The choir is collective singing. People have been using it since time immemorial. When ritual dances around the fire were accompanied by throaty cries. The tonality of the joint chant had a wide range and served to appease the higher forces so that they would bestow booty, weather and tranquility. With the development of civilization, the attitude towards singing also changed, which resulted in a separate direction. Gradually, it absorbed different trends, it became more difficult to perform. The complication of vocal parts led to the fact that it was not possible to perform a vocal composition without special skills and preparation. In ancient Egypt, Babylon and China, professional performers began to appear. Music in Greece began to emerge around this period.

2500 thousand years BC In Egypt, people appeared who controlled chants with the help of their hands. They were called cheironomes, and it was they who stood at the origins of the emergence of conducting. The Egyptians used not only hand movements, but also finger gestures, head turns and even facial expressions to control the choir. Collective chants sounded in temples during ritual sacraments and religious ceremonies. With the help of songs, the Egyptians praised the god Osiris, in Babylon they composed verses in honor of the almighty Marduk. Cheironoms, who led the temple ensemble, were respected by the people along with the priests, as persons close to the gods. Unlike Egypt and Babylon, the ancient Greek choir found distribution during the heyday of theatrical art.

Music in Greece. At the theatrical dawn

Worship of the gods, the distinctive features of cult rites and religious sacraments required from the participant of the ceremony the ability to control the voice, know the dance and poetry. With a rather democratic approach to the talents of the parishioners, almost the entire urban population became participants in the rituals. One of the meanings of the word “choir” is the term “Fenced off place”, that is, a place for round dances. Every self-respecting city considered it necessary to have it. Among the admirers of choral art were representatives of the nobility and merchants. But the most famous patrons were the gods Apollo and Dionysus. In gratitude, people dedicated the first - Paeans, Dionysus - praises.

During the Delphic period of Greek history, the worship of two cults was considered natural, and choral singing resulted in a complex lyrical form. It contained elements of paeans and dithyrambs. As the singing progressed, so did the music. It became more complicated, various currents and directions were added. With the more complicated accompaniment, the manner of choral singing also changed. Along with simple choirs, choirs of virtuosos arose, who traveled around the country and propagated Delphic culture, religious preferences and political convictions with their skill. With the help of professional choirs, an ideological Delphic hegemony was formed, characteristic of the period of the 6th and 7th centuries.

Among the variety of types of choral creativity in ancient Greece, dithyrambs, that is, odes and verses dedicated to the god of winegrowers and winemakers, Dionysus, are of particular importance. For the first time in dithyrambs, in combination with collective singing, an individual voice was used. The soloist was called the lead singer, who, performing the solo part, opposed himself to the choir. This form of art made it possible to introduce an element of dialogue into the production, which gave rise to a new direction - drama.

Tragedy genre

Where exactly the birth of the drama from the dithyramb took place is impossible to say for sure. With the mobility of choirs in those days, new trends in art were prescribed not to a specific city, but to a god, in particular Dionysus. The involvement of an individual in the choir made it possible to introduce an element of dialogue into the performance, and therefore drama. As time passed, the Delphic influence in Ancient Greece began to wane, and Athens began to exercise cautious boldness in decision-making and seek greater independence. This trend also manifested itself in art. In Athens, an order was given to involve the townspeople as participants in the choir. The Delphic hegemony came to an end, it was replaced by ethnic currents that turned choral singing into a new direction.

The decline of the Delphic culture provoked a surge of poetry, which, combined with new trends in choral singing, gave a new impetus to the development of theatrical art and, as part of it, collective chanting. Along with the development of the choral and dramatic trends, the theater began to change, where performances were staged. The Athens theater of that time consisted of three parts:

orchestras;

theatron;

The theatron was intended for the audience and was a kind of amphitheater, the skene served as a dressing room, dressing room and warehouse for props. Skene was located on the opposite side of the orchestra, where the main events took place. The dramatic genre received a new impetus to development when a new character was added to one actor who performed with the choir - the coryphaeus. His task was to pronounce the introductory part, comment on unexpected turns of events, explain controversial points. Corypheus became a link between the actor and the choir, which resulted in new forms of choral and theatrical genres.

