ductions and that two or more actors performed the speak-
ing parts, perhaps with a narrator delivering the narrative
parts of the drama. A chorus wearing animal masks may
have added to the production. Th ese plays were probably per-
formed in temples or other sacred places, perhaps at yearly
festivals. Some scholars see the Skírnismál and other ritual
dramas as helping communities deal with the overwhelming
forces of nature. For the participants ritual drama and per-
formance would have reinforced community taboos, helped
ensure a successful harvest, provided support in the cold and
snow of winter, and celebrated the return of spring. In short,
such performances were a kind of religious ritual to enact hu-
mans’ relationship with the gods.
Dance, too, had a theatrical function. Th e best way his-
torians have of studying dance from the ancient world is
through pottery and artwork that depicts people dancing.
It is likely that the earliest forms of dance were spontaneous
celebrations of a successful hunt or marked other important
occasions in the life of the community. Later more formalized
dances appeared, as pictured, for example, on pottery from
Romania dating to 4000–3000 b.c.e. In most cases these de-
pictions show line or circle dances. Interestingly, in the Bal-
kans one village dance event was called the Hora, and it still
takes place in the region on Sundays. Dance may also have
helped to induce trancelike states in religious rituals.
GREECE
BY JOHN THORBURN
Th e ancient Greeks enjoyed several kinds of dramatic enter-
tainment, including tragedy, comedy, and satyr plays. How,
why, and when such performances began is uncertain, but by
the fi ft h century b.c.e. they were well established. Our knowl-
edge of Greek drama comes primarily from about four dozen
plays by fi ve Athenian playwrights: the tragedians Aeschylus,
Sophocles, and Euripides and the comic poets Aristophanes
and Menander. Greek dramas had a religious element and
honored Dionysus, best known as the god of wine, and per-
forming plays apparently evolved from some aspect of his
worship.
Besides their religious aspect, ancient theatrical perfor-
mances oft en occurred as part of a competition. In Athens
the two festivals with dramatic competitions were the Lenaia
and the far larger and more important City Dionysia. At the
Lenaia two tragedians, each staging two plays, competed, and
two comic poets were judged based on a single play each. At
the City Dionysia three tragic poets each put on three trag-
edies and a satyr play, whereas fi ve comic poets each put on
a single play.
Th e Greeks viewed performances outdoors and during
the day. In the earliest times spectators might sit on the bare
ground of a hillside or on temporary wooden bleachers. By
the fourth century b.c.e. theaters built of stone were com-
monplace. Th ey varied in size, but the Th eater of Dionysus
in Athens seated well over 10,000 spectators. Th e action of
the plays occurred both on a rectangular stage and in front
of it within the circular orchestra (literally “place for danc-
ing”). At the rear of the stage stood a buildinglike structure,
the skene, with one to three doors. Th e skene might represent
a house, palace, military tent, or even a cave. Because the ac-
tors performed only in front of the skene, playwrights usually
had to use a character to describe events that were suppos-
edly occurring inside. Occasionally, though, dramatists used
a wheeled platform to bring something or someone out from
within the skene. Sometimes characters (especially divinities)
appeared on the roof of the skene or were suspended above
the stage by means of a crane called the mechane. Over time
stages became more elevated and deeper, and the skene in-
creased from one to two stories.
Music from a pipe player accompanied dramas, and the
performers—all of whom were men—took roles as individual
characters or members of the chorus. Th e Greek word choros
means “dance,” and besides speaking, chanting, or singing
their lines, the chorus members also danced. Comedies had
24 chorus members; early tragedies and satyr plays had 12,Th e fi gure of Silenus, the mentor of Dionysus, the god of plays;
the fi gure was placed at the front of the stage in the Th eater of
Dionysus, sitting at the foot of the Acropolis in Athens. (Alison Frantz
Photographic Collection, American School of Classical Studies at Athens)334 drama and theater: Greece