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The History and the Evolution of Greek Drama

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 The History and the Evolution of Greek Drama1
Sepali Bamunusinghe 2

Abstract
It was before thousands of years that Greek drama sprang up in the Hellenic soil, a treasure
not only to the Western world, but also to the whole world of arts. The three distinct genres of
Greek drama being tragedy, satyr-play and comedy, they were performed at the dramatic
festivals of the Greek world such as City Dionysia, Anthesteria, Lenaia, Rural Dionysainad
and Panathenaia. As explained by many critics, drama is believed to be emerged as a by-
product of some other activity, usually some magico-religious activity. It is evident that the
roots of Greek drama are connected with Greek religion and Greek religious festivals,
especially in honor of God Dionysus, the god of drama and arts. Emerging from the choral
performances in the sixth century, assigning the traditional date 534 BC to the dramatist
Thespis, for the formal introduction of a dramatic form, Greek drama has progressed through
history passing its different periods and leading poets with their own styles, gifting
outstanding dramatists such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander
to the world of arts.
Keywords: History of Greek Drama, Genres of Greek Drama, Drama Festivals

Introduction
When tracing the beginning of Greek drama, it is evident that the history of Western drama
begins in the mid-sixth century at Athens (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 1). The high period of
Greek drama was the era from the sixth to the mid-third century and the fifth century was the
pinnacle of Greek drama, when most of the plays that we possess were produced. There are
three distinct genres of Greek drama, namely, tragedy, satyr-drama and comedy and they
were performed at the same festivals, but each had its own distinguishing features. When a
new papyrus fragment of an unknown dramatic text is discovered, it is nearly always possible
to assign it to its correct genre on the basis of language, metre and content (Sommerstein,
2004, p. 1). As Ashby (1999) explains, by the middle of the fourth century BC, Athens and

1
Bamunusinghe, S. (2014) ‘The History and the Evolution of Greek Drama’, in Samarasinghe, H. W. and
Bandaranayaka, A. S. (eds) Magadhi: a collection of scholarly articles, S. Godage Publishers, Sri Lanka pp.
455-470.

2
Senior Lecturer, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka

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possibly all of Greece must have been awashed with drama scripts. As history unveils, at
Athens’ Great City Dionysia, at least fifteen new scripts were presented every year and
assuming that these contests were held annually for hundred years, 900 tragedies, 300 satyr
plays and more than 300 comedies would have been presented, which make a total of 1500
original drama scripts written in the course of hundred years for City Dionysia. There were
also at least four other festivals in Athens, namely the Anthesteria, Lenaia, Rural Dionysainad
and Panathenaia, where the dramas were presented and also in the other city-states there may
have been dramatists creating more drama scripts. In the Greek world, drama was a part of
their lives, something intimate and frequent. It was not their individual preference that took
them to the Greek theatre but as a nation, they were a part of this process of dramas, which
came in the guise of rituals and festivals, held on behalf of the super-natural powers they
believed in.

Discussion
In earlier dramatic cultures, however, the space comes first and inflicts its own rules on the
performance. The art of the theatre did not spring fully born into the world. In all the
manifestations that we know, drama emerged as a by-product of some other activity, usually
some magico-religious activity (Arnott, 2003, p. 2). The first actors were priests, shamans or
sacred dancers and the emergent dramas were first performed in spaces that had been
designed for other purposes. The same situation could be identified at the roots of Greek
drama, since we are aware of the fact that the beginning of Greek drama is connected with
Greek religion and Greek religious festivals.

