The origin and development of the ancient Greek tragedy. The emergence and development of the genre of tragedy

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Drama (from the Greek drama - action) was born in Greece in the 6th century BC, when the slave system was finally established and Athens became the center of the cultural life of Greece. On certain holidays, the ancient theater gathered the entire population of the city and its surroundings.

The precursor to the emergence of drama in Greece was a long period during which the leading place was occupied by the epic and lyric poetry. The drama was a kind of synthesis of the achievements of previously formed kinds of literature, incorporating an “epic” heroic, monumental character and a “lyrical” individual beginning.

The emergence and development of Greek drama and theater is associated, first of all, with ritual games of a mimic nature, which at an early stage of development were noted among many peoples and persisted over the centuries. The mimic games of agricultural peoples were part of the holidays dedicated to the dying and resurrecting gods of fertility. Such holidays had two sides - a serious, "passionate", and a carnival, glorifying the victory of the light forces of life.

In Greece, the rituals were associated with the cult of the gods - the patrons of agriculture: Dionysus, Demeter, her daughter Persephone. At the holidays in honor of the god Dionysus, solemn and cheerful carnival songs were sung. Noisy fun was organized by the mummers who were part of the retinue of Dionysus. Participants of the festive procession in every possible way "disguised" their face - smeared it with wine, put on masks and goat skins.

Three genres of ancient Greek drama originate from ritual games and songs in honor of Dionysus - comedy, tragedy and satire drama.

Singing and dancing was an integral part of folk festive activities associated with agricultural work. From these, the classic Athenian tragedy later arose.

The theater had two stages. One - the stage - was intended for the actors, the other - the orchestra - for a choir of 12 to 15 people.

The ancient Greeks believed that the theater should reveal generally significant and deep themes, glorify the high qualities of the human spirit and ridicule the vices of people and society. Having watched the drama, a person must experience a spiritual, moral shock. In tragedy, empathizing with the heroes, the viewer must cry, and in comedy, the opposite of tragedy, the viewer must laugh.

The ancient Greeks created such theatrical forms as monologue and dialogue. They made extensive use of the multidimensional direction of the action in the drama, using the chorus as a commentator on the events taking place. The choir store was monophonic, they sang in unison. Professional music was dominated by male choirs.

In the ancient Greek theater, special structures appeared - amphitheaters, designed specifically for acting and audience perception. It used stages, curtains, a special arrangement of seats for spectators, which are also used in modern theater. The Hellenes created the scenery for the performances. The actors used a special pathetic manner of pronouncing the text, widely used pantomime, expressive plastics. However, they deliberately did not use mimic expressiveness, they performed in special masks, symbolically reflecting a generalized image of joy and grief.

Tragedy (a kind of drama imbued with the pathos of the tragic) was intended for broad strata of the population.

The tragedy was a reflection of the passionate side of the Dionysian cult. According to Aristotle, the tragedy originates from the singers of praise. Elements of acting were gradually added to the dialogue with the choir. The word "tragedy" comes from two Greek words: tragos - "goat" and ode - "song". This title leads us to the satyrs - goat-legged creatures, companions of Dionysus, who glorify the exploits and sufferings of God. Greek tragedy, as a rule, borrowed plots from mythology well-known to every Greek. The audience's interest was not concentrated on the plot, but on the author's interpretation of the myth, on social and moral issues that developed around the well-known episodes of the myth. Within the framework of the mythological shell, the playwright reflected in the tragedy the socio-political situation of his day, expressed his philosophical, ethnic, and religious views. It is no coincidence that the role of tragic ideas in the socio-political and ethical education of citizens was enormous.

The tragedy reached significant development already in the second half of the 6th century BC. According to ancient tradition, Thespis is considered to be the first tragic poet of Athens in the spring of 534 BC. the first staging of his tragedy took place at the festival of the Great Dionysios. This year is considered as the year of the birth of the world theater. Thespidus is credited with a number of innovations: for example, he improved masks and theatrical costumes. But as the main innovation of Thespides is called the separation of one performer, actor, from the chorus. Hypocritus ("the respondent"), or the actor, could answer the choir's questions or address the choir with questions, leave the stage and return to it, and depict various characters during the action. Thus, the early Greek tragedy was a kind of dialogue between the actor and the choir and in form was more like a cantata. At the same time, it was the actor who, from his very appearance, became the bearer of an effective energetic beginning, although quantitatively his part in the original drama was insignificant (the main role was assigned to the chorus).

Phrynechus, the disciple of Thespides, an outstanding tragedian of the era before Aeschylus, "pushed apart" the plot framework of the tragedy, brought it beyond the limits of Dionysian myths. Phrynich is famous as the author of a number of historical tragedies, which were written on the fresh trail of events. For example, in the tragedy "The Capture of Miletus", the capture by the Persians in 494 BC was represented. the city of Miletus, which rebelled against Persian rule, along with other Greek cities in Asia Minor. The play so shocked the audience that it was banned by the authorities, and the author himself was sentenced to a fine.

The works of Thespides and Phrynich have not survived to this day, information about their theatrical activities is not numerous, but they also show that the very first playwrights actively responded to pressing issues of our time and sought to make the theater a place for discussing the most important problems of public life, a tribune where the democratic principles of Athens were affirmed. state.