Hard times

Music in Greece endured difficult times. The action of ancient Greek performances at the time of the birth of drama adhered to one scheme. At the beginning of the production there was a long choral introduction. Then the main part began, which was divided into choral compositions of various durations and solo replicas of the actor. At certain moments, a dialogue arose between the soloist and the ensemble, but this form of performance did not imply real drama. The whole performance, despite the fact that lyrical moments alternated with dramatic ones, resulted in a series of choral compositions, interrupted by the actor's monologues and verbal inserts of the luminary.

Things got off the ground when Aeschylus added a second to one actor. Sophocles went even further and inserted a third into the play. Soon a fourth was added to the third, and the process became irreversible. Such reformism gave a new impetus to the development of drama, but threw back choral singing. With the increase in characters, the performance became more lively, energetic, mobile. Dramatic moments were put at the forefront, and choral inserts simply interfered with the action taking place on stage.

During the production, the choir began to be removed from the performance for a while, then returned. This is what the directors did when the action was transferred from one city to another or from the battlefield to another place. But the long traditions of Greek art, the commitment to the choir as a traditional form of performance, did not allow choral singing to disappear from the stage. Some directors wanted to breathe new life into choral singing, trying to use it in the most rational way in the production. But the emergence of intrigue in the performances, that is, a certain mystery, again threw the choir to the back of the theatrical performance. Gradually, the participation of the choir in performances was reduced to filling intermissions and pauses. The performed compositions had nothing to do with the action taking place on the stage.

Chorus in the service of comedy

Comedy in the ancient Greek theater developed according to a different scenario than drama. It was based not on dithyrambs, but on dubious and abusive couplets of mummers. According to the old traditions, the mummers were divided into two groups and opposed to each other. A similar form of confrontation was adopted by comedy, where not one choir was used, consisting of the traditional 24 singers, but two semi-compositions of 12 people. Performances staged according to this principle were more lively, proximity to reality attracted the audience.

The two half-choirs began to be diluted with luminaries, which gave the performance a novelty and originality. However, the introduction of a verbal element into the performance, as in the case of drama, belittled the importance of the choir and pushed it into the background.

The lack of demand for the choir in the theater did not completely destroy the genre. If comedy finally parted with choral singing, then several attempts have been made to restore it in drama over time. Modifying collective chants, giving new forms, stage directors inserted choral compositions into action from time to time. Some directions, such as recitation, were not successful. And the replacement of difficult psychological moments by choral singing was a godsend for directors.

Choral singing in ancient Greece laid the foundation not only for this genre, but also gave impetus to the development of all theatrical art.

The ancient city of Dion

Narrating the divine love of Zeus for Fie, the daughter of Deucalion, the founder of the Greeks, Geosidas says that the girl became pregnant from God and bore him two sons, Macedon and Magnet, They lived near Olympus in Pieria. The sacred place of Zeus in these lands was Dion in the foothills of Olympus. Ancient Dion, it was first mentioned by the ancient Greek historian Thucydides, when describing the route of the campaign of the Spartan commander Brasidas, through Thessaly, to the country of his ally, King Perdicus 2. This was the first city that Brasidas met on the way, crossing the border in the summer of 424 to n. e.

Vatopedi Monastery

The Vatopedi Monastery (otherwise known simply as Vatopedi) is located in the northeast of the Athos Peninsula. This is a male monastery belonging to the Greek Orthodox Church. It is the second most important in the hierarchy of Athos monasteries (the honorable first place is occupied by the Lavra of St. Athanasius). Vatopedi is one of the largest, oldest and richest Athos monastic cloisters.

