CTH 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Proscenium, Dionysia, Oedipus Complex
Document Summary
City dionysia: seven day festival every spring. Dionysia activities: poetry, music, animal sacrifice, drunken parades, plays. Oedipus by sophocles: most famous tragedy, oedipus complex. Satyr plays: satire, comic relief at end of tragedies crude humor, sometimes sexual, none survive. Where did the plays go: about 45 plays have survived, many lost to destruction of library in alexandra, egypt, julius caesar, 46 bc, christian rioting, 391 ad, omar of bagdad, 641 ad. Catharsis: audience empathizes with character and is moved by emotion to learn about themselves. What were the plays like: dithyrambs, male actors, women were allowed to attend, thespis, first to speak alone on stage, chorus, from 12-24 actors, speaks in unison, comment on action of the play/themes, often the conscience of protagonist. The theatres: scene, scenery area, proscenium, theatre, type of stage the arch, audience area. Masks: helped tell the story, religious story.