Drama is action and as Aristotle explains in ‘Poetics’, the dramatists ‘represent people in
action’ which was a different notion to the third-person narrative in Homer’s epics. For both
Plato and Aristotle, the two great philosophers of the fourth century, drama is an example of
mimesis, “imitation” or “representation,” but each took a different view of the matter (Allan
and Storey, 2005, p. 1). According to Plato mimesis was something to be discredited and
inferior and as he believed, the ideal ruler of the ideal state should avoid mimesis. It was
putting oneself into the character of another or taking on another’s role, which was according
to Plato, morally inferior. But as Aristotle perceived, mimesis is not only something natural
in human nature but something that generates pleasure and something essential for human
learning. As Aristotle explains in ‘Poetics’, “to engage in mimesis is innate in human beings
from childhood and humans differ from other living creatures in that humans are very
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mimetic and develop their first learning through mimesis and because all humans enjoy
mimetic activities”. Therefore, drama is “doing” or “performance” and in human cultures,
performance was a notion that was embedded specially in the religious and ritual context
such as the elaborate dances of the Shakers; the complex rituals of the Navaho peoples; the
mediaeval mystery plays, which for a largely uneducated society would provide a venue for
religious instruction and ritual reenactment, as well as for entertainment (Allan and Storey,
2005, p. 2). They further argue that drama encompass science, as the dances of the Navaho
provide a history of the world and a series of elaborate healing ritual and according to them
drama and performance often keep historical moments alive, such as legends which are based
on some real historical events, but elaborated out of recognition. Greek tragedy falls partly
into this category, since its themes and subjects are for the most part drawn from the heroic
age, an idealized time about a thousand years before the classical age (Allan and Storey,
2005, p. 2).

The Ramlila play cycles of northern India were a similar mixture of myth and history and
provided for the Hindus the same sort of cultural heritage that Greek myths did in classical
Greece (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 2). They bring an extreme example of the history-drama
in the history-plays of Shakespeare, in particular his Richard III, which is based on the Tudor
propaganda campaign aimed at dishonoring the last of the Plantagenets. Drama can be used
to provide moral instruction. The Mystery Plays in part restated the message of the Christian
gospel, while the Ramlila plays commemorate the conquest of love and devotion over malice
and lust.

It is inevitable to agree with the fact that humans enjoy both acting in and watching
performances. Aristotle is of the view that mimesis is a notion which is inborn in humanity
and a source of pleasure. A theatrical experience brings pleasure, a change to the same old
routine and rhythm of day today life, satisfaction by observing a story which unfolds on stage
with different characters and finally an emotional experience of human nature. Even
Sommerstein (2004) indicates that the role playing activities which were of a ritual or semi-
ritual nature were part of Greek life. According to his view, these have been part of the life of
almost all the people from the earliest times; choral dancing was a notion which was familiar
in the Homer’s world of epics and even archaic art represents groups of costumed dancers in
fabulous costumes. But we do not know whether these were the enactments of what can truly
be called drama.
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Available evidence proves that the crucial time of the evolution of Greek drama was the sixth
century BC and the crucial area was a strip of territory extending roughly east and west from
Attica, through Megara and the Isthmus, to Sicyon and Phlius in the north-eastern
Peloponnese. According to Herodotus the historian, the ‘tragic choruses’ had once sung of
the misfortunes of Adrastus at Sicyon, until the tyrant Cleisthenes (600–570 BC) transferred
them to the cult of Dionysus; Phlius, further inland, was the birthplace of Pratinas, the first
great satyr-dramatist (who, to judge by changes in the iconography of satyric scenes in Attic
art, may have moved to Athens around 520 BC); Megara claimed to have originated both
Athenian comedy (through the alleged founder of the genre, Susarion, traditionally dated 570
BC) and Sicilian comedy (through its colony of Megara Hyblaea, where Epicharmus was
supposed to have been born 550 BC); while the founder of Athenian tragedy, Thespis, came
from Icaria in eastern Attica and is reported to have won the first official tragic competition at
Athens in 533 BC (Herodotus, ‘Histories’). Although some of these happenings are based on
unstable evidence, their geographical consistency strongly suggests that this area did have a
vital role in the origins of Greek drama.

