Greek Theater Essay -- essays research papers

Ancient Greek Theater is the foremost historical record of drama, which is the Greek term meaning to do or to act. outset in the 5th century BC, Greek Theater developed into an contrivance that is still used today. During the golden board of the Athenians plays were created, plays that are considered among the greatest flora of world drama. Today there are thousands of well-kn have plays and films based on the re-make of ancient drama.Theater originated from the spectral rites of ancient Greek tribes. Located in northern Greece, a cult was formed to worship the God of vino and fertility, Dionysus. The cult held religious celebrations which included large consumptions of alcohol, animal sacrifices, and some sequences considerable orgies. Theater was thought as a ritual to release efficacious emotions and create pure ecstasy. The cult spread south into Greece and by d BC annual festivals in honor of Dionysus were held every spring.A main part of Dionysus rites was the dit hyramb. It means a choric hymn and it was completely religious describing Dionysus adventures. The performance would have a group of dancers, a chorus in costumes, an orchestra of drums, lyres, and flutes, and a leader/director. It either took place around an altar for Dionysus. short after the dithyramb became popular at Athenian festivals where poets would compete to create their own unique dithyramb. Soon the dithyramb ceased to be about Dionysus and his adventures. Famous poets chose subjects from several antithetic periods of Greek mythology. Over time, the dithyrambs formed into stories to be performed thus creating drama.During the golden age of Greece, city-states were developed, the most prominent being Athens with a population of at least 150,000. Here is where the rites of Dionysus created what we now call theater. We have the leader, the chorus, the dancers, and the orchestra. So where did meanss have sex from? Around 525 BC a man from Attica named Thespis, added an actor into the dithyramb to interact with the chorus. The actor was called the protagonist and means the main character of a drama. This addition turned the chorus into theater. Thespis went down in history and is where thespians got there name.About 534 BC was when the Dionysian Festivals were changed to add dram... ...d of heroic epics involving Gods and legends. He died in 406 BC all alone, extremely cynical of human nature.Athenians not only produced tragedies in their culture, just created many lasting get ondies. These comedies helped set the way for Romans and Elizabethans coming in later on periods. Developed similar to tragedy, comedy was aimed at the common people and had slight to do with religious beliefs. Satire was often used in comedies, oddly ones written by Aristophanes and Menander. Characters in these plays ranged from celebrities to drunken audience members. Menanders plays were the main basis of comedy that moved onto the Romans and Shakespeare and the B roadway.Over the 200 years from Thespis first accomplishments to the death of Sophocles, Greek Theater thrived. However, all good things eventually come to an end. The golden age was ending as Athenian culture was run over in 404 BC by the Spartans. Theater of course evolved over time and is now a school subject, hobby and profession. Today it wouldnt faded to look back over some historically recorded plays and consider what the ancient Greeks created for us drama.