The Iliad by Homer

The Iliad is a poem about war. The poem is called the "Iliad" in honor of Ilion (i.e. Troy) - the city near which the events described in the poem take place. In the 12th century BC, Greek tribes captured and burned Troy, a powerful city located on the Asian coast of the Hellespont. The theme of the Iliad is the "wrath" of Achilles directed against Agamemnon and its terrible consequences. All events in the Iliad take place within 52 days, the poem consists of 15537 verses, which form 24 songs.

Honey in Greece

Caryatids - a monument of ancient Greek architecture

What do you know about caryatids? This attraction of Greece is on the list of TOP 10 monuments that you must definitely visit upon arrival in the country.

In the era of the Greek classics, in the person of the three great tragedians - Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides - and the comedian Aristophanes, theatrical art also made its highest rise.

The birth of Greek drama and theater is associated with religious rituals dedicated to the dying and resurrecting gods of fertility, primarily Dionysus. .

In Greek mythology, Dionysus (or Bacchus) is the god of the fruitful forces of the earth, vegetation, viticulture and winemaking. From ancient times, solemn processions to the temple were organized at festivities in his honor. People dressed up in goat skins, tied up horns, hooves and tails, depicting satyrs, companions of Dionysus, and sang solemn hymns in chorus -praises . This is where the name “tragedy” comes from, literally meaning “song of the goats”. Along with dithyrambs, the mummers "retinue of Dionysus" sang merry carnival songs and arranged noisy fun. Gradually, a singer stood out from the dancing choir of mummers -luminary , whose party grew more and more.

Over time, these theatrical performances became part of public holidays, on one of which, in 534 BC, the Athenian poetThespis for the first time, in addition to the choir, he introduced one actor-reciter. The actor entered into a dialogue with the choir and the leader, gave explanations during the performance, portrayed various heroes, that is, he becamecarrier of action . That is why 534 B.C. is considered the year of birth of the world theater.

So, the early Greek tragedy was a kind of dialogue between the actor and the choir. Its content was connected with the myths about Dionysus, depicting his "passions", death and resurrection. Then other myths, as well as historical plots, began to be used.

Already in the second half of the 6th century BC. the tragedy has received significant development. It reached its climax in democratic Athens in the 5th century BC.

gave the classical form of tragedyAeschylus , weakening its cult attachment and strengthening the independence of the theater. He increased the number of actors to two, and Sophocles to three. Thus, a dramatic action independent of the chorus became possible. The choir began and ended the performance, and also commented on the events in the course of the action. Without participating in the plot of the tragedy, the choir created an emotional atmosphere in which the hero lived, and this atmosphere changed in the course of events. There were 12-15 people in the choir, but he spoke about himself in the first person - "I", emphasizing the solidity of the people's judgment. It is important to emphasize that in the 5th century BC. - the classical age of tragedy - the choir was assembled from amateurs, that is, from the Athenian citizens themselves.

The unison singing of the choir, accompanied by musical instruments, primarily flutes, alternated with conversational dialogues and speech recitation, which could also have musical accompaniment. In the works of Euripides, already solo singing appears, the so-called monodia (“song of one”) to the accompaniment of a flute or cithara.

Every tragedy is a struggle, it is hard and tragic. The obstacles that arise on the path of life of the tragic hero are insurmountable, they are erected by fate - a force against which a person is powerless. However, the tragic hero is ready to die for his beliefs.

In the ancient theater, old tragedies were not usually repeated, so the number of works written is huge: each of the Athenian tragedians created about 100 tragedies. However, time has preserved only a small part of what was written.

