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  • Rufino, Hillary - Eng 302-The Rise of Greek Drama

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    The document summarizes William Cranston Lawton's article on the rise of Greek drama from its origins in religious rituals and poetry dedicated to Dionysus up to the classical period. It describes how lyric poetry and choral performances eventually developed into tragic and comic forms of drama, with playwrights like Aeschylus and Aristophanes establishing the genres. Thespis is credited with inventing the first actor to interact with the chorus. The document traces how Greek drama emerged from the Greeks' musical and spiritual traditions and became one of their most important artistic contributions.

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    RUFINO, HILLARY- ENG 302-THE RISE OF GREEK DRAMA

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    The document summarizes William Cranston Lawton's article on the rise of Greek drama from its origins in religious rituals and poetry dedicated to Dionysus up to the classical period. It describes how lyric poetry and choral performances eventually developed into tragic and comic forms of drama, with playwrights like Aeschylus and Aristophanes establishing the genres. Thespis is credited with inventing the first actor to interact with the chorus. The document traces how Greek drama emerged from the Greeks' musical and spiritual traditions and became one of their most important artistic contributions.

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    36 views3 pages

    Rufino, Hillary - Eng 302-The Rise of Greek Drama

    Uploaded by

    Hillary Rufino
    The document summarizes William Cranston Lawton's article on the rise of Greek drama from its origins in religious rituals and poetry dedicated to Dionysus up to the classical period. It describes how lyric poetry and choral performances eventually developed into tragic and comic forms of drama, with playwrights like Aeschylus and Aristophanes establishing the genres. Thespis is credited with inventing the first actor to interact with the chorus. The document traces how Greek drama emerged from the Greeks' musical and spiritual traditions and became one of their most important artistic contributions.

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    of 3

    The Rigorous Genesis and Evolution of the Greek Drama

    A Reflection Paper on Lawton’s “The Rise of Greek Drama”

    by Hillary Joy M. Rufino

    Greek drama, as one of the greatest contributions of the ancient Greece, has been implicitly
    known since the 4th century in different forms, styles of focus. To fully realize its discrete definition
    and description, the pre-classical period of the Greek drama narrates how it turned and developed this
    form of art with distinctive features reflecting their way of life in the ancient times to the classical
    period.

    William Cranston Lawton’s “The Rise of Greek Drama” presented a detailed and elaborate run
    through how the world-renowned drama came to life as an art before its popularity and integration to
    the succeeding eras of drama. Lawton explained in his article that the discovery of drama came form
    the early people’s activities merely focused on their spiritual and religious works or beliefs,
    celebrations, and historical events. Furthermore, he dissected how the tragedy and a bit of comedy
    were first used potentially in primeval plays mentioning playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles,
    Phyrnichos and more and their contributions to the features of classical drama. He did mention also
    how Thespis made a change in the stylishness of drama and its characterization for “tragic”
    performance. To elaborate further in his review, I have few notes in each point.

    1. The Importance of Literature in Greek drama

    Since the beginning of the art of printing introduced by the Egyptians, oral traditions of literature
    had been translated to words and symbols. Poetry has been widely recorded and preserved which led
    the foundation of dramatic poetry. This was seen during the Attic period when the name lyric has been
    used to mean utterances in songs that are pure and natural. Lawton mentioned three great names in this
    part, Sappho and Alkaios, both regarded as writers who talked about women celebrating their beaty
    and freedom (Stehle, 1997). Anacreon, on the other hand, focused his works on the egalitarianism – a
    belief that all people are equal of rights and opportunities. He wrote about military and politics
    (Kantzios, 2005). Their lyrical poetry helped the introduction of choral poetry, which is considered the
    mother of drama. With this, it can be said that music and poetry brought drama to its place today and
    without it, drama would not be complete and celebrated.