In Attica these early dramatic performances appear to have been particularly associated with
the Dionysiac cult-center of Icaria and it may be important that the east of Attica was the
home land and main power base of the tyrant Peisistratus under whose rule our sources place
Thespis’ activity. However, it is clear that when the prehistory is set aside, it could be
assumed that it is from the end of the 6th century that history of Greek drama began. The
records of the dramatic and dithyrambic contests of the Athenian City Dionysia have been
published on stone, which could be dated to 501 BC and the earliest tragedy which was
Phrynicus’ ‘Fall of Miletus’ has been produced in 493 BC. From then onwards until the mid-
third century, Athens was the leading city state of Greek drama.

According to Arnott (2003), plays are conditioned by their environment. Every age creates its
dramatists to produce dramas representing the existing age and its characteristics but there are
always a few who write for some visionary theater of the future. Arnott (2003) discusses
about practicing playwright and he is of the view that they work from a basis of practical
stagecraft. They write for the kind of playhouse they know, for actors whose skills and
training they are known with and for an audience whose presumptions are known and whose
reactions are foreseeable. Further the design of the theatre building, the nature of the space
4
available, the possibility of adapting and decorating this space: all these factors help to shape
the play. The Greek theater being an open theatre, providing seating capacity for thousands of
spectators, may have generated a similar influence on the Greek dramatists when composing
their dramas. In purpose-built structures, performance style and theatre architecture are often
mutually influential. A dramatist accepts certain constraints upon his art because of the nature
of the space available, or the quality of the acoustics; conversely, new buildings may be
designed to capitalize on certain skills or allow them to explore new dimensions of their art
(Arnott, 2003, p. 1).

As a form of art which evolved with religious roots, it was after sometime that drama has
established itself as a separate and independent activity and then the buildings were
constructed specifically for the performance of plays. This shape was dictated by the cultural
patterns of Greek society and by the nature of the Greek terrain art (Arnott, 2003, p. 2). Many
features of the theatres remain obscure to us for lack of information. We have no
contemporary descriptions of the structures that Aeschylus and Sophocles wrote for and acted
in and the earliest written accounts date from centuries later, when much had changed and it
was already too late.

Like any form of art, drama has its periods, each with its own style and leading poets. The
traditional date for the formal introduction of a dramatic form (tragedy) is given as 534 BC
and this is linked with the dramatist Thespis. It is obvious that tragedy was not “invented”
suddenly, and it could have been the gradual process of choral performances in the sixth
century, developing into what would be called “tragedy.” Thus the beginning of Greek drama
goes back to the sixth century and the first extant play (Aeschylus’ Persians) belongs to 472
BC. The period we know best is that which corresponds with Athens’ superiority in the Greek
world (479 BC-404 BC), from which we have thirty tragedies, one satyr-drama, one quasi-
satyr-drama and nine comedies, as well as a wealth of fragments and testimonia about lost
plays and authors (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 8).

But drama continued through the fourth century and also continued towards the third century.
New tragedies continued to be written and performed in the 4 th century, but along with the
new, sprang up a fascination with the old and competitions were widened to include an “old”
performance. In the third century, tragic activity shifted to the scholar-poets of Alexandria,
but here it is uncertain whether these tragedies were meant to be read rather than performed
5
and if performed, for how wide an audience. The evidence suggests that satyr-drama is a later
addition to the dramatic festivals which probably goes back to 501 B.C. Thus satyr-drama is
not the primal dramatic form from which tragedy would develop. In the 5th century satyr-
drama would go along with the performance of the three tragedies by each of the competing
playwrights, but by 340 BC satyr-drama was removed from the tragic competitions and only
one performed at the opening of the festival. Thus at some point during the 4th century, satyr-
drama becomes its own separate genre. Comedy began later than tragedy and satyr-drama,
the canonical first date being the City Dionysia of 486 BC. The comedy at Athens could be
divided into three distinct chronological phases namely Old Comedy, roughly synonymous
with the classical 5 th century (486 BC to 385 BC); Middle Comedy (385 BC to 325 BC, or
“between Aristophanes and Menander”); New Comedy (325 BC onwards). There are
complete plays surviving from the first and third of these periods. There was also comedy at
Syracuse in the early fifth century as well as “Megarian comedy.”

