Greek+Comedy

x [|Comedy - Nova on Line]

** Greek Comedy Facts ** source: http://novaonline.nvcc.edu/eli/spd130et/ancientgreek.htm#Com
 * not admitted to Dionysus festival till 487-486 B.C. - late
 * unknown origins or influences
 * perhaps from improvisations of leaders of phallic songs
 * or from mime - satirical treatment of domestic situations or burlesqued myths
 * 6 comic dramatists besides Aristophanes (his is the only extant work)
 * Called "Old Comedy" (Menander's plays are considered to be Greek "New Comedy")
 * commentary on contemporary society, politics, literature, and Peloponnesian War.
 * Based on a "happy idea" - a private peace with a warring power or a sex strike to stop war
 * exaggerated, farcical, sensual pleasures

source: http://humanities.psydeshow.org/home/nov-7.htm
 * Certain principles were not overturned in the "safe space" of comedy:
 * --one still didn't speak ill of the dead
 * --one did not undermine religion in ways that might linger after the play was over
 * --one did not criticize the institution of democracy
 * --one did not impugn the honor of any respectable woman.
 * Greek Comedy Structure **


 * --**Prologue** (introduces situation)
 * --**Parados** (entry of chorus)
 * --**Agon** (struggle/dispute)chorus gives debate
 * --**Parabasis** (direct appeal to the audience:a choral ode addressing the audience, in which a social or political problem in discussedin Aristophanes, usually dealing with the playwright's own views on the status of comedy)
 * -- **Episodes** (five scenes dealing with the comic theme)
 * --**Exodus** (exit of chorus)scenes show the result of the happy idea final scene: all reconcile and exit to feast or revelry

source: http://humanities.psydeshow.org/home/nov-7.htm

** Characteristics of Greek Comedy **
 * [[image:AristotlePoeticscomedy.jpg width="368" height="554" align="right"]]Make fun of well known people and customs of the era, including gods and religion
 * More important to be funny than logical; not always follows rational time, place and sequence possibilities
 * A change in fortune was always for the better; conflict resolution leads to a happy ending.
 * Made fun of “inferior” or ugly people, such as those with disabilities
 * Used the common people’s language style
 * Plots involve ordinary people and their influence on each other
 * Fantastical elements, mistaken identities, battle of the sexes, jumping to conclusions, and improbable disguises are part of the comedy.
 * Chorus often dresses as animals while character wore street clothes and grotesque masks.

[|Ancient History - Greek Comedy] Cratinus' Pytine [|Comedy] [|Ancient Greek Comedies][|Ancient Greek Comedies - blog summaries][|Origin of Comedy] - An examination of the development of Greek comedy from the Phallic processions of the Greeks.[|Comic Costumes] - A description of the costumes worn by comic actors in ancient Greece.

EIGHT ANCIENT GREEK COMEDIES WITH THEMES THAT ARE STILL RELEVANT

Origins and definitions
The word //comedy// seems to be connected by derivation with the [|Greek] verb meaning “to revel,” and comedy arose out of the revels associated with the [|rites] of [|Dionysus], a god of [|vegetation]. The origins of comedy are thus bound up with vegetation ritual. [|Aristotle], in his //[|Poetics]//, states that comedy originated in [|phallic] songs and that, like [|tragedy], it began in [|improvisation]. Though [|tragedy] evolved by stages that can be traced, the progress of comedy passed unnoticed because it was not taken seriously. When tragedy and comedy arose, poets wrote one or the other, according to their natural bent. Those of the graver sort, who might previously have been inclined to celebrate the actions of the great in [|epic] [|poetry], turned to tragedy; poets of a lower type, who had set forth the doings of the ignoble in invectives, turned to comedy. The distinction is basic to the [|Aristotelian] differentiation between tragedy and comedy: tragedy imitates men who are better than the average and comedy men who are worse.[|Britanica]

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Comedy imitates inferior people, focusing on the ugly and the ludicrous, but not necessarily evil as such. The ugly can be defined as something that causes no pain or destruction//.// Unlike tragedy, comedy was not taken as seriously in its beginnings. Thus, by the time comic poets appeared, comedy was already an established form, and the origins of the comic traditions—masks, prologues, or groups of actors used in comedy are unclear. Like tragedy, epic poetry is composed of significant length, employed imitation, was composed in verse, and was composed in the interest of being taken seriously. http://www.novelguide.com/aristotles-poetics/summaries/chapter5-6
 * Chapter 5**


