far as we can see, not, as is always claimed, myth parody or travesty and tragedy not parody. Designed to be rather from the rich reservoir of myth substances gay or at least unproblematic, often magical. " The only completely surviving satyr play is Cyclops ( about 408 BC) by Euripides. In addition, a fragment of Sophocles' Ichneutai in 1907 near the Egyptian Oxyrhynchus found.

A satyr play in this sense, should follow his Tannhäuser tragedy, Richard Wagner created with his musical comedy Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.

In the name giver satyrs are mythological figures, half human, half animal. There are forest demons who like to crowd around Dionysos, whose weakness for sense pleasures they share. The most prominent representatives of this genus Pan, the foster brother of Zeus.

" A group of satyrs lost in the dense forest and has to deal with many challenges to get back to Dionysus. The cheerful presentation, performed by the members of the choir, was listed as a contrast after a tragedy trilogy. "