Among the works of Aeschylus (7 tragedies) that have come down to us, a special place is occupied by"Bound Prometheus". The image of Prometheus is one of the brightest in all ancient tragedy, he became a symbol of tyranny,

If Aeschylus became the founder of tragedy, civil in its sound, thenSophocles more attracted to moral issues. His heroes are the embodiment of the moral ideal of antiquity, people endowed with great fortitude. Such is Oedipus"Oedipus Rex" , "Oedipus in Colon" ) - guilty without guilt, who involuntarily committed a terrible sin and, in order to atone for it, gouged out his eyes. Such is Antigone ("Antigone"), going for the love of her brother to a feat and death.

Tragedy puts forward another heroEuripides , which shows a person with all his weaknesses and vices, not seeking to elevate, "raise" above the ordinary. Exploring human nature, Euripides accentuates in it deep contradictions, mental confusion, the struggle of passions. His characters are obsessed with love, jealousy, sometimes for the sake of personal happiness they go to crime. It is with Euripides that the theme of love passion for the first time becomes the basis of a tragic action. So,"Medea" - the tragedy of offended love and jealousy,"Hippolytus" - the tragedy of criminal love (Phaedra's love for her own stepson).

The most expressive in Euripides are female images - Medea, Phaedra, Electra, Iphigenia. The sublimely heroic image of the young Iphigenia stands out in this series ("Iphigenia in Aulis" And "Iphigenia in Tauris" ) - a daughter sacrificed by her own father. All her mental strength is directed to the good of her homeland. The theme of patriotism, readiness for a feat was suggested to Euripides by the events of contemporary reality: in the era of the Peloponnesian War, which was painful for all of Greece, the poet called for thinking about saving the homeland.

A similar desire - to express in artistic form the most relevant social, ethical, philosophical problems of their time - permeated the entire ancient tragedy.

Along with tragedy, the ancient theater also knew comedy. Its origin also originates from the ritual actions in honor of Dionysus with the procession of a cheerful crowd of mummers, their songs and jokes (the name of the genre, which can be translated as "the song of revelers", is connected with them). The heyday of ancient Greek comedy is associated with the work of Aristophanes, where a bold satire is given on the political and cultural state of Athens at the time that began in the 4th century BC. crisis of democracy("Horsemen" , "World" , "The Frogs" , "Clouds" ).

Like tragedy, ancient comedy was musical: it was accompanied by choral and solo songs, cheerful dances. In accordance with the general character of the genre - sharply satirical, sometimes rude, laid-back - the music was also light and lively.

Theatrical spectacle was considered in ancient Greece an event of national importance. Theatrical performances were held during public holidays and lasted 3-4 days from early morning until sunset. All cases for this time were suspended, courts were closed, even prisoners were released from prisons. The audience at such spectacles was represented by all strata of society, and the poor even received money from the authorities to enter.

Theater in Ancient Greece was arranged in the open air. The performers performed on a round rammed platform -orchestra. It was located at the foot of the hill, along the slope of which benches for spectators descended in a semicircle -theatron . Behind the orchestra wasskene - a small wooden or stone building where costumes and scenery were stored, and the actors were preparing for a new role. Over time, the front part of the skene, facing the audience, began to depict the place of the action. Under Sophocles, scenery appeared - painted boards or canvases. The curtain was missing.

The oldest theater in Athens was the theater of Dionysus on the southeast slope of the Acropolis. At first it was wooden and was built only for the duration of the performances. In the 4th century BC. the theater of Dionysus was built of stone. It accommodated up to 17 thousand spectators.

The main thing that distinguished the ancient Greek actor was a mask that covered almost the entire head. For each role there was a special mask, by which the viewer guessed who was in front of him: a king or a priest, a man or a woman. Women's roles were played by men. The presence of a mask excluded facial expressions from theatrical play, the more attention was paid to gesture. Greek actors worked hard on the expressiveness of the body, the art of movement. In addition, they had to sing and dance well.

To stand out from the choir, the actors wore special shoes on high platforms -coturny . The tragic actor was in a tunic - a wide linen shirt, over which a cloak was worn - a mantle.

