Rough Chronology of Plays and Significant Events

527 Death of Pisistratos – succeeded by his son Hippias (with his brother Hipparchus?)
514 Assassination of Hipparchus – Hippias becomes the model paranoid tyrant
508 Cleisthenes’ reforms of the structure of Athenian tribes (paving the way for democracy)
c.525 Birth of Aeschylus
495 Birth of Sophocles
490 Battle of Marathon: Persia attacks Greece and is repulsed
486 Comic competition introduced into City Dionysia
484 Birth of Euripides; Aeschylus wins his first victory
480 Battles of Salamis and Thermopylae: Persia tries again, with no better results
472 Aeschylus' Persians
468 Sophocles wins his first victory, with his first production (including Triptolemus, which does not survive).
467 Aeschylus' Seven Against Thebes, first prize
c.463 Aeschylus' Suppliant Women
458 Aeschylus' Oresteia (Agamemnon, Libation Bearers, Eumenides)
c.457 Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound
c.456 Death of Aeschylus
455 Euripides competes for the first time, and finishes third
c.450 Sophocles' Ajax
c.442 Sophocles' Antigone
438 Euripides' Alcestis, second prize
431 Beginning of Peloponnesian War, Athens vs. Sparta. Pericles as General. Production of Euripides' Medea, third prize
c.430 Euripides' Children of Heracles. Sophocles' Women of Trachis
429 Plague decimates Athens, Pericles dies.
428 Euripides' Hippolytus, first prize
c.425 Euripides' Andromache
424 Euripides' Hecuba
424 Thucydides’ defeat in command of squadron of seven ships at Thasos. He was condemned to death, but took refuge in exile.
423 Euripides' Suppliant Women
c.421 Sophocles' Oedipus Tyrannus
c.420 Euripides' Electra and Sophocles' Electra; which of these plays is earlier is unknown
416 Euripides' Heracles
415 Euripides' Trojan Women, second prize
414 Euripides' Iphigeneia among the Taurians
413 Euripides' Ion
412 Euripides' Helen
411 Oligarchic coup; government in exile established in Samos; democratic counter-coup.
410 Euripides' Phoenician Women; Cyclops may have been the satyr play
409 Sophocles' Philoctetes
408 Euripides' Orestes
405 Deaths of Euripides and Sophocles, in that order, a few months apart. Posthumous production of Euripides' Bacchae and Iphigeneia in Aulis, first prize
404 Fall of Athens, end of Peloponnesian War
403 Restoration of Athenian democracy
401 Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus, produced posthumously

Basic Glossary

Agon logon rhesis – a “contest of speeches.”

Anagnorisis – ‘recognition,’ the point at which the protagonist realises his doom.

Anapaest – sometimes referred to as ‘marching’ anapaests. Rhythmic meter something between full lyric and full dialogue. Probably chanted.

Antilabe – the breaking of a line between two speakers.

Antistrophe – ‘reverse turn,’ or ‘turns in the other direction.’

Catastrophe – ‘kata,’ ‘strophe’ – ‘downwards,’ ‘turn,’ of fortune, tragic denouement.

Catharsis – purgation of pity and fear brought about in an audience viewing a tragedy.

Choregos – producer.

Dionysus – pastoral harvest god often represented with bull or goat’s horns. More particularly the god of wine and creative inspiration (dancing, singing, eloquence). Patron god of tragedy.

Dithyrambic choruses – early form of tragedy sung by a chorus in tribute to Dionysus. (Records show that the poet Arion was writing these as early as c.625BC.)

Drama – ‘action,’ or as Aristotle says ‘the imitation of an action.’

Dran – vb. ‘to do.’

Ekkyklema – literally ‘a wheeled-out thing.’ Probably some form of platform on wheels rolled out through a door in the skene to expose or reveal a murdered, or incapacitated character, and to represent the exposure of an inner-space.

Epiparodos – ‘additional parados’ sung by the chorus if (as rarely happens) they have left the stage as they re-enter along the paradoi.

Episode – main dialogue section of play. The entrance of an actor often initiates an episode. There are usually four episodes in a Greek play.

Epode – ‘added song.’

Exodos – sung by the chorus as they leave the orchestra along the paradoi after the final episode and its accompanying stasimon.

