Greek Literature

Greek Literature

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Greek theatre grew out of celebrations honoring Dionysius.

[Image source: http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AnS/Classics/roman_provinces/mosaics%20of%20roman%20africa/Cortege%20Dionysus.JPG]

Drama Poetry

Greek Religion

“deed; to do”

Theatres were built into hillsides utilizingthe natural acoustics of the landscape.

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[Image source: http://www.honors.umd.edu/HONR218C/images/theatron.jpg]

An all-male casts performed before an all-male audience on a stage devoid of scenery.

Only three actors portrayed all of the major characters, changing masks as they changed roles.

[Image source: http://www.hccy.cg.catholic.edu.au/home/pamela_cohen/greekdrama/maskscomedytragedy.gif]

The remaining of the actors formed the chorus.

Poetry

Greek Religion

Tragedy Comedy

Drama

From tragoidia (“goat-song”).

From komoidia (“to revel; sing”).

Tragedies were the earliest Greek dramas, focusing on a

major character flaw that usually resulted in disaster.

[Image source: http://www.humanities.uci.edu/users/vfolkenflik/VRF%20Sources/antigone-creon%20www.odu.edu.jpg]

Tragedies were inspired by the myths contained in the Iliad and the Odyssey.

[Image source: http://www.sitevip.net/troy/images/homeimg.jpg]

Aeschylus,the “father of

Greek Tragedy”, authored The Orestia and

Agamemnon.

[Image source: http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/Portr

aits/Art/Aeschylus.jpg]

His plays show the consequences of one’s deeds will carry down in generations.

[Image source: http://www.scultura.com/ArtTimes/arttimes%2Cnovember2.html

Orestia being pursued by the Furies.

[Image source: http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/huma/images/bouguereau_1862_furies-small.jpg]

Aegisthos killing Agamemnon.

[Image source: http://www.beazley.ox.ac.uk/CGPrograms/Dict/image/agamemnonLINC.jpg]

[Image source: http://www.ikanlundu.com/classicground/cg08.jpeg]

Sophocles is credited with writing 123 plays, the

most-famous one being

Œdipus Rex.[Image source: http://www.ironorchid.com/clipart/persons/images/Sophocles.jpg]

[Image source: http://www.skidmore.edu/fye/bat/oedipus-sphinx.jpg]

His plays accepted human suffering as unavoidableand stressed human courage and compassion.

Euripides is best-remembered for Medea and The

Trojan Women – plays that focused

on human qualities that bring disaster on to themselves.

[Image source: http://www.crystalinks.com/euripides.jpg]

Poetry

Greek Religion

Tragedy Comedy

Drama

Aristophanes is the best-

known comedy

playwright.

[Image source: http://dienekes.angeltowns.net/pictures/ancientgreek

men/aristophanes.JPG]

Plays such as The Birds and The Clouds, ridiculed people, ideas, and social customs.

[Image source: http://www.arches.uga.edu/~cplatter/Images/les_oiseaux.jpg]

Poetry

Greek Religion

Tragedy Comedy

Drama

Epic LyricFrom epikos

(“word; speech; poem”).

The best-known examples of epic

poetry from ancient Greece

are The Iliad and The Odyssey, composed by

Homer.[Image source:

http://static.flickr.com/22/34257894_820b438f88_m.jpg]

Lyric poetry expressesemotions and thoughts.

[Image source: http://www.biblepainting.com/david/david3.jpg]

The most-famous Greek

poetess was Sapho

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ges/poeme-lyrique-222.jpg]

Sappho and Phaon.

[Image source: http://www.biblepainting.com/david/]

[Image source: http://www.ikanlundu.com/classicground/cg06.jpeg]