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Pratinas
Pratinas ( grc, Πρατίνας) was one of the early tragic poets who flourished at Athens at the beginning of the fifth century BCE, and whose combined efforts were thought by critics to have brought the art to its perfection. Life He was a native of Phlius in Peloponnese, and was therefore by birth a Dorian. His father's name was Pyrrhonides or Encomius. It is not known at what time he went to Athens, but we find him exhibiting there, in competition with Choerilus and Aeschylus, around the 70th Olympiad, that is, 500–499 BCE, the year of Aeschylus's debut. Works The main innovation that ancient critics ascribed to Pratinas was the separation of the satyric from the tragic drama. Pratinas is frequently credited as having introduced satyr plays as a species of entertainment distinct from tragedy, in which the rustic merry-makings and the extravagant dances of the satyrs were retained. The change preserved a highly characteristic feature of the older form of tragedy, the ent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satyr Play
The satyr play is a form of Attic theatre performance related to both comedy and tragedy. It preserves theatrical elements of dialogue, actors speaking verse, a chorus that dances and sings, masks and costumes. Its relationship to tragedy is strong; satyr plays were written by tragedians, and satyr plays were performed in the Dionysian festival following the performance of a group of three tragedies. The satyr play’s mythological-heroic stories and the style of language are similar to that of the tragedies. Its connection with comedy is also significant – it has similar plots, titles, themes, characters, and happy endings. The remarkable feature of the satyr play is the chorus of satyrs, with their costumes that focus on the phallus, and with their language, which uses wordplay, sexual innuendos, references to breasts, farting, erections, and other references that do not occur in tragedy. As Mark Griffith points out, the satyr play was "not merely a deeply traditional Dionys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phlius
Phlius (; grc-gre, Φλιοῦς) or Phleius () was an independent polis (city-state) in the northeastern part of Peloponnesus. Phlius' territory, called Phliasia (), was bounded on the north by Sicyonia, on the west by Arcadia, on the east by Cleonae, and on the south by Argolis. This territory is a small valley about above the level of the sea, surrounded by mountains, from which streams flow down on every side, joining the river Asopus in the middle of the plain. The mountain in the southern part of the plain, from which the principal source of the Asopus springs, was called Carneates (Καρνεάτης). The territory of Phlius was celebrated in antiquity for its wine. According to Strabo, the ancient capital of the country was Araethyrea (Ἀραιθυρέα) on Mt. Celosse, which city is mentioned by Homer; but the inhabitants subsequently deserted it and built Phlius at the distance of 30 stadia. Pausanias, however, does not speak of any migration, but says that the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Satyr Play
The satyr play is a form of Attic theatre performance related to both comedy and tragedy. It preserves theatrical elements of dialogue, actors speaking verse, a chorus that dances and sings, masks and costumes. Its relationship to tragedy is strong; satyr plays were written by tragedians, and satyr plays were performed in the Dionysian festival following the performance of a group of three tragedies. The satyr play’s mythological-heroic stories and the style of language are similar to that of the tragedies. Its connection with comedy is also significant – it has similar plots, titles, themes, characters, and happy endings. The remarkable feature of the satyr play is the chorus of satyrs, with their costumes that focus on the phallus, and with their language, which uses wordplay, sexual innuendos, references to breasts, farting, erections, and other references that do not occur in tragedy. As Mark Griffith points out, the satyr play was "not merely a deeply traditional Dionys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Choerilus (playwright)
Choerilus ( grc-gre, Χοιρίλος) was an Athenian tragic poet, who exhibited plays as early as 524 BC. He was born in 546 BC. He died around 460 BC (about 86 years old). Choerilus started writing tragedies when he was 22 years old. He staged 160 plays and won the prize 13 times. His works are all lost; only Pausanias mentions a play by him entitled ''Alope'' (a mythological personage who was the subject of dramas by Euripides and Carcinus). cites Pausanias vol. i. p. 14. He lived in Athens for most of his life. Biography Choerilus was said to have competed with Aeschylus, Pratinas and even Sophocles. According to Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker, however, the rival of Sophocles was a son of Choerilus, who bore the same name. His reputation as a writer of satyr plays is attested in the line: ἡνίκα μὲν Βασιλεὺς ἦν Χοιρίλος ἐν Σατύροις. Back in the days when old Choerilus over the Satyrs was king. The Choerilean metre (a catalectic hexameter), ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Aeschylus
Aeschylus (, ; grc-gre, Αἰσχύλος ; c. 525/524 – c. 456/455 BC) was an ancient Greek tragedian, and is often described as the father of tragedy. Academic knowledge of the genre begins with his work, and understanding of earlier Greek tragedy is largely based on inferences made from reading his surviving plays. According to Aristotle, he expanded the number of characters in the theatre and allowed conflict among them. Formerly, characters interacted only with the chorus.The remnant of a commemorative inscription, dated to the 3rd century BC, lists four, possibly eight, dramatic poets (probably including Choerilus, Phrynichus, and Pratinas) who had won tragic victories at the Dionysia before Aeschylus had. Thespis was traditionally regarded the inventor of tragedy. According to another tradition, tragedy was established in Athens in the late 530s BC, but that may simply reflect an absence of records. Major innovations in dramatic form, credited to Aeschylus by Aristotle ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Athens
Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates and is the capital of the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, with its recorded history spanning over 3,400 years and its earliest human presence beginning somewhere between the 11th and 7th millennia BC. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state. It was a centre for the arts, learning and philosophy, and the home of Plato's Academy and Aristotle's Lyceum. It is widely referred to as the cradle of Western civilization and the birthplace of democracy, largely because of its cultural and political influence on the European continent—particularly Ancient Rome. In modern times, Athens is a large cosmopolitan metropolis and central to economic, financial, industrial, maritime, political and cultural life in Gre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Themistius
Themistius ( grc-gre, Θεμίστιος ; 317 – c. 388 AD), nicknamed Euphrades, (eloquent), was a statesman, rhetorician, and philosopher. He flourished in the reigns of Constantius II, Julian, Jovian, Valens, Gratian, and Theodosius I; and he enjoyed the favour of all those emperors, notwithstanding their many differences, and the fact that he himself was not a Christian. He was admitted to the senate by Constantius in 355, and he was prefect of Constantinople in 384 on the nomination of Theodosius. Of his many works, thirty-three orations of his have come down to us, as well as various commentaries and epitomes of the works of Aristotle. Early life He was born in Paphlagonia and taught at Phasis. Apart from a short sojourn in Rome, he resided in Constantinople during the rest of his life. He was the son of Eugenius, who was also a distinguished philosopher, and who is more than once mentioned in the orations of Themistius. Themistius was instructed by his father in ph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Poetics
Poetics is the theory of structure, form, and discourse within literature, and, in particular, within poetry. History The term ''poetics'' derives from the Ancient Greek ποιητικός ''poietikos'' "pertaining to poetry"; also "creative" and "productive". In the Western world, the development and evolution of poetics featured three artistic movements concerned with poetical composition: (i) the Formalism (literature), formalist, (2) the Metaphysical objectivism, objectivist, and (iii) the Aristotelianism, Aristotelian. (see the ''Poetics (Aristotle), Poetics''). Aristotle's ''Poetics'' is the first extant philosophical treatise to focus on literary theory. The work was lost to the Western world for a long time. It was available in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance only through a Latin translation of an Arabic commentary written by Averroes and translated by Hermannus Alemannus in 1256. The accurate Ancient Greek, Greek-Latin translation made by William of Moerbeke in 127 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
August Böckh
August Böckh or Boeckh (; 24 November 1785 – 3 August 1867) was a German classical scholar and antiquarian. Life He was born in Karlsruhe, and educated at the local gymnasium; in 1803 he left for the University of Halle, where he studied theology. F. A. Wolf was teaching there, and creating an enthusiasm for classical studies; Böckh transferred from theology to philology, and became the best of Wolf's scholars. In 1807, he established himself as ''Privatdozent'' in the University of Heidelberg and was shortly afterwards appointed professor extraordinarius, becoming professor two years later. The common misapprehension of Böckh's first name being not just August but Philipp August originated in Heidelberg where staff of the university misread the abbreviation 'Dr phil' (doctor philosophiae) as 'Dr Philipp August Böckh'. In 1811, he moved to the new University of Berlin, where he had been appointed professor of eloquence and classical literature. He remained there till ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pausanias (geographer)
Pausanias ( /pɔːˈseɪniəs/; grc-gre, Παυσανίας; c. 110 – c. 180) was a Greek traveler and geographer of the second century AD. He is famous for his ''Description of Greece'' (, ), a lengthy work that describes ancient Greece from his firsthand observations. ''Description of Greece'' provides crucial information for making links between classical literature and modern archaeology. Biography Not much is known about Pausanias apart from what historians can piece together from his own writing. However, it is mostly certain that he was born c. 110 AD into a Greek family and was probably a native of Lydia in Asia Minor. From c. 150 until his death in 180, Pausanias travelled through the mainland of Greece, writing about various monuments, sacred spaces, and significant geographical sites along the way. In writing ''Description of Greece'', Pausanias sought to put together a lasting written account of "all things Greek", or ''panta ta hellenika''. Living in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyporchemata
The hyporchema ( el, ὑπόρχημα) was a lively kind of mimic dance which accompanied the songs used in the worship of Apollo, especially among the Dorians. It was performed by men and women. It is comparable to the ''geranos'' (γερανός), the ritual "crane dance" associated with Theseus. A chorus of singers at the festivals of Apollo usually danced around the altar, while several other persons were appointed to accompany the action of the song with an appropriate mimic performance. Hyporchema was thus a lyric dance, and often passed into the playful and comic, whence Athenaeus compares it with the cordax of comedy. It had, according to the supposition of Müller, like all the music and poetry of the Dorians, originated in Crete, but was at an early period introduced in the island of Delos, where it seems to have continued to be performed down to the time of Lucian. A similar kind of dance was the ''geranos'' (crane dance), which Theseus on his return from Crete was said ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dithyramb
The dithyramb (; grc, διθύραμβος, ''dithyrambos'') was an ancient Greek hymn sung and danced in honor of Dionysus, the god of wine and fertility; the term was also used as an epithet of the god. Plato, in '' The Laws'', while discussing various kinds of music mentions "the birth of Dionysos, called, I think, the dithyramb." Plato also remarks in the ''Republic'' that dithyrambs are the clearest example of poetry in which the poet is the only speaker. However, in '' The Apology'' Socrates went to the dithyrambs with some of their own most elaborate passages, asking their meaning but got a response of, "Will you believe me?" which "showed me in an instant that not by wisdom do poets write poetry, but by a sort of genius and inspiration; they are like diviners or soothsayers who also say many fine things, but do not understand the meaning of them." Plutarch contrasted the dithyramb's wild and ecstatic character with the paean. According to Aristotle, the dithyramb was the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