Greater Dionysia – festival where the Greek tragedies were performed in honour of the god Dionysus, founded by Pisistratus at Athens c.540-527

Iambic trimeters – verses based on a twelve-syllable pattern comprised of three iambic metra.

Kerkides – wedge-shaped sections of the theatron.

Koryphaios – chorus leader.

Lyrical Tragedy – early tragedy with a chorus and only one actor.

Mechane – literally, the ‘machine.’ Probably some form of crane or swing used for hoisting characters in the air to represent flight. Hence the Latin term ‘deus ex machina,’ ‘god in the machine.’

Middle Tragedy – tragedy with a chorus and three actors, exemplified by the work of Sophocles who is credited with the introduction of the practice of using a third actor.

Mimesis – imitation, or mimicry.

New Tragedy – exemplified by the work of Euripides.

Old Tragedy – tragedy with a chorus and two actors. Exemplified by the work of Aeschylus, who is credited with the introduction of the practice of using a second actor.

Orchestra – central circular or semi-circular space in which the chorus danced. At its centre there was a sacrificial altar.Pathos – ‘suffering.’

Parodos – passageway on either side leading into the orchestra along which the chorus and the actors make their entrance. It is also the name given to the song chanted by the chorus as they enter at the beginning of the play. (pl. parodoi)

Peripeteia – ‘reversal,’ the moment in a tragedy where the exact opposite of what the protagonist is trying to achieve happens.

Prohedria – ‘front-seating,’ or first row of seats reserved for honoured audience members.

Prologue – introductory scene that precedes the parados.

Protagonist – ‘first competitor,’ or ‘first actor.’ Now used to mean main character. The second and third actors were referred to as deuteragonist and tritagonist.

Rhesis – extended speech, most often in trimeters.

Skene – literally meaning ‘tent’, it refers to the stage building, or façade in front of which plays were performed.

Stasimon – extended song of the chorus. These stasima are generally comprised of strophes and antistrophes, and sometimes an epode. There are usually four stasima in a Greek play.

Stichomythia – line-for-line dialogue, that is when actors alternate lines.

Strophe – turn.

Theasthai – vb. ‘to view as a spectator.’

Theatron – ‘viewing area,’ from where the audience viewed the drama.

Thespian – actor, deriving from the name of the first actor Thespis c. 536-533.

Tragedy – from ‘tragos ode,’ meaning ‘goat’s song.’

Trochaic tetrameters – fifteen-syllable pattern comprised of four trochaic metra, but with the last one shortened.

Recommended Introductory Critical Reading

Aristotle, Poetics, any edition.

Boyle, A. J. Tragic Seneca: An essay in the theatrical tradition (London: Routledge, 1997)

Dodds, E. R. The Greeks and the Irrational (London: U of California P, 1951, 1973)

Dodds, E. R. The Ancient Concept of Progress (Oxford: Clarendon, 1973, 1985)

Euben, J. Peter ed. Greek Tragedy and Political Theory (London : University of California P., 1986)

Foley, Helene. Female Acts in Greek Tragedy (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001)

J.A.C.T. The World of Athens: An Introduction to Classical Athenian Culture (Cambridge: CUP, 1984)

Kitto, H. D. F. Greek Tragedy (London: Methuen, 1939)

Kott, Jan. The Eating of the Gods: An Interpretation of Greek Tragedy (NY: Random House, 1974)

Meier, Christian. The Political Art of Greek Tragedy, Trans. Andrew Webber (Cambridge: Polity, 1993)

Murray, Gilbert. Aeschylus: The Creator of Tragedy, (Oxford: Clarendon, 1940, 1962)

Nietzsche, Friedrich. The Birth of Tragedy. any edition

Loraux, Nicole. The Children of Athena: Athenian Ideas about Citizenship and the Division between the Sexes, Trans. Caroline Levine (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)

Padel, Ruth. Whom Gods Destroy: Elements of Greek and Tragic Madness (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1995)

Segal, Charles. Tragedy and Civilization: An interpretation of Sophocles (Oklahoma: Oklahoma U P, 1981)

Simon, Bennett. Mind and Madness in Ancient Greece (Ithaca & London: Cornell U P, 1980)

Taplin, Oliver. Greek Tragedy in Action (London: Methuen & Co., 1978)