The Ancient Greek Theatre
Skene is the building that functions as background to the stage.
Parodos is the side entrance for the actors and chorus; it is also the name of the first song the chorus sings as they come on stage.
Orchestra is the center spot where the chorus stands.
Theatron is where the audience sits.
FROM ARISTOTLE’S POETICS:
For tragedy is not an imitation of men but of actions and of life … it is not for the purpose of presenting their characters that the agents engage in action, but rather it is for the sake of their actions that they take on the characters they have. Thus, what happens—that is, the plot—is the end for which a tragedy exists, and the end or purpose is the most important thing of all.
Thus, Tragedy is an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and possessing magnitude; in embellished language, each kind of which is used separately in the different parts; in the mode of action and not narrated; and effecting through pity and fear [what we call] the catharsis of such emotions. By “embellished language” I mean language having rhythm and melody, and by “separately in different parts” I mean that some parts of a play are carried on solely in metrical speech while others again are sung.
IMPORTANT TERMS RELATED TO GREEK TRAGEDY
Tragic irony is the incongruity (disharmony) created when the (tragic) significance of a character’s speech or actions is revealed to the audience but unknown to the character concerned. For example when Oedipus vows to find the murderer and curses him for the plague that he has caused, not knowing that he himself is the murderer.
Peripeteia (Reversal) is a change from one state of affairs to its exact opposite. For example when the Messenger comes to relieve Oedipus’s fear with regard to his mother and it has the opposite effect because he reveals his true identity.
Anagnorisis (Recognition) is a change from ignorance to knowledge, leading either to friendship or to hostility on the part of those persons who are marked for good or bad fortune.
Hamartia is a mistake or error of judgment, sometimes translated as “tragic flaw” – for Aristotle, it is not a moral defect.
Katharsis is the process of releasing repressed emotions, and is an uplifting of the spectators “through pity and fear effecting the proper purgation of these emotions.”
THE DELPHIC ORACLE
Priestess of Delphi (1891) by John Collier
Video of Delphic Oracle on YouTube