United Colleges - Vox Yearbook (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada)

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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-

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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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vox 19 ters, and in the nature of his plots, he differed much from his two great predecessors. Among his contemporaries the tragedies of Euripides were not generally popular. This is attested by the small number of victories he won. Very likely this unpopu¬ larity is to be accounted for by the fact that the peoples of that time were not ready for the realism of his plays. They preferred the lofty poetical language and the ideal characters of Sophocles to the every-day language and more real characters of Euripides. Aristotle tells a story to the effect that So¬ phocles once said that he made men as they ought to be, and Euri¬ pides as they were. This describes well the difference between the two poets. After the death of Euripides Greek Tragedy declined. At Ath¬ ens, during the 5th century, there had been other tragic poets besides the three great masters, and some¬ times one of these less known poets won a victory over his most fam¬ ous rivals, but none of them were writers of the first rank, and their works have perished. The same is true of the tragic poets of the 4th century. In the third century there was a revival of Tragedy and for a time it flourished at Alexan¬ dra, but after this its decline was rapid and cannot be easily traced. This, then, is how Tragedy de¬ veloped from a rude Dithvrambic song to the masterpieces of the great dramatists. And now let us visit the place in which these fully developed tragedies were performed and how they were performed. The Tragedies were performed during the festival of Dionysus, the Lensea or Vine Festival at the city Dionysia and at the theatre of Dionysus, in Athens. The Theatre The theater of Dionysus at Athens during the 6th century con¬ sisted of a round dancing place, the Orchestra and the Thymele or Al¬ ter, in the center of Orchestra, for sacrifices to the god. There was no stage. During the 5th century a green room was provided for changes of dress, the tent of Skene (modern English tent) which was used as the background of the play. All these, like the seats of the spectators, were apparently of wood and were constructed for temporary use only, until in the 4th century Lucourgus built a scene of stone and erected stone seats for the spectators. There is a dispute whether there was a raised stage before the pro- scepium for the actors or were they on the same level as the chorus in the Orchestra. From my own local observations, I am rather inclined to believe that there was a raised stage. Competition and Judges The poet who wished to bring out a play sent in his application to the Archon. The plays offered for exhibition were carefully ex¬ amined by the Archon, who pro¬ ceeded to select from among the various applicants the three best poets, and afterwards to assign the choruses. The number of Judges for a Comedy were five, for a Tragedy probably the same. The selection of Judges was an elaborate affair, consisting of a combination of two principles, that of the election by a vote, and that of the appointment by lot. A large preliminary list of Judges was first elected by vote. At the beginning of the contest a second list of the Judges was chosen