The artistic ideas of the ancient theater with its inseparable synthesis of poetry and music have forever remained in the memory of generations and served as the basis for the further development of stage art.

similar performances were held in other countries of the Ancient World. An example is the ancient Egyptian mysteries dedicated to the god Osiris.

1) in the theater of Ancient Greece, an open passage to the orchestra (See. Orchestra) between the amphitheater and the skene building (See. Skena); through the western P. (to the right of the audience) entered choir, allegedly coming from Athens, through the eastern (left) P. - from a foreign country.

2) In ancient Greek tragedy and ancient Attic comedy - the first opening song of the choir. Singing alternated with recitative and recitation.

Parod(other Greekπάροδος) in the ancient Greek theater ( tragedy And comedy) -choral a song that was sung by the choir when they entered the stage, when moving in orchestra . The word parode also refers to the aisle itself (an open corridor), a constructive element of the ancient theatre.

Defining the parts of tragedy in Poetics, Aristotle identifies three genres of choral song ( other Greekχορικόν) - parod, stasim And kommos(other Greekκομμός). According to Aristotle, the parode is the introductory choir, the first performance of the choir, taking place immediately after the Prologue. Later Greek dictionaries and reference books ( ships,"Onomasticon" by Pollux, Dictionary "Etymologicum magnum" ,Pseudo-Psellus) with variants reproduce the classical definitions of Aristotle.

Parod and stasim were important elements of the structure not only of tragedy, but also of comedy. Kualenovsky treatise(which is considered a summary of the second, lost part of the Poetics) does not contain the term "parod", but mentions the "exit of the choir" ( other Greekεἴσοδος τοῦ χοροῦ) as an important watershed in the structure of comedy.

The dramatic significance of the parod was to give the listeners the first information about the further plot and to set the public as a whole in a way corresponding to the narrative. The earliest tragedies (of those that have come down to us) do not contain parodies. Parod is supposed to have been monodic and sung by the choir in unison. Since there are no complete musical samples of parodies (as well as other genres of choral theatrical music), we can talk about their more specific compositional and technical features (for example, about musical rhythm And harmony) difficult

antique drama

D. Dilyte

Origin of ancient drama

There are two theories about the origin of Greek drama: the position of the English ethnological school and the traditional position of classical philologists. Supporters of the first theory argue that the drama arose from various ritual and ritual actions: from funeral laments, from the ritual of initiation. The latter, while agreeing that various ritual performances (for example, the performances of the Eleusinian mysteries) had much in common, believe that one should still very carefully connect these archaic, prehistoric rituals with the civilized and intellectual Greek 5th century BC. e., that there is no reason not to trust Aristotle, who derives the Greek drama from hymns and songs at the festivities in honor of Dionysus. He claims that tragedy originally arose "from the singing of dithyrambs" (Poet. 1449 a Aristotle. Poetics. / Aristotle. Works in four volumes. T IV. M., 1984, p. 650. Hereinafter, translated by M. L. Gasparov). This position of Aristotle is confirmed by the fact that performances were staged not at any time, but only during the festivities in honor of Dionysus, of which there were three: the Great Dionysia, the Lesser Dionysia and the Lenaea.

As we have already mentioned, the word "dithyramb" is non-Greek (apparently, the Hellenes adopted this kind of chants from the substrate culture), but in the 7th-6th centuries. BC e. dithyramb was known and widespread in Greece. Dithyrambs were the songs of the festivities in honor of Dionysus. They were performed by the leader of the choir and a men's choir of fifty people. Songs performed alternately by the leader and the choir, apparently, should be considered the beginning of the dialogue of a dramatic work. The men who performed the dithyramb portrayed Dionysus' companions, satyrs and sileni: they attached horns, put on goat skins, and sometimes attached horse tails. The word "tragedy" means "song of the goat." Aristotle says that at first tragedy was a merry act, and later took on an elevated character (Poet. 1449 a).

