The Oldest Surviving Form Of Athenian Tragedies

Athenian tragedy—the oldest surviving form of tragedy—is a type of dance-drama that formed an important part of the theatrical culture of the city-state. Having emerged sometime during the 6th century BC, it flourished during the 5th century, from the end of which it began to spread throughout the Greek world, and continued to be popular until the beginning of the Hellenistic period. There were no tragedies from the 6th century and only 32 of the more than a thousand that were performed in during the 5th century have survived. The only complete texts we have are the works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The origins of tragedy remain obscure, though by the 5th century which was institutionalised in competitions (agon) held as part

When Aeschylus won first prize for it at the City Dionysian in 472 BC, he had been writing tragedies for more than 25 years, yet its tragic treatment of recent history is the earliest example of drama to survive. More than 130 years later, the philosopher Aristotle analysed 5th-century Athenian tragedy in the oldest surviving work of dramatic theory—his Poetics (approximately at 335 BC).

Athenian comedy is conventionally divided into three periods, “Old Comedy,” “Middle Comedy,” and “New Comedy.” Old Comedy survives today largely in the form of the eleven surviving plays of Aristophanes, while Middle Comedy is largely lost (preserved only in relatively short fragments in authors such as Athenaeus of Naucratis). New Comedy is known primarily from the substantial papyrus fragments of plays by the brilliant playwright Menander. Aristotle defined comedy as a representation of laughable people that involves some kind of error or ugliness that does not cause pain or destruction (Rorty). Accordingly, each of the wealthiest elite families funded a group of actors and their set up for the

As contestants in the City Dionysia's competition (the most prestigious of the festivals to stage drama), playwrights were required to present a tetralogy of plays (though the individual works were not necessarily connected by story or theme), which usually consisted of three tragedies and one satyr play. The four plays were judged the hardest since they had to be dramatic and in the end would have to make the whole audience sobb. I cannot believe that actors went through with this notion of being judged this harshly. I do not know if I myself would be able to handle the pressure of this kind of performance. The performance of tragedies at the City Dionysians may have begun as early as 534 B.C.; official records (didaskaliai) begin from 501 B.C., when the satyr play was introduced. Furthermore, from fairly early on there appears to have been a rather intricate mythology surrounding satyrs—much like that involving fairies in Shakespeare's day—further testimony to their popularity. For instance, the satyrs had a leader named Silenus, sometimes called their “father,” who can at times be wise, philosophical or ironical. The earliest known playwright of satyr plays is Pratinas—also a tragic poet who some scholars have suggested was, in fact, the inventor of the satyr play, at least in the form it was popularized later in the fifth century. The surviving titles of his plays indeed suggest that thirty or more were