Tuesday 11 August 2015

Origin of Tragedy

When reviewing the references below have cognizance of the following

In the book Jean-Pierre Vernant; Pierre Vidal Naquet (1986). Mythe et tragédie en Grèce ancienne. Éd. La Découverte. ISBN 978-2-7071-1612-3.

Translating and paraphrasing an extract of it from
Chapter 1: Le moment historique de la tragédie en Grece: quelque conditions sociales et psychologiques

which was a paper of his which had originally been published in 1968 J-P Vernant expresses the following view, a theory that the attempt to uncover and elucidate origins for Ancient Greek tragic drama is quite probably a wild goose chase, a mistaken enterprise and cause. He argues that Tragic Greek Drama is a rather a product of the society for which and in which it was produced. It was an invention independent of its origin. In summary he thinks that Greek tragedy appears to be an innovation of the society and the historical moment of its production.

Extract from Chapter 1:

Le moment historique de la tragédie en Grece: quelque conditions sociales et psychologiques

 During the past half-century, scholars of Classical Ancient Greece have tried to answer the question of what the main stages in the history and origins of Greek tragic drama were. Even if they have managed to find a conclusive answer to this point, the problem of the origins of Classical Greek tragedy would not have been solved. The essentials which remain to be understood are those innovations which Attic tragedy brought about and make it, in terms of art, a social institution and in terms of human psychology, an invention. [It is in reality] an original literary genre with its own rules and characteristics. Tragedy introduced a new type of spectacle into the city of Athens' public festival system. More, it translated previously unknown aspects of human experience as a specific form of expression, marking a stage in the formation of the inner man, of the responsible citizen [of Athens].  Tragic genre, tragic representation, tragic man: in its three aspects [a veritable Trinity], the phenomenon appears with irreducible characters. The problem of the origins [of tragedy] is, therefore and in a certain sense, a false problem. It is better to talk about "history". 

 Still, it should be noted that they are at a completely different level than the fact needing explanation. They are not in proportion: they cannot give reason for [the phenomenon of] Tragedy as such. For example, consider masks [that are used in tragic performance]. They would seem to emphasize the kinship of tragedy with those of ritual masquerades. But, by their nature, by their function, tragic masks are quite another thing than a religious ritual dressed in disguise. They are human masks, not animals in disguise. Their role is aesthetic, and no longer ritual.


There is a theory that the oldest tragedies are "Lyrical Tragedies", the drama in them is driven more by passion rather than action, such as the writings of Pindar.

The chain of poets in the evolution of tragedy

Thespis > Pratinas > Kratinos > Phrynicos They established the basic elements of tragedy. a) A serious plot. b) A protagonist brought down by his/her own flaw. c) A Chorus commenting on the action of the drama and the actors. d) A stylised structure and language to hold the spectators' attention Thespis is considered to be the father of tragedy. He is credited with introducing the first actor into the dithyramb, which was a choral hymn in honour of Dionysus. This innovation allowed for more complex plots and characters, and it is considered to be the beginning of true tragedy. Pratinas was a contemporary of Thespis. He is known for introducing the second actor into tragedy, which further increased the dramatic possibilities of the genre

Kratinos was a comic poet who also wrote tragedies. He is known for his satirical plays, which often poked fun at the political and social elite of Athens

Phrynicos was a tragedian who is known for his innovations in staging and costume design. He is also credited with introducing the use of painted scenery in tragedy.


References

Dithyramb Tragedy and Comedy. Second Edition, Revised by T.B.L. Webster: Pickard-Cambridge, Arthur  - Internet Archive

The Context of Ancient Drama (1995): Eric Csapo and William Slater - Internet Archive
Chapter II - Origins of Greek Drama pp. 89-101. 
Sources (1-16)  pp. 95-101.