Comedy (Greek "komos" - a gang of cheerful revelers, "ode" - a song). The songs and processions of the komos, most likely, were similar to the festivities of carolers in the village described by Gogol; according to Aristotle, comedy comes "from singing phallic songs, which are still the custom in many cities" (Poet. 1449 a). A merry procession at the feasts in honor of Dionysus sang songs full of elements of ritual abuse. The Greeks believed that such obscene, funny songs in the form of a dialogue between separate groups of the procession contributed to productivity and fertility.

Thus, the performers of hymns and songs at the feasts in honor of Dionysus gradually became actors. The point is that the Greek drama is action. And Aristotle emphasizes that drama imitates active people (Poet. 1448 a).

The device of the theater and the organization of performances

Greek theater consists of three parts: theater, orchestra and stage. Places for spectators, called the theater (a place for spectacles), were usually arranged on a hillside. At first, the spectators sat on the ground, then stone benches were installed, rising in rows and arching around a platform in the shape of a circle - an orchestra (from the Greek verb with the meaning "to dance"), on which the performances took place. Behind the orchestra they pulled up a tent, called in Greek "skin ". In it, the participants in the performance folded masks and other things. So that each time it would not be necessary to pull the tent, a permanent structure was subsequently installed, which people continued to call skene in the future. Since the action of Greek dramas most often took place not indoors, but in the open air, the building of the skene, after installing some elements of the scenery, could depict a temple, the royal palace, etc. If there was no need for such a building, the skene was covered with a huge canvas stretched over the frame with a painted sea, mountains or other necessary image. a small elevation was built, which gradually increased and turned into the kind of stage that we see in modern theaters.

Both tragic and comedic actors wore masks that they put on their heads. The masks were made as follows: the master covered the wire frame with a cloth and put plaster on it. Then the mask was painted, hair and beard were attached. The mask characterized the gender, age, social status, moral qualities and state of mind of the character using the color, shape of the forehead, and the position of the eyebrows. If the psychological state of the character changed, the actor changed the mask. Since the mask enlarged the head, the figure of the actor seemed smaller. This was suitable for comedy, and tragic actors, wanting to avoid a comic impression, wore special shoes with thick soles - cothurni.

All roles in Greek theater were performed by men. At first, one actor played in the drama: putting on new masks all the time, he played all the roles. The performer spoke to the choir or alone. Aeschylus came up with the idea to release two actors to the orchestra, and a dialogue could already take place between them. Sophocles increased the number of characters in the orchestra at the same time to three. The leading actor was called the protagonist. Of course, dramas usually have more than three characters, and the same actors get multiple roles. Several more actors portrayed servants, companions, warriors, and other silent characters. An important character in the dramas was the choir, which sang and danced in the orchestra. From the middle of the 5th c. BC e. the tragedy choir had fifteen people, and the comedy choir had twenty-four. The most important chorister, the head of the choir was called the coryphaeus.

There were various mechanisms in the theater that raised the actor sitting on some fake animal (Pegasus, bird, beetle), or lowered the gods to earth. Therefore, the sudden appearance of a god who resolved the conflict was called the "god from the machine." In theater studies, the Latin translation of this term has become established: deus ex machina.

In the Greek theater, the playwright was not only a writer, but also a composer, choreographer, and director. Sometimes he himself played a role. The cost of staging the performance was covered by a citizen appointed by the people's assembly.

In Athens, theatrical performances were surrounded by a sacred halo: they took place only at holidays in honor of Dionysus and were perceived as an element of worship of God. Before the performances, the priest of Dionysus sacrificed a piglet on an altar that stood in the center of the orchestra. Spectators went to the theater in beautiful clothes and wreaths, as well as when participating in other ceremonies. At first, theatrical performances were free, later it was necessary to purchase reusable clay or lead numbers indicating the place, which were very cheap. Poor people received money from the state for this, and all Athenians usually watched the performances.

