Origin Of Greek Play

Origin of Greek Play.

Drama began in the Greek world as a form of religious ritual. The Greeks invented two kinds of drama, comedy and tragedy. Tragedy is said to be invented by Thespis in 554 BC and of the two dramas, tragedy is older and is the most popular. The two dramas were important to Athenians of the fourth and fifth centuries and both were performed several times during years for agricultural and religious festivals. Only four authors have survived in their entirety. Three of them are tragic playwrights, Aeschyus, Sophocles, and Euripidus and among the comic playwrights, only the works of Aristophanes have survived intact.

The ancients distinguished between Tragedy and Comedy in two ways. The first, the Aristotelian tradition, defined tragedy as a drama which concerns better than average people (heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an elevated language. Tragedy, in the Aristotelian tradition, serves the purpose of purging the soul of the "fear and pity". Comedy concerns average, or below average, people (people like you and me) who enjoy a transition from bad circumstances to good (but not too good) and who speak everyday language. The second, or rhetorical tradition, defined comedy as a fiction which, though not true, is at least believable (that is, realistic), while tragedy is a fiction which is neither true nor believable.

Sophocles is one of the three great Greek tragic playwrights. He wrote 123 plays and he won around 20 first prizes more than any other playwrights. Only seven of his tragedies have survived complete in the medieval manuscript tradition. The most famous tragedies are the Theban Plays; the three tragedies concerning Oedipus and Antigone.