The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature Chapter 10 Tragedy
https://books.google.co.uk/books/content?id=Cg8SOYw9GLAC&pg=PA258&img=1&zoom=3&hl=en&bul=1&sig=ACfU3U0vFAjwJRS2EVBqW7-XAIAPX0kJJg&w=1025
https://doi.org/10.1017/CHOL9780521210423.011

Scullion, S. (2005). Tragedy and Religion: The Problem of Origins. in  A Companion to Greek Tragedy, Edited by Justina Gregory pp. 23-37. https://bit.ly/3EWWPR8

"PINDAR AND HIS POETRY." - ProQuest
by G.F. Underhill, George Booklore Dec. 1884-Nov. 1887; London (Nov 1887): pp. 25-29.

 Friedrich Gottlieb Welcker (1826). Nachtrag zu der Schrift über die Aeschylische Trilogie: nebst einer Abhandlung über das Satyrspiel. Brónner.
Oscar Gross Brockett; Franklin Joseph Hildy (2008). History of the Theatre. Pearson. ISBN 978-0-205-51186-0.
History of the theatre : Brockett, Oscar G. - Internet Archive
The Origins of Greek Theatre I, Classical Drama and Theatre
The Origins of Greek Theatre II, Classical Drama and Theatre

 H.D.F. Kitto. Greek Tragedy. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-136-80690-2.
August WITZSCHEL (1850). The Athenian Stage; a Handbook for Students.

The Origin of the Theater : an essay: Hunningher, B. (Benjamin), - Internet Archive

The Origins of Greek Drama. A Summary of the Evidence and a Comparison with Early English Drama
Author(s): N. P. Miller
Source: Greece & Rome, Vol. 8, No. 2 (Oct., 1961), pp. 126-137
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/641643

E. W. Handley (9 May 1985). The Cambridge History of Classical Literature: Volume 1, Greek Literature. Chapter 10 Tragedy: Cambridge University Press. pp. 258–. ISBN 978-0-521-21042-3.
The dramas and dramatic dances of non-European races, by Sir William Ridgeway

 Eric Csapo; Margaret C. Miller (2007). The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond: From Ritual to Drama. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-83682-1.
Greek Theatre In The Fourth Century Bc - Download Free EBooks

 J. R. Green (2013). Theatre in Ancient Greek Society. Routledge.. ISBN 978-1-134-96873-2.
Greek Tragedy by Gilbert Norwood - Internet Archive

James Redmond (2008). Drama and Religion:. Drama and Ritual: Cambridge University Press. pp. 159–. ISBN 978-0-521-08869-5.

 Friedrich Nietzsche. The Birth of Tragedy. Courier Corporation. ISBN 978-0-486-11144-5.

Giulio Colesanti; Manuela Giordano (27 August 2014). Greek Submerged Literature and Some Problems of Terminology: An Introduction. De Gruyter. pp. 7–. ISBN 978-3-11-033408-1.

Searching for Submerged Literature in Ancient Greek Culture using Google Scholar https://bit.ly/2zYOrVw

Ingo Gildenhard; Martin Revermann (2010). Beyond the Fifth Century: Interactions with Greek Tragedy from the Fourth Century BCE to the Middle Ages. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 978-3-11-022378-1.

 The Nine Muses

MUSES : Greek Goddesses of Music, Poetry & the Arts - Theoi

Dionysus Writes: The Invention of Theatre in Ancient Greece: Jennifer Wise - Internet Archive


 Gerald F. Else's Theory


The Origin of ΤΡΑΓΩΙΔΙΑ
Gerald F. Else
Hermes
85. Bd., H. 1 (Jun., 1957), pp. 17-46
Published by: Franz Steiner Verlag

The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy: Else, Gerald Frank,- Internet Archive

Gerald Frank Else. The origin and early form of Greek tragedy. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-36847-7 Open-Library
Review: New Account of Tragedy
Reviewed Work: The Origin and Early Form of Greek Tragedy by Gerald F. Else
Review by: D. W. Lucas
The Classical Review
Vol. 17, No. 1 (Mar., 1967), pp. 70-72 (3 pages)
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association
https://www.jstor.org/stable/709607


 C. J. Herington (1985). Poetry Into Drama: Early Tragedy and the Greek Poetic Tradition. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-05100-3.
The origin of the Greek tragic form: a study of the early theatre in Attica: Mahr, August Carl - Internet Archive

Sir William Ridgeway (1910). The Origin of Tragedy: With Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians. CUP Archive.