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Ancient tradition considers Thespius to be the first tragic playwright (second half of the 6th century BC). For the first time, he singled out one character from the choir - who was supposed to play several roles, changing masks and costumes in the course of the action. The works of this author have not survived. The names of some tragedies are known, for example "Penfey". Four fragments of works attributed to Thespius have survived to our time, but most modern researchers express doubts about their authenticity. It is safe to say that Thespiy was not only the author, but also the main performer of his works. The followers of Thespius appeared somewhat later. The ancient authors named eight names of the first tragic playwrights, of which three were the most famous. For example, Heril (second half of the 6th century BC - the first half of the 5th century BC) was famous for having won 13 victories in the Great Dionysias. Unfortunately, none of his plays have survived. One of the most famous tragedians of this time was Phrynich (second half of the 6th century BC - the first quarter of the 5th century BC). He also won victories at the Great Dionysias. His work had many features. Thus, he was the first to introduce female images into tragedy (for example, in the plays "Alkestida", "Danaida"). In addition, this playwright broke the tradition of taking plots for tragic works only from mythology and created several plays on topical topics. The tragedy "Capture of Miletus", dedicated to the defeat of this city by the Persians in 494 BC. e., he shook the audience to tears, for which he was subjected to a large fine, and this play was forbidden to be shown in the future. Another tragedy - "The Phoenicians" was dedicated to the victory of the Athenian fleet over the Persians at the island of Salamis in 480 BC. NS. and was the story of a Persian eunuch about this battle. Most of all, in antiquity Phrynich was known as a master of lyric parts and a dance director in his tragedies. The names of ten of his tragedies are known, from which only insignificant fragments have survived. Pratinus (second half of the 6th century BC - early 5th century BC) was a native of Fliunt in Argolis (northwestern Peloponnese). Ancient sources attribute to him merits in the literary design of the satire drama and its introduction into the theatrical performances of the Great Dionysias (about 520 BC). It is known that he wrote 50 plays, of which only 18 were tragedies, and the remaining 32 were satire dramas. Until our time, only a fragment of one of Pratin's works has survived, dedicated to the dance of satyrs who violently protest against the prominence of the flute part, which actually served as an accompaniment to this chorus. However, the tragic plays of all these authors still had very few dramatic elements proper and retained a close connection with lyric poetry, from which the genre of tragedy developed. The Attic tragedy owes its resounding glory primarily to the work of three playwrights: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, each of whom made a true revolution in it in his time. Aeschylus (525-456 BC) is rightly called “the father of ancient Greek tragedy,” since he was the first to introduce a second actor into the play, which made it possible to dramatize the action. Aeschylus, son of Euphorion, came from a noble family and was born in the town of Eleusis near Athens. In his early youth, he could watch the downfall of the tyranny of Hippias. In the future, his family took a very active part in the Greco-Persian wars. For example, one of Aeschylus's brothers, Kinegir, took part in the Marathon battle and tried to take possession of an enemy ship, but was seriously wounded, from which he died. Another brother, Aminius, commanded the Athenian ship that began the battle of Salamis. Aeschylus himself fought at Marathon, at Salamis and at Plataea. He began writing dramatic works early. Izves + but that for the first time in the competition of tragic poets he performed in 500 BC. e., and won the first victory in 484 BC. NS. Subsequently, Aeschylus won 12 more times in these competitions. The respect for the poet was so great that after his death they were allowed to resume staging tragedies as new dramas. In the prime of his work, Aeschylus visited the island of Sicily at the invitation of the Syracuse tyrant Hieron, at whose court Aeschylus' famous tragedy "The Persians" was again shown. In the same place, the playwright created the play "Ethnians" on a local theme. At the end of his life, after the successful staging in Athens of his tetralogy "Oresteia" in 458 BC. e., he moved to Sicily, where he died in the city of Gel. Most modern researchers believe that the reason for the move is Aeschylus's disagreement with the new political order in Athens. It is curious that on the gravestone inscription, according to legend, composed by the playwright himself, there is not a word about his literary activity, but only about his valor on the battlefields with the Persians. This clearly shows that in the eyes of the ancient Greeks, including Aeschylus himself, the fulfillment by a person of his patriotic duty, especially in battles with the enemies of the homeland, overrides all other merits. Another important feature of Aeschylus's worldview, clearly manifested in his work, was a deep conviction in the ultimate intelligence of the cosmos, which is based on the laws of eternal justice established by the immortal gods. Human deeds are capable of shaking the divine structure of the world for a while, sometimes bringing it to a dangerous line, but they also contribute to the return of balance to its original position. It is on these principles that all of Aeschylus's work is based. According to various estimates, the literary heritage of the playwright included from 72 to 90 plays, but only 7 have survived to this day. The exact dates of creation have not been established for all of these works. It is known that the tragedy "Persians" was first staged in 472 BC. e., "Seven against Thebes" - in 467 BC. e., and the tetralogy "Oresteia", consisting of the tragedies "Agamemnon", "Hoephora" and "Eumenides" - in 458 BC. NS. The tragedy of "The Petitioner" was the first part of the tetralogy, the plot of which is taken from the myth of the 50 sisters of the Danaids who were fleeing the persecution of the same number of their cousins ​​who decided to marry them. When the forced marriage did take place, the Danaids killed their husbands on their wedding night. Only the young Hypermester did not do this, taking pity on her husband, for which she appeared before the sisters' court. She was acquitted only after the intervention of Aphrodite, who declared that if all women began to kill their husbands, the human race would have ceased long ago. Hypermester became the founder of the royal family of Argos. Aeschylus created his works in accordance with the mythological tradition, but introduced into the tragedy the image of the Argos king Pelasgus, depicting him as an ideal monarch who agreed to take Danaides under his protection, but still could not save them from an unwanted marriage. As already mentioned above, only the first part of the tetralogy has survived to this day - the tragedy of The Supplicant, which tells about the arrival of Danaides in Argos in search of refuge. Two more tragedies - "The Egyptians" and "Danaids", telling about further events, as well as the satire drama "Aimona", dedicated to one of the Danaids and named after her, have been lost. In ancient times, the tragedy of Aeschylus "The Persians" was very popular, which is not connected with other parts of the trilogy, which included it. It was a patriotic work telling about the defeat of the Persian fleet at Salamis, and one of the few ancient Greek tragedies devoted not to a mythological plot, but to the events of recent history. The action takes place in one of the capitals of the Persian state - Susa. The heroes of the tragedy are the mother of King Xerxes, Atoss, who remained the ruler of the country during the absence of her son, the Messenger, who brought the news of the defeat of the fleet, the choir, whose members play the elders of Susa. Shortly before the appearance of the Messenger, the queen had a bad dream and was therefore in anxiety. The worry is passed on to the choir. The elders advise Atossa to seek advice from the shadow of her late husband, Darius. At this time, the Messenger appears, who reports the sad news. His story represents the bulk of the tragedy. After that, the queen nevertheless turned for an explanation of what was happening to the shadow of Darius summoned to her. He explains the defeat of the Persians by the punishment of the gods for the pride and arrogance of Xerxes and predicts a new defeat for the Persian army at Plataea. After that, Xerxes himself appears and mourns the defeat of his army. The choir joins him, and the tragedy ends with a general cry. In the work, the author perfectly depicted the development of the drama of the situation. In general, the tragedy is characterized by a patriotic orientation. Persia, where "all slaves, except one", is contrasted with Greece, whose population is characterized as a free people: "they serve no one, and they are slaves of nobody." Many of the actors' lines were intended to arouse a sense of patriotic pride in the audience. Aeschylus's tetralogy dedicated to the famous myth of Oedipus was filled with a deep tragedy of content. The cycle included the tragedies Laius, Oedipus, Seven Against Thebes and the satire drama Sphinx. Until now, only the tragedy "Seven against Thebes" has survived from this tetralogy. It is dedicated to the plot of the myth, which tells about the strife between the brothers Eteocles and Polynicus, the sons of Oedipus. After his death, civil strife began between them for the royal throne in Thebes. Eteocles was able to seize power in the city and expelled Polynices. He did not accept this and, having gathered troops with the help of his six friends, went to Thebes. An army under the command of one of the leaders was sent to each of the seven gates of the city. At the beginning of the tragedy, Eteocles sends the Scout to assess the strength of the opponents. The choir depicts Theban women. At the beginning of the tragedy, they rush about in fright, but Eteocles calms them down. Then the Scout returns and reports on what he saw. In accordance with his characteristics of leaders, the Theban ruler sends suitable generals from his entourage to each gate. When he learns that an army led by his brother is approaching the last gate, he decides to go to them himself. No persuasion can stop Eteocles. He leaves, and the choir sings a mournful song about the misfortunes of the family of Oedipus. After the song, the Messenger appears, telling about the defeat of the enemies and about the duel between the brothers, in which they both died. Then the Herald announces the decision of the elders of the city to give the body of Eteocles to an honorable burial, and leave the body of Polynices unburied. However, Antigone, one of the daughters of Oedipus, said that she would bury her brother's body despite the ban. After that, the choir split into two parts: one joined Antigone, the other went with her sister Ismene to the burial of Eteocles. However, many researchers believe that the tragedy did not initially have this epilogue, and it is a later insert introduced into the play under the impression of the works of later tragedians, where this theme was specially developed. In general, in the tetralogy, the idea of ​​fate gravitating over the family of Laia and Oedipus is carried out, which therefore must be interrupted so that in the future crimes even more terrible than those that have already occurred are not committed. In this Aeschylus saw the triumph of objective necessity. In the works of this cycle, he departed from the concept of an unambiguous conflict, which took place in "The Persians", to an understanding of the dialectical contradictoriness of the world, when one and the same act can be both just and criminal. One of the most famous tragedies of Aeschylus is Prometheus the Chained. This work is the first in the tetralogy, which also includes the tragedies “Prometheus the Unleashed” and “Prometheus the Fire-Bearer”, preserved in insignificant fragments, as well as a satire drama unknown even by name. The Prometheus myth is one of the oldest in Attica. He was originally worshiped as the god of fire. Hesiod in his poems portrays him simply as a sly who deceived Zeus and stole fire from heaven during the first sacrifice. Later, Prometheus began to be considered the creator of the human race, the first representatives of which he molded from clay and breathed life into them. Aeschylus also filled this myth with new meaning. He has Prometheus - one of the titans, but when his brothers rebelled against Zeus, he helped the latter to defend his power, for which he took an equal position with the gods. However, Zeus soon decided to destroy the entire human race. Prometheus, in order to prevent this, stole the fire and gave it to people, which he incurred the wrath of the lord of the gods. In "Prometheus the Chained" it is told how the servants of Zeus (Power and Strength), together with Hephaestus, lead a titan to a rock in Scythia and chained him. All this time, Prometheus remained silent and, only being left alone, allowed himself to pour out his sorrow. Hearing his voice, the Oceanid nymphs, depicted in chorus, flock to him. They express their sympathy for the hero who tells them about his life. Soon the father of the nymphs Ocean flies to the rock, he also pities Prometheus, but advises to show obedience to Zeus in order to receive forgiveness. However, the very idea of ​​this is unacceptable to the titan, so he rejects this offer, and Ocean flies away. The conversation with the nymphs continues. Now the titan talks about his blessings to people, because he taught them the ability to handle fire, build dwellings, tame animals, create states, taught sciences and crafts, etc. At this time, Io passes by the rock where Prometheus is tormented, who had the misfortune to evoke the love of Zeus and turned the Hero into a cow for this. Prometheus, endowed with the gift of prophecy, tells her about her past wanderings and predicts her future fate, in particular, he says that from her will come that great hero who will free him from torment in the future. This establishes a connection with the next tragedy of the tetralogy. In the end, Prometheus says that he knows the secret of the death of Zeus and only one can save him. Then Hermes comes to the rock and demands to reveal the secret, but the titan refuses to do it. Neither persuasion nor threats can force him to do this. Then an angry Zeus sends out a violent storm. During it, lightning struck the rock, and together with the titan the mountain fell into the ground. The next tragedy tells how Prometheus was subjected to new torments, being chained to the Caucasian rock. Every day, the eagle of Zeus flew to him and pecked at the liver, which grew back overnight. In this work, the choir portrayed the titans released from imprisonment, to whom he tells about his torments. Hercules then appears, kills the eagle and frees Prometheus. The myth says that the titan nevertheless revealed to Zeus the secret of his possible death: the god was to be overthrown by a child born from his alleged marriage with the goddess Thetis. Therefore, it was decided to marry her off as the mortal king Peleus. In honor of Prometheus, a cult is established in Attica. It is no longer possible to establish for sure whether Aeschylus developed this mythological plot in any of his works or not. In general, in this tetralogy, the playwright departs from the traditional anthropomorphic (human-like) image of Zeus, who is also represented as a cruel tyrant who despotically punishes the hero for the good deeds he has shown him to the human race. However, according to the testimony of ancient sources, in "Prometheus the Unleashed" the image of the supreme god is already endowed with other features that again return him to the appearance of a merciful ruler: he, according to Aeschylus, gave people moral principles, in addition to which are the material benefits bestowed by Prometheus. The very image of the titan has a truly monumental grandeur, because, possessing the gift of foresight, he knew about all the torments that awaited him, but still did not submit to the cruel tyrant. This gives an outwardly static tragedy a tremendous inner tension and special expressiveness. ... The most complex works of Aeschylus were the plays that were included in the tetralogy "Oresteia" ("Oresteia"), where the author most fully embodied the concept of tragic dialectics inherent in the structure of the world. This cycle includes the tragedies "Agamemnon", "Choephora", "Eumenides", which have been completely preserved, and the satire drama "Proteus" that has not come down to us. The main plot of the tetralogy was taken from the poems of the Trojan Cycle, more precisely, from the story of the death of King Agamemnon. In the Odyssey, he was killed by his cousin Aegisthus, who was assisted by the wife of King Clytemnestra. Later, the poet Stesichor blamed one Clytemnestra for this murder. This version was accepted by Aeschylus. He also moved the scene from Mycenae to Argos. The first tragedy tells about the return of Agamemnon from under the walls of Troy and about his murder. The choir depicts local elders, talking among themselves, they recall the gloomy omens that happened before the start of the Trojan campaign. The most terrible thing was that Agamemnon decided to sacrifice his own daughter Iphigenia in order to appease Artemis, who, being angry with the Greeks, did not allow the wind they needed to blow. Clytemnestra goes out to them and reports the received news: Troy has fallen, and the king is returning home. However, this news does not calm the elders. Finally, the king himself appears, accompanied by his captive prophetess Cassandra, the daughter of Priam. Clytemnestra greets her husband with the greatest honors and flattering