Who is the choragus in greek drama

Much later Menander wrote comedies about ordinary people and made his plays more like sit-coms. Tragedy : Tragedy dealt with the big themes of love, loss, pride, the abuse of power and the fraught relationships between men and gods. The three great playwrights of tragedy were Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. The term has been extended to also mean a structural division of a poem containing stanzas of varying line length. Mighty Aphrodite : As Greek as modern movies get! Many people think that the use of the chorus died out in literature along with the ancient Greeks.

This is not so if we examine the movie Mighty Aphrodite by Woody Allen. This movie is a wonderful example of the use of the Greek chorus in modern drama. Thespis, a legendary playwright, allegedly first came up with the idea of adding a speaking part, or an actor who was not a part of the chorus. This revolutionary idea is why actors are now called thespians. Because characters didn't interact and were differentiated by masks, one actor could play all parts.

Greek plays were performed as part of religious festivals in honor of the god Dionysus, and unless later revived, were performed only once. Plays were funded by the polis, and always presented in competition with other plays, and were voted either the first, second, or third last place. What is the role of the Greek chorus? Category: fine art theater.

The chorus in Classical Greek drama was a group of actors who described and commented upon the main action of a play with song, dance, and recitation. The chorus in Greek comedy numbered 24, and its function was displaced eventually by interspersed songs.

What are the functions of the Greek chorus? What does the chorus represent? Role of the Chorus. What did the Greek chorus wear? What does Choragus mean? Why did the Greek chorus wear masks? Who was the legendary Thespis? Nietzsche argues that the chorus is perhaps the fundamental mechanism of the tragic experience.

Trace the role of the chorus across the Greek tragedies you've read. How does the role of the chorus change across those plays? What impact do those changes have on our experience of the plays as tragedies? If the chorus is indeed so central to the tragic experience, one must wonder how tragedy has survived the loss of the chorus following classical times.

The chorus may have distinguished itself by an elaborate use of language or style, varying the voice of reason or that of emotion depending on occasion and the intention of the playwright. More importantly though, the chorus could have represented the prevalent views of the contemporary society holding up certain moral and cultural standards — much like the media does for modern people throughout their daily lives.

This made the task of engaging the viewer ever more difficult. Hence the chorus would create interest by presenting an alternative or additional viewpoint. It may have negotiated sympathies for one or another character, or perhaps depending on the sophistication of the particular character, it may have even guided the characters through problematic situations. Both in the works of Aeschylus and Sophocles and in Ancient Greek drama in general, the role of the chorus may have been important because of structural and practical reasons.

At the same one may praise primarily as an enhancer and amplifier of impression, and sometimes the voice of a moderator, or the moral voice of the people. Certainly it also had a similar role to music in modern drama underlining important events and downplaying the less important ones. Perhaps most generally though, the chorus would give the ancient playwright a multifunctional literary device for the creation of an award-winning play on the Dionysian festival.

The Dramas of Aeschylus. New York: Forgotten Books, Kitto, H.