Dionysus, the Dithyramb, and the Origin of Tragedy
Michael Tierney
Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review
Vol. 33, No. 131 (Sep., 1944), pp. 331-341
Published by: Irish Province of the Society of Jesus

The Origin of Greek Tragedy in the Light of Dramatic Technique
Author(s): Donald Clive Stuart
Source: Transactions and Proceedings of the American Philological Association, Vol. 47 (1916), pp. 173-204
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/282834.

Miller, N. P. (1961). The Origins of Greek Drama. A Summary of the Evidence and a Comparison with Early English Drama. Greece & Rome, 8(2), 126–137. http://www.jstor.org/stable/641643

Tragedy and the Satyric Drama
Author(s): Roy C. Flickinger
Source: Classical Philology, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Jul., 1913), pp. 261-283
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/261686

Scullion, Scott. “‘Nothing to Do with Dionysus’: Tragedy Misconceived as Ritual.” The Classical Quarterly, vol. 52, no. 1, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 102–37, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3556447.

Democratizing Dionysus: The Origins Controversy and the Dual Evolution of Tragedy and Civism
B Plaza-Gainza - 2015 - aquila.usm.edu
https://aquila.usm.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1350&context=honors_theses


The Dithyramb: An Anatolian Dirge
W. M. Calder
The Classical Review
Vol. 36, No. 1/2 (Feb. - Mar., 1922), pp. 11-14
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

Thespis and his Cart

In the second half of the 5th century BC Thespis is said to have invented acting. It is said that at an earlier period a chorus of the priests of Dionysos would relate stories about the heroes and myths of Ancient Greece as they performed a dithyrambic dance. It is told that around about this time Thespis, one of the priests, stepped out in front of the chorus line of his fellow dancers and wearing different representational masks and singing in a different metre began to impersonate the principal character(s) of the mythological story(ies) being told in a kind of dialogue with the chorus of his fellow priests, thereby relating the story of the myth. This form of storytelling became very popular with those watching the dance. Thespis had invented acting.

Because, perhaps, of the popularity of this novel art form. Thespis took his perfomances on tours round Attica and Greece on a wagon. His inventive art form and wagon became a popular subject depicted in vase paintings. It is said that Thespis in this manner became the creator and originator of the Satyr play a drama performed annually in honour of Dionysus,

Thespis' wagon sometimes had the form of a ship as depicted in some of those vase paintings; perhaps this was the ship in which Dionysus himself was supposed to have first visited Attica, and perhaps it represented the boat-on-wheels upon which the priest of Dionysos, with his aulos-playing satyrs, was driven into the theatre at the start of the Dionysian festivals. It is certain that a priest of Dionysus always had a place of honour in the theatres of that later centuries in Ancient Greece, a marble seat in the front row. Perhaps this seat and priest of Dionysos was set up in remembrance and honour of Thespis himself.

Thespis Theatrum.de

Thomas Rymer (1692). The Tragedies of the Last Age: Consider'd and Examin'd by the Practice of the Ancients AND By the Common Sense of All Ages in a Letter to Fleetwood Shepheard, Esq; Printed and are to be sold by Richard Baldwin, near the Oxford Arms in Warwick Lane, and at the Black Lyon between the two Temple Gates in Fleet-street. pp. 11–.

Eugenio Barba; Nicola Savarese (2019). The Five Continents of Theatre: Facts and Legends about the Material Culture of the Actor. When? On Thespis: BRILL. pp. 35–. ISBN 978-90-04-39293-9.

Karl Kerényi (1996). Dionysos. Princeton University Press. pp. 322–30. ISBN 0-691-02915-6.

Charles Rollin (1853). The Ancient History of the Egyptians, Carthaginians, Assyrians ... Leavitt & Allen. pp. 61–.


Robert Graves. The Greek Myths. Volume 1. Solon and Thespis: Penguin Books Limited. pp. 378–. ISBN 978-0-14-195965-8.

