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Why was his soul so colossal
That made a hard time on earth to contain the burden?
Why was his sound so shrill
That missed the ears he wished to safe-net?
Why was his look so distant
That out-reach the lines he tended to shelter?
Why was his cry so fervent
That missed the ones he would hit?
I yearn for crows
Shining black crows
Black dancing crows
Keenly awake crows
Panoramic view of the Greek theatre at Epidaurus
The Greek theatre history began with festivals honoring their gods. A god, Dionysus, was honored with a festival called by "City Dionysia". Plays were only presented at City Dionysia festival.
Athens was the main center for these theatrical traditions. Athenians spread these festivals to its numerous allies in order to promote a common identity.
At the early Greek festivals, the actors, directors and dramatists were all the same person. After some time, only three actors were allowed to perform in each play. Due to limited number of actors allowed on-stage, the chorus evolved into a very active part of Greek theatre. Music was often played during the chorus' delivery of its lines.
Tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays were the theatrical forms.
Tragedy means "goat song", perhaps referring to goats sacrificed to Dionysus before performances, or to goat-skins worn by the performers.
Aristotle's Poetics contain the earliest known theory about the origins of Greek theatre. He says that tragedy evolved from dithyrambs, songs sung in praise of Dionysus at the Dionysia each year. Comedy was also an important part of ancient Greek theatre.
Greek Theatre
Theatre buildings were called a theatron. The theaters were large, open-air structures constructed on the slopes of hills. They consisted of three main elements: the orchestra, the skene, and the audience.
Orchestra: A large circular or rectangular area at the center part of the theatre, where the play, dance, religious rites, acting used to take place.
Skene: A large rectangular building situated behind the orchestra, used as a backstage. Actors could change their costumes and masks.
Audience: Rising from the circle of the orchestra was the audience. The theatres were originally built on a very large scale to accommodate the large number of people in the audience, up to fourteen thousand.
Acting
The cast of a Greek play in the Dionysia was comprised of amateurs, not professionals (all male).
Costumes and Masks
The actors were so far away from the audience that without the aid of exaggerated costumes and masks they would not be understood.
However, most Greek theatres were cleverly constructed to transmit even the smallest sound to any seat.
The masks were made of linen or cork, so none have survived. Tragic masks carried mournful or pained expressions, while comic masks were smiling or leering.
The shape of the mask amplified the actor's voice, making his words easier for the audience to hear.
The Greeks invented athletic contests and held them in honour of their gods. The Isthmos games were staged every two years at the Isthmos of Corinth. The Pythian games took place every four years near Delphi. The most famous games held at Olympia, South- West of Greece, which took place every four years. The ancient Olympics seem to have begun in the early 700 BC, in honour of Zeus. No women were allowed to watch the games and only Greek nationals could participate. One of the ancient wonders was a statue of Zeus at Olympia, made of gold and ivory by a Greek sculptor Pheidias. This was placed inside a Temple, although it was a towering 42 feet high.
The games at Olympia were greatly expanded from a one-day festival of athletics and wrestling to, in 472 BC, five days with many events. The order of the events is not precisely known, but the first day of the festival was devoted to sacrifices. On the Middle Day of the festival 100 oxen were sacrificed in honor of a God. Athletes also often prayed and made small sacrifices themselves.
On the second day, the foot-race, the main event of the games, took place in the stadium, an oblong area enclosed by sloping banks of earth.
At Olympia there were 4 different types of races; The first was stadion, the oldest event of the games, where runners sprinted for 1 stade, the length of the stadium (192m). The other races were a 2-stade race (384 m.) and a long-distance run which ranged from 7 to 24 stades (1,344 m. to 4,608 m.).The fourth type of race involved runners wearing full amor, which was 2-4 stade race (384 m. to 768 m.), used to build up speed and stamina for military purposes.
On other days, wrestling, boxing, and the pancratium, a combination of the two, were held. In wrestling, the aim was to throw the opponent to the ground three times, on either his hip, back or shoulder. In ancient Greek wrestling biting and genital holds were illegal.
Boxing became more and more brutal; at first the pugilists wound straps of soft leather over their fingers as a means of deadening the blows, but in later times hard leather, sometimes weighted with metal, was used. In the pancratium, the most rigorous of the sports, the contest continued until one or the other of the participants acknowledged defeat.
Horse-racing, in which each entrant owned his horse, was confined to the wealthy but was nevertheless a popular attraction. The course was 6 laps of the track, with separate races for whereupon the rider would have no stirrups. It was only wealthy people that could pay for such training, equipment, and feed of both the rider and the horses. So whichever horse won it was not the rider who was awarded the Olive wreath but the owner. There were also Chariot races, that consisted of both 2-horse and 4-horse chariot races, with separate races for chariots drawn by foals. There was also a race was between carts drawn by a team of 2 mules, which was 12 laps of the stadium track.
After the horse-racing came the pentathlon, a series of five events: sprinting, long-jumping, javelin-hurling, discus-throwing and wrestling.The ancient Greeks considered the rhythm and precision of an athlete throwing the discus as important as his strength.
The discus was a circle shaped stone, iron, bronze or lead. There were different sizes according to age groups. The javelin was a long wooden stick shape with spear head, similar height to that of a person. In the middle was bound a thong for a hurler's fingers to grip and guide to the correct angle it was thrown.
To jump long distances athletes used lead or stone weights to increase the length of the jump. These weights were known as 'halteres' were held in front of the athlete during his ascent and then swung behind his back and dropped during his descent to help propel him.
