ENGL 103W Lecture : Athenian Theatre
3 Oct 2011
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Document Summary
Athenian theatre: prized and valued competition, included theatre in competitive culture. We have access to 46 complete plays by greek playwrights, who all wrote in. Athens (not all were from athens, but moved there because it was the theatrical centre and the epicentre of cultural life). Fancied himself a great writer and went to athens, having worked very hard on his tragedies. Took a shortcut to get to athens, ran into socrates who was telling a crowd of people a story. By the time he finished listening to socrates, he discovered philosophy. The centre of his works was socrates" execution in athens for corrupting the young. Persians were the great enemies of the greeks, and invaded them regularly. Aeschylys" first play was about persians (472 bce). It was a first play that took the enemy seriously, not portraying them in a cliched manner. He set the play at the persian court.