John Martin Frederick Wright (2010). Alma Mater: Or, Seven Years at the University of Cambridge. Cambridge University Press. pp. 129–. ISBN 978-1-108-01435-9.

John William Donaldson (1849). The Theatre of the Greeks. Thespis the Inventor [First Inventor of Tragedy]: Longman.


19th Century Scholarship


John Richard Darley (Bp. of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh) (1840). The Grecian Drama: A Treatise on the Dramatic Literature of the Greeks. Chapter I  Hardy & Walker.
John Richard Darley (Bp. of Kilmore, Elphin and Ardagh) (1840). The Grecian Drama: A Treatise on the Dramatic Literature of the Greeks. History of Tragedy Hardy & Walker. pp. 27–.


G. Murray, "Excursus on the Ritual Forms Preserved in Greek Tragedy," in Themis, 2nd ed., ed. J. Harrison (World Publishing, 1927), especially. p. 341.

Francis MacDonald Cornford. The Origin of Attic Comedy. CUP Archive.
Francis MacDonald Cornford The Origin of Attic Comedy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-18207-2.

H. S. Versnel (1990). Inconsistencies in Greek and Roman Religion: Transition and Reversal in Myth and Ritual. Tome II. BRILL. pp. 30–. ISBN 90-04-09267-6.Eric Csapo; Margaret C. Miller (2007). The Origins of Theater in Ancient Greece and Beyond: From Ritual to Drama. Cjapter 7 - Gregory Nagy Introduction an Discussion [on Emergence of Drama]: Cambridge University Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-521-83682-1.

The Parian Marble or Parian Chronicle
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford





Fragment 39
From when in Ath[en]s the [chorus of] comic [actors] was instituted, which the Icarians [first set up] and Sousarion invented, and a prize was first set of an arsichos of figs and a measure of wine, [______years, when _____ was archon at Athens.] ______.

Fragment 43
From when Thespis the poet, who brought out a play in the city, was the first to (speak in dialogue), and (the prize) of a goat was established, 2[7___] years, when _______naius the earlier was archon at Ath[ens].


Tomb of Heroes Theory
Reviewed Work: The Origin of Tragedy, with Special Reference to the Greek Tragedians by William Ridgeway
Review by: A. W. Pickard-Cambridge
The Classical Review
Vol. 26, No. 2 (Mar., 1912), pp. 52-59
Published by: Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Classical Association

THE DIONYSIAC AND THE HERO THEORY OF THE ORIGIN OF TRAGEDY
L. R. FARNELL
Hermathena
Vol. 17, No. 38 (1912), pp. 1-28
Published by: Trinity College Dublin

Others

Jean Pierre Vernant (1988). Myth and Tragedy in Ancient Greece. Zone Books. ISBN 978-0-942299-18-2.

Tragedy succeeded epic and lyric, and faded away as philosophy experienced its moment of triumph. As a literay genre, tragedy seems to give expression to a particular kind of human experience, one that is linked to specific social and psychological conditions. Seeing it this way, as a phenomenon with its own historical moment precisely defined in space and time, imposes certain methodological rules for interpreting the tragic works. Each play constitutes a message, enclosed within a text and inscribed within the structures of a discourse that must be analyzed at every level from the appropriate philosophical, stylistic, and literary points of view.

M. S. Silk; J. P. Stern (1983). Nietzsche on Tragedy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-27255-1.

 Joshua Billings (2014). Genealogy of the Tragic: Greek Tragedy and German Philosophy. Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-1-4008-5250-5.

'Nothing to do with Dionysus': tragedy misconceived as ritual

S Scullion - The Classical Quarterly, 2002 - cambridge.org
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3556447

The Ephebes' Song: Tragôidia and Polis
John J. Winkler
Representations
No. 11 (Summer, 1985), pp. 26-62
Published by: University of California Press

Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual
Walter Burkert
Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies

Performance Culture of Athens

Rush Rehm (2 September 2003). Greek Tragic Theatre. Chapter 1: The Performance Culture of Athens: Routledge. pp. 3–. ISBN 978-1-134-81413-8.

