Greek playwrights

Origins of Greek Drama

Greek Theatre was one of the first coordinated and acted out stories in human history. Greek Theatre touched on emotion, social events, and social issues. Many social issues were portrayed along with humor in the same way that many movies portray them today.

Actors in the ancient Greek theater wore masks and costumes to help display characters and amplify their voices. The masks were made of materials like wood and they exaggerated facial features on the masks to communicate emotions and identities.

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Sophocles

Aristophanes

Aeschylus

Euripides

Meander

Aeschylus

• Aescluyus(born 525/524 BC—died 456/455 BC), is one the first of classical Athens’ great dramatists who participated in an imfamous drama competition called the Great Dionysia.
• He won the Dionysia Competition in Athens greek.
• He wrote between 70 to 90 plays during his lifetime but only around 7 survived to the present day.
• He is known as the “Father of Tragedy.”

Some of his most notable works are:

• "The Persians" (472 BC)
• "Seven Against Thebes" (467 BC)
• "The Suppliants" (c. 463 BC),
• "The Oresteia" trilogy (458 BC):
• "Agamemnon"
• "The Libation Bearers"
• "The Eumenides"
• "Prometheus Bound" (460–459 BC)

Sophocles

• Born between 496 and 406 B.C. outside of Athens Sophocles was a famous ancient Greek playwright
• He is considered one of the three great playwrights of classical Athenian drama.
• His works often show fate, morality and the relationships between humans and ‘gods’

• He wrote between 120 and 130 works. Today only 7 works have survived:
• “Ajax”
• “Antigone”
• “Trachinian Women”
• “Oedipus the King”
• “Electra”
• “Philoctetes”
• “Oedipus at Colonus”

Euripides

• Born between 480 and 406 B.C. Euripides was an ancient Greek tragedian who wrote around 92 plays. 18 of his 92 known plays have survived to more than 2,000 years and are studied today.
• He wrote plays focused on psychological complexity, realistic character portrayals, and deep exploration of human emotions and relationships.

• Notable Works
• “Medea”
• “The Bacchae”
• “Trojan Women”
• “Hippolytus”

Menander

• Often referred to as “Meander of Gadara”, he lived around 400 B.C. with no clear date of birth or death.
• Meander wrote epigrams which were short satirical and witty poems. Epigrams covered a wide range of topics in his writing.

• Most notable works
• The Gleaners
• The Angelus
• The Sower

Aristophanes

• Born between 446 and 386 B.C., Aristophanes wrote around 40 plays.
• Unlike other playwrights of the time he was a comedic playwright.
• He was referred to as the "Father of Comedy and his comedies used humor to critique and satirize contemporary political figures, social issues, and cultural norms.
• A large part of his work is concerned with the social, literary, and philosophical life of Athens.

• His most notable works are:
• “The Frogs”
• “The Clouds”
• “The Birds”
• “Knights”
• “Wasps”