TRAGEDY

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Tragedy developed in Attica out of call-and-response singing between choruses and the chorus leader. It evolved into a dramatic form with a chorus (and chorus leader) and several speaking parts (no more than three on stage at any one time), performed with masks and music. All the roles were played by men. In Athens, tragedies were performed during the City Dionysia during the month of Elaphebolion (roughly, March-April), in the Theater of Dionysus, set into the slope of the Acropolis. Three playwrights were picked to compete, and each put on three tragedies plus a satyr play. The cost of the chorus and costumes was covered by wealthy Athenians, who also competed to put on the best set of plays, and back the most successful tragedians.

A map of Athens, showing the location of the Acropolis, the Sacred Way, and the Theater of Dionysus.

A view of the Theater of Athens as it looks today. The horseshoe shape of the orchestra is a product of the Roman period (after 150 BCE).

A plan of the Theater of Dionysus during the late 5th century BCE, with the round orchestra and less elaborate skene.

Written by Aeschylus and performed in 458 BCE, the Oresteia is the only complete dramatic trilogy that remains to us.
A red-figure crater showing the climax of Agamemnon--the murder of the title character. However, on this vase, as in the Odyssey, Aegisthus actually strikes the fatal blows while Clytemnestra (far left) urges him on, and Cassandra protests.

The Libation Bearers presents the revenge taken on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus by Orestes, Agamemnon's son. This red-figure crater (c470 BCE) shows Orestes striking down Aegisthus as Clytemnestra tries to intervene with an axe. Electra stands at far right, urging him on.

Finished with Aegisthus, Orestes turns to Clytemnestra and, after a brief discussion of why he should/should not kill his own mother, she plays the breast card...Orestes hesitates, but Pylades convinces him to go ahead. This amphora from Campania (south-central Italy), c340 BCE, shows Orestes about to kill Clytemnestra, with a Fury hovering overhead.

In the Eumenides, the Furies, hounded on by Clytemnestra's ghost, pursue Orestes from Delphi to Athens, where he is acquitted in a murder trial after some fairly interesting arguments by Apollo. This red-figure vase, also from Italy (c370 BCE) shows Orestes trying to hold off the Furies as they gather around him.

Medea, written by Euripides, was performed in 431, and came in last (we don't know the other plays in the trilogy with it). The visual tradition focuses on Medea's hesitation over killing her own children, and on the deed itself. Remember, vase painters, sculptors, and wall painters can show the really violent action of myths, while Greek tragedy can only convey these actions through messenger speeches.

A Roman wall painting, from Pompeii (VI 9 6-7, c.60 CE). Medea is thinking hard about it, has drawn the blade, but still conceals it behind her body. The children, meanwhile, are innocently playing, and the Tutor stands nervously off to the left.

In this amphora from Campania (c.330 BCE), she has killed one child and grabs the other by the hair. Medea's barbarian background is strongly emphasized by her costume--and the old Tutor is now at upper right, grasping his hair in woe.

Medea makes her getaway, in a solar chariot drawn by dragons. The children lie slumped across in altar at bottom right; an old nurse tears her hair beside them, and Jason comes in grieving to the far right. Winged Furies flank the scene. Crater, red-figure, Lucanian (from Italy), c.400 BCE.

This Roman wall painting, from Herculaneum (75 CE), sums up the myth in a single composition. Phaedra sits at left wrapped up in passion, while the old nurse pleads unsuccessfully with Hippolytus, whose horses stand at right, ready to carry him to his destruction. The only figure missing is Theseus.

Hippolytus rides to his death, as the bull from the sea pops up in front of his team. A Fury at upper right helps drive the horses mad, and reflects the curse hurled at Hippolytus by Theseus. An old tutor stands behind Hippolytus, pleading helplessly. Apulian volute crater, red-figure, c350-325 BCE.

The last play written by Euripides, performed in Athens after his death (in Macedonia) in 407 BCE. In this play, Euripides gives resurrects the chorus for a major role (unlike many of his plays), and presents the disastrous end of a young tyrant who tries to be old fashioned and heroic by resisting the newest religious fad...and yet reflects new logical, skeptical trends by refusing to recognize Dionysus' power.
This Apulian volute crater (c400 BCE--almost exactly the date of the play's production), shows Dionysus popping out of Zeus' thigh and into the arms of Eileithyia, and Greek goddess of childbirth. The baby is hidden from Hera (the "showed her sky" pun in the play), and soon grows into a seductive god of intoxication.

Precisely the kind of scene Pentheus finds so troubling. A maenad in a kind of trance, dancing with her thyrsus while Dionysus looks on. The scene is at night, as is indicated by the maenad holding the torch behind Dionysus. Lucanian volute crater, c410 BCE.

The attractive stranger finally persuades Pentheus to stop attacking the maenads...by first going himself to spy on them. The stranger, of course, is really Dionysus, and betrays Pentheus to the women. In this south Italian red-figure vase (c350 BCE), the maenads are taking hold of Pentheus as Dionysus stands off to the left.

Pentheus is really in trouble now. The maenads are dragging him down, and breaking rocks over his head; his mother, Agave, takes hold of his head from the left. Roman wall painting, Pompeii, House of the Vettii, c.70 CE.

The maenads celebrate with chunks of Pentheus' body, while Dionysus drinks from a large two-handled cup and listens to the flute. Attic red-figure cup, c430 BCE.