Greek tragedy
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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"The Prometheus Bound also involves the use of machinery for bringing on divine persons, and of stage thunder; while the ekkyklema is in full use in the Oresteia. In the Persae, 472 B.C., there must have been some."--A Guide to Greek Tragedy for English Readers (1891) by Lewis Campbell |
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Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor.
It reached its most significant form in Athens in the 5th century BCE. Greek tragedy is an extension of the ancient rites done in honor of Dionysus and heavily influenced the theatre of Ancient Rome and the Renaissance. The basis of tragic plots were most often myths treated in the oral traditions of archaic epics. In tragic theatre, however, these narratives were presented by actors. The most important authors of Greek tragedies are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides.
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The surviving tragedies
Of the many tragedies known to have been written, just 32 full-length texts by only three authors, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, survive.
Aeschylus
Seventy-nine titles of Aeschylus' works are known (out of about ninety works), both tragedies and satyr plays. Seven of these have survived, including the only complete trilogy which has come down from antiquity, the Oresteia, and some papyrus fragments:Template:Sfn
- The Persians (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 472 BC;
- Seven Against Thebes (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 467 BC;
- Suppliants (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), probably 463 BC;
- The trilogy Oresteia (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 458 BC, consisting of:
- Prometheus Bound (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) of uncertain date and considered spurious by some scholars.Template:Refn
Sophocles
According to Aristophanes of Byzantium, Sophocles wrote 130 plays, 17 of which are spurious; the Suda lexicon counted 123. Of all Sophocles's tragedies, only seven remain intact:
- Ajax (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) around 445 BC;
- Antigone (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 442 BC;
- Women of Trachis (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), date unknown;
- Oedipus Rex (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) around 430 BC;
- Electra (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), date unknown;
- Philoctetes (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 409 BC;
- Oedipus at Colonus (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 406 BC.
Apart from the plays that have survived in their entirety, we also possess a large part of the satyr play Template:Lang or Trackers, which was found at the beginning of the 20th century on a papyrus containing three-quarters of this work.
Euripides
According to the Suda, Euripides wrote either 75 or 92 plays, of which survive eighteen tragedies and the only complete surviving satyr play, the Cyclops.
His extant works are:Template:Sfn
- Alcestis (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 438 BC;
- Medea (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 431 BC;
- Heracleidae (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), c. 430 BC;
- Hippolytus (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 428 BC;
- The Trojan Women (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 415 BC;
- Andromache (Template:Lang /Template:Lang), date unknown;
- Hecuba (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 423 BC;
- Suppliants (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 414 BC;
- Ion (Template:Lang / Template:Lang);
- Iphigenia in Tauris (Template:Lang / Template:Lang);
- Electra (Template:Lang / Template:Lang);
- Helen (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 412 BC;
- Heracles (Template:Lang / Template:Lang);
- The Phoenician Women (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) circa 408 BC;
- Orestes (Template:Lang /Template:Lang), 408 BC;
- Iphigenia in Aulis (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 410 BC;
- The Bacchae (Template:Lang / Template:Lang), 406 BC;
- Cyclops (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) (satyr);
- Rhesus (Template:Lang / Template:Lang) (possibly spurious).
See also