The distinct problems in approaching the study of Greek drama are the distance in time and
culture and the utter loss of evidence. In some instances, we are dealing with texts that are
nearly 2,500 years removed from our own, in a different language and produced for an
audience with cultural assumptions very different in most of the ways from the modern
world. The actual evidence is of four kinds; namely literary texts, literary testimonia, physical
remains of theaters and visual representations of theatrical scenes. The manuscript tradition
and discoveries on papyrus have yielded to date as complete texts: thirty-one tragedies, one
satyr-drama and thirteen comedies. But these belong to only five (perhaps six or seven)
distinct playwrights, out of the dozens that we know were active on the Greek stage.
Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides; the tragedians of the Greek world and Aristophanes and
Menander being the exceptional comic writers were the best at their business during that
time, but were they representative of all that the Athenians watched during those two
centuries? When considering these individual dramatists there are six or seven plays out of
eighty or so by Aeschylus, seven out of one hundred and twenty by Sophocles, eighteen out
of ninety by Euripides, eleven comedies out of forty by Aristophanes and about two comedies
by Menander out of over a hundred. On what grounds were these selections made, by whom,
for whom and when? Are these selected plays representative of their author’s larger opus?
(Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 9).

6
In addition to the texts of the plays, there is a considerable amount of literary testimonia
about the dramatic tradition generally and about individual plays and personalities and out of
them the most important is Aristotle’s Poetics, a sketchily written treatise dating from 330
BC, principally on tragedy and epic, but with some general introductory comments on drama.
Aristotle was himself not an Athenian by birth, although a resident for many years there and
was writing a hundred years after the great period of Attic tragedy. The great question in
dealing with Poetics is whether Aristotle knows what he is talking about, or whether he is
extrapolating backwards in much the same manner as a modern critic. He did see actual plays
performed in the theater, both new dramas of the 4th century and the old dramas of the
masters and he did have access to much documentary material which lacks. Thus his raw
material would have been far greater than the modern critics. But would this pure data have
shed any light on the history of the genre? Was he, at times, just making an educated guess?
(Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 10) Inscriptions provide another source of written evidence. The
ancients loved to post publicly their decrees, rolls of officials and records of competitions.
One inscription contains a partial list of the victors at the Dionysia in dithyramb, comedy and
tragedy, while another presents the tragic and comic victors at both festivals in order of their
first victory and a Roman inscription lists the various victories of Kallias. Another group of
inscriptions gives invaluable details about the contests at the Dionysia for 341 BC, 340 BC,
and 311 BC, including the information that satyr-drama by 340 BC was performed separately
at the beginning of the festival. Another inscription from the 2 nd century records a series of
productions starring an individual actor. On the purely physical front, remains of hundreds of
Greek and Roman theaters are known, ranging from the major sites of Athens, Delphi,
Epidauros, Dodona, Syracuse and Ephesos to small theaters tucked away in the backwoods
and barely known (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 11).

Most of the theaters are not in their 5th century condition and major rebuilding took place in
the 4th century, in the Hellenistic period and especially under Roman occupation. The remains
of Greek theatre today include the curved stone seats, individual “thrones” in the front row, a
paved orchestra floor and an elaborate raised structure in the middle of the orchestra. But the
theater of the high classical period had straight benches on the hillside, an orchestra floor of
packed earth (an orchestra that may not have been a perfect circle) and a wooden building at
the back of the orchestra (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 12). At Athens and Syracuse, the new
theater replaced the old on the same site, while at Argos the impressive and large 4 th century
theater was built on a new site, the fifth-century theater being more compressed and straight
7
rather than circular. Audiences were large and sat as a community in the open air. Distances
were great and from the last row of the theater at Epidauros a performer in the orchestra
would appear only inches high. The individual expressions were not visible since the
performers wore masks. But acoustics were of good quality and directed spectators’ attention
to what was being said or sung. Special effects used were limited and the word and the
gesture carried the energy of the drama and the prominence and centrality of the orchestra
mirror the importance of the chorus in Greek drama.