Three dramatic works were usually performed. Plays have always been judged by a jury of ten members. Thus, it was a theatrical competition. The playwright who won first place received an ivy wreath. Third place meant defeat.

ancient greece antique theater

The birth of the ancient theater

It is known from Greek mythology that the supreme god Zeus and the goddess of memory Mnemosyne had nine daughters born at the foot of Mount Olympus - nine beautiful maidens with pure hearts and marvelous voices. They were called muses, patron goddesses of the arts and sciences. The Muses lived on the top of the sacred mountain Parnassus or on the slopes of the sacred mountain Helikon. Drawing water from the Kastalsky key or from the source of Hippocrene, the muses bestowed upon his chosen ones, and those, having tasted this life-giving moisture, became poets and singers, dancers and actors, musicians and scientists. Almost all the sisters were related to the theater, but only two of them - Melpomene and Thalia - are symbols of theatrics.

Melpomene was at first considered the muse of tragedy, but then she expanded her "possessions", her sphere of interests and became the muse and patroness of the dramatic theater in general. The theater began to be called the temple of Melpomene.

She was depicted adorned with grape leaves, with an ivy wreath on her head, on cothurns, with a tragic theatrical mask in one hand and a sword or club in the other.

The name Thalia comes from the Greek words for “bloom”, “grow”. In mythology, she became the patroness of comedy and light cheerful poetry. Usually depicted with a comic mask in her hand, with an ivy wreath on her head, sometimes with a shepherd's staff or a tambourine.

Ancient Greece can be considered the birthplace of drama theater. The first theater was created in Greece in the 5th century BC.

The ancient theater is the theatrical art of Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, as well as a number of countries of the Middle East, whose culture developed under strong Greek influence in the Hellenistic era - a period that began in the 4th century BC. BC e. (campaigns of Alexander the Great) and ended in 30 BC. e. the conquest of these countries by Rome.

Actors could only be men - they also played female roles. This tradition in different countries, in different cultures was very persistent - such are the theater of Shakespeare's time, Chinese and Japanese theater.

The actor of the ancient theater mastered the technique of reading, the art of singing and dancing. The ancient Greek actor could play several roles during the performance. He went to the orchestra (a round platform on which the actors and the choir performed and around which the spectators were located) in a mask that was worn with a wig over his head (like a helmet), had holes for the eyes and mouth; the latter was equipped with a metal resonator that amplifies the voice: with the enormous size of the theaters, the facial expressions of a living human face were not visible to the audience. Therefore, the actor changed the mask not only when, in the course of action, he appeared before the audience in a new role, but also when he showed the audience a change in the mental states of the same character. On the feet of the actors were coturns (high-soled shoes), which made them taller, and the image they created was more monumental. Thanks to the cothurns, movements were distinguished by smoothness and majesty.

In the Hellenistic era, pantomime also became widespread. This genre dispensed with words, did not resort to singing: mimic dance told everything. Most often it was a "theater of one actor", who easily changed his appearance with the help of a mask.

The ancient theater is a universal value. The more you learn about it, the more you are surprised how much people knew, could, knew how to do in a small Greek state, remote from us by almost three thousand years.

Everything that has been achieved by world theatrical art stands on the foundation of ancient culture and is indebted to the poetic heritage of Ancient Hellas. It is no coincidence that all our theatrical terminology - (theater, stage, drama, tragedy, comedy, choir, orchestra, monologue, dialogue, facial expressions, etc.) - is of Greek origin.

The theater developed along with the poetic, musical, and visual arts. Its main basis was drama - tragedy and comedy - grown out of cult mythology.

The theater was a favorite place of entertainment, political, moral confrontations, contributed to the education of civil maturity of the entire population.

Acquaintance with the art of Antiquity, its study provides food for the creative development of mankind over the millennia.

