Criticism > Classical and Medieval Literature Criticism > Thespis - Francisco R. Adrados (essay date 1972)

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Francisco R. Adrados (essay date 1972)

SOURCE: Adrados, Francisco R. “From Agricultural Festival to Theatre.” In Festival, Comedy and Tragedy: The Greek Origins of Theatre, pp. 319-68. Leiden, The Netherlands: E. J. Brill, 1975.

[In the following excerpt, originally published in Spanish in 1972, Adrados contends that tragedy developed from agricultural rituals and festivals and that Thespis, if he ever existed, was more of a refiner than an inventor of the genre.]

1. FESTIVAL AND LYRIC. UNITY AND DIFFERENTIATION OF LYRIC. THESPIS

1.

Greek Lyric as a whole was influenced by Epic, a profane genre from a remote epoch, though not without traces, which will not concern me here, of a religious origin. But Lyric directly originated from those elements of ritual in which dance, words, and music played a part. In several of its genres the dance was lost, and so too, to a large extent, was the mimesis which at first often...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism
   1. Thomas Wood Stevens (essay date 1932)
   2. Gerald F. Else (essay date 1965)
   3. Francisco R. Adrados (essay date 1972)
3. Further Reading
4. Copyright

1. Ancient Greece