speeches. Agamemnon goes to the palace, followed by Cassandra. However, she already feels the imminent death of both the tsar and herself, prophesying about it. The choir is even more alarmed and soon hears death cries. The viewers are shown the interior of the palace, where Clytemnestra stands over the bodies of the murdered Agamemnon and Cassandra with a bloody sword in his hands. She explains her crime to the elders with a desire to avenge her murdered daughter Iphigenia. However, the chorus, deeply shaken by the crime, accuses Clytemnestra and is ready to arrange a trial over her. But her lover, Aegisthus, who appeared, surrounded by his bodyguards, interceded for the queen. He is even ready to throw himself at the elders with a sword, and Clytemnestra barely keeps him from further bloodshed. The elders disperse, expressing the hope that the king's son Orestes will be able to avenge his father when he grows up. This is how the first tragedy of the cycle ends. The second play is called "Hoephors", which means "women carrying funeral libations". In it, the tragic conflict is greatly aggravated. The play takes place about ten years after the events described above. Orestes was brought up in Phocis in the family of King Strophy, along with his son Pylas, with whom they became inseparable friends. Orestes thinks about his duty to avenge his father's death, but he is afraid to commit a terrible crime - to kill his own mother. However, the oracle of Apollo, to whom the young man sends for advice, orders him to do so, threatening otherwise formidable punishment. Arriving in Argos, Orestes and Pilad go to the grave of Agamemnon to perform a memorial ceremony there. Soon there came the women-hoephors who made up the choir, with them was Elektra, the sister of Orestes. The brother reveals to her the purpose of his visit. Electra agrees to help him. The conspirators' plan succeeded. Clytemnestra and Aegisthus were killed. However, immediately after this, the goddesses of vengeance Erinia appear and begin to pursue Orestes. He seeks salvation in the temple of Apollo. The last play of "Eumenides" begins with Orestes coming to Delphi to ask Apollo for help. Soon the Erinyes also appear there, making up the chorus in this tragedy. Apollo says that Orestes should go to Athens and there seek justification before the goddess Athena. The young man does just that. Athena specially creates a special council for the trial of Orestes - the Areopagus. Speaking at it, the Erinyes represent an accusation and demand the most severe punishment for a person who has committed a terrible crime - the murder of his own mother. Orestes admits the crime he committed, but he blames Apollo, at whose command he acted. Apollo confirms this and in his speech begins to prove that for the family the father is more important than the mother, and therefore revenge was just. Finally, the judges start voting. The votes are equally divided, and the decision depends on Athens. She also casts her vote for the excuse of the young man. The enraged Erinyes began to resent the violation of their rights, but Athena reassures them with a promise that from then on in the city the sanctity of their rights will be strictly observed, and at the foot of the Areopagus hill they will be erected a special sanctuary, where they will be revered as Eumenides - "merciful goddesses." Now Erinyes became the guardians of law and order in the country and had to avoid any civil strife or bloodshed. Orestes, on the other hand, with joy at his acquittal, solemnly vowed on behalf of the state - Argos - never to raise arms against Athens. In this moment, you can see a hint of the political situation at the time when Athens made an alliance with Argos. In general, in the tetralogy "Oresteia", two deep layers can be distinguished, which determined the direction of its content. The first one dealt with the concept of justice. Agamemnon fell victim to a crime, but he himself committed many atrocities, the most serious of which were the sacrifice of his own daughter Iphigenia and the destruction of the prosperous city of Troy because of one guilty person - Paris. Therefore, his murder is at the same time the punishment he suffered for his crimes, that is, in the death of Agamemnon one can also see the triumph of the highest justice. The Eumenides examines the other side of this issue. It shows how the archaic rule of blood feud was changed by the decision of the case with the help of judicial procedure. And finally, the third aspect touched upon in this tetralogy is the replacement of the ancient matriarchal clan by the patriarchal one. Clytemnestra committed a crime against the patriarchal clan society, therefore, a clan blood feud should have been committed against her, which becomes the responsibility of Orestes as the son of the murdered. It is no coincidence that Apollo especially insists on revenge, because he was considered in Hellas the patron saint of the "paternal" family. The satire dramas of Aeschylus are much less well known. Quite significant fragments have survived only from the satire drama Fishermen, based on the myth of Danaus and Perseus. As you know, Danae and baby Perseus were thrown into the sea in a chest. They were rescued by fishermen. In the satire drama Aeschylus, the role of the saviors is played by the satyr chorus, and the old Silenus, who leads them, tries to court the beautiful Danae. The surviving fragments allow us to conclude that in this genre, the playwright was no less a master than in the genre of tragedy. The surviving tragedies of Aeschylus are very interesting in terms of composition. Stylistically, they show the author's mastery of archaic narrative techniques (compositional symmetry, frame structure, lexical braces), but at the same time, their overcoming in order to subordinate the elements of archaic technique to a new unity. Thus, a pediment composition of a separate tragedy is obtained, in which some parts, located symmetrically around the central core, are united by lexical and rhythmic braces, as well as a complex system of leitmotifs. In "Oresteia" there is a departure from this type of composition, since in this tetralogy the action is characterized by its pronounced striving for culmination, shifting in each tragedy from its middle to the finale. The language in which the works of Aeschylus are written should be especially noted. It is distinguished by a lofty style, but at the same time it is characterized by bold speech turns, complex definitions, neologisms, and the richness of the Aeschylus language increases from early tragedies to later ones. The second famous Greek playwright of the classical era was Sophocles (496-406 BC). He belonged to a wealthy and noble family, his father was the owner of a large weapons workshop. Sophocles lived in the Attic deme of Colon and was a citizen of Athens. The future playwright received an excellent education and early became interested in theater and literary activities. He won his first victory in theatrical competitions in 468 BC. NS. At the same time, Aeschylus was his main rival. Sophocles took an active part in the public life of Athens. In his youth, he was close to Cimon, the leader of the aristocratic party, but later he joined the supporters of Pericles, during whose activity his creativity flourished. Sophocles was close with such friends of this politician as Herodotus and Phidias. In 444 BC. NS. the playwright held a very responsible post of custodian of the treasury of the Athenian Maritime Union, and in 442 BC. NS. was elected to the post of strategist and participated with Pericles in the campaign against the island of Samos. The election of Sophocles to these posts is good evidence of the deep respect he enjoyed among his fellow citizens, because these were the only posts in the Athenian state for which candidates were elected not by lot, but by voting. But the playwright had neither political ability, nor the talent of a commander. For example, during the Samos campaign, Sophocles was defeated by the local military leader, the philosopher Melissa. It is no accident that the famous tragic and lyrical poet Ion of Chios, who met Sophocles, characterized him in his memoirs as a very sociable and lively person, a poet of genius, but an ordinary politician and strategist. Nevertheless, thanks to honesty and decency, Sophocles retained a common love for himself from the Athenians until the end of his days. During the Peloponnesian War, the playwright again became close to the aristocratic party and in 411 BC. NS. was elected to the board of ten probulov, which was supposed to develop a plan for a new state structure. At the end of his life, Sophocles held a priestly position associated with the cult of Asclepius. The playwright lived to a very old age, and after his death he was awarded his own cult of the hero under the name of Dexion. Sophocles' dramatic legacy was immense. It is known that he created 123 plays, performed in theatrical competitions with his tetralogy more than 30 times and won a total of 24 victories in them (18 at the Great Dionysias and 6 at Lenei), never dropping below 2nd place. 7 whole tragedies, about half of the satire drama "Pathfinders" and a fairly large number of fragments have survived to our time. The surviving tragedies are arranged in the following chronological order: "Ajax" (mid-450s BC), "Antigone" (442 BC), "Trakhinians" (second half of the 430s. BC). BC), "King Oedipus" (429-425 BC) "Electra" (420-410s BC), "Philoctetus" (409 BC) BC), "Oedipus at Colon" (staged posthumously in 401 BC). The socio-political situation in Athens at the time when Sophocles was creating his tragedies was sharply different from that which was at the time of Aeschylus. This was the time of the highest flowering of Athenian democracy, when the direct and direct participation of citizens in the government of the state led to unprecedented freedom of the individual, which was one of the reasons for the rapid development of art and science. However, at the same time, the development of human individuality led to the emergence of a skeptical attitude towards traditional religion and the moral precepts of ancestors. Therefore, in the works of Sophocles, an important place is occupied by the conflict between the freedom of the individual in her decisions, when she assumed full responsibility for their implementation, and some objective laws of the universe that are not dependent on a person and incomprehensible to him. At the same time, in the tragedies of Sophocles, the restoration of moral principles violated by man in his ignorance is often assumed by the gods, although the playwright did not describe their direct intervention in the events in the plays. The gods only expressed their will to people, using prophecies for this, which, however, often allowed their false interpretation. The contents of the seven surviving tragedies of Sophocles are taken from three mythological cycles: Trojan ("Ajax", "Electra", "Philoctet"), Theban ("King Oedipus", "Oedipus in Colon", "Antigone") and from the legends about Hercules (" Trakhinyanka ”), the plot of the tragedy“ Ajax ”was taken from the cyclical poem“ The Little Iliad ”. After the death of Achilles, Ajax hoped to receive his armor, since among the Greeks he was considered the most valiant warrior after the deceased hero. But the armor was given to Odysseus. Then Ajax, rightly seeing in this the intrigues of the envious Agamemnon and Menelaus, decides to kill his offenders. But the goddess Athena clouded his mind, and in blindness the warrior killed a flock of sheep and cows. When his mind cleared again, he realized that he had done an act that would give his opponents many reasons for ridicule. Ajax could not allow his honor to be hurt, so he decided to atone for his shame with death. The wife of Tekmess and the faithful soldiers of his squad, played by the members of the choir, carefully monitor his actions, fearing a possible tragedy, but Ajax still deceives their vigilance and rushes on his sword on the seashore. However, he still does not seek justice. Agamemnon and Menelaus do not want to leave their rival alone even after his death and decide to leave the body unburied, which in Hellas was considered sacrilegious and was allowed only in relation to criminals who committed the most serious crimes. Such treatment of the body of the deceased could not be allowed by his brother Tevkr. He was also supported by the recent rival of Ajax - Odysseus, whose noble nature did not like such an attitude towards the ashes of a valiant warrior. Thus, the moral victory still remains with Ajax. The plot of the tragedy "Philoctetes" is also borrowed from the "Lesser Iliad". Philoctetus went on a campaign against Troy along with other Greek heroes, but on Lemnos he was stung by a snake, which caused an unhealed wound, and he was left on the island. Philoctetus was able to survive only thanks to the bow and arrows presented to him by Hercules. After years of unsuccessful siege and bloody battles, the Greeks received a prediction that Troy would be taken only after the bow and arrows of Hercules were delivered to the Greek camp. Odysseus volunteered to get them. He went to Lemnos with the young Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. The cunning king of Ithaca persuaded the young man to go to Philoctetus and, having crept into his confidence, to take possession of the weapon. Neoptolemus manages to do this, but at the sight of a new attack of pain that begins to torment Philoctetes, an honest young man abandons Odysseus's insidious plans and decides to persuade Philoctetes to go to the aid of the Greeks. However, he, having learned about the new deception of the ruler of Ithaca, categorically refused to take part in the battles for Troy. Sophocles resolves this contradiction with the help of the "deus ex machina" - "god from the machine" technique, which is usual in the theater of antiquity. While Philoctetes was about to go home with the help of Neoptolemus, Hercules, who had already become a god, appears in the height above them, and gives the wounded hero a command that he must go under the walls of Troy, where he will receive healing. The tragedy of Sophocles "Electra" in its plot is close to Aeschylus's "Hoeformes", but in it the main character is Electra, not Orestes. At the beginning of the play, the girl talks with women, whose role is played by the choir, telling them about her difficult situation in her mother's house, since she cannot stand the murderers' ridicule over the memory of her father, therefore she often reminds them of the impending revenge on the part of Orestes. This dialogue is accidentally heard by Orestes himself, who arrived in the city together with his loyal Uncle and friend Pilad. But since, at the behest of Apollo, revenge must be committed in secret, he could not approach his sister to support her. Elektra's sister Chrysofemis, whom her mother sent to perform propitiatory rituals at the grave of Agamemnon, approaches the conversation, and informs Electra that Clytemnestra and Aegisthus want to imprison her in a dungeon. After that, the audience is shown a scene of Clytemnestra's prayer to Apollo, in which she asks him to ward off trouble. At this time, Uncle enters under the guise of a messenger and talks about the death of Orestes. Clytemnestra triumphs over her fear of vengeance, while Electra is in despair. Chrysothemis returns and tells her sister that she saw grave sacrifices on her father's grave, which cannot be brought by anyone but Orestes. But Electra refutes her, telling about the message received by their mother. Then she invites her sister to take revenge together. Chrysofemis refuses, and Electra decides to avenge her father's death alone. However, Orestes, who came to the palace under the guise of a messenger who brought a funeral urn from Phocis, recognizes his sister in the grieving woman and opens up to her. He then kills his mother and Aegisthus. Unlike the tragedy of Aeschylus, Sophocles does not experience any torment, the tragedy ends for him with the triumph of victory. One of the most striking images of this work is Electra. In the tragedy of Sophocles, it is she who plays the main role. Orestes only serves as an instrument of the will of God, and therefore loses its independent significance. From a psychological point of view, Orestes is passive, blindly and obediently obeys the orders of Apollo. Elektra, on his own accord, wants to become an avenger for the death of his father. She passionately hates both Aegisthus, who took the throne of Agamemnon, and her mother, who indulges in entertainment during the days of commemoration of her husband killed by her. Elektra is no less intolerable and the ridicule with which they shower her, so she thirsts for revenge and hopes for the soon arrival of her brother. But when the heroine of the tragedy receives false news of his death, she does not fall into despair, although she mourns the fate of Orestes, but decides to take revenge alone, rejecting all the objections of Chryso- femis’s sister. When her brother opens up to her, Electra joins him without hesitation. Many negative traits are embodied in the image of Clytemnestra. She allows herself to mock the memory of Agamemnon, insult her own daughter Electra. The news of the death of Orestes causes her only a momentary outburst of maternal feelings and pity, and then begins to openly rejoice at getting rid of the alleged revenge. Even more disgusting features are embodied by Sophocles in the image of Aegisthus. Ultimately, the viewer can easily come to terms with their death. The tragedy of The Trakhineyanka is based on the plot of the last of the myths about Hercules. The name of the play comes from the city of Trachina, where Deianira, the wife of Hercules, lives. The members of the choir portray "the inhabitants of the city. Deianira is in anxiety. Hercules went to war against the city of Echalia and gave her a waiting period of fifteen months, which have already passed. She sends her son Gill in search of his father, but at this time a messenger of Hercules comes and delivers the message about his imminent return with a rich booty, among which he mentioned the girl