There are visual representations of the dramatic performances in the Greek world which are
found on Greek vases. This particular form of Greek art begins to reach its classical
perfection with the black figure pottery (figures appear in black against a red background) of
the late sixth century and continues with the exquisite red figure pottery (figures appear in
red against a black background) of the 5th and 4th centuries. From about 520 BC,
representations of performances, usually marked by the presence of an aulos-player and later
scenes from tragedy, satyr-drama and comedy are visible as the paintings on pottery. There
are not many scenes showing a self-conscious performance of tragedy except a vase of 430
BC depicting a pair of performers preparing to dress as maenads. But from 440 BC onwards,
vases depict scenes clearly influenced by tragedy: the opening-scenes of Libation-Bearers, a
series of vases depicting Sophocles’ early tragedy Andromeda, another series reflecting
Euripides’ Iphigeneia among the Taurians, the Cleveland Medea and a striking 4th century
tableau illustrating the opening scenes of Eumenides. One or two of these do show a pillar
structure, which some interpret as an attempt to render the skene front. But these are not
depicting an actual tragic performance.

The characters do not wear masks, males are often shown nude (or nearly so) instead of
wearing the elaborate costumes of tragedy and there is no hint of the aulos-player, a sure sign
of a representation of performance (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 13). For satyr-drama there is
the superb Pronomos Vase from the very end of the fifth century, the performers of a satyr-
drama by Demetrios in various degrees of their onstage dress, accompanied by the aulos-
player, Pronomos. For comedy, the vases show various sorts of performers of something
which may have been the predecessor to what would become comedy, principally padded
dancers in a celebration and men performing in animal-choruses. There is not much direct
evidence from the 5th century. A vase belonging to 420 BC showing a comic performer on a
raised platform before two spectators may or may not reflect a performance in the theater; it
8
might equally well reflect a private performance at a symposium. But there is a wealth of
vases from the 4th century, principally from the south of Italy, which show grotesquely
masked and padded comic performers with limp and dangling phalloi in obviously hilarious
situations. For a long time, these were thought to be representations of a local Italian low
comedy called “phlyakes,” but it is now accepted that these reflect Athenian Old Comedy
which, contrary to established belief, did travel and was reproduced in the Greek cities of
southern Italy. Some of these vases show a raised stage with steps and the double door of
drama and are plainly illustrating an actual stage performance. As Allan and Storey (2005)
explain, the most famous of these are the Wurzburg Telephos, a vase from about 370 BC
which depicts a scene from Aristophanes’ Women at the Thesmophoria; a vase by Assteas
showing a scene from Eupolis’ lost comedy, Demes and the Choregoi vase which seems to
show figures from both comedy and tragedy.

Sculptural representations of drama are much less common, but a relief from the late fifth
century shows three actors holding masks before Dionysus and his consort and some have
conjectured that this is the cast of Euripides’ prize-winning Bacchae. One rich source of
visual evidence is terracotta masks from various periods that shed valuable light on the nature
of comic masks. Scenes from the comedy of Menander were often part of the decoration of
ancient houses, most notably the so-called “House of Menander” in Pompeii and a 3rd century
AD house in Mytilene on Lesbos, where eleven mosaics remain, with named characters that
allows identifying the exact scene in at least two comedies (Allan and Storey, 2005, p. 14).