Who "Invented" Comedy? The Ancient Candidates for the Origins of Comedy and the Visual Evidence
Jeffrey Rusten
The American Journal of Philology, Vol. 127, No. 1 (Spring, 2006), pp. 37-66

Political Origin of Tragedy
Toward the end of 6th century BC Athens became a democracy. It was the Athenian state or Polis which funded the lion's share of the theatrical productions  Tragedy, that is tragic performances, were a means by which the politicians whose rule held sway in the Athenian assembly [Boulé] could use  tragedy as a kind of propaganda for their political programme, a means of influencing the populus in whatever way they saw fit. Under this theory Greek tragedy is to be seen as a political medium, where Politics meant affairs of the Athenian polis.

David M. Carter (2007). The Politics of Greek Tragedy. Bristol Phoenix Press. ISBN 978-1-904675-16-7.

Some Web Pages

Origins of Theatre

The Origin of Tragedy: Introduction - A discussion of the history of dramatic literature, debunking previous theories that have centered their attention on the rise of Greek Drama

The Origins of Tragedy - Exploration of the evolution of the Greek tragic drama from ancient Dionysian festivals.

Ridgeway's Theory of the Origin of Tragedy - Treatise suggesting that Theatre evolved not from the Dionysian festivals, but rather from ancient worship of the dead.

Solar Myths, Tree Spirits, and Totems - An examination of the importance of solar myths, tree spirits, and totemism in the development of tragic drama.

Origin of Comedy - An examination of the development of Greek comedy from the Phallic processions of the Greeks.

Dancing and Play-Acting - An examination of the role of dance in the development of primitive drama.

Greek and Roman Comedy - A history of the comic drama, focusing on its origins and development in the works of Aristophanes, Menander, Plautus, and Terence

Greek Theatre Index

https://www.reed.edu/humanities/110Tech/Theater.html

References for Origins of Greek Drama

Burkert, W. "Greek Tragedy and Sacrificial Ritual." Greek, Roman, and Byzantine Studies 7 (1966): 87-121.
https://grbs.library.duke.edu/index.php/grbs/article/view/11461

Lesky, A. Greek Tragic Poetry (1983). Chapter 1: "Problems of Origin."
https://archive.org/details/dietragischedich0000lesk/page/17/mode/1up?view=theater

Pickard-Cambridge, A.W. Dithyramb, Tragedy, and Comedy (1927) ________, second edition by Webster, T.B.L. (1962)
CHAPTER Ii. THE ORIGINS OF GREEK TRAGEDY pp. 87-224
https://archive.org/details/dithyrambtragedy0000awpi/page/87/mode/1up?view=theater

Winkler, J. "The Ephebes' Song: Tragoîdia and Polis." reprinted in Nothing to Do with Dionysus? (1990)
Winkler, J. J. (1985). The Ephebes’ Song: Tragôidia and Polis. Representations, 11, 26–62. https://doi.org/10.2307/2928426 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928426
WINKLER, J. J. (1990). The Ephebes’ Song: Tragōidia and Polis. In J. J. WINKLER & F. I. ZEITLIN (Eds.), Nothing to Do with Dionysos?: Athenian Drama in Its Social Context (pp. 20–62). Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv131bvsk.7
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=SF3sDwAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Nothing+to+Do+with+Dionysos?:+Athenian+Drama+in+Its+Social+Context&hl=en&newbks=1&newbks_redir=0&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiWkfLU4Mr_AhWXh1wKHf5NDhcQ6wF6BAgVEAE#v=onepage&q&f=true

Democratizing Dionysus: The Origins Controversy and the Dual Evolution of Tragedy and Civism - CORE Reader

Choruses for Dionysus: Studies in the History of Dithyramb and Tragedy - Internet Archive
By Matthew C. Wellenbach

The Language of Tragedy and Its Relation to Old Attic on JSTOR 
https://archive.org/details/jstor-288485/page/n1/mode/1up?view=theater

What's All the Drama About?: The Development of Tragedy in Ancient Greece - CORE Reader
                                                
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