The 5th BC century era in Greece is well known as the “golden age” of antiquity. This is due to its many achievements during the Athenian democracy. Those achievements influenced Western civilization in its evolutionary course over the centuries.
Theater in ancient Athens played a unique role in the city-state’s development. Theatrical plays by Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, peaked during the 5th century BC. This was on a parallel path to democracy, which they facilitated enormously.
What did theater have to offer? Really.
The Athenian state recognized the religious role of drama. Greek theatre began as part of the celebrations for the Olympian god Dionysus. Athenians also recognized theatre’s recreational, educational, moralistic, and political role.
In tragedies, spectators watched the actions of the leading figures. They could see the consequences anyone could expect from arrogance.
In Athens, at the time, there was no systematic public education as we know it today. This meant that rich Athenians turned to the sophists and paid them to be their teachers. The Athenians who were not wealthy had their elementary education through other means. They watched and learned in the Parliament, the Courts, and the theater.
The Athenian democracy gave citizens the possibility for direct participation in the Agora. Theatrical drama presented the confrontation of ideas. It encouraged critical thinking and assisted public democratic institutions. It provided Athenians with a collective consciousness.
The aim was the development of individuals with strong independent personalities. And this was what made the Athenian democracy so different from Sparta, which demanded the intellectual and political uniformity of its citizens.
Who was the patron? Who paid?
All major public festivals had plays for Athenians to see. The purpose was to provide high-level entertainment. This shows the importance of the theater for the city.
Pericles, was the leader of the Athenian Republic in the 5th BC century. He was also the main patron of the theater. During his time theatrical sponsorships started. Patrons were both the state and wealthy Athenians.
The state recognized the aesthetic and pedagogical value of drama. It established the “theoretical”. That was a subsidy by the state. The state paid for the ticket so that poor citizens could go to the theatre
In spring they had three days of theatrical plays. Poets had to submit their works. Each one submitted four plays, three tragedies, and a comedy. A committee of Athenian citizens would approve three sets, three tetralogies.
The “sponsors” provided the funds for the expenses for each tetralogy. This was an obligation and an honor for the wealthy Athenians.
The ancient drama in Athens of the 5th BC. century was not only an art form with an exclusive entertainment goal. It was also a social institution. It cultivated democratic ideals. The feeling that the interests of citizens and the democratic state coincide.
Theater in ancient Athens. The key players.
In this environment, the three great dramatic poets, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides, created their works. We often call them poets, and not just playwrights, because tragedies were a new form of poetry for their time, after epic and lyric poetry.
The dramatic poetry of the 5th BC, with its two genres, tragedy, and satirical drama – comedy developed later – was the continuation of the Dithyrambus that Thespis had cultivated in the 6th BC. century. Of course, the three already mentioned dramatic poets introduced many innovations until the ancient drama took the form we see in the surviving works.
In addition to the innovations brought about by each of the three dramatic poets, in the works of each one, there are peculiarities that differentiate them from the works of the others in the structure, the subject matter, and the representation of the main characters.
The three great dramatic poets – Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides – had made tragedies, into a theater of ideas, with dialogues, confrontations of conflicting opinions, and not simple representations of everyday life.
Perhaps it is a first in world literature that the Athenian drama, from a religious ritual that it was initially, evolved into a medium for the discussion of social, political, and moral issues, without breaking its relationship with the traditional myth. Through the religious context, it led to philosophical musings, not metaphysical meditations.
The theater is a valuable contributor to democracy.
There was parallel progress between the Athenian Republic and ancient Drama.
The ancient theater provided the Athenians with political education and moral teaching and contributed to the cultivation of the feeling of collectivity and the strengthening of their political identity.
Theater performances in Athens were much more than artistic events. All indications tend to the conclusion that the Athenian theater had primarily social and political goals, and secondarily entertainment.
As a spectator, the Athenian citizen was not a passive receiver, but participated in what was happening on the stage, was constantly confronted with the dilemmas of the protagonists, and gradually acquired a consciousness of collectivity. He dealt with the big state issues with sympathy for his fellow citizens, and with respect for the decisions of the democratic processes.
All Athenians were able to attend the theatrical performances and benefit from their moralistic messages.
At the same time, most tragedies strengthened the democratic sentiments of the citizens, thus ensuring the preservation of Athenian democracy.
Through the plot of the various tragedies, the Athenians were educated. They attended their decision-making meetings of the Agora better prepared as democratic citizens.