Theatre History I

“origins” to 1700

Dramatic contests and Thespis

• 534 BCE - prize established for best tragedy.

• Thespis was the first to win the competition for best tragedy.

• From what accounts are scholars basing their ideas about Thespis?

Sources that mention Thespis

• Marmor Parium• Dioscorides, 1st century CE military

botanist• Horace, Ars Poetica, 1st century CE• Diogenes, 3rd century scholar• Themistius, 3rd century rhetoretician• Suda lexicon, late 10th century

Horace

“The unknown poetry of the tragic Muse Thespis is said to have discovered and to have carried poems on wagons, which they sang and acted, their faces smeared with wine-lees.” (Horace, Ars Poetica 275-277)

Horace, in Latin

• Ignotum tragicae genus invenisse Camenae Dicitur, et plaustris vexisse poëmata Thespis Quae canerent agerentque, peruncti faecibus ora.

Horace, another translation

Thespis, inventor of the tragic art,Carried his vagrant players in a cart:High o'er the crowd the mimic tribe appeared,And played and sung, with lees of wine

besmeared.

And yet another

• We are told that Thespis discovered the tragic muse's genre, which was unknown until then, and hauled his verse dramas around in wagons; these dramas, actors, their faces thoroughly smeared with wine-lees, sang and performed.

And another . . .

A kind of Tragick Ode unknown before,Thespis, 'tis said, invented first; and boreCart-loads of verse about, and with him wentA troop begrim'd, to sing and represent,

And another still - the best

Thespis is said to have invented a new kind of tragedy, and to have carried his pieces about in carts, which [certain strollers], who had their faces besmeared with lees of wine, sang and acted.

Diogenes

As of old tragedy formerly the chorus by itself performed the whole drama and later Thespis invented a single actor to give the chorus a rest and Aeschylus a second and Sophocles a third, thereby completing tragedy... (Diogenes Laertius III. 56)

Themistius

Do we not pay heed to Aristotle? He tells us that first the chorus came forth and sang to the gods, then Thespis introduced the prologue and the spoken lines, thirdly Aescylus introduced two actors and the buskins, and the further refinements of tragedy that we enjoyed were the work of Sophocles and Euripides. (Themistius, The Orations)

The Suda Lexicon• Thespis: Of the city of Ikarios in Attica, the sixteenth

tragic poet after the first tragic poet, Epigenes of Sicyon, but according to some second after Epigenes. Others say he was the first tragic poet. In his first tragedies he anointed his face with white lead, then he shaded his face with purslane in his performance, and after that introduced the use of masks, making them in linen alone. He produced in the 61st Olympiad (536/5-533/2 BC). Mention is made of the following plays: Games of Pelias or Phorbas, Priests, Youths, Pentheus. (The Suda lexicon)

Four festivals in honor of Dionysus:

• Lenaia - January• Rural Dionysia - December• Anthesteria - no drama produced at

this festival• City Dionysia - last festival to be

established, but became the largest and most significant.

Suggested Reading

• duBois, Page. Torture and Truth. Routledge, 1991.

• White, Hadyn. Metahistory. Johns Hopkins UP, 1973.

Drama: • Livius Andronicus (240-04 BCE)

translated Greek drama into Latin.• Roman comedy modeled after Greek

new comedy

Titus Maccius Plautus (c. 254 - c. 184 BC)

• The Menaechmi• The Braggart Soldier• The Rope

Publius Terentius Afer "Terence" (195 or 185 - 159

BC)• Phormio• The Woman of Andros• The Brothers

stock characters

• braggart• old man• Parasite• Hunchback• Young Lovers• Clever Slave

Lucius Annaeus Seneca (3 BC-65 AD)

• Seneca - model for Renaissance tragedy

• Probably meant to be read• Much more sensational and bloody than

Greek tragedy• Medea

Types of themes

• fabula palliata - stories based on Greek themes, more popular than togata

• fabula togata - stories based on Roman themes

Mime: Fabula raciniata. • Popular after 2nd century• Spoken, short entertainments of physical ability

(dance, acrobatics)• elaborate spectacle• Violence and sex depicted literally (Heliogabalus,

ruled 218-222 A.D., ordered realistic sex)• Mime often satirized Christian and other religious

practice.

First munera

• (games) at the ludi funebres (funeral celebration) of Brutus Pera

• 246 bc.• commissioned by his sons: Marcus and

Decimus• Three pairs of gladiators• Munera were originally part of the ludi

funebres

Later munera

• Then the games were regulated so that only Emperors could give them

• Initially gladiators were slaves, then by the turn of the millenium criminals (non-citizens only) could be sentenced to gladitorial combat, but gradually the restrictions on who could be a gladiator were eased.

Regular games

• Races (Circus Maximus - specifically for chariot racing)

Venationes - fighting wild animals like tigers

Naumachia - mimic sea battles 

Eventually

• In Second century several Hellenistic Theatres converted for naumachia.

• Gladitorial games not outlawed until Honorius banned them in 404.

• Did not really cease until 15th century according to Johnston

Holidays

• The Romans enjoyed a year full of holidays which work ceased and games were offered.  Consider how drama would fare next to naumachia and chariot races.  Would you rather see a Wolverines football game, or watch a production of Oedipus Rex?. . .

The Decline of Theatre during the Roman Empire

• Theodosius I (Emperor from 379-95 AD) - made Roman Empire a Christian empire