Greek Theatre

Theatre of Dionysus

One of the biggest influences on our culture from ancient times would be the formalizing of artistic performances, which lead to the creation of Theatre. This was apparently first done by the Greeks, although their inspiration appears to have been from the traditional storytelling that was already a staple of many religions. Taking the storytelling role of a religious figure, such as a shaman, they adapted this to plays. While they oftentimes dealt with religious matters or custom, they were not limited in scope. These plays were like recited poetry, performed by choruses of up to fifty men. A man named Thespis either introduced the concept of a single "actor" interacting with the chorus, playing the main character, or he may have been the first actor. This is where the worth 'thespian' comes from, which is a term still used today to describe modern day actors. This role of one man interacting with the chorus slowly expanded, but it appears that the Greeks never had more than three individuals perform at any one time. Around 534 B.C. the performances were arranged into formal competitions.

Modern day Hollywood Bowl

These competitions in turn lead to full-fledged theatres being constructed just for the purpose of housing them, and allowing for as many spectators as possible. The Theatre of Dionysus, named after the original religious festival, could seat up to 17,000 people. It's design is still used today as many amphitheatres have the same basic layout, with tiered rows rising up from the stage area, to allow clear views for as many audience members as possible. The 'orchestra pit' as well, derives from the Greek theatres, as the word was derived from the name of the platform which was originally where the chorus would be that chanted and interacted with the actors on stage.


There were two main areas of performance. While the Greeks originally started the competitions to select the best Tragedies, the genre expanded to include Comedy. The original Tragedies were designed not just to have sad endings, but to teach moral lessons. They often showed the folly of arrogance by mortal man, especially when competing with the Gods. While Comedies did not have the same heavy handed feel, they also taught moral lessons, albeit in a not so depressing manner.



It would be hard to find another event that has transcended time and culture as much as the Greek Theatre has. While the profession of being an actor has sometimes waned in social status depending on the particular culture, more often than not actors were considered celebrities. In today's world most any person will have at some times in their lives entertained the thought of being an actor. While the form of 'Theatre' can be said to have evolved, as film, television, and other mediums have been invented, the basic premise of gathering to watch a form of story played out by actors is a fundamental aspect of the world population. All over the world there are cultures that have some form of performance art that can trace its roots to the Greek Theatre. Today, we still flock to see movies and plays. We still have festivals and ceremonies where the best of the genre's are awarded, and Tragedy and Comedy still rank amongst the most popular forms of theatre that exist today.


 
Informative Links:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatre_of_Ancient_Greece

http://www.crystalinks.com/greektheater.html


 

 

Greek Influence in Art

    Like many others, I had heard of some famous Greek works of art, especially sculptures. The Venus de Milo, The Discus Thrower, and Hermes, are all sculptures that I have seen either in movies or on television. While I understood that they were great works of art, I never took the time to appreciate the how and why.

    Greek art, particularly in regards to sculptures, actually has its roots in Egyptian art. The Greeks did not just start with their amazing sculptures, as in the Archaic period, they at first seemed intent on mimicking the Egyptian style of sculpture. This involved statues in very stiff poses, with little to no expression. In the images below the one on the left is from Egypt, while the one on the right is from Greece (New York Kouros). There are many similarities, down to the way both sculptures are making fists with their thumbs pointed outward. The form of the statues again is very stiff, and not any kind of natural pose.




    After Greece defeated the Persians and began its rise to a World Power, the education that the Greek's valued began to show in their artwork. Using advanced mathematics the Greeks were able to start to accurately portray human proportions on their statues. This began the Classical Age of Greek art. As new artists were able to build upon the geometry involved in getting the human proportions correct, they were then able to go even further and create natural poses, so that their sculptures then seemed to be moving and alive. This can be seen in the sculpture of The Dying Gaul. While you study the form you are drawn to the statues gaze, while it seems to both struggle to stand and examine the mortal wound it has suffered. You can see the strain being put on the arms as he attempts to lift himself up one last time, and the exhaustion that is on the nameless Gaul's face. The attention to detail can also be seen in the collar that the Gaul is wearing, as it is made to represent twisted gold wire that the Gaul's would wear into battle. While the overall posture is one of defeat, you can still sense the pride in the warrior, trying to stand up one last time and not quite ready to accept death as being imminent.

    In contrast the Venus De Milo, or Aphrodite, is a form of stunning beauty. While the arms have been missing, it is believed that she may have been holding a mirror in one hand and a shield in the other. The image even now projects near perfect beauty, and actually used to be the seal of the American Society of Plastic Surgeons.

    We owe the Greek sculptures for making it possible to learn more about not only their triumphant moments, but also their everyday life, as many Greek sculptures attempted to capture 'snapshots' of normal life. This of course has influenced us in many ways, from the way new artists choose to express themselves, to even what we still consider to be ideal beauty.