If the era of the archaic expressed itself most densely in the lyrics, then classical Greece manifested itself in the Attic tragedy - a genre that most closely corresponds to the spirit of ancient culture. In Greek tragedy, such an aesthetic category as catharsis, that is, the purification, ennoblement of people, found expression.

The theater occupied a special place in the life of the ancient Greeks, it was a platform for the wide dissemination of new ideas, highlighting the problems that most worried the minds of contemporaries. His social and educational role was great. Although, as a rule, the plots of Greek tragedies originated from myths familiar to everyone from childhood, this did not mean that the performances were not topical and did not touch upon burning issues. After all, playwrights have always put words into the mouths of mythological heroes concerning the most acute problems of our time. Therefore, dramatic poetry (without exception, all tragedies and comedies in Greece were written in verse) was able to push other literary genres into the background and become the dominant genre for a whole century.

Tragedy (literally, “the song of the goats”) arose from a choral song, from a dithyramb sung by satyrs dressed in goatskins and depicting cheerful companions of the Greek god of winemaking Dionysus. In Athens, there was an annual national holiday - the Great Dionysius, during which scenes from myths were played, accompanied by a choir of satyrs. In the 5th century BC, 3 actors were added to the choir, leading a dialogue with it - this is how drama, theatrical performance, arose.

Greek theater was different from modern theater in many ways. Firstly, there were no permanent troupes in Greece, and professional actors did not appear immediately. Financing and organizing a theatrical performance (liturgy) was one of the duties (choreia) of the richest citizens. Secondly, the very arrangement of the Greek theater was peculiar and rather resembled a modern stadium. The performance was held in the open air, on a round platform - an orchestra. Benches for spectators were cut right into the rocky slopes of the hill, at the foot of which the orchestra was arranged. This simple auditorium was called by the Greeks the theatron. In such a huge open theater, it was impossible to see either the facial expressions of the actors or the details of their costumes, so the actors performed in masks, denoting either the stage type of the character, or their state of mind or character. It was also necessary to increase the figure of the actor, who for this purpose put on shoes on a high platform (koturny). The Greek theater had almost no scenery. All this limited set of visual means (masks, costumes, lack of scenery, etc.) was associated with the orientation of the entire ancient culture, including the Greek theater, to auditory, acoustic perception. Antique culture was a culture of the oral rather than the written word.

As in other areas of Greek culture, agon (competitiveness) was certainly present in the theater. Theatrical performances went on for three days in a row, during the celebration of the Great Dionysius. They necessarily gave three tragedies and one satyr drama, i.e. comedy. Three playwrights participated in each performance, and the audience had to determine the best production, the best actor, and the best choreographer (organizer of the performance). On the final day of the holiday, the winners received awards.

A group of dancing and singing performers participating in a stage performance of an ancient Greek drama.

Literature

• Stoessl F. Chor // KP. bd. 1. 1979. Sp. 1154-1159
• Bacon H. The Chorus in Greek Life and Drama // Arion. Vol. 3. 1995. P. 6-24
• Wilson P. Leading the Tragic Khoros: Tragic Prestige in the Democratic City // Greek Tragedy and Historian / Ed. by C. Pelling. Oxford, 1997. P. 81-108
• Wilson P. The Athenian Institution of the Khorēgia: the Chorus, the City and the Stage. Cambridge, 2000
• Zarifi Y. Chorus and Dance in the Ancient World // The Cambridge Companion to Greek and Roman Theater / Ed. by M. McDonald, J. M. Walton. Cambridge, 2007. P. 227-245
• Hall E. Greek Tragedy. Suffering under the Sun. Oxford, 2010
• History of Greek Literature / Ed. S. I. Sobolevsky and others. In 3 vols. T. I. M.; L., 1946
• Bondar L. D. Athenian liturgies of the 5th-4th centuries. BC e. SPb., 2009
• Kulishova O. V. Ancient theater: organization and design of dramatic performances in Athens in the 5th century. BC. St. Petersburg, 2014