    Choral poetry is performed by choir of singers and expresses the emotions and sentiments of the
    poet of the lyrics. Even in the Homeric times, the paean – a joyous hymn or song for giving praises,
    tribute, triumph, and thanksgiving, is performed in chorus. In the many parts of the epic Iliad, written
    by Homer himself that narrates a Achilles’ journey intervened by Greek gods and goddesses, paean is
    acknowledged which added meaning and emotions to this masterpiece.
    2. Worshiping Dionysius and the Birth of Tragedy

    Music and songs have been part of early Greeks’ practice of their beliefs. Dionysius, the Greek
    god of wine received much praise than the major gods like Zeus and Apollo for he was known to be
    a joy-giver and a liberator. This may be attributed to the characteristics of Greeks in the early times
    who focus on merriment. He had altars made by Attic worshipers. Choral performances and dance
    rituals dedicated to Dionysius were played in orchestra. Hence, poetry, music, and dancing were
    regarded to arise together to express passion, joy, ate, and strife. The satyrs and maenads, the
    followers of Dionysius, celebrate in a cult which everyone liked to join because there is food, wine,
    and goat-song. The goat song is performed by contestants and victors will get a goat as a prize. This
    is believed to be the origin of the term ‘tragedy’ in etymological sense. The theme of tragedy of
    originated from the dithyramb—reveals a choral hymn for Dionysius and the worship of the dead
    explained the roots of tragedy (Tierney, 1994).

    3. Of Tragedy and Comedy

    Lawton made clear that comedy is regarded as antithesis of tragedy which have grown from
    some of the features of the festivals of Dionysius. To see some of their distinctions, let us lay them
    out in these scenes. Arion, one of the first composers of tragedy had performances of mere goat-
    song with performers in horned mask and just do miming. Pisistratos, who is a clever tyrant, invited
    Thespis to remove the usual “tragic” performances. As a result, Thespis came up with the invention
    of the first actor who is actually responding and an interlocutor. The actor can also play different
    characters with some change in costume. He devised the linen masks over goat-like masks. This
    was evident in Plutarch’s Life of Solon. This and some other dramas were performed annually in
    the festivals of Bacchos, the Roman god of wine, which brings us to the similarities of the Greek
    and Roman drama.

    Although Choirilos was credited for using metaphor in his lines, Pratinas was branded for
    his tragic lyric poems, Phyrnichos was popular for the “Fall of Miletos”, a historical drama,
    Sophocles added chorus in Greek drama performance, and Thespis acknowledged as the inventor of
    tragic drama, it was Aeschylus who received the distinction as Father of Greek Tragedy through his
    great works like Agamemnon which revealed his creativity that made supremacy (Becker, 1922).

    In contrast, the comedy genre has writers like Aristophanes and Menander. Aristophanes,
    the Father of Comedy, was into satirical but not miming and chorus. His desire to try to mock the
    people of Athens reflected in his great works “The Babylonians” and “The Knights.” According to
    Robinson (2018), his comedic works were full of parodies, songs, dreamlike fantasies, and sexual
    witticisms.

    The rich beginning of Greek drama and its evolution mirrors the amusing and mystical
    culture and tradition of the Greece. From improvising and mimetic processes, they were able to
    draft and establish Greek drama as an essential creation about savagery, spiritual belief and
    discovery. Indeed, the rise of Greek drama is the rise of other forms of drama.

    References:

    Becker, T. A. (1922). Aeschylus, Poet and Moralist. The Classical Journal, 17(8), 422–429. Retrieved
    October 11, 2021. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3288607

    Kantzios, I. (2005). Tyranny and the Symposion of Anacreon. The Classical Journal, 100(3), 227–245.
    http://www.jstor.org/stable/4133019

    Robinson, M.  (2018) Why is Aristophanes called "The Father of Comedy"? TED-Ed. Retrieved
    October 11, 2021. Retrieved from
    https://www.ted.com/talks/mark_robinson_why_is_aristophanes_called_the_father_of_comedy

    Stehle, E. (2014). Performance and Gender in Ancient Greece: Nondramatic Poetry in Its Setting.
    Princeton: Princeton University Press. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400864294

    Tierney, M. (1944). Dionysus, the Dithyramb, and the Origin of Tragedy. Studies: An Irish Quarterly
    Review, 33(131), 331–341. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30099509

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