Aristotle's Tragedy

Nearly a century after the great tragedians of the 5th century B.C.E., a scientist came forward and approached a non-science subject scientifically. Aristotle (384-322) was a researcher of sorts and approached theatre analytically, as he would a plant. The Poetics (c. 335) was his study of tragedy. The first and most important thing to know about Aristotle's Poetics is that it was descriptive, not prescriptive. It was a critical analysis of what he saw, what was successful and what was not; it was not a lesson in playwriting.

In his essay, he compares tragedy to history, epic poetry, science -- lumping together everything and starting with the basics. Mimesis, Aristotle's term for imitation, is his way of describing theatre as a study of human nature and behavior, showing the truth; possibly, most similar to our "realism." That being said, a representation of truth and social transformation as the goal, Aristotle lists the six most important priorities.

Six Elements of Tragedy

1. Plot
   The structure of events is the goal of a tragedy.
   
2. Characters
   Unlike the dithyramb, focus on specific characters. Men were good only by good choices, demonstrated by their actions and emotional qualities. It would be anti-mimetic to have unrealistic characters represented on stage: a brave woman or a free-willed slave. Had to be plausible and "appropriate" imitation.
   
3. Thought
   Each character's logic or rhetoric while trying to make a point.
   
4. Language
   The beauty of verbal expression.
   
5. Music
   La. La. La.
   
6. Spectacle
   "Visual adornment," cosmetics. The less scenic design, the more elevated the poet.
   

He goes on to describe imperative structural elements the play must have to be best served. This first two are strongest if they occur at the same time. Aristotle argues that these four key facets need to work cohesively in order to have the strongest effect on the audience.

• Peripeteia - reversal, plot twist
  (we realize that the good character is now the bad character)
• Anagnoresis - recognition, a shift from ignorance to awareness
  (Jocasta's "ah-ha" moment)
• Hamartia - error, commonly mistaken as "tragic flaw"
  (Oedipus's insistence of finding the culprit)
• Catharsis* - purging of pity and fear, purification, collectively changed and made different
  (punishment by putting out his eyes, confronting the largest theme in the play)

By simply writing The Poetics, which we can consider to be an all-encompassing review of the last century's theatre, Aristotle also changed the very medium of plays. He wasn't alive for their original debuts. He read them... and by doing so established that tragic plays/art/poetry can be enjoyed without an audience. This was revolutionary.

*Tracing back to Aristotle's science days, catharsis is actually an ancient Greek medical term. Fun fact.

NO FEAR Sophocles

You know, No Fear Shakespeare? Okay, picture that, but change it to Sophocles. ...Is it rocking your world yet? Maybe some pictures will help. This rare and awesome book find is brought to you by ADP, who generously donated it to "research." The Greek text is on the left side of book corresponding with the English verse translated by Francis Storr on the right. Included in the contents is "The Events Preceding the Play," "The Structure of the Play," an "Explanatory Note," and a "Dramatis Personae." I know... try not to nerd out as much as I did. There's even an introduction by Thornton Wilder and illustrated with wood engravings by Demetrios Galanis! Published by The Heritage Press, NY, with no specified date; printed in the Netherlands.

The Murder of Laius

The Child is Found in Cithaeron

Oedipus Puts Out His Eyes with Jocasta's Golden Clips

Usually when a new character is introduced in the play, the illustrator sets up two characters facing each other, one on the Greek text side and one on the Enligsh side. Here are several examples, out of order; I thought it was very interesting that Oedipus didn't show up until page 122, where the servant enters in this edition.

All dressed in white

This post comes to you from our translator and Tiresias, Jamey Hecht. The following video is a clip from BBC's Oedipus in which Michael Pennington wore a white suit. It's a bold choice, but it's not unprecedented. Great minds?

Note: For Natasha's sake, ignore the accent! ;)

Crash Course: Context and Timeline of Ancient Greek Theatre

We've all studied it and we know the story of Oedipus. But JUST in case you were interested, here's a bit of cultural and historical context.

The emergence of Greek theatre was really fucking important. "Duh," you say. But I'll tell you why...
The act of telling these stories -- stories which the Greeks were already familiar with -- had an immeasurable effect on future cultures. So much so that 2,500 years later, the Greeks are not only performed but constantly incorporated into contemporary theatre.

The birth of ancient Greek theatre is incredibly specific: we're talking 5th century B.C.E. in Athens, Greece. Athens was particularly idiosyncratic; it was a collection of city-states with boundaries enforced, the citizens were obsessed with theatre, and before the year 500 B.C.E. there are no examples of theatre.

Greek Culture: Who were they?

Athens was an incredibly active city. With a population of about 100,000 people, Athens was the center of power, ideas, history, politics, and soon playwriting and theatre. There was an explosion of writing with the development of their alphabet. Written language was only meant to be read aloud largely for the purpose of political correspondence. Frankly, the idea of even reading to yourself didn't exist before 5th century B.C.E. The Greeks also had very specific ideas about gender and status and how such classifications defined identity. The Greeks kept slaves, confined women indoors (flashback to Medea the barbarian), and were overwhelmingly militaristic (beginning at age fifteen). The Athenians were unique in that they established a democracy. The Acropolis was the most important religious and political building in the city, the center point of the economy and market. Immediately adjacent to the Acropolis came to be the Theatre of Dionysus. The importance of theatre was literally built into the architecture of the city. That too, in every respect, was central. The Theatre of Dionysus will be the focus another post.

And now, a brief time line:

Before theatre, there was the Olympics. Founded in Greece in the 8th century B.C.E., the Olympics originally served as a religious festival in which each event was dedicated to a particular god.

Also before theatre, there was the dithyramb. Half religious/half entertaining, fifty men and boys would tell a story through song and dance as a rite of passage into the military. It was particularly competitive and two teams would compete for the title. For an audience of thousands, this ceremony retold stories that the entire city already new as a reinforcement of collective ideas about their culture. We know very little of what the actual ceremony sounded like, but the closest historians have come to putting it in comparable terms is describing the song/dance similar to a hymn. At the end of the 6th century B.C.E., one person stepped out of the dithyramb and established himself as a single, individual, unique character. We know him as Thespis, the first actor and playwright, and clear marker for the emergence of theatre.

In the 5th century B.C.E., there was City Dionysia. This six-day, city-wide theatre competition was an annual religious festival honoring the God Dionysus. Twelve thousand Greeks came out to honor the god of wine, wheat, sex, violence, revelry, and madness (and eventually theatre) by performing their rehearsed pieces culminating in some sort of reward ceremony granting the winners incredible fame and respect. The dualism in ancient Greek theatre reflects the dual (and almost destructive) nature of Dionysus; tragic things happen to good people, hilarious things happen to bad people.

Greeks in a new context

Written language became an important feature of the 5th century B.C.E. as it dictated the end of oral tradition. Homer didn't have to be memorized and passed down orally anymore. Though there were various forms of performance prior to this century, but when Thespis stepped away and created theatre, it became something we would recognize and know today. Within thirty years, people borrowed Thespis's form and took on new forms, extending it beyond the festival of Dionysus and religion, nowcapable of sharing thought on philosophy, conscience, and even the discussion of secular vs. non-secular.

The Greeks came to develop two conventional theatre genres... two, I'm sure you can figure which... and two which I'll expand on in a later post.

Just because.