Dionysus Research Paper

Many ancient civilizations witnessed Greek theater and tragedy as the world’s first theatrical performances. Tragedy comes from the Greek word Tragos and Ole meaning goat song. The dithyramb, a song and dance performed in honor of the god Dionysus, was performed at a ceremony in Athens; it told the story of Dionysus’s life and his many adventures. Throughout the years the playwrights added things other than Dionysus’s life to the performance. They added other gods and some hero’s that made a name for themselves within the temple. As more time passed they added more actors, choruses, masks and costumes as a way to grab the audience’s attention and participation. Theater was first seen by ancient Greece before it spread all throughout western

Euripides was born in 484 BC in Salamis. When Euripides was only twenty-six, he saw the Oresteia Trilogy, written by Aeschylus, which made Euripides start writing tragedies. Euripides had competed many times against the third biggest tragedy writer, Sophocles, in the annual Dionysus. He only won the competition four times.

“Between 455 and 428 B.C Euripides wrote, as we know, nearly thirty plays, of which three have survived complete: Alcestis (438) Medea (431) and Hippolytus (428). From fragments and other information we know that about twenty of these earlier plays took as their main theme the sufferings or the misdeeds of women in heroic legend.” (Radice, 11)

Euripides questioned things others would not dare do; he was said to arouse the curiosity in tragedy. Not only did Euripides write these tragedies, but his work was a big influence in the creation of comedy. “Euripides uses irony in his depiction of the way men think and speak about women; since women adopt men’s assumptions in this matter as the only basis for an acceptable life in a community organized by men”(Radice 14). Euripides remained a great tragedy writer for many decades after his death, though there isn’t as much information on him because it was shared through legends. Euripides is said to have died sometime between 407-406 B.C in Macedonia, but no facts have proven this. He could have died in

An example, his election to Strategos in 440 BC was almost certainly due to the notoriety surrounding the great success of Antigone the year before.” (Sophocles, Nardo 22)

Sophocles learned tragedy under Aeschylus, where Aeschylus taught him the basics of how to write great tragedies. He defeated Aeschylus at the Dionysus festival of 468 BC, which was Sophocles first victory at the competition.

“The playwright may outlived almost all of his relatives and friends, for he lived to be at least ninety-one. Yet even in his last years, his creative talent and output were not in the least diminished, for his last play, Oedipus at Colonus, composed in 406 BC, was one of his greatest.” (Sophocles, Nardo