United Colleges - Vox Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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vox 17 Greek Classic Drama: Its Origin and Development By George D. Vlassis Literature is the rich treasure of the past. It is the eternal reservoir of the dead. Through literature men know their contemporaries by knowing those who have passed, and learn about themselves by learning about the others. Rightly, then, the great linguist Marx Mul¬ ler said that the purpose of liter¬ ature, in its highest significance, is one only: to teach what man is, by teaching what man was. Among all the literature of the world the Greek literature is su¬ preme, and its knowledge has oc¬ cupied and still occupies the most prominent intellects of the human race. It was the Greek literature which dispersed the darkness of the Middle Ages, and for that not unjustly perhaps the great Greek scholar Buchios, a German profes¬ sor, speaking from his chair, de¬ clared that the ancient Greeks are the ancestors not only of the pres¬ ent-day Greeks, but the ancestors also of all civilized people. I do not mention the Latin literature because the Latin liter¬ ature was an imitation of the Greek, and the Romans were the pontifices” through whom the Greek civilization was transmitted. This is the explanation of the fact that the immortal monuments of the ancient Greeks are taught and studied, that the masterpieces of the Greek genius are not the cold reservoir of antiquated words, but the eternal teachers of the Beautiful, the True and the Good. And the Drama bears witness to that. Birth of Greek Drama The ancient Greek Poetry is divided into three great species: the Epic, the Lyric and the Drama. Of these the first, the Epic poetry, represents the exterior world, the Lyric poetry the inner world. The Epic poet on the one hand narrates the words and actions of acting persons, neither expressing his own sentiments nor moralizing upon the human lot. The Lyric poet on the other hand presupposes that he knows the outside world, makes known with pathos the re¬ action of the inner world towards the external. The Epic belongs to the past, the Lyric especially to the present and the future. From the union, the fusion of the Epic and the Lyric poetry, the Drama was born. In the Drama the dialogue belongs to the Epic, and the chorus to the Lyric poetry. But thi s union of the two poetical species came about without design, and in a natural way. The origin of the Greek Drama is very obscure. It seems, however, to have originated in the songs sung in honor of the wine god, Dionysus or Bachus. This song was the Dithyramb which was a kind of poetry cultivated among the Dorian Lyric poets and later by the Attic poets. Its principal theme was the birth of Bacchus. It was a song addressed to Diony¬ sus, and was inspired by wine. This Dithyramb was sung dur¬ ing the festival of Dionysus, the Lenaea or the Feast of the Wine¬ press, in January. This festival was kept in the country in the vil¬ lages of Attice. The Dithyramb was also sung at the city Dionysis.

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16 VOX Stunt Night A Study in Competency and Taste For audience and actors Stunt Night is usually a merry adventure among vagrant possibilities. Stunt Night might indeed be described as a method for releasing unexpected¬ ly, and exploiting passionately, ac¬ cumulated and potential resources. What a year-group has been, that it is very suddenly apt to be,—and to be that, deplorably or delight¬ fully, very publicly. The revela¬ tions are often interesting. Because Stunt Night makes sudden demands which must be speedily met, it is like an unanticipated classroom test; it ushers in an intense period of desperate exploration in the world of the unknown the results of which are fascinating if not val¬ uable. And sometimes they are valuable, as every instructor and judge of Stunt Night programs knows. The assay of the Stunt Night performance of the Session of 1928-29 has already been made by an audience and by a committee of judges. Findings have been re¬ ported in corridors and homes. If the verdicts do not agree, the fact is but a comment upon the variety in standards and taste that exists among us. Personally, we,—well, we think it a little difficult to judge the offerings of Stunt Night. Shall pleasing conventionality or blun¬ dering creativeness score high?; acting, individual or collective, or statuesque tableaux? costuming and color and melodrama, or at¬ tempts at pure drama? satire or solemnity? music and dance, or in¬ tellectual “body”? and so on. The alternatives as stated are neither final nor exhaustive. One thing there must be in the good stunt: the evidence of back¬ ground. A good stunt is some¬ body’s or some group’s competency and taste made available in vital demonstration. It seems to us that, speaking broadly, the criterion for stunts” may be stated as compe¬ tency and taste; the measure of the demonstration of that is the meas¬ ure of the stunt’s success. Associ¬ ated with the criterion as stated is the tricky one which involves the question: Is the particular stunt ex¬ cellent of its kind? Is its kind a challenging and high kind? One word for conclusion. On the above suggested basis it might not be necessary to give the laurel annually to the current Fourth Year! Fifth Year Honors or Sec¬ ond Year might conceivably merit it! As for the Third Year or Ma¬ triculation, if one may judge from this year’s performance, the former will be a dangerous contestant for premier honors next year and the latter,—must study to make them¬ selves accredited. That is perhaps just exactly as it should be in the institution whose justified existence .. depends very fundamentally on its power to develop “competency and taste.”—A.L.P. Here’s to my friend the Hindoo, He does the best he kindoo. He sticks to his caste from first to last, And for pants he makes the skindoo. Why did you give up the pipe organ lessons?” “I felt so bally foolish playing with my feet.”

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18 VOX Festival of Dionysus Imagine, then, the people of an Attic village gathered together to keep the Vintage Feast of Biony- sus. There is an altar of wood. Rustic singers gather around it to sing a hymn in honor of the god, relating some of his well known adventures. Story tells that Dio¬ nysus was accompanied in his wan¬ derings by certain beings, the sa¬ tyrs, with long-pointed ears, snub noses and goats’ tails. It would be natural for the rustic worship¬ pers to feign that they themselves were such satyrs. And then, in their yearning to imagine his deeds more vividly, another step would be taken. The leader of the chorus would enact the character of Dio¬ nysus himself, or of a messenger from him. He would relate some exploit of the god, or some danger which the god had gone through. The chorus would then express in song the feelings which the recital awakened. Here then we should have the first germ of the Drama. The first name to be connected with the Greek Drama is Arion, who lived at the court of Perian- der, the tyrant of Corinth. Arion, about 600 B.C., trained a chorus of 50 men to sing around an altar. The members of the chrous were called Tragoi, or goats. Hence the song they sang was Tragodia or goat song, from which comes the English word tragedy. The next name is Thespis of Icaria, 580 B.C. He did much to improve the Dithyrambic isongs. He introduced an actor who car¬ ried on a dialogue with the leader of the chorus, between the Lyric portions of the Dithyramb. The name given to this actor was Ypo- kritis or answerer. After Thespis the next step in advance in the development of the Greek Drama was made by Phry- nichus. The most striking innova¬ tion of Phrynichus was the intro¬ duction of a female character. There was still only one actor, but this actor might now be costumed as a woman. The Great Tragedians The naxt name in the history of the Drama is that of Aeschylus, the first of the three great tragic poets of Greece. Aechylus was born at Eleusis in Attica, in 525, and died in Sicily, 456 B.C. Aeschylus employed a second actor, thus making possible to carry on a dialogue without the help of the chorus. Later Sopho¬ cles introduced a third actor, and Aeschylus employed three actors in his later dramas. But the number of actors never exceeded the three in Greek Tragedy. Furthermore, Aeschylus did much more to improve the appear¬ ance of a play on the stage by in¬ troducing the tragic mask, the high-soled boots and the flowing costumes. The next name connected with the Greek Drama is that of Sopho¬ cles, 496-405. He made distinct im¬ provements in adding the third actor and increasing the number of the chorus from twelve to fifteen. Under him also the choral odes were shorter. Painted scenery is also attributed to Sophocles, but it is doubtful whether he introduced it or merely improved upon that used by Aeschylus. The last of the three great poets is Euripides, 480-406 B.C. Euri¬ pides found the Drama already fully developed and therefore made no change in its outward form. But in the treatment of his charac-