Iola. However, this news did not bring the desired comfort to Deianira. She accidentally learns about the royal origin of Iola and that it was because of her that Hercules started this war. her love, Deianira decided to send him a shirt soaked in the blood of the centaur Ness to revive the passion. told the gullible woman that the blood from his wound possesses love spelling properties. If she feels the cooling of Hercules, then she should give him clothes soaked in blood - then love will return. So the centaur wanted to take revenge on the hero, because he knew that his blood, mixed with the bile of the Hydra, itself became poison. But Deianira believed him. And now she decided to use this means, which she considered for herself the only way to return the love of Hercules. But instead, she learns that putting on a shirt, her husband began to experience terrible torment, from which there was no salvation. In despair, a woman takes her own life. Soon the dying Hercules is brought in. He wants to execute his murderer wife, but finds out the truth and forgives her. Then the hero orders himself to be carried to the top of Mount Eta and there to be burned. Thus, a fatal misunderstanding lies at the heart of the tragedy. The main female image of this work - Deianira - evokes deep sympathy from the audience, since she is a modest, loving woman whose only desire was to return her husband's love. It is not her fault that she is too trusting, and the insidious Ness took advantage of this before his death. All the strength and sincerity of Deianira's feelings is revealed to the audience only during the tragic finale of the play. The tragedies of Sophocles, written by him on the plots of the Theban cycle, were widely known. Until our time, the trilogy has been completely preserved, which includes "King Oedipus", "Oedipus in Colon", "Antigone". The plot of the first tragedy is well known: Oedipus, without knowing it, commits two terrible crimes: he kills his father and marries his mother. After becoming king of Thebes, Oedipus ruled the state calmly and happily for a number of years. However, suddenly a pestilence began in the city. The oracle, who was asked for advice, replied that the misfortune stems from the fact that the murderer of the former king Laia is in the country. Oedipus begins an investigation into the causes of Laia's death. At this time, the soothsayer Tiresias informs the king that he himself is the killer he is looking for. It sounds so incredible that Oedipus, of course, does not believe and sees in this statement intrigue on the part of his brother-in-law Creon, who was his main rival. However, the results of the investigation give him some suspicion. And suddenly the truth is revealed. Unable to endure the shame, Queen Jocasta kills herself, and Oedipus punishes himself with blindness and condemns to exile. This is where the tragedy ends. The tragedy "Oedipus in Colon" tells how a blind exile, accompanied by his daughter Antigone, comes to Colon (Attic dem, where Sophocles himself was born) and finds refuge with the Athenian king Theseus. But Creon, who became the new Theban king, learns about the prophecy that after his death Oedipus will become the patron of the country where he will find eternal rest, so he seeks to return the former ruler back to Thebes. For this, Creon is even ready to use force. However, Theseus does not allow such arbitrariness. After that, his son Polynices comes to Oedipus, who wanted to receive a blessing before starting a campaign against Thebes, but he curses both of his sons. After these events, Oedipus hears the call of the gods and goes, accompanied by Theseus to the sacred grove of Eumenides, where he finds peace, taken by the gods into the earth. To create this tragedy, Sophocles used a legend told by the inhabitants of Colon. In the last tragedy of this cycle - "Antigone" - the plot of the final part of the tragedy of Aeschylus "Seven against Thebes" was developed. When both brothers died in a fight with each other, Creon, elected as the new Theban king, on pain of death forbade the burial of the body of Polynices. However, his sister Antigone still performed the burial. And when asked why she did this, the girl replied that she had performed the burial in the name of a higher, unwritten law. Cleont sentenced her to death by starvation in captivity. His son Gemon, the groom of Antigone, tries to dissuade the king from fulfilling this severe punishment, but he is relentless. The soothsayer Tiresias also seeks to reason with the cruel ruler, but he also fails. Then the soothsayer predicts to Cleonte the death of the people closest to him, which will be the result of his stubbornness. The alarmed ruler decides to free Antigone, but she has already died. Over her body, Gemon kills himself in despair, his mother Eurydice also leaves her life out of grief. Cleont, realizing the loneliness that has come, sadly speaks of his recklessness and the joyless life awaiting him. However, this enlightenment and repentance comes too late. In general, in the image of Cleontes, Sophocles portrayed a typical Greek tyrant with pronounced features of autocracy, whose law is simple arbitrariness. Naturally, this image could cause only hatred among the Athenians, who were experiencing the heyday of their democracy at that time, when the "tyrannicides" were considered heroes. The image of Antigone carries a completely different meaning. Unlike another bright female image of Sophocles - Electra - Antigone serves love. She sees her highest duty to her deceased brother in his funeral, what it means for her to fulfill the “unwritten, unshakable law of the gods,” and for this she is even ready to sacrifice her life. Other features are embodied in the image of Antigone's sister, Ismena, who is characterized by tenderness and modesty. She does not have the determination of Antigone, and she does not strive for any valiant deeds, but when she realizes that she can save her sister, she does not hesitate to take the blame for the burial of Polyneices. Antigone's fiancé, Gemon, embodies many of the qualities of the ideal Greek hero. The satire drama "Pathfinders" is written on a plot from the Homeric hymn to Hermes. It tells how he stole a herd of wonderful cows from Apollo. In his search, he turns to the choir of satyrs for help, who, having heard the sounds of the lyre invented by Hermes, understand who is the mysterious kidnapper, and find the stolen herd in the cave. The main innovation of Sophocles in the field of theatrical performances was the increase in the number of actors involved in the play to three, which made it possible to depict tragic situations much more vividly and more accurately depict the characters' characters. The role of the choir in the tragedies of Sophocles decreased, although the number of choirists increased to 15 people. This playwright is also credited with introducing scenic scenery into theatrical performances. Another feature of the tragedies of Sophocles was the inclusion of secondary characters in the action, which revived what was happening on the stage and set off the actions of the main characters of the tragedies. The playwright attached considerable importance to the creation of an accurate psychological portrait of the characters in the plays. All their actions have certain reasons based either on interests or on the moral and psychological characteristics of a particular character, due to which the credibility and plausibility of the depicted events is created, in which the heroes, who are bright and memorable personalities, take part. Special mention should be made of the language in which the works of Sophocles are written. As was customary in the ancient Greek tragedy, it is characterized by a sublime style, but it is much simpler and closer to the usual spoken language, saturated with various dialectal forms (eolisms, ionisms, archaisms, including traditional Homeric expressions), is distinguished by a wide variety of figurative and figurative expressions and comparisons, although Sophocles was not prone to excessive language experiments. At the same time, it should be noted that the playwright sought to depict the individual manner of conversation of each of his characters. Moreover, the style of speech can change greatly in the course of the development of the theatrical action, for example, as a result of strong emotional experiences of the characters. Despite the introduction of a third actor, conversation between all three participants in the theatrical performance was still rare, the monologue was also rather limited in its development (primarily due to the presence of a chorus), often representing only an appeal to the gods or thinking aloud. But the dialogue developed quite successfully. Sophocles developed many tricks to create the illusion of a lively dialogue between the actors, for example, tore one verse into replicas between both participants in the conversation. Due to the development of dialogical parts, choral ones have decreased in volume, but their metric structure is characterized by a great variety. In accordance with the laws of the tragic genre, choral songs were written for greater solemnity in an uncommon Dorian dialect. Some of them, dedicated to the glorification of a particular god, are distinguished by great expressiveness and lyricism. It should be noted that Sophocles was one of the most popular playwrights of antiquity. Even after his death, the plays he created were repeatedly staged in various parts of the Greek world. Handwritten lists of his works were also widely distributed, as evidenced by numerous finds of fragments of papyrus scrolls, on which a number of fragments from Sophocles' plays that have not been completely preserved have survived to our time. Euripides (c. 480-406 BC) is the last of the great tragic poets of ancient Greece known to us. Unfortunately, the available information about his biography is extremely contradictory and confusing. This is largely due to his difficult relationship with his contemporaries. His ancient "Biographies" are especially unreliable, since many of their information was based on data taken from the comedies of Aristophanes, who, as you know, was an opponent of Euripides and in every possible way ridiculed him. A more reliable source of knowledge about the biography of this tragedian is the Parian Chronicles. "Biographies" of Euripides claim that he was the son of a simple merchant Mnesarch (Mnesarchides) and a vegetable seller Clito, but this information was taken from the comedy of Aristophanes. More reliable are reports of Euripides belonging to a noble family, and there is evidence of his service at the temple of Apollo Zosterius. The playwright received an excellent education, had the richest library at that time, in addition, he was well acquainted with the philosophers Anaxagoras, Archelaus, the sophists Protagoras and Prodicus. That is why there is a lot of scholarly reasoning in almost all of his tragedies. Traditionally, he is described as a contemplator, as if looking at the world from the outside. Indeed, in public life, Euripides, apparently, did not take any special part, at least, accurate evidence of this has not been preserved. The information that has come down to us describes him as a man with a gloomy character, unsociable and misogynist. Nevertheless, in his works there are many responses to the acute political situations of that time - disagreements with the Spartans, the Sicilian campaign, etc. In general, Euripides adhered to radical democratic views, despite his aristocratic origin. It was because of this that the poet was attacked by supporters of moderate democratic views, including Aristophanes. In this regard, during the Peloponnesian War in Athens, a very unfavorable situation developed for Euripides, which forced him in 408 BC. NS. accept the invitation of the Macedonian king Archelaus, at whose court he lived the last two years of his life, having managed to write two tragedies. Euripides died in 406 BC. NS. For the first time Euripides "received the chorus" with the tragedy of "Peliada" in 455. BC NS. But the works of the playwright were not particularly popular among his contemporaries, which, as mentioned above, was associated with his political views. Therefore, he won his first victory in the competition of tragic poets only in 441 BC. NS. And later, he only received the award three times during his lifetime and once posthumously (according to other sources, four times during his lifetime and once after death). But among subsequent generations, Euripides became one of the most beloved tragedians, especially in the era of Hellenism, which explains the rather large number of his works that have survived to our time. It is known that the playwright wrote 92 plays, of which 17 tragedies and the satire drama "Cyclops" have survived to us, as well as a large number of fragments from unreleased works. Eight tragedies of Euripides are dated quite easily: "Alkestida" - 438 BC. e., "Medea" - 431 BC. BC, "Hippolytus" - 428 BC. e., "Trojans" - 415 BC. e., "Elena" - 412 BC. e., "Orestes" - 408 BC. BC .. "Bacchae" and "Iphigenia at Aulis" were delivered posthumously in 405 BC. NS. For other surviving tragedies of Euripides, the time of their creation can be established only approximately, based on some hints, style features and other indirect signs: "Heraclides" - 430 BC. BC, "Andromache" - 425 - 423 years. BC BC, "Hecuba" - 424 BC. BC, "The Petitioners" - 422 - 420 years. BC e., "Hercules" - the end of 420. BC e., "Iphigenia in Taurida" - 414 BC. e., "Electra" - 413 BC. BC, "Ion" - 412 - 408 years. BC BC, "Phoenicians" - 411 - 409 years. BC e .. With the satire drama "Cyclops" the situation is less clear. It is sometimes referred to as the 40s. V century BC e., then by 414 BC. NS. The collection of Euripides' tragedies that has come down to our time also included the play "Res", which in reality, as it was established, did not belong to this author. The plot of "Alkestida" is taken from a myth about Hercules. As a reward for his piety, Apollo, who as a punishment for some time worked for him as a farm laborer, gave the Thessalian king Admet the opportunity to postpone his death, if he could find a replacement when she came. However, when the time came, everyone from the tsar's entourage refused. Only his young wife Alkestida decided to voluntarily accept death. During preparations for her funeral, Hercules came to visit Admet. Out of politeness, the host did not say anything to the guest, and Hercules began to feast merrily. However, from the conversations of the servants, he learns about the grief that befell this house. Without delay, the hero rushes to the grave of Alkestida, waits there for the god of death, and after a fierce fight with him, he fights off the girl, returning her to her husband. The image of Alkestida, ready to sacrifice herself for the sake of a loved one, evokes in the audience a lively sympathy and empathy. A feature of the style of this tragedy is the presence of comic scenes and images in it, which brings it closer to the satire drama, which it obviously replaced. King Admet is shown as a good-natured egoist, he does not hesitate to accept the sacrifice of Alkestida, but later, seeing his empty house, he regrets it. He sacredly observes the laws of hospitality, so he does not say anything to Hercules about the events that have taken place, so as not to darken his cheerful mood. With all this, the tsar somewhat softens the impression of his selfish deed. "Medea" is based on one of the last plots of the myth about the Argonauts. Jason, after several years of family life with the sorceress Medea, who did a lot for him, decided to marry Glaucus, the daughter of the Corinthian king Creon. Medea could not forgive such betrayal and ingratitude and decided to take revenge. Knowing her character, domestic servants fear the worst. Creon comes to the sorceress and orders her to leave the city immediately, but she manages to beg for herself a reprieve for one day. Her plans are strengthened by a conversation with the Athenian king Aegeus, who promises her refuge in his city. First, she seeks Jason's permission to send gifts to the newlywed and sends her poisoned objects, from which the princess and the king himself die in agony. To take revenge on Jason himself, Medea decides to kill her children, born of him, realizing how dear they are to their father. She commits this terrifying act after a terrible internal struggle, having gathered all her willpower - after all, these are her beloved children. But even their bodies did not leave Medea to her father for burial, taking them on magic wheels with her to Athens. The images of this tragedy are very interesting. In Jason, the type of petty egoist and careerist is embodied. He accomplished all his feats only thanks to Medea, but easily abandons her as soon as the opportunity arises to conclude a marriage that is beneficial to him. At the same time, he proves to his wife with hypocrisy that he does this only in her own interests and for the sake of the children. Jason considered his debt to Medea fully paid by bringing her from the "barbarian" country to the "cultural" Greece. His only weak point was his children, but even here he thought only about the continuation of his kind, but not about their happiness and safety. As a result of Medea's revenge, Jason remained alone and deprived of hope for the fulfillment of all his hopes. The image of Medea is opposite to the image of Phaedra from the tragedy "Hippolytus", which will be discussed below. She is a strong woman who has received an excellent education and is passionately in love with her husband. It is no coincidence that it is in Medea's mouth that Euripides puts the discourse on the bitter share of women in the society of that time. The main meaning of her life was in her husband. Dedicating herself to Jason, repeatedly saving him from death, Medea abandoned her family for him, going into exile from her homeland, therefore she considers herself entitled to count on his loyalty. The betrayal of her husband was for her the most grievous insult, worthy of merciless revenge. For the sake of this revenge, Medea is ready to do anything - deceit, humiliating flattery, terrifying villainy. The plot of "Hippolytus" is taken from the myths about Theseus. The young man Hippolytus was the son of Theseus and the Amazon Hippolyta (another version of her name is Antiope). His mother died early, so Hippolytus was brought up at the court of his grandfather Pitfey in Trezen (Argolis). Hippolytus's main passion was hunting, he revered Artemis and was her favorite. He treated women with contempt, which he incurred the wrath of Aphrodite. To avenge the contempt expressed for her, the goddess instilled an unnatural passion in Phaedra, the second wife of Theseus, the stepmother of Hippolytus, who, in order to protect herself from shame, decides to die. Her nanny, deciding to help her, tells everything to Hippolytus, but this only causes his anger. From the shock Phaedra commits suicide. And Theseus, upon returning, finds a note where she claims that Hippolytus inflicted dishonor on her, not enduring this shame, and she dies. An angry father expels his son and invokes the curse of the god Poseidon on his head. The formidable sea ruler did not hesitate to respond and sent madness to Hippolytus, as a result of which the young man breaks down, and he is brought to his father already at death. And at this moment Artemis appears, who explains what really happened, after which Theseus bitterly mourns his fate. In the image of Hippolytus, Euripides brought out not just a hunter, but also a philosopher-contemplator who worships nature, the type of sage that was often found in the sophistic theories close to the author. He leads a strict lifestyle, does not eat meat, and is initiated into the Eleusinian and Orphic mysteries. That is why the confession of love transmitted to him caused only anger and disgust in him. Another major tragedy was Phaedra. This is a weak woman, brought up under the usual conditions of a gyneque (the female half of the house), where the life of its inhabitants was limited by a number of conventions and prohibitions. Euripides in his heroine was able to vividly show the tragedy of the life of Greek women, whose "hothouse" education did not prepare them for the vicissitudes and severe trials of real life. Honest by nature, she admitted to herself in the inability to resist the passion that gripped her and decided to die silently, without revealing her secret to anyone. Euripides subtly showed the strength of her love and the despair that seized her. After, by a fatal accident, everything was revealed and Hippolytus rejected her with contempt, Phaedra turns into an avenger, sparing neither herself nor her offender. This image evoked deep compassion in the audience. It is no coincidence that the tragedy took first place in the competition. The satire drama "Cyclops" is the only work of this kind written by Euripides that has survived in full. It is based on the plot of Odysseus blinding the Cyclops Polyphemus. The main comic element is the satyr chorus, led by the drunkard Silenus, their father. Another satirical side of the drama is the cannibalistic tendencies of the Cyclops and his selfish reasoning in the spirit of some sophistic theories that justify extreme individualism. Satyrs are dependent on Polyphemus and are afraid of him, but they do not dare to help Odysseus. But then, when the Cyclops is defeated, they brag about their bravery with might and main. "Hecuba" describes the events that took place immediately after the capture of Troy, when the victors began to divide the spoils among themselves - noble captives turned into slaves. Young Polyxena, daughter of the former queen of Troy Hecuba, is sacrificed by the shadows of Achilles. Hecuba herself became a prisoner of Agamemnon. By chance, she learns that the Thracian king Polymestor, in whose possession the Greek army stopped to rest, treacherously killed her son Polydorus, who was hiding with him from the war. Hecuba begs for Agamemnon's permission for revenge, lures Polymystor into a tent, where, with the help of other slaves, he blinds him, after which he predicts her future fate. In "Heraclides" tells about the fate of the children of Hercules after his death. Together with the hero's mother Alcmene and friend Iolaus, they were pursued by the cruel king Eurystheus, a longtime enemy of Hercules. The family was able to take refuge with the Athenian king Demophon, but the city was soon surrounded by the troops of Eurystheus. To save the family, Macarius, one of the daughters of Hercules, sacrifices herself to the gods. It helps and brings success in battle. The tyrant's troops are defeated, and he himself is captured and loses his life. The tragedy "Hercules" tells about that period in the life of this hero, when, after completing his service with Eurystheus, he returns home and finds his family (father Amphitryon, wife Megara and two children) in a difficult situation: the tyrant Lykus seized power in their hometown, who decided destroy the entire family of Hercules. However, he frees his family and kills the despot. But the joy of the reunited family was short-lived. Hera sends madness to Hercules, and he blindly destroys his house, kills his wife and children, believing in delirium that he is dealing with the messengers of Eurystheus who pursues him. Having come to his senses and realizing what he had done, Hercules is ready to take his own life, but Theseus stops him and convinces him not to do it. Hercules himself also understands that continuing to live for him will be a much more severe punishment than death. The plot of the tragedy "The Supplicant" refers to the legend of the campaign of the seven leaders against Thebes, beloved by the ancient Greek tragic poets. The events that took place immediately after the completion of this trip are shown. Creon forbade giving the bodies of enemies who fell under the walls of Thebes to their relatives for burial, which was truly sacrilege in the eyes of the Greeks. Women, widows and mothers of those killed were shocked and deeply outraged by this and turned for support to Athens, to Theseus. He took them under his protection. After defeating the enemies, he arranged a solemn burial for them, which is overshadowed by the death of Evadna, the widow of Capaneus, one of the seven leaders who fell under the walls of Thebes - from grief she throws herself into the funeral pyre. The tragedy ends with the appearance of the goddess Athena, who establishes the cult of dead heroes and requires the Argos to swear an oath never to go with arms against the Athenians (here a hint of modern Euripides' relations between Athens and Argos is clearly visible). In addition, the goddess predicts the future victorious campaign of the "epigones" - the sons of the killed heroes. The Trojans were dedicated to the fate of the Trojan women after the capture of Troy. A number of her scenes tell about the tragic fate of Andromache, Hecuba, Cassandra, the beauty of Helen is glorified again, seeing whom Menelaus abandons his previous intention to kill her. In Elektra, Euripides outlined a new version of the revenge of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus by the children of Agamemnon for his death. The tragedy says that to get rid of the constant fear of future retribution, Clytemnestra married Electra to a simple peasant. Orestes went to his sister's house, and there an old slave recognized him. Orestes and Elektra plot revenge. Soon, the young man kills Aegisthus during the sacrifice, and his sister lures Clytemnestra into her house under the pretext of giving birth to her child, where she also dies at the hands of Orestes. The moral shock experienced by the brother and sister turns out to be so strong that they develop a mental disorder. The emerging Dioscuri direct them on their further journey. The tragedy "Ion" was based on a plot from a local Attic legend. Ion was the son of the god Apollo and the Athenian princess Creusa seduced by him. The mother threw the child up, and he was raised by the priests of the Delphic Temple of Apollo, where he became a temple attendant. Meanwhile, Creusa married Xufus, who for his military exploits became the new Athenian king. They lived happily, but had no children. Xuf came to Delphi to ask the oracle for advice. He replied that the first person he meets, leaving the temple, will be his son. At the door of the sanctuary, Xuf ran into Jonah and greeted him like a son. This was heard by Creusa, who secretly from her husband also came to Delphi to learn about the fate of her son. She met Xuf's words with indignation, since she did not want to accept a stranger into her family, while her own son was never found. And Creusa decides to kill him, for which he sends a slave to Jonah with a poisoned cup. But her designs were revealed. Ion already wanted to kill the guilty one, but at that moment the Pythia brought out the childish things of Ion, which Creusa immediately recognizes. Ion doubts the truth of the story told to him, but the goddess Athena appears here. She confirms this and predicts that the young man will become the ancestor of the Ionian tribe of Greeks. The tragedy "Iphigenia in Taurida" was based on one of the plots of the legend of the Trojan War. As you know, at the beginning of the Trojan campaign, Artemis was angry with the Greeks and, for her propitiation, demanded that Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia be sacrificed to her, and that had no choice but to agree to this. But at the very last moment, the goddess replaced the girl on the altar with a deer and carried her in a cloud to Taurida, where she made her a priestess of her temple. Her duties included conducting cleansing rituals before sacrificing any stranger found in Taurida to Artemis. At this time in Greece, her brother Orestes could not get rid of the persecution of Erinius after the murder of Clytemnestra, despite the acquittal of Areopagus. Then Apollo advises him to go to Taurida and bring the idol of Artemis from there, thereby earning forgiveness. That is why Orestes went to Taurida with his friend Pilad. But there they were caught and taken to Iphigenia for sacrifice. In the tragedy, there is a scene of recognition of a sister and brother, remarkable for its inner strength and persuasiveness. After that, Iphigenia, under the pretext of a cleansing rite, takes her brother and his friend to the seashore, where the boat is hidden. When their disappearance was noticed, the remaining priests launched a pursuit, but the goddess Athena appeared and stopped the pursuit, declaring the will of the gods and predicting the fate of the fugitives. In Helen, Euripides developed that version of the myth of Helena the Beautiful, according to which Paris did not steal the woman herself, but only her ghost, while the real Helen was transferred by the gods to Egypt. After the death of Troy, the storm brought the ships of Menelaus to this country, where the ghost disappeared, and Menelaus, looking for him, found his real wife, who was hiding from the harassment of the local king Theoclimenes at the grave of the former king Proteus. After the meeting, the couple develop an escape plan. Helen informs the Egyptian king of the false news about the death of Menelaus and gives her consent to marry him, but asks for permission to carry out funeral rites before that in honor of the "deceased" husband. Theoclimenes gladly agrees. Taking advantage of this, Elena with a disguised Menelaus swim away in a boat. The pursuit, preparing to go after them, is stopped by Dioscuri, announcing to the Egyptian king that everything was done by the will of the gods. The tragedy of "Andromache" is dedicated to the fate of the widow of Hector Andromache, who became the slave of Neoptolemus, the son of Achilles. Because of her beauty and gentle disposition, Neoptolemus preferred her over his lawful wife Hermione, the daughter of Menelaus. Andromache bore him a son, Molossus. But at this time, Neoptolemus leaves, and Hermione, taking advantage of this, decides to get rid of her rival and her son by killing them. Her father supported her in this decision. However, old Peleus protects Andromache and exposes the plans directed against her. Hermione, realizing the unworthiness of her desire and fearing her husband's revenge, decides to commit suicide. But Orestes, formerly her fiancé, stops her and takes her with him to Sparta. Then the Messenger appears in the palace of Neoptolemus and reports on the death of the son of Achilles at the hands of local residents as a result of the instigation of Orestes. The goddess Thetis appears and predicts the fate of Andromache, Molossus and Peleus. On the whole, the tragedy clearly shows its anti-Spartan orientation. The tragedy of "The Phoenician" is based on a plot from the cycle of Theban legends and is named after the chorus depicting a group of Phoenician women who went to Delphi, but stopped in Thebes on the way. The play takes place at the time of the siege of the city by the troops of Polynices. In this tragedy, Jocasta is still alive, and the blind Oedipus remained in the city. Jocasta and Antigone try to reconcile the brothers, or at least prevent their duel between themselves, but everything is in vain, Polynicus and Eteocles kill each other in single combat, their mother commits suicide over their bodies. Creon forbids the burial of Polynices, expels Oedipus from the city, and Antigone wants to marry his son Gemon. The tragedy "Orestes" shows one of the scenarios after the murder of Clytemnestra and Aegisthus. The people of Argos want to try and stone the murderers. Orestes and Electra hope for the intercession of Menelaus, but he prefers not to interfere in the events taking place. The National Assembly of Argos condemns both to death. Then, in despair, Orestes, Electra and Pilad take Elena and her daughter Hermione hostage, threaten to kill them and set the palace on fire. They are saved only by the appearance of Apollo, transmitting the will of the gods, demanding to release Orestes and Electra in peace. The tragedy "Bacchante" was based on the Theban myth about the establishment of the cult of Dionysus (Bacchus) in this city. Dionysus was the son of Zeus and the Theban princess Semele, who, however, died, unable to bear the divine appearance of Zeus, but he managed to save the baby. The child was given up to be raised by the Nisean nymphs. Having matured, Dionysus returns to his homeland, where he decides to establish his cult. However, only his grandfather Cadmus and the soothsayer Teresius accept the new god. The Theban king Penfey, a cousin of Dionysus, the son of Agave, Semele's sister, did not accept him. In the new cult, the king saw only gross deception and debauchery, so he severely persecuted his servants. To convince Pentheus of his power, God sends madness to all Theban women, as a result of which they, with Agave at their head, run away to the mountains and there in reindeer skins with thyrsus (special wands) in their hands, to the sounds of tympans (a kind of tambourine), they began to celebrate bacchanalia. Pentheus ordered to capture them, but the sent guards returned and began to talk about the miracles that happened to the Bacchantes. Dionysus, who was in the city under the guise of a preacher of a new religion, was captured and taken to the king. To avenge his humiliation, God sends him an insane desire to see the Bacchanalia himself, for which Pentheus even decides to change into a woman's dress and freely go to the Bacchantes. But they find it and grab it. Seeing in front of them a mighty lion in an insane blinding, the women, led by Agave herself and her two sisters, tear him apart. After that, having planted the head of the murdered son on the thyrsus, the queen leads the crowd to the palace, glorifying her deed in a song. Cadmus, having visited the site of the orgy after the women left, collected the remains of his grandson and brought them to the palace. And only then everyone gets sober. Agave, horrified, realizes that she killed her beloved son with her own hands. The end of the tragedy was poorly preserved, but it can be understood that Agave was condemned to exile, Cadmus was predicted to be transformed into a miraculous serpent, etc. The last of the fully preserved tragedies of Euripides is called "Iphigenia in Aulis" and is based on the plot of the sacrifice of Iphigenia in Aulis ... As already mentioned several times above, preparing for a campaign against Troy, Greek troops gathered in the harbor of Aulis. However, at this time, Agamemnon angered Artemis, and she stopped all the favorable winds. The soothsayer Kalhant announced that in order to propitiate the goddess, Agamemnon must sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia to her. In order to justify in the eyes of Clytemnestra the call of his daughter to the camp and not arouse suspicion, the Mycenaean king wrote, on the advice of Odysseus, a letter to his wife, where he argued that Achilles did not want to participate in the campaign if Iphigenia was not married to him. However, he is horrified at his plan and writes another letter, in which he cancels his previous order, but this letter was not delivered, since it was intercepted by Menelaus. Therefore, Iphigenia came to the camp accompanied by her mother. When all the deception was revealed, which Agamemnon had to admit, explaining him by state interests, Achilles was deeply outraged by the use of his name in such a horrific case and promised Clytemnestra to save Iphigenia, even if this would require the use of weapons. But when the girl was offered a way to salvation, she refused, saying that she did not want to become the cause of internecine wars and would gladly give her life for the good of her homeland. She herself goes to the sacrificial altar. At the end of the tragedy, the Messenger speaks of a miracle that happened: the girl disappeared, and instead of her, a doe appeared on the altar, which was stabbed to death. One of the brightest heroes of this tragedy is Agamemnon. In his image, a complete ambitious person is shown, ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of his ambitions, even the lives of his loved ones. He looks with envy at a slave who does not strive for a better lot and is quite pleased with his position. In his