Famous Playwrights
During the formation and golden ages of drama in Ancient Greece, many playwrights emerged, but only a few really stood out from the rest. Due to their innovativeness, creativity, and stellar use of language, these few helped shape Ancient Greek dramas into their best form.
Thespis
Thespis was a tragoidos, or a writer, composer, choreographer, director, and actor. The term tragoidos means "goat bard", and the term came from a person who took part in a writing competition for a goat, where the competitor was called a tragoido. Thespis lived in the 6th century B.C., the early age of tragedy, so not much is known about him. His greatest contribution to drama was introducing an actor seperate from the chorus to speak lines.
Choerilus
Phrynicus
Phrynicus is another early tragedy writer, as he lived from 540 B.C. to 475 B.C. He was famous for winning many petic competitions. His most famous work is "The Capture of Miletus", a story based off of the Persians sieging Miletus, a city in Ionia, in 494 B.C.
Aeschylus
Aeschylus is the first of the three great Greek tragedy writers of the Golden Age of Tragedy. He lived from 525-456 B.C. He is the earliest playwright with his plays existing in complete form. One of his greatest contributions to drama was increasing the number of actors to two, allowing dialogue for interaction.
He wrote more than 80 plays, but only seven survive today. He wrote "Oresteia", a series of three plays forming one complete drama. Some of his other great works are "Agamemnon", "Choephori", and "The Eumenides", all about human suffering and a divine power. He wrote "The Persians", "Seven Against Thebes", "The Suppliants", and "Prometheus Bound" later in his life. Most of his plots are recurring, showing the conflict between a person's will and a divine power. His plots show Aeschylus as a patriotic and religious man, and improved the genre of tragedy. He wrote in a grand manner, using rich language and complex thought. Not much is known about his life, except that he was born into a rich family in Eleusis, near Athens. |
|
Sophocles
Sophocles lived 496-406 B.C. He's considered the second of the three great writers of tragedy. His plays are more well-done than Aeschylus' and Euripides'. To do this, he added a third actor, set the chorus at 15 people, used scene painting, and showed suspense in his works. Aristotle regarded his works as models to what plays should be.
Sophocles wrote 120 plays, but, like Aeschylus, only seven of his survive. These works include "Ajax", "Antigone", "Trachinian Women", "Oedipus Rex", "Electra", "Pliloctetes", and "Oedipus at Colonus." Part of "The Trackers" was found in 1907. Most of his plays feature a strong individual working against fate. This character decides against the lesser character, and dies because of it, but becomes more noble and benefits humanity somehow. Unlike most playwrights, Sophocles wrote people as they should be, not as they are, as described by Aristotle.
Much is known about Sophocles' fulfilling life. He was born in Colonus, near Athens. His tragedies earned him many prizes in competitions. He was an Athenian general, then became a member of delegations in other states. He played an active role in Athenian religious life.
Sophocles wrote 120 plays, but, like Aeschylus, only seven of his survive. These works include "Ajax", "Antigone", "Trachinian Women", "Oedipus Rex", "Electra", "Pliloctetes", and "Oedipus at Colonus." Part of "The Trackers" was found in 1907. Most of his plays feature a strong individual working against fate. This character decides against the lesser character, and dies because of it, but becomes more noble and benefits humanity somehow. Unlike most playwrights, Sophocles wrote people as they should be, not as they are, as described by Aristotle.
Much is known about Sophocles' fulfilling life. He was born in Colonus, near Athens. His tragedies earned him many prizes in competitions. He was an Athenian general, then became a member of delegations in other states. He played an active role in Athenian religious life.
Euripides
"The Trojan Women-3"
|
Euripides is the third of the great tragedy playwrights. He lived from 480-406 B.C., and managed to write 90 plays.
One satyr, "Cyclops", and 18 tragedies survived. By date, some are "Rhesus", "Alcestis", Medea, The Children of Heracles, Hippolytus, Andromache, Hecuba, The Suppliants, Heracles, The Trojan Women, Iphignia in Tauris, Helen, Ion, The Phoenician Women, Orestes, Bacchae, Iphignia in Aulis. For the most part, Euripides showed heroes as ordinary people, but he did have some mythological heroes. He used his plays to criticize the ideas of his time, so his ideas were not always accepted. He offended the writers and politicians and politicians of his time. He used simple language in his plays, but had complex plots and ideas in his dramas. Euripides was not originally a writer. He was born in Salamis, but grew up in Athens to train to be an athlete. He was taught philosophy and literature, taught by the philosophers Anaxagoras and Protagoras. When he was 20, Euripides started writing plays and started entering his plays in competitions when he was 25. He wrote plays frequently for the rest of his life. Some say that his writing was influenced by Socrates since they were friends. |
Aristophanes
Aristophanes is thought to be the greatest Greek writer of comedy. He lived from 445-385 B.C.
Of the more than 40 plays he wrote, 11 survived, including "Acharnians", "Knights", "Clouds", "Wasps", "Peace", "Birds", "Lysistrata", "Thesmophoriazusae", "Frogs", "Ecclesiazusae", and "Plutus." His most famous works included Frogs, which criticized Euripides; "Clouds" which satirized Socrates; "Birds", a comedy about a city in the sky; and "Lystrata", a farcical play in which the women of Greece forced their husbands to stop warring. He blended wit, fantasy, an amazing sense of rhythm, and good lyrics to criticize politics, manners, education, music, and literature. His work provided the best picture of Athenian life in its most interesting time. He also wrote the earliest and best examples of political and social satire.
Of the more than 40 plays he wrote, 11 survived, including "Acharnians", "Knights", "Clouds", "Wasps", "Peace", "Birds", "Lysistrata", "Thesmophoriazusae", "Frogs", "Ecclesiazusae", and "Plutus." His most famous works included Frogs, which criticized Euripides; "Clouds" which satirized Socrates; "Birds", a comedy about a city in the sky; and "Lystrata", a farcical play in which the women of Greece forced their husbands to stop warring. He blended wit, fantasy, an amazing sense of rhythm, and good lyrics to criticize politics, manners, education, music, and literature. His work provided the best picture of Athenian life in its most interesting time. He also wrote the earliest and best examples of political and social satire.