Importance of Religion in Greek Drama

Ancient history
Yr 11 assessment

Religion played a very important part of Greek drama; the most important element underlying Greek drama was religion. It concerned the gods and was performed in honour of the gods at their particular religious festivals.1 The Greek drama began as a religious observance in honour of Dionysus. In the eyes of the Greeks, Dionysus embodied both spring and the vintage.2 He was a symbol to them of that power there is in man of rising out of himself, of being impelled onwards by a joy within him that he cannot explain, but which makes him go forward walking, as it were, on the wings of the wind, of ‘the spirit that fills him with a deep sense of worship’.3 We call this power enthusiasm, a Greek word which simply means the god within us.4 In 5th century BC Athens, there were no regular theatrical performances. Instead, plays were performed at two great festivals held in honour of Dionysus.5
Dionysus was especially associated with fertility, both humans and crops. The Athenian people believed that every year, at the end of March, Dionysus brought spring back to the country side.6 Passing through the farms and fields of Athens, blessing the growing crops so the harvest would be fruitful.7 It was from the stories of his life, recited at the religious festivals, that the drama came.8 The story was originally told as a song, being first chanted by the people who took part in these festivals, and later preformed by about fifty performers called the chorus9 and at intervals in the song part of the story would be recited by a leader by himself. Over time the chorus became of less importance in the action of the drama, until finally the chorus could only consist of fifteen performers.
In many ways a Greek drama is seen as the same as today’s modern type dramas; fewer characters, usually only two or three speaking actors on stage at the one time, only one story told with nothing to take the audience away from this.10 Although the chorus no longer told the story, it was still a very important part in the dramas as it set the atmosphere of the play, and the lyrics of haunting loveliness hinted at the tragedy that could not be adverted. The chorus also served another purpose.11 In today’s modern drama, relief is often found when the tragedy of a situation becomes almost too great to bear in some comic or even partly comic, which is introduced to loosen the tension. Although this is modern drama and in Greek drama comic relief was felt to be out of place so instead the chorus followed a tragic event by a song of purest poetry.12 In one of Euripides plays, a terrible scene of tragedy was followed by a song in which the chorus prayed for escape of such sorrows on the wings of a bird to a land where all was peaceful and beautiful.13 They sang:
(Euripides)
‘Could I take me to some cavern for mine hiding,
In the hill-tops where the sun scarce hath trod;
Or a cloud make the home of mine abiding,
As a bird among the bird-droves of god.
And the song goes on to carry the imagination to a spot
Where a voice of living waters never ceaseth
In gods quiet garden by the sea,
And earth, the ancient life-giver, increaseth
Joy among the meadows, like a tree’ 14
In the great Greek dramas, the chorus is a constant reminder that there are other powers in the world other then the wild passions of men, even though they cannot understand or explain them.
Actors wore masks in both tragedy and comedy, reinforcing the idea of drama as a ritual. Many of these masks became a traditional part of the character and were reproduced over centuries of performances.15 The audience at the Athenian dramatic festival would include people from all parts of Athenian society. The principle magistrates and priests of the city would sit in the front row, the priests of Dionysus would have the seat in the middle. Near them would be the important politicians, leaders of the city, and demagogues like Cleon. There would be intellectuals, philosophers, land owners, orators and poets, as well as ordinary people who had come in from surrounding country side, workers from the city, soldiers and many others.16
Oedipus is a Greek drama play written by Sophocles17, who was the second of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedy. Sophocles was a priest of Halon.18 The word “tragedy” refers primarily to tragic drama: a literary composition written to be performed by actors in which a central character called a tragic protagonist or hero suffers from serious misfortune which is not accidental and thus meaningless, but its significant in that the misfortune is logically connected with the heroes actions.19 The drama Oedipus reveals many aspects of Greek society in the 5th century BC. One of the key issues raised by the play is the role of fate. It examines the question ‘are humans masters of their own fate or slaves to their destiny?’20
Oedipus and Jocasta both attempt to take their own destiny in their hands. Jocasta and Lains attempted to kill Oedipus as a baby, as they had received a prophecy, that their son would kill Lains and marry Jocasta. Oedipus attempted to flee from his parents in Corinth when he heard that his destiny was to kill his friend and marry his mother. In both cases by attempting to control their destiny they achieved the fate they feared.21
Religion is shown in Oedipus through how the gods have damned him to his life, which was put in motion by the gods for their own purposes, he was fated by the gds to kill his friend and marry his mother, and he did that. He was told by divinely inspired sources, and he didn’t listen. The entire play shows the wits of the gods, and how they control and guide our lives and how we are helpless to their force.22
The legends and traditions from which most of the Greek plays took their plots were very well known to all of the Athenians. They were stories commemorating some great event, or explaining some religious observance, but naturally these legends were differently treated by different dramatists23 each of whom brought out a different side to every story which left the audience thinking about it and taking the ideas home, this was especially true of legends like that of Iphigenia connected with the fall of troy24
So, in conclusion religion played a very important role in the lives of the Greeks and the evidence is written in the Greek drama tragedies and comedies. The Greeks respected the gods as they told the fate of every person.