play, Euripides very accurately described the doubts and hesitations of the Mycenaean king when he learns of the terrible demand of Artemis. Ambitious plans clash with a father's love for his daughter. He already abandons his intention, and only the intervention of Menelaus leads to the fact that Iphigenia nevertheless comes to the camp. Only at this moment everyone realizes what a terrible act they want to commit. Even Menelaus is giving up his demand. But Agamemnon understands that now the sacrifices of Iphigenia can no longer be prevented. However, he cannot reveal the whole truth to his wife and daughter, therefore he begins to be a hypocrite in front of them, portraying a gentle and caring father, although he often cannot hide tears in his eyes. When everything was revealed, Agamemnon begins to justify his decision by worries about the good of the fatherland and awakens patriotic feelings in Iphigenia with her speeches, because of which she refuses salvation and voluntarily goes to the altar. In addition to these 18 works of Euripides, which have survived in full, a large number of excerpts from his plays that have not survived to our time are known, which are cited by later authors as quotations. The greatest interest in the work of the playwright was observed in Hellenistic Egypt, therefore it is in the Egyptian papyri that the largest number of excerpts from various tragedies of Euripides have survived to this day. Some of the passages give a clear idea of ​​the whole work as a whole, for example, you can understand well the content of the tragedies "Antiope" and "Gypsipilus". Antiope was the daughter of the Boeotian king Niktea. Seduced by Zeus, she fled from home and, while wandering, gave birth to two twin sons. Leaving her children to be raised by shepherds in the mountains, she came to the city of Sikyon. But soon the city was captured by the tyrant Lik, and Antiope became his slave. Dirk, Lik's wife, hated Antiope. Fleeing from pursuit, Antiope fled to the mountains, but was captured. Dirka decided to execute her by tying a wild bull to the horns. But when two young shepherds, Zev and Amphion, brought the bull, it turned out that they were the sons of Antiope. Then the young men tie Dirka herself to the bull's head. Later, by order of Hermes, her body was thrown into the source that received her name, and the royal power in the country was transferred to Amphion. Gipsipila was the queen of the Amazons on the island of Lemnos. She became Jason's wife when he stopped on the island during his journey to Colchis for the Golden Fleece. From this union, Gypsipila gave birth to two twin sons. Later, she fell into slavery and was sold to the Nemean king Lycurgus, who began to nurse his son Ofelt. However, a misfortune happened: when the troops of the seven leaders passed by, marching against Thebes, she left the baby to show the soldiers the sources of water, and the boy died from a snake. Gipsipila was condemned to death for this, the intercession of Amphiaraus brought her forgiveness, and among the gathered soldiers she found her sons. For the originality of his style, ancient critics called Euripides "the philosopher on the stage." Indeed, he was not only an excellent poet, but also an outstanding thinker. The playwright, however, did not create his own harmonious philosophical system, but, having assimilated all the best achievements of thought of that time, he disseminated them among wide circles of the population with his poetry. In his works, Euripides praised the pursuit of science, philosophy and even just contemplation of nature and meditation on its secrets. At the same time, he perfectly understood that people who are carried away by this often remain not understood by those around them. This he showed on the example of the fate of Medea, Jonah and Hippolytus. In essence, the plays of Euripides are a kind of encyclopedia of Greek life at the end of the classical era. In the mouths of his heroes, he puts long passionate monologues on topics of interest to him. In many of his works, Euripides reflects the current political themes of his time, for example, in Andromache, where the main opponents of the Athenians - the Spartans, personified in Orestes, Menelaus and Hermione, are exposed in an extremely unfavorable light. Euripides' negative attitude towards the Spartans is clearly seen in his other works, for example, in "Orestes" and "The Petitioners". The prohibition of the Thebanian Creon to bury his fallen enemies in the tragedy "The Supplicant" made the Athenians remember 424 BC. e., when, after defeating them, the Thebans refused to hand over the bodies of the fallen for burial, which was a violation of the generally accepted moral law. And in the speech of Iolaus, who, on behalf of the Heraclides, urged the Argians never to raise arms against the Athenians as their saviors, there is a sharp condemnation of the actions of Argos, who fought in the early years of the Peloponnesian war on the side of Sparta against Athens. At the same time, Euripides glorified his native Athens, spoke of the readiness of the Athenian state to defend trampled justice. Similar motives can be found in many of Euripides' tragedies. In general, the fatherland, according to the poet, was the main meaning of life for a person. And his plays often told about cases of heroic self-sacrifice in the name of the homeland. Friends are no less important for a person, according to the author. The relationship between Orestes and Pilada, described in three tragedies at once - "Elektra", "Oreste" and "Iphigenia in Taurida" can serve as an example of ideal friendship in the works of the playwright. The last work vividly shows the highest expression of friendship - each of the friends is ready to sacrifice himself for the sake of saving the other, which delights Iphigenia. And in "Hercules" only Theseus' friendly help saves the protagonist from complete despair after he realized the horror of what he had done in a fit of madness. Euripides, observing the consequences of the devastating Peloponnesian War, paid great attention to the issues of war and peace. Mythological plots in his interpretation were intertwined with contemporary themes and sounded very relevant. Euripides hated war and considered it a consequence of the ambition or frivolity of politicians. He was a staunch supporter of peace and carried this idea into all of his works. The playwright admitted war only as a way of defense and defense of justice and argued that victory does not bring the desired happiness if it pursues an unholy goal or is obtained by unrighteous means. Euripides also paid some attention to the issues of social relationships. His political ideals are clearly visible in the tragedy of The Supplicant, where he sets in motion a dispute between Theseus and the Theban ambassador about the advantages of a particular style of government, completely unrelated to the main plot. The Theban expresses an opinion about the unsuitability of a democratic style of government, saying that in this case the power belongs to the crowd, which is led by clever cunning, acting exclusively in their own interests. In turn, Theseus exposes all the injustice of the tyrannical government, glorifying the freedom and equality of democracy. A similar description of the essence of royal power was in "Jonah". However, Euripides was well aware of the shortcomings of the democratic system. It is no coincidence that he satirically portrayed demagogues, the most striking image of whom in his plays was Odysseus. It is curious that in many cases Euripides expressed his democratic ideals through the images of kings, this was, however, an anachronism, usual for Greek tragedy. In his attitude to the issue of wealth and poverty, the playwright took a clear position and believed that excessive wealth and poverty are equally unacceptable for a person. The ideal state of Euripides considered average security and the ability to obtain enough funds for a decent life by their own labor. Such an ideal citizen is shown by the poet in the form of Electra's husband, whose nobility of nature is noted by Orestes and Electra. Euripides also paid attention to the question of slavery. He understood perfectly well that it was on slave labor that the entire ancient Greek civilization was based. But, being a playwright whose works were based on mythological material containing numerous plots where rich and noble people, by the will of circumstances, became slaves, Euripides could not agree with the theory that some people were born to be free, others were destined to become slaves from birth. The poet in his works carried the idea that no one in this life is protected from the vicissitudes of fate, that a slave is no different from a free person and that slavery is generally the result of injustice and violence. Of course, such thoughts could not arouse the approval of his contemporaries. Euripides held a special position in terms of religious worldview. As already noted, the playwright was well acquainted with the natural philosophical views of his time, therefore he often expressed doubts about the power of the gods and even their very existence. He ironically portrayed the naive faith of ordinary people, for example, in the tragedy "Iphigenia in Taurida", where there is a story about how the shepherds mistook Orestes and Pilad for gods - the Dioscuri brothers. However, scoffers quickly expose this gullibility. In general, Euripides seeks to dispel the myth of the omnipotence and goodness of the gods. It is no coincidence that many of the heroes of his works ask the gods why they allow a lot of grief and injustice on earth. However, the gods of Euripides themselves cannot be called good and just. Aphrodite, without hesitation, destroys Hippolytus and Phaedra out of a feeling of petty personal resentment; Hera sends a destructive madness to Hercules out of jealousy and revenge, Zeus generally prefers not to interfere in this matter; Apollo seduces princess Creusa, makes her throw up the newborn baby, and then he is ashamed to admit this to his son; Dionysus, in order to establish his cult, allows a brutal murder to be committed, etc. Iphigenia is outraged by Artemis's demand to sacrifice strangers to her and finally comes to the conclusion that this bloody custom was invented by people. In general, Euripides expressed his attitude to the gods in the following phrase from the tragedy that has not survived to this day: "If the gods do what shameful things, they are not gods." The priests were a constant target for the playwright. Vivid revelations of the deception and cunning of the priests are contained in "Jonah" and "Iphigenia in Taurida". A feature of Euripides' work was that he found at the beginning of his work the already firmly established and regulated order of theatrical performances and the rigid canons of the tragic genre. The choir continued to be an indispensable element of the tragedy, the plots of such works were limited only to mythological themes. All this simultaneously simplified and complicated the work of the playwright. He had to come up with new original forms of dramatic play. The role of the choir for him gradually diminished, and chorents ceased to play any significant role in the action. This created some difficulties, since according to the established tradition, the members of the choir, being witnesses of everything that happened on the stage, actively participated in the events, giving advice, expressing their opinion, approving or condemning the actions of the heroes, etc. e. Now they become essentially dumb witnesses. Euripides' heroes often ask the choir to be silent and not tell other actors about their actions or intentions. In general, in the tragedies of Euripides, the songs of the choir began to be assigned the role of only a general background of the unfolding action, its interpretation, or even just a kind of musical intermissions. Sometimes the choir acted as the spokesman for the author's thought. This isolation of the chorus from the main dramatic action turned out to be very convenient in subsequent eras, when, for financial reasons, the chorus was often abandoned. Having reduced the role of the chorus, Euripides significantly expanded the means of dramatic play of actors, introducing, on the one hand, monody (solo songs), serving to express the highest tension of feelings in the hero, on the other, agons (dialogues), with the help of which the hero evaluates his position and justifies the decision he makes. In general, in the colloquial speech of the heroes of Euripides there is no stylization, no artificiality. They speak like ordinary people, only in great excitement or overwhelmed by strong passions. The tragedies of this playwright are full of sayings with deep meaning, which later became proverbs. The author paid great attention to the musical accompaniment of his works. The arias of the characters are one of his most favorite techniques for enhancing the emotional impact of tragedies on the audience. Often Euripides paid great attention to the musical side of the sounding speech - he chose words not for their semantic meaning, but for their sound, with musical extensions of syllables and repetitions of individual words. The playwright brought the development of the prologues and epilogues of the plays to their logical conclusion. They were small scenes. The prologue is a kind of introduction, explaining the overall exposure of the play. It appeared in the time of Sophocles, when one person was employed in it. Euripides, on the other hand, introduced two or three actors into the prologue, and the characters they portrayed often no longer appeared in the play. The epilogue was supposed to facilitate the inclusion of the plot of the tragedy in a coherent mythological scheme. For this, the author usually resorted to the "deus ex machine" method. Euripides was also an innovator in the field of composition of plays. In general, his tragedies are very diverse in their structure. Some of them (for example, "Medea") are distinguished by an internal unity of action and are built around one main character, others have extraneous motives included in them. Sometimes in the dramas of Euripides (for example, in "Hippolytus") there are two main characters with the same meaning, but taking different positions on the underlying issues. For example, "Hercules" is divided into three relatively independent parts, however, closely related to each other, in "Bacchae" a single thread of the plot is woven from several parallel motives. In "Hecuba" in the main plot - the mother's revenge for the death of her son - is introduced the motive of the sacrifice by the Greeks of her daughter Polyxena and the mother's grief when this happens. Some tragedies (for example, "The Trojans" and "The Phoenicians") consist of a large number of separate scenes. And in "Andromache" the fate of the main character is closely connected with the fate of the other characters in the play - Neoptolemus, Orestes, Hermione. However, in all cases, Euripides managed to achieve the psychological continuity and vitality of the action of his tragedies. The dramas of the late period (Iphigenia in Taurida, Elena, partly Ion) are built on the principle of frontal composition, when several equal-sized blocks are symmetrically arranged around the central stage. One more striking feature of Euripides' work should be noted - the passion and deep tragedy of his heroes. The playwright superbly portrayed the psychological conflicts that tear apart the hero's soul. Such, for example, is the storm of feelings experienced by Medea: love for children and a passionate desire to take revenge on Jason are fighting in it. The audience experienced a real shock from one of the scenes of the "Trojan Women", when, against the background of flaming Troy, the division of captives between the winners takes place, and suddenly mad Cassandra rushes in with a wedding torch and sings Hymenaeus - a hymn played during wedding celebrations. In general, the tragedies of Euripides were full of rapid changes in situations, unpredictable turns of action (of course, within the limits of certain canonical requirements of the genre), sudden recognitions and revelations, sometimes even comic motives and heroes were encountered in them. In general, he interpreted mythological plots in such a way that they were filled with various everyday details, hints of political events, love stories, which his predecessors avoided in their works. In some cases, the author, through the lips of his heroes, even expressed critical remarks about the works of his predecessors. In essence, this playwright's tragedies were not played by mythological gods and heroes, but ordinary people with their doubts, fears, passions. No wonder even in ancient times they said that Sophocles depicts a person as he should be, while Euripides - as he really is. Naturally, the above three great Greek playwrights were not the only representatives of this genre of art. Now the names of many other tragedians are known, including the descendants of famous playwrights, for example, Ephroion - the son of Aeschylus, Iophon - the son of Sophocles, Sophocles the Younger - the son of Ionfon, Euripides the Younger - the son of Euripides. The names of such tragedies as Ion of Chios, Achaeus, Neophron (the author of the tragedy Medea), Agathon (he wrote the tragedy The Flower on a contemporary theme), Critias, and others have also survived. Unfortunately, only insignificant fragments have survived from their work. Only the tragedy of "Res" by an unknown author has fully survived to our time. She was included in the collection of works by Euripides, but is so different from the plays of this playwright that modern scholars refuse to recognize him as the author of this drama. In general, it can be said that the successors of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides did not create works that were distinguished by the same skill as the dramas of these authors. It is no coincidence that the plays of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides continued to be repeatedly staged on the stages of Greek theaters, survived antiquity and entered the treasury of world culture.

