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TRAGEDY, SATYR & COMEDY

  • Greek myths

  • Bringing it to life

  • Mythical heros

  • Reinvented with new perspective each time

  • Greatest playwrights competed

  • Three genres: satyr, comedy and tragedy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SATYR

 

  • Combination of tragedy and comedy

  • Goat men

  • Chorus made up of satyr

  • Promiscuous

  • Drunk

  • Silly humour/toilet humour

  • Pranks

  • Hitting people over the head

  • Comic relief between tragedies

  • Half the time a tragedy would go for

  • Themes: heaven, fate, gods

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

COMEDY

 

  • Old Comedy, Middle Comedy, New Comedy

  • Old Comedy is the only style that survived enough to explore in more detail

  • Most important Old Comic dramatist is Aristophanes

  • Ridicule and sarcasim

  • Poke fun at celebrities of the day

  • Reducto ad Absurdum - a reduction to absurdity

 

 

 

Can you think of a play, movie or show that draws upon this style of comedy? (pair/share)

 

 

 

TRAGEDY

 

  • Based around myths of the time

  • Serious

  • Tackles dark issues

  • Most important authors of Greek tragedies: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides

  • Examines the hero from a moral perspective

  • Chorus provides moral compass

  • Climax - misguiding beliefs of hero result in some kind of tragedy

  • Moral - don't be like the hero, don't do what he did

  • Eg. Don't kill your own family 

 

Structure

 

Prologue - one or more characters introduce the drama and explain the background

Parodos - the story unfolds through three or more episodes 

Stasima - choral interludes explaining or commenting on the situation developing in the play

Exodus - concludes the story

 

 

Let's look at the formula for Greek Tragedy before you investigate one of the play (4:20)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity

In pairs, briefly research a Greek Tragedy and establish the following pieces of information:

 

  • Title

  • Author

  • Year

  • Which Greek hero is the story about?

  • What collective role does the chorus play?

  • What moral are they trying to teach the audience?

 

You will share your findings with the class!

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