 * Alternate titles:** Aristophanic comedy
 * Old Comedy ****,** initial phase of ancient Greek [|comedy] (//c.// 5th century bc ), known through the works of [|Aristophanes]. Old Comedy plays are characterized by an exuberant and high-spirited [|satire] of public persons and affairs. Composed of song, dance, personal invective, and buffoonery, the plays also include outspoken political criticism and comment on literary and philosophical topics. The plays, consisting of loosely related episodes, were first performed in Athens for the religious festival of Dionysus. They gradually took on a six-part structure: an introduction, in which the basic fantasy is explained and developed; the //[|parodos],// entry of the [|chorus;] the contest, or //[|agon],// a ritualized debate between opposing principals, usually stock characters; the //[|parabasis],// in which the chorus addresses the audience on the topics of the day and hurls scurrilous criticism at prominent citizens; a series of farcical scenes; and a final banquet or wedding. The chorus often were dressed as animals, while the characters wore street dress and masks with grotesque features.
 * Old Comedy ****,** initial phase of ancient Greek [|comedy] (//c.// 5th century bc ), known through the works of [|Aristophanes]. Old Comedy plays are characterized by an exuberant and high-spirited [|satire] of public persons and affairs. Composed of song, dance, personal invective, and buffoonery, the plays also include outspoken political criticism and comment on literary and philosophical topics. The plays, consisting of loosely related episodes, were first performed in Athens for the religious festival of Dionysus. They gradually took on a six-part structure: an introduction, in which the basic fantasy is explained and developed; the //[|parodos],// entry of the [|chorus;] the contest, or //[|agon],// a ritualized debate between opposing principals, usually stock characters; the //[|parabasis],// in which the chorus addresses the audience on the topics of the day and hurls scurrilous criticism at prominent citizens; a series of farcical scenes; and a final banquet or wedding. The chorus often were dressed as animals, while the characters wore street dress and masks with grotesque features.

Old Comedy sometimes is called Aristophanic comedy, after its most famous exponent, whose 11 surviving plays include //The Clouds// (423 bc ), a satire on the misuse of philosophical argument directed chiefly against Socrates, and //The Frogs// (405 bc ), a satire on Greek drama directed chiefly against Euripides. Other Old Comedy writers include [|Cratinus], Crates, Pherecrates, and [|Eupolis]. Athens’ defeat in the [|Peloponnesian War] signaled the end of Old Comedy, because a sense of disillusionment with the heroes and gods who had played a prominent role in Old Comedy became marked. [|Britanica]

http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/greektheater/g/091609GreekComedy.htm Aristotle describes the genre of comedy in his [|//Poetics//], especially as to how it differs from tragedy. Among other distinctions, Aristotle says comedy represents men as worse than they are in real life, whereas tragedy shows them better. Tragedy uses real people, whereas comedy uses stereotypes. Aristotle says the plot for comedy came originally from Sicily. Greek comedy is divided into Old, Middle, and New Comedy. Aristophanes is the author of the earliest Old Comedy we possess, //The Acharnians//, produced in 425. Middle Comedy (c.400-c.323) ran from roughly the end of the Peloponnesian War until the death of Alexander the Great. No complete plays survive. New Comedy (c.323-c.263) is exemplified by Menander.
 * Definition:**

In ancient Athens, there were annual competitions not only in tragedy, but also comedy at the City Dionysia, starting in 486 B.C. The Lenaea festival started having comedy competitions in 440. There were normally 5 comedies that competed, but during the Peloponnesian War, the number was reduced to 3. Unlike the writers of tragedy who put on a series of 4 plays, the writers of comedy produced one comedy apiece. Sources:

"Comedy" //The Concise Oxford Companion to Classical Literature.// Ed. M.C. Howatson and Ian Chilvers. Oxford University Press, 1996.
 * [|Aristotle Poetics]

[|Classical Notes on Comedy] [|Greek Comedy--Ancient History] [|Intro to Greek and Roman Comedy] [|Greek Satyr and Old Greek Comedy] [|Chapter 8: Satyr Plays and Old Comedy Before Aristophanes] [|Chapter 10: Later Greek Comedy]

[|Chapter 11: Post-Classical Theatre]

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