In its ancient usage, a hypothesis is a summary of the

plot Plot or Plotting may refer to: Art, media and entertainment * Plot (narrative), the story of a piece of fiction Music * ''The Plot'' (album), a 1976 album by jazz trumpeter Enrico Rava * The Plot (band), a band formed in 2003 Other * ''Plot' ...

of a

classical drama Ancient Greek theatre was a theatrical culture that flourished in ancient Greece from 700 BC. The city-state of Athens, which became a significant cultural, political, and religious place during this period, was its centre, where the theatre was ...

.Easterling (1997, 202) and Gregory (2005, 271-272, 384). These hypotheses were often copied as a

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

to the text of the surviving

Athenian 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 ...

tragedies Tragedy (from the grc-gre, τραγῳδία, ''tragōidia'', ''tragōidia'') is a genre of drama based on human suffering and, mainly, the terrible or sorrowful events that befall a main character. Traditionally, the intention of tragedy ...

in Medieval manuscripts. They also indicated whether any other tragic poets had dramatised the story, gave its

setting Setting may refer to: * A location (geography) where something is set * Set construction in theatrical scenery * Setting (narrative), the place and time in a work of narrative, especially fiction * Setting up to fail a manipulative technique to eng ...

, identified the

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

and the character who delivered the

prologue A prologue or prolog (from Greek πρόλογος ''prólogos'', from πρό ''pró'', "before" and λόγος ''lógos'', "word") is an opening to a story that establishes the context and gives background details, often some earlier story that ...

, and indicated the date of its first production and the titles of the poet's other plays performed that year, as well as the poet's rivals in the dramatic competition and the prize awarded.Gregory (2005, 384-385).

References

Sources

* Easterling, P. E., ed. 1997. ''The Cambridge Companion to Greek Tragedy''. Cambridge Companions to Literature ser. Cambridge: Cambridge UP. . * Gregory, Justina, ed. 2005. ''A Companion to Greek Tragedy.'' Blackwell Companions to the Ancient World ser. Malden, MA and Oxford: Blackwell. {{ISBN, 1-4051-7549-4. Ancient Greek theatre Classical philology Documents Greek words and phrases