1. What came before Greek Tragedy
2. What is the history of Greek Tragedy
3. How did it evolve
Explanation:
What came before Greek Tragedy:
Around the year 700BC in Greece, there was a development of the theatrical culture known as The Greek Drama.
Athens was the central place of all the events in Greece among which was culture. Many scholars consider that the Greek Tragedy was the result of the previous lyrical performances of the epic poetry and the rituals that were performed as the act of obedience towards Dyonsus, an ancient Greek God of theatre.
What is the history of Greek Tragedy:
As the years passed Greeks had developed Tragedy at the end of the 500s BC while the Comedy and Satyr plays (similar to comedies but with intention of ridiculing society) were developed around 490 BC. These three types of drama were considered as the main three dramatic genres in Greece.
Greek Tragedy emerged some years later as the form of theatre. The precise year of its development is unknown since the similar theatres were created somewhere in Asia.
Greek Tragedy was most influential around the 5th and 6th centuries BC.
Greek Tragedies almost exclusively dealt with the nature of humans and the interaction between the audience and the performer which was always highlighted.
How did it evolve?
The question of development in the Greek Tragedies is unclear to the scholars even today. Due to the lack of evidence, there are no official definitions of how it evolved. Still, there are several traces throughout the history of the Greek Tragedies that point out in which direction did everything go.
The stories that Greek Tragedies covered come mostly from epics and lyric poetry.
The dithyramb was a type of ancient Greek hymn that was sung and performed and according to Aristotle, it is the main source from which The Greek Tragedy evolved.
The dithyramb changed from the use of trochaic tetrameter to the use of iambic trimeter that has a more prose-like appearance.
At first, the tragedies were performed as trilogies and the perfomances of such plays lasted an entire day after which the satyr play would be performed to brighten the mood of the audience.
Later tragedies were characterized by the further developments of dialogue, contrast and theatrical effects which are considered as the proper elements of tragic drama.
With the arrival of Sophocles, Greek Tragedies developed even further in terms of the number of actors and people in the chorus.
Finally, the last changes came with Euripides and realism.
Euripides presented better technical experiments, a better presentation of feelings in the plays and unraveling of tragic events.
Some believe that they were at first presented as poetry while others think that they emerged from the worshiping rituals to the god Dionysos who was considered, among other things, as the god of theatre. Even though many plays were lost during the passing of centuries, Greek Tragedies are even today widely popular and performed.
Sophocles is considered as one of the most influential tragedians from this particular period.