The entire West believes that the history of theater and drama in its classical sense is rooted in ancient Greece. There is no smoke without fire: the first theatrical performances arose precisely from dances and songs that were performed during the bacchanals in honor of the Greek god of wine Dionysus.

Dionysius Dramatic Art Festival

In Athens, this religious festival gradually developed into a festival of dramatic arts such as Dionysius, which lasted for five days in the spring months. Every citizen of Athens could participate. To do this, he brought the written play to the archon, who decided whether it could be shown to ordinary viewers or not.

He also appointed wealthy citizens of the polis - khoregs - with the aim of financing the production on stage, which was considered honorable in those days. Over time, simple religious performances became more complex and the first plays appeared.

In those same Dionysias, groups of people called the choir took part. Their task was songs and dances. A little later, the actor stood out - the one who spoke to the choir. But there were more and more actors.

As a result, plays were already written directly for the actors. The role of the choir was becoming increasingly insignificant. However, the actors themselves in one play were no more than 4 people.

For this reason, the same person had to play several roles. Women could not take part in the performances. Their roles were played by men. This is how the first plays appeared.

Distinguishing two genres: tragedy and comedy

Later, two genres emerged: comedy (then another direction of comedy - satire) and tragedy. Tragedies were usually staged according to mythological and legendary plots, while comedies were simple caricatures of famous people of Athens.

If heroes, gods and kings played the main role in tragedies, then in comedies these are ordinary citizens of the polis, who often ridiculed the politicians of their time. As you know, there was democracy in Athens.

The purpose of the tragedy was to show how one should behave and how not. Although some tragedies had a happy ending, and the plot itself did not exclude humor.

Comedies ridiculed the vices of people and funny battles between men and women. And satyrs ridiculed public mores and, unlike comedies and tragedies, were rude and sarcastic.

Famous playwrights of Ancient Greece were Aristophanes, Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. From the pen of these geniuses came such tragedies as Alkestida, Electra, Hippolytus and the Cyclone of Euripides, Antigone, Oedipus the tyrant and Electra of Sophocles, Seven against Thebes and the Oresteus trilogy, which includes the tragedies of Agamemnon, the sacrifice at the tomb and Eumenides, Aeschylus. And also the witty comedies of Aristophanes - Frogs, Birds, Women in the National Assembly and Wasps.

Actors in the theaters of Athens

The authorities favored tragedies: they were provided with a stage, choreographers and actors. Dramatic festivals were held in Athens, where actors from all over Greece competed for the title of the best.

So the dramatic actors were divided: protagonists, tritagonists and deteragonists appeared. The Archons secured the right to control the theatrical activities of Athens. Actors and playwrights did not have the right to choose a role for themselves or assign an actor they liked to it - everything was in the hands of the archons. Even Dionysius appointed the judge for the competition.

But now the payment for the production took place at the state expense (the Khoregia tax, which went to finance the festivals, was paid by all citizens of Athens): the money was allocated personally to the archon from the treasury.

Three poet-actors usually took part in the competition. They played three tragedies and one comedy. In the earliest years of the theater's inception, the playwright was both an actor and a director. Sophocles is said to have played as an actor in his early plays. On Dionysius there was an interesting one of the competitions, which consisted of a competition between tragedians and comedians.

Masks and costumes of actors

One of the most interesting aspects of Athenian theater is the masks and costumes of the actors. The theater stage, which will be written about a little later, was huge, and there were many seats for spectators.

Everyone wanted to see what was happening on stage. For this reason, in order for the audience to understand who is playing what role, the actors wore masks that showed the mood and gender (female and male masks). There were also two-sided masks: on the one hand, a calm face, and on the other, an evil face.

The masks themselves were made of dense painted fabric and had funnel-shaped openings for the mouth, so that the audience, even in the very last rows, could well and clearly hear every word uttered by the actor.

Speaking of masks, one cannot say about costumes. Special costumes were made for the actors, namely shoes with thick soles, with the help of which the actors seemed taller and were more noticeable to the audience sitting in distant places, thick tunics and wigs.

The color of the clothes explained a lot in the play: bright colors meant that the hero was positive and successful, dark shades spoke of the tragic image of the actor. Special costumes of birds and animals were also made for actors playing in comedies.

