"Father of gods and men"

Ruled the gods of mount olympus

god of the sky and thunder

Dionysus

3 Fates:

Clotho: spinner of thread of life

Lachesis: measures thread of life

Atropos: cuts the thread of life

• comments on the dramatic action
• offered background information to help audience follow the play
• comments on themes
• represents general population of the story
• provides insight about what the characters could not say outloud

• "god out of the machine" - latin
• plot device: incredibly unsolvable problem is suddenly solved due to the intervention of something (another character, ability, object)

• form of art based on human suffering
• human struggles to overcome an enemy force and is ultimately defeated
• may have grown from the practice of honoring Dionysus

• "tragic flaw" that triggers the downfall of a character
• term used by aristotle to describe a character's mistake that triggers the tragic outcome of his/her actions

• greek drama: entrance of the chorus that provides exposition and sets the mood
• often follows the prologue
• one of several structural elements of greek tragedy in 5th century bce
• where the actors and chorus entered from

sequence of events in a greek tragedy where the characters drive the action through interaction with the chorus and one another

a choral dance song sung in between events in greek tragedy

• greek word for imitation
• used to describe artistic practice of representing reality (creating theater)

• the ending scene in a greek tragedy where all the characters and chorus members exit the stage

plot device where a character thinks everything is going to go his/her way but ends up being the opposite, but the audience already knew it was going to happen since we have more information than the character

tragic flaw of pride or arrogance that can lead a hero to ignore accepted moral codes or warning from the gods, causing his own downfall

• sense of relief a spectator may feel at the end of a tragedy
• aristotle: purpose of tragedy is to create feelings of pity and fear during the play, then rid the body of these feelings (katharsis: purge of feelings)

• arangement of related events in a play
• may be simple or complex

player  or character important to the telling of a story

• theme
• what the play means opposed to what happens

• creates patterns and establishes tempo in theatre
• can be created with actor's voices or wordplay

• elements in a play's production that appeal to the eye, like costumes, scenery or stage tricks
• aristotle: sixth element of tragedy
• elaborate or costly stage effects

• in a tragic plot: the moment in which the story's action changes in direction
• aristotle's poetics: best reversals are those that transpire organically according to the logic of the action

the moment that a character realizes the true relation of himself to the events in the plot of the play

• the part of the play where events complicate the original problem that existed at the beginning of the play (making the problem worse or making new problems)
• (usually happens at the beginning of the play)

• critical of tragedy and comedy as well as of actors
• drama and other works of art offer mere representations of the world and therefore stand in the way of the pursuit of truth

• desrcibed in plato's dialogues to be very critical of tragedy, comedy and actors
• ethics

• examines dramatic theory and its first principles and identifies its genres and basic elements
• distinguishes poetry in 3 ways:
  • their means
    
    • language, rhythm, harmony
  • their objects
    
    • agents (good or bad), actions (virtuous or vicious)
  • their modes of representation
• 6 elements:
  • plot
  • character
  • thought
  • diction
  • melody
  • spectacle

• first one to add a character apart from the chorus, enabling dramatic interaction to emerge
• world's first actor
• "father of Greek tragedy"

Oedipus the King

won many victories in Dionysus festival in Athens

• wrote comedy plays with explicitly sexual themes
• successfully recreated the life of ancient Athens
• has a great power of ridicule
• provided only real examples of Old Comedy