Medea | Greek Tragedy: an Overview
Greek Tragedy: an Overview
The Genre of Greek Tragedy
The Greek tragedies that survive for us today were written and performed in a specific setting: the democratic city of Athens in the 5th century. They owe their literary background to the epic poems of Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, as well as lyric poems performed by large choruses, often on mythological subjects.
Greek legend attributed to Thespis the invention of acting (hence we call actors “thespians”). Drama was born when, instead of just narrating events, an actor assumed a character and interacted accordingly with the chorus, which consisted of a group of people specific to the drama (hence, in Medea the chorus is made up of women of Corinth). Both actor and chorus performed wearing elaborate costumes and masks. According to Aristotle, the great playwright Aeschylus added the second actor and Sophocles the third. With these three actors playing multiple roles (by changing their masks backstage!), a complete story could be acted out, and gradually the role of the chorus diminished. In the plays of Euripides, the chorus rarely achieves the role of a real character as it so often does, for instance, in the plays of Aeschylus.
The plays followed a fairly strict structure, with a prologue, the entrance of the chorus, and then several episodes separated by choral odes. The dialogue of the plays is written in meter, but was spoken, like the plays of Shakespeare, whereas the choral odes were written in a more complicated meter for the chorus to sing and dance. The plays also include a kommos, in which the main character(s) lament in song with the chorus. All in all, the form of Greek tragedy occupies a place somewhere between Shakespeare and opera. It is important, all the same, for modern readers to remember that they are getting a small portion of what the original audience received, for they are reading a libretto without the benefit of any music or the often elaborate costumes and scenery.
Tragedy and the City
The genre of tragedy is the particular product of the Athenian democracy. In the late 6th century BCE, the Athenians drove out the family of tyrants who had ruled the city for decades and established the only true democracy in western history. Almost all political offices were chosen by lot, and the assembly of all Athenian citizens voted directly on all important issues. It was during the 5th century that Athens became the most powerful city of Greece. After joining with other Greek cities to repel an invasion by the Persian Empire, the largest empire in the world at the time, Athens became an imperial power herself, conquering other Greek cities and eventually stretching their power too far and collapsing. Sparta and her allies conquered Athens in 404, and, although the democracy was restored and continued throughout the 4th century, Athens would never regain the glory she had achieved a century earlier.
Fifth-century Athens was an almost unparalleled area of cultural achievement, an enlightenment extending from philosophy and science through architecture and the visual arts. Tragedy was the premiere literary genre of this period, and it is fitting that the apex of the democracy should be symbolized by a genre of poetry that involves the entire citizen body. Performed at one of the major festivals of the city, the Great Dionysia, each tragedy was part of a contest. Three playwrights would be chosen by a city official, and each playwright would produce three tragedies and a satyr-play (a kind of farce intended to lighten the mood after three tragedies), all four plays being performed in a single day. The audience consisted of about 15,000 citizens, and the festival itself became a pageant of Athenian power and glory.
We know of many playwrights from this century, but the works of only three survived the end of antiquity and the Middle Ages, in which so much of ancient literature was lost. Fortunately, the three poets we have were universally considered to be the best: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Of these three, Euripides won many fewer victories that the other two; he won the first prize only four times, compared to the thirteen victories of Aeschylus and the twenty of Sophocles. Nevertheless, Euripides was considered during his life to be one of the greatest playwrights; he was also extraordinarily popular after his death, both in Athens and beyond. As a result, more of his plays than those by Aeschylus and Sophocles have survived. The major surviving plays of Euripides besides Medea include The Bacchae, The Trojan Women, Hippolytus, and Iphigenia in Aulis. Medea was part of a tetralogy (group of four plays) that came in third at the festival. Does this tell us that the Athenians did not like the play? Remember that prizes were awarded for all four plays as a group. Without knowing the quality of the plays that accompanied Medea, we cannot know exactly why it came in third, although the play's dark, controversial nature has led many scholars to believe that it may have offended the conventional sensibilities of the judges.
Medea was first performed in 431 BC, a time when Athens was at the height of her power, and although plague would wreak havoc on the city, Athenians could view their empire and the war with Sparta with confidence. It was also a period when Sophocles was the dominant figure of tragedy and had already produced classic plays like Antigone. Euripides was well established as well, however, and had won his first victory in 441.
Conventions of Greek Drama
The most important convention of the Greek stage was the wearing of masks with attached wigs by all performers. As such, facial expression, which plays so large a role in modern theater, was not a factor. Additionally, the elaborate costumes worn by the actors and chorus members were often the most striking visual element. Staging was usually limited to the painted background behind the stage. Greek tragedies are all set outside, so this background usually depicted the exterior of the main characters’ residence—in Medea's case, the house of Medea in Corinth. Changes of scene are rare in Greek tragedy, and props are kept to a minimum. The action of the drama takes place over a single day. In addition to the chorus and the three actors, mute characters could also appear on stage as needed, and important people like Jason and Medea would almost always appear with attendants. In front of the stage proper, which was not raised from the ground as in modern theaters, was a circular area called the orchestra, in which the chorus performed its dances. These would have musical accompaniment provided by an aulos, a double pipe like a modern oboe.
While ancient technology did not allow much in the way of special effects, there were two devices that Athenian playwrights could use to add great spectacle to their staging. One was a device called the ekkyklema. Since the action of the play takes place outside, the ekklyklema revealed the inside of the house. The stage doors would be thrust open and the ekkyklema would roll out, almost always carrying the corpses of characters who had just been killed inside. This happened so often in Greek tragedy that it would be expected by the audience; watch carefully to see how Euripides plays with this expectation in Medea.
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See Also:
- - For teachers, the Medea Lesson Plan.
- - Medea summary and study guide in the eNotes.
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