Megara claimed to have originated both Athenian comedy and Sicilian comedy while the
founder of Athenian tragedy, Thespis, came from Icaria in eastern Attica and is reported to
have won the first official tragic competition at Athens in 533 BC (Sommerstein, 2004, p. 2).
Although some of these traditions are based on shaky evidence, their geographical coherence
suggests that this area has played a vital role in the origins of Greek drama, though very
likely Corinth, a main cultural centre of the region was more important in the process than the
traditions indicate. In Attica these early dramatic performances appear to have been
particularly associated with the Dionysiac cult-centre of Icaria and it may be significant that
the east of Attica was the home territory and main power base of the tyrant Peisistratus under
whose rule our sources place Thespis’ activity. It is only from the end of the 6 th century that
the history, as opposed to the prehistory of Greek drama can be said to begin. When the
records of the dramatic and dithyrambic contests at the Athenian city Dionysia were
9
eventually published on stone, they seem to have been taken back to 501 BC, perhaps
because the festival was reorganized at that time to conform with the recent categorizing of
the citizen body into ten artificial ‘tribes’; Aeschylus made his debut two or three years later,
and the earliest tragedy whose date is known, Phrynichus’ Fall of Miletus, was produced in
493 BC. From then until the mid-third century Athens was the premier home of Greek drama.
In the first generation, Syracuse outshone Athens in comedy, but by 470 BC even Syracuse
was importing Athenian dramatic talent and as drama gradually became a leading form of art
and entertainment throughout the Greek world it also became one of the prime promoters of
Athenian cultural prestige. At first this applied mainly to tragedy, because of the topical and
parochial nature of most of the best 5th century Athenian comedy; but as the nature of
comedy changed in the 4th century its international popularity rose and in the early Hellenistic
period the ubiquitous touring companies of actors were as likely to be performing Menander
as Euripides. By this time a theatre was almost an essential part of the civic infrastructure of a
Greek polis, wherever it might be and the dramatic arts were beginning to catch on among
some of the ‘barbarians’ as well. But by this time, also, the creative phase of drama in the
Greek world was coming to an end. The last dramatist generally ranked in the highest class,
Philemon, died in 263 B.C; competitions for new tragedies and comedies, at Athens and
elsewhere, continued long after, but few if any of the plays that won them were performed or
read by later generations (Sommerstein, 2004, p. 2).

From the mid-third century BC onwards, drama became a treasured cultural possession for
educated Greeks from the glorious past to which they looked back with increasing nostalgia;
it was still performed, but even more it was read. From the first and increasingly, this activity
was concentrated on three tragic dramatists and they were Aeschylus, Sophocles and
Euripides who had been singled out as classics at Athens as early as the 4 th century BC, when
official standard texts of their plays had been designated for archival preservation and public
performance and five comic dramatists namely Epicharmus, Cratinus, Eupolis, Aristophanes
and Menander. In about 300 AD Epicharmus, Cratinus and Eupolis almost disappear from the
canon and the other major 5th century dramatists became the ones representing the golden era
of Greek drama in the Hellenic world including Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,
Aristophanes and Menander.

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 Conclusion
Thousands of years ago, Greek drama emerged in the Hellenic soil, making it an invaluable
treasure to world literature. Rich with the three genres of drama as tragedy, satyr-play and
comedy, these dramas were performed at the drama festivals held in honor of God Dionysus.
It is evident that Greek drama too has evolved as a result of Greek religious activities, in
relation to the religious rituals fulfilled for God Dionysus. Passing several periods in the
evolution of Greek drama, numerous dramatists have emerged, gifting the world renowned
dramatists such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Aristophanes and Menander.

References
Allan, A and Storey, I.C. (1998), Guide to Ancient Greek Drama, Blackwell Publishing.
Aristotle, Poetics.
Arnott, P. D. (2003), Public and Performance in the Greek Theatre, Taylor and Francis
e-Library.
Ashby, C. (1999), Classical Greek Theatre: new views of an old subject, Lowa City:
University of Lowa Press.
Herodotus, Histories.
Sommerstein, A.H. (2004), Greek Drama and Dramatists, Taylor and Francis e-library.

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