City Dionysia

Tonight, at sundown, is City Dionysia. This is a Hellenic festival that I do not observe. I'm really not close to Dionysus. I will give him his libation when it's his mother and sometimes honor him if he's connected to Demeter, but that's it. Below is some information about this Hellenic festival. I got this from ancienthistory.about.com

The City Dionysia was a major state-sponsored festival, in ancient Athens, featuring dramatic competitions. In addition to the major City Dionysia, there was also a rural Dionysia.
The City Dionysia was held during the Athenian month of Elaphebolion (March-April) in honor of the god Dionysus Eleuthereus (god of freedom), in an area (temenos) sacred to Dionysus.

Theatrical Genres

Dramatic competitions were held in the genres of

• dithyrambs,
• comedies, and
• tragedies.

The tragedy competition was for 4 plays per author: a trilogy or 3 unrelated plays, and a satyr play.

Procedure

Before the start of the festival, there were 2 processions, the first, carrying the statue of Dionysus to and from, and the second where various groups proceeded through the city to the theater, arrayed in groups distinguishable by color or other articles of dress, according to Rabinowitz. The ceremonies started at dawn in the outdoor theater, with purification and lustrations, followed by a dithyramb, and then the plays.
When Cleisthenes reformed Athens to make it more democratic, it is thought that he included competition between the groups of citizens in the form of dramatic, performing dithyrambic choruses.

Taxes - A Civic Obligation

Well in advance of the Elaphebolion (an Athenian month that ran from late March to early April) event, the city magistrate selected 3 patrons of the arts (choregoi) to finance the performances. It was an onerous form of taxation (liturgy) the wealthy were required to perform -- but not every year. And the wealthy had a choice: they could supply Athens with a performance or a battleship. This [URL depthome.brooklyn.cuny.edu/classics/dunkle/athnlife/politics.htm] obligation included:

• housing and feeding the chorus and actors,
• selecting chorus members (young men about to enter the military),
• hiring a chorus director (didaskalos) who trained the 12-15 non-professional dancers (choreuts), for a year, to perform, sing, and dance in the chorus,
• providing a place to train, and
• paying for a dedication to Dionysus if he won.

Actors - Professionals and Amateurs in the Cast

While the chorus was composed of (well-trained) non-professionals, the playwright and actors had, as Didaskalia puts it, "leisure with a passion for the theater." Some of the actors became such polished celebrities their participation would give an unfair advantage, so the lead actor, protagonist, was assigned by lot to a playwright who was expected to compose a tetralogy, direct, choreograph, and act in his own plays. A tetralogy consisted of three tragedies and a satyr play -- like a dessert at the end of the heavy, serious drama. Partly humorous or farcical, satyr-plays featured the half-human, half-animal creatures known as satyrs.

Visual Aids for the Audience

By convention, the actors in tragedy appeared larger than life. Since there were about 17,000 open-air seats in the theater of Dionysus (on the south slope of the Acropolis), going more than half way round the circular dance floor (orchestra), this exaggeration must have made the actors more recognizable. They wore long, colorful robes, high head dresses, cothurnoi (shoes), and masks with large mouth holes to facilitate ease of speech. Men played all the parts. One actor might play more than one role, since there were only 3 actors, even by Euripides' (c. 484-407/406) day. A century earlier, in the 6th century, when the first dramatic competition was held, there was only 1 actor whose role was to interact with the chorus. The semi-legendary playwright of the first play with an actor was Thespis (from whose name comes our word "thespian").

Stage Effects

In addition to the actors' accoutrements, there were elaborate devices for special effects. For instance, cranes could whisk gods or people on and off stage. These cranes were called mechane or machina in Latin; hence, our term deus ex machina.
The skene (from which, scene) a building or tent at the back of the stage that was used from the time of Aeschylus (c. 525-456), could be painted to provide scenery. The skene was at the edge of the circular orchestra (dance floor of the chorus). The skene also provided a flat roof for action, a backstage for the actors' preparation, and a door. The ekkyklema was a contraption for rolling scenes or people onto the stage.

City Dionysia

At the City Dionysia, the tragedians each presented a tetralogy (four plays, consisting of three tragedies and a satyr play). The theater was in the temenos (sacred precinct) of Dionysus Eleuthereus.

Theater Seats

The priest was seated in the center of the first row of the theatron. It may be that there were originally 10 wedges (kekrides) of seats to correspond with the 10 tribes of Attica, but the number was 13 by the 4th century B.C.

Related Resources

Terminology for Drama
Required Parts of Tragedy
Other Features on Drama

Elsewhere on the Web

Roger Dunkle's Introduction to Tragedy
Also see "The Entrances and Exits of Actors and Chorus in Greek Plays," by Margarete Bieber. American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 58, No. 4. (Oct., 1954), pp. 277-284.
Tragedy Concepts
Hamartia - the downfall of the tragic hero is caused by hamartia. This isn't a willful act in violation of the laws of the gods, but a mistake or excess.
Hubris - Excessive pride can lead to the downfall of the tragic hero.
Peripeteia - a sudden reversal of fortune.
Catharis - ritual cleansing and emotional cleansing by the end of the tragedy.
For more, see Tragedy terminology and Aristotle Poetics 1452b.
Tragic Irony happens when the audience knows what is going to happen but the actor is still ignorant. [See Socratic Irony.]