GREEK DRAMA, The. Greek drama had its origin in immemorial religious observ ances; and it never became entirely separated from religion. Among all the Greek gods none appealed to the imagination more vividly than the youngest — Dionysus, the god of wine. Greek tragedy was simply a form of worship, the ritual cult of this god, who made the initiate wise and the ungodly mad. It was Dionysus that spoke most strongly to the sense and at the same time to the spirit. The story of his adventures was replete with joy and sorrow. Under some aspects it was a °passion.° under others a triumph, and all the other passion plays since, even the spectacle at Oberammergau, are in the ancient spirit. One Dionysus after another has been substituted, but from the first there has been a desire on the part of the worshipper to realize his god vividly, with thrilling nearness, to partake of his joys and sorrows and triumphs. But Dionysus was al ways represented as being more nearly akin to man than the greater deities; and the burial of the wine in the dark tomb of the jars through the winter symbolized the new awakening of man himself, the resurrection of the devotees of the god to a fuller and more joyous life. But wine was not the only manifestation of the god: oil and wheat were his; he was the giver of physical joy and excitement,—in short, the god of life. So we find diverse elements in the original drama: Thracian orgies and mysticism, the rustic gayety and joyous intoxication of the Greek peasant, and the religious conception of certain laws of nature, such as germination and extinction, fructification in its widest aspect, whether in the bursting of the seed-grain lying in the earth, or in the generation of living creatures. One of the most prominent expo nents of this power was the goat, which was sacred to Dionysus. From the Greek word for goat (tragos) and song (ode) our word 'tragedy" is derived. Hence, too, the prom inence given to the phallus in the solemn pro cessions in honor of the god. Certain wood land creatures, with pointed ears, snub noses, spindle shanks, shaggy hair and goat tails (satyrs) also belonged to the train of the god. Tragedy (goat-song), comedy (village-song) and the satyric after-piece all have their origin in this early Dionysus worship. Later the sufferings of other gods were presented at the festivals of the god and finally the.representa tion was extended to the heroes and heroines of the past.
The Beginning of Greek The original element in Greek drama was choral dance and song. Epic poetry was written in Ionic, choral poetry in Doric: the Attic genius blended the two into a new poetic form. Aritistic drama was the creation of Athens. The cyclic dance and song in honor of Dionysus was called the dithyramb, which was first raised to a high artistic level by Arlon, of Lesbos, who later lived in Corinth. He elaborated the
choral hymn and fixed the number of the chorus at 50. He also gave a distinctive character to the evolutions of the acyclic" chorus, as it was called, and to the manner of performance. Arlon dressed up the members of this chorus as satyrs and had them sing of the adventures and sufferings of their leader, Dionysus, who was described as traversing Asia from India westward in a triumphant march and establish ing his worship in all the countries through which he passed. In the dithyramb, as devel oped by Anon, we see the germ of Greek drama. In his chorus do we find for the first time an at tempt to act, in contradistinction to the simple narration of a story, as in the epic of Homer. But the acting was not carried beyond the point of impersonation.
Athens and the The beginning, then, was made in Corinth, a city that did much for Greece. But it was in Attica that the next steps were taken. The Athenians were content to import their ideas as well as their seed corn. The rocky ground of Attica was not adapted to the growing of wheat, but it was adapted to the cultivation of the vine and olive; and the preparation for the seed of tragedy, whose home was in the country about the Isthmus, had been going on for centuries in the soil of the Greek nationality. The first artistic Athens was that of Pisistratus, the first literary Athens that of Solon, in the 6th century, but even this great time was only an earnest of greater things to come, only foreshadowed the unsurpassed ex cellence in art, architecture and literature soon to be manifested by the Athenians in conse quence of their natural genius, their high intel lectual endowments, their innate love of beauty and symmetry, their training and education, for which a free government gave them every op portunity, the sudden increase in wealth and power which followed hard upon their success in the struggle with Persia, and, finally, that great burst of national enthusiasm which suc ceeded the glorious triumph over Oriental pride and the narrow escape from despotism. In no other soil could the seed of drama come to full fruition. Athens was now no longer an in significant state. She had suddenly become strong, and was thoroughly imbued with a sense of her importance and of her measureless possi bilities. Her peculiar location, as well as her great facilities of transportation, made access to other peoples and to other ideas easy. Poet, artists, statesmen 'and professors of wisdom gravitated toward the city which was fast be coming the metropolis of the world. But Athens remained herself : she was neither ab sorbed nor overwhelmed by the influx of visitors and foreign residents. The citizens had a passion for the honor and glory of Athens. No time could have been more favorable for the birth and development of the real drama.