    

Mummies

    Reading about the mummification process was very interesting. I'd known about some of the details, the removing of the brains, the bandage wrapping, etc. but I didn't realize that there were actually different tiers of mummification depending on your wealth/social status. Obviously the Pharaohs would receive the first class treatment of the careful removal of the organs, the coating of resin, and the painting of facial features.

Going down the social ladder you started getting less treatment, until, if you were a member of the lower class you pretty much got thrown in a tub of Natron, which was a naturally occurring chemical in Egypt, and allowed to 'dry out' for about 70 days, at which point your family would come to collect you for your burial. Reading more about the procedure at http://www.mummytombs.com/egypt/methods.htm showed that it actually took several centuries for the Egyptians to perfect the art of making a long-lasting Mummy. Some of the earliest mummies were nothing more than bodies wrapped in linen, then covered with plaster to give them shape. It wasn't until much later in the process that the extended time period, the moisture leaching, organ removal, and linen wrapping became almost an art form. Interestingly, it also appears that towards the end of the Egyptian dynasty, the quality of mummification also severely declined. Almost like there was an influx of 'mummy specialists' that gave little attention to the bodies, but instead focused on quanity.

    The idea of 'preservation' seems to still be prevalent in our society today. While most may have given up on the idea of keeping their current physical body for the next, or after, life, they still place great emphasis on preserving their bodies as long as possible. Instead of painting the face of their youth on a wooden mask, now we have all manner of cosmetic surgery available to try to retain a youthful appearance. While the richer or more powerful people have access to the more expensive procedures, even the poor among us do their best to keep up with a variety of products marketed to maintaining youth.

    This would seem to indicate that a form of culture that has continued on for thousands of years is that we as humans do not want to grow old, at least not past our physical primes. This is indicated by some of the most ancient of stories, where protagonists like Gilgamesh or even Adam and Eve were either in pursuit of eternal life, or once had it but then lost it due to divine retribution. While the morals of those stories seem to teach us that we should not spend our time chasing something that is impossible to have, but rather filling our time with fulfilling pursuits, that is a lesson that is not easily learned.

    A possible lesson we can learn from the ancient Pharaohs and the stories in this week's reading is that the old saying of "you can't take it with you when you go" is most certainly true. How we apply that to our lives is up to us as individuals, but it may help to but some of life's concerns in a better perspective.

Scars

Scars can define a person, tell you where you've been, what you've seen. They last a lifetime, always reminding you of where you've been, where you've come from.

She studied me with her innocent blue eyes, taking in my face as if looking at me for the first time. "Oh, what happened here?" She gently traces the scar that divides my left eyebrow into two distinct sections.

My eyes lose focus as I think back to that night. It comes upon me suddenly, something I hadn't thought or dreamed of for years. My fists slowly clench as the memory becomes more vivid, until I am reliving the moment again and again.

I was four or five years old, I vaguely recall that my parents had once again left me behind with relatives while they took a weekend trip somewhere. I know I was watching TV, but the exact program escapes me, that wasn't important. What comes rushing back is the sudden panic I felt, as I suddenly had to urinate with extreme urgency, the way only a little kid can. I rushed to the bathroom, ripping at my pants in a desperate attempt to avoid wetting them, after all I was grown up, not some baby to be wetting their pants! The urge to pee was becoming excruciating, which made me all the more clumsy trying to un-buckle some Popeye cartoon belt that was designed by some devil spawn for the sick purpose of making kids wet themselves.

Finally though I acheived victory with nary a drop staining my pants. While I was rescuing my pants from infamy however, my victory was short lived. While I did succeed in freeing myself from my pant prison, my trajectory was thrown off. Instead of a clear steady shot into the toilet, the propulsion sent a stream straight up, making a thousand tiny rainbows as the soft bathroom light reflected through each golden prism. While I stared in awe I did not notice the pool quickly forming around my socked feet. As I stepped forward in an effort to right the errant flow, the socks succeeded where my pants had failed, and I slipped, falling face foward and cracking my skull against the rim of the target toilet bowl.

I do not recall much after that, other than my Uncle yelling about piss everywhere, and my Aunt slapping a band-aid over my eye. I rememeber the painful peeling off of the band-aid later, as it seemed determined to remove every hair that formed my eyebrow. What the band-aid left behind was enough to show the bloodly split that now effectively gave me three eyebrows. It tooks months for my eyebrow to grow back and start to cover the scar, until finally I barely gave it a glance when I looked in the mirror.

She had brought that memory back however, and I was taken back to a different time, a different place.

"Did it hurt when it happened, does it still hurt?"

I put a finger to her lips in a shushing motion. "It doesn't matter anymore, some battles are best left in the past."