-purpose: to educate and entertain (Casson, 9)
-more like today's musicals than our modern day comedies (Casson, 6)
-most popular from 455 to 385 BC (Ehrenberg, 15-16)
- 11 of Aristophanes' plays are the only surviving examples (Ehrenberg, xv)
Acharnians
Birds
Clouds
Ekklesiazousai
Frogs
Knights
Lysistrata
Peace
Ploutos
Thesmophoriazousai
Wasps


Old Comedy Beginnings (Benet)

1. evolved from Dionysian fertility rituals, which:
- allowed for obscenity in plays
- obscenity was believed to drive away evilness (Spatz, 21)
- granted playwrights the freedom of political commentary

2. and from the comos- a carnival-like procession of revelers who sang and dances throughout town, often wearing masks and animal costumes or leading animals. (Spatz, 21)


The Festivals

1)The Greater Dionysia Festival (Casson, 5)
-end of March or beginning of April
-three days long with a trilogy of tragic plays and one satyr play per day
-three tragic and comic playwrights compete for a separate prize
-comedy competitions began in 486 BC

2) The Lenaea Festival
-end of January or beginning of February
-emphasis on comedy
-began in 442 BC
-three comic writers competed, with one play each three tragic writers competed with only two plays each
-these festivals continued for at least 350 years (Casson, 5)
-festivals were run entirely by the state as a part of a religious celebration
-two elected "archons" were in charge of assigning choruses and actors to the festival contestants. One archon per festival.


Beginning of Professional Acting

-cost to pay all the actors was too much for the state to handle
-each playwright was assigned a wealthy "chorus handler" to pay the large choruses (Casson, 6)
-often the early playwrights would cut down the cost by starring as the lead role himself
-work on the productions started 6 months before the festivals (Spatz, 26)


Influences and Playwrights(Wilson, 33-40)

Aeschylus (525- 456 BC)

-born of a noble family in Eleusis, near Athens
-founder of Greek drama
-added second actor on stage from the original single actor
-reduced the size of the chorus
-wrote about 90 plays, 79 of which are known (Wilson, 33)

Sophocles (496- 406)

-introduced a third actor
-emphasis on plot construction
-acted in his own early dramas (as early playwrights often did)
-wrote over 120 plays
-known for his good nature (Wilson, 34)

Euripides (480- 406)

-most "modern" tragic Greek playwright-- criticized greatly
-died a few months after Sophocles
-his mixing of comedy and tragedy became a model for tragicomedy and melodramas of the future.
-created believable female characters
-portrayed gods as fallible (Wilson, 35)

Aristotle (384-322)

-one of the most influential Greek philosophers
- book Poetics shows his views on literature
- believed that drama, especially tragedy is a danger to society because it encouraged irrationality (Wilson, 40)

Aristophanes, 450-387 BC (Casson, 8)

-grew up in the wealthy, conservative middle class in Athens
-used his plays to ridicule the people and ideas that he felt were leading Athens to ruin (Wilson, 46)
-wrote about 40 plays in his life time.
-didn't feel confident enough to stage his own plays, and usually turned them over to a producer-director (46)

Major three themes in plays (Casson, 9):

1) politics and the war with Sparta
2) literature (especially regarding Euripides)
3) education and the teachings of the sophists, whose views directly opposed Aristophanes'
-fun fact: according to Plato, Aristophanes could outdrink and outtalk all the guests at an all-night party (Wilson, 46)


Satirical Humor- Political Satire

1. Old Comedy was used to ridicule public figures, institutions, gods, and the people's views on the figures.
2. Aristophanes provided literary criticism in his plays
3. Aristophanes' favorite victims of satire:
a. the demagogue Cleon (Knights)
b. Euripides (Frogs, Thesmophoriazusae)
c. Socrates (Clouds)


Aristophanes' Influences on Theatre

Freedom of creativity
a. inventing new, unknown characters
b. gave known characters (Dionysius, in Frogs) new personalities
c. created entirely new worlds and societies (Cloudcuckooland and the birdmen in Birds)


Choral Additions for Comedy (Benet)

1. Pnigos: patter song sung by the chorus sung in one breath
2. Agon: contest in which the 2 halves of the chorus argue violently over some contemporary question
3. Parabasis: when the chorus directly addressed the audience to reward the playwright
4. Phalli: large artificial phalluses as a part of the actors' stage dress
-symbol of fertility & continued life in Greek culture (Murray, 4)


Acting Style of Greek Old Comedy

1. Exclusively men
2. Large, exaggerated movements
- Had to be seen by those sitting in the back rows of the amphitheatre
3. Loud, strong voices
- faces hid behind masks which made it more difficult
-amphitheatre naturally had great acoustics


Old Comedy Performed Today

1. Comic moments and main messages were universal enough to appeal to present day audiences
2. New and improved!
- over time, theatrical technology, theatre spaces, costumes etc. have improved or changed in style and gave a much wider range of opportunities for special effects, set design, etc. For example, in The Frogs, Greek actors originally pantomimed rowing in a boat with oars, while today theatre groups have figured out ways to make the boat trip more realistic. (Wilson, 42)
3. Unrealistic acting
- big, bold characters


The End of Old Comedy

After the defeat of Athens in the Peloponnesian War, 404 BC (Benet)
- decrease in freedom of speech
-Old Comedy led to the next form of drama called New Comedy
-The Frogs was performed the year before, right after Sophocles and Euripides died.