Ancient Greek theaters - the first theaters in Athens

The first plays in Athens were staged in the agora (market square in city-states). But with the success of the Dionysius festivals (later they were held twice a year - Small and Great Dionysias), a larger number of spectators began to appear.

Then the authorities began to think about building a special structure in which the performances would take place. So a huge outdoor hall was built near the Acropolis.

The first Athenian theater became a role model for the rest of the city-states. These theaters usually accommodated over 18,000 spectators. True, in other policies, theaters were built on the slopes of the mountains due to the reluctance of the authorities to spend money on their construction.

According to archaeological excavations in Greece and the rest of the Hellenistic world, the presence of a theater has become synonymous with prestige.

The source about the structure of the theater is the works of Vitruvius 'On Architecture'. The theater consisted of the following elements: orchestras (in the modern sense - a stage, in the understanding of the Greeks - a place for dancing), theatron (places for spectators), skena (a place for actors to dress), askers (skene facade, which served to strengthen the scenery) and parody (aisles between seats).

The theaters had no roofs - roofs - so the performances were given during the day in daylight. Not all of these components appeared at once, but the already fully formed ancient theater looked exactly like this.

Such a theater appeared around the 4th century BC. after many rebuilds. At first, the 67 rows of seats in the theater were wooden, but soon they were replaced by marble ones. In the first row were only honorary citizens of Athens and nobles.

Each seat was ‘reserved’ for a gentleman - his name was engraved on the back of the chair. After the Roman conquest, the seat of the emperor was located on the second row. And when the Romans carried out gladiator fights on the stage, small bee keepers appeared at the first rows.

Respect for the theater among the Athenians

The Athenians had great respect for the theater. If at first everyone could watch the play, then over time it was necessary to pay two obols (for the farmers of the theater). But the citizens of the policy first received money from the treasury to visit theaters, and then a separate entertainment box office was created, which consisted of the remains of the state treasury and was inviolable for other expenses. Spending these funds on something else was punishable by law.

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SECTION II. ATTIC PERIOD OF GREEK LITERATURE

CHAPTER II. DEVELOPING DRAMA

2. Tragedy

1) The origin and structure of the Attic tragedy

In addition to lyric choirs with the obligatory praise of Dionysus, tragic choirs also performed at the festival of the “great Dionysios”, established by the Athenian tyrant Pisistratus. Ancient tradition calls Athens Thespis the first tragic poet and points to 534 BC. NS. as on the date of the first staging of the tragedy during the "great Dionysios". This early Attic tragedy of the late 6th and early 5th centuries. was not yet a drama in the full sense of the word. It was one of the branches of the choral lyrics, but differed in two essential features: 1) in addition to the chorus, an actor performed who made a message to the choir, exchanged remarks with the choir or with its leader (luminary); while the choir did not leave the scene, the actor left, came back, made new messages to the choir about what was happening behind the stage and, if necessary, could change his appearance, performing the roles of different persons in his various parishes; in contrast to the vocal parts of the choir, this actor, introduced, according to ancient tradition, by Thespides, did not sing, but recited choreic or iambic verses; 2) the choir took part in the game, depicting a group of persons put in a plot connection with those whom the actor represented. Quantitatively, the actor's parts were still very insignificant, and he, nevertheless, was the bearer of the dynamics of the game, since, depending on his messages, the lyrical mood of the choir changed. The plots were taken from myth, but in some cases the tragedies were also composed on contemporary themes; so, after the capture of Miletus by the Persians in 494, “the poet Phrynechus staged the tragedy“ The Taking of Miletus ”; the victory over the Persians at Salamis served as a theme for the "Phoenicians" of the same Phrynich (476), which contained the glorification of the Athenian leader Themistocles. The works of the first tragedies have not survived, and the nature of the plot development in the early tragedy is not exactly known; however, already with Phrynich, and perhaps even before him, the main content of the tragedy was the depiction of some kind of "suffering." Since the last years of the VI century. the staging of the tragedy was followed by the "Satyr Drama" - a comic play based on a mythological plot, in which the chorus consisted of satyrs. The tradition calls Pratina of Fliunt (in the northern Peloponnese) the first creator of satire dramas for the Athenian theater. Interest in the problems of "suffering" was generated by religious and ethical fermentations of the 6th century, the struggle that the emerging slave-owning class of the city waged, relying on the peasantry, against the aristocracy and its ideology. The democratic religion of Dionysus played a significant role in this struggle and was put forward by tyrants (for example, or Cleisthenes) as opposed to local aristocratic cults. The myths about heroes, which belonged to the main foundations of polis life and constituted one of the most important parts in the cultural wealth of the Greek people, could not help but fall into the orbit of new problems. With this rethinking of Greek myths, it was no longer epic "feats" or aristocratic "valor" that came to the fore, but suffering, "passions" that could be depicted in the same way as the "passions" of the dying and resurrecting gods were depicted; in this way, it was possible to make the myth an expresser of a new attitude and extract from it material for those that were relevant in the revolutionary era of the 6th century. problems of "justice", "sin" and "retribution." The tragedy that arose in response to these inquiries took on the type of depiction of "passions" that is closest to the usual forms of choral lyrics, often found in primitive rites: "passions" do not occur in front of the viewer, they are communicated through the "messenger", but the ceremonial the action of the collective reacts with song and dance to these messages. Thanks to the introduction of the actor, the "messenger", who answers the choir's questions, a dynamic element entered the choral lyrics, the transitions of mood from joy to sadness and vice versa - from crying to glee. Very important information about the literary genesis of the Attic tragedy is reported by Aristotle. In chapter 4 of his Poetics, it is said that the tragedy "underwent many changes" before it took its final form. At an earlier stage, it had a "satire" character, was distinguished by the simplicity of the plot, the playful style and the abundance of the dance element; it became a serious work only later. Aristotle speaks of the "satire" nature of the tragedy in somewhat vague terms, but the idea, apparently, is that the tragedy once took the form of a satyr drama. Aristotle considers the improvisations of the "initiators of praise" to be the origins of the tragedy. Aristotle's messages are valuable already because they belong to a very knowledgeable author, who had at his disposal a huge amount of material that has not come down to us. But they are also confirmed by the testimony of other sources. There is information that in the praises of Arion (p. 89) there were mummers choirs, by whose name individual praises were given one or another name, that in these praises, in addition to musical parts, there were also declamatory parts of satyrs. The formal features of the early tragedy did not represent, therefore, an absolute innovation and were prepared by the development of praise, that is, the genre of choral lyrics that is directly related to the religion of Dionysus. A later example of a dialogue in praise is Bacchilides' "Theses" (p. 93). Another confirmation of the indications of Aristotle is the very name of the genre: "tragedy" (tragoidia). Literally translated, it means "goat song" (tragos - "goat", oide - "song"). The meaning of this term was already unknown to the ancient scholars, and they created various fantastic interpretations, such as that the goat allegedly served as a reward for the choir that won the competition. In the light of Aristotle's messages about the former "satire" nature of the tragedy, the origin of the term can be easily explained. The fact is that in some areas of Greece, mainly in the Peloponnese, the demons of fertility, including satyrs, appeared to be goat-like. It is different in Attic folklore, where equestrian figures (seilena) corresponded to the Peloponnesian goats; however, in Athens, the theatrical mask of satyr contained, along with horse features (mane, tail), also goat features (beard, goat skin), and among Attic playwrights satyrs are often called “goats”. Goat-like figures embodied voluptuousness, their songs and dances should be imagined as rude and obscene. Aristotle also hints at this when he speaks of the playful style and dance character of the tragedy at its "satire" stage. "Tragic", that is, dressed up as goats, choirs were also associated outside the cult of Dionysus with mythological figures of the "passionate" type. Thus, in the city of Sikion (northern Peloponnese), "tragic choirs" glorified the "passions" of the local hero Adrastus; at the beginning of the VI century. the Sikion tyrant Cleisthenes destroyed the cult of Adrastus and, as the historian Herodotus says, "gave the choir to Dionysus." In the "tragic choirs", therefore, the zalachka element was to occupy a significant place, which was widely used in the later tragedy. The lament, with its characteristic alternation of lamentations of individuals and the choral lament of the collective (p. 21), was probably also a formal model for the scenes of joint crying of the actor and the chorus that are frequent in the tragedy. However, if the Attic tragedy developed on the basis of the folklore game of the Peloponnesian "goats" and the praises of the Arion type, nevertheless the decisive moment for its emergence was the development of "passions" into a moral problem. While formally retaining numerous traces of its origin, tragedy in content and ideological character was a new genre that posed questions of human behavior on the example of the fate of mythological heroes. As Aristotle put it, the tragedy "became serious." The dithyramb has undergone the same transformation, having lost the character of the stormy Dioisian song and turned into a ballad on heroic plots; an example is the praises of Bacchilides. In both cases, the details of the process and its individual stages remain unclear. Apparently, the songs of the "goat choirs" for the first time began to receive literary processing at the beginning of the 6th century. in the northern Peloponnese (Corinth, Sikion); at the turn of the 6th and 5th centuries. in Athens, the tragedy was already a work on the theme of the suffering of the heroes of Greek myth, and the choir did not dress up in the mask of "goats" or satyrs, but in the mask of faces connected with these heroes. The transformation of the tragedy did not take place without the opposition of the supporters of the traditional game; there were complaints that at the festival of Dionysus pieces were being performed that "have nothing to do with Dionysus"; the new form, however, prevailed. The chorus of the old type and the corresponding playful character of the play were preserved (or, perhaps, restored after some time) in a special play, which was staged after the tragedies and was called "satire drama". This cheerful play, with an invariably successful outcome, corresponded to the last act of the ritual performance, the exultation of the resurrected God. The growth of the social significance of the individual in the life of the polis and the increased interest in his artistic depiction lead to the fact that in the further development of the tragedy the role of the chorus decreases, the role of the actor grows and the number of actors increases; but the very two-part character remains unchanged, the presence of choral parts and parts of the actor. It is even reflected in the dialectal coloration of the language of the tragedy: while the tragic chorus tends to the Dorian dialect of choral lyrics, the actor pronounced his parts in an attic manner, with some admixture of the Ionian dialect, which until that time was the language of all declamatory Greek poetry (epic, iambic) ... The two-part Attic tragedy also determines its external structure. If the tragedy, as was usually the case later, began with the parts of the actors, then this first part, before the arrival of the chorus, was the prologue. Then came the parod, the arrival of the choir; the choir entered from both sides in a marching rhythm and sang the song. In the future, there was an alternation of episodes (incursions, i.e., new arrivals of actors), acting scenes, and stsims (standing songs), choral parts, which were usually performed when the actors left. The last stasim was followed by an exod (exit), the final part, at the end of which both the actors and the choir left the place of the game. In episodes and exodus, a dialogue between the actor and the luminary (leader) of the choir is possible, as well as commos, a joint lyric part of the actor and the choir. This latter form is especially characteristic of the traditional lament of tragedy. The parts of the choir are stanzaic in structure (p. 92). The strophe corresponds to the antistrophe; they can be followed by new stanzas and antistrophes of a different structure (scheme: aa, cc, ss); Epods are relatively rare. There were no intermissions in the modern sense of the word in Attic tragedy. The game was played continuously, and the choir almost never left the playing area during the action. Under these conditions, a change in the scene in the middle of a play or its stretching for a long time created a sharp violation of the stage illusion. The early tragedy (including Aeschylus) was not very demanding in this respect and was rather free in both time and place, using different parts of the playground as different places of action; later it became common, although not unconditionally obligatory, that the action of the tragedy takes place in one place and does not exceed its duration of one day. These features of the construction of a developed Greek tragedy received in the 16th century. the name of "unity of place" and "unity of times and". The poetics of French classicism, as is known, attached great importance to "unities" and elevated them to the basic dramatic principle. The necessary components of the Attic tragedy are "suffering", the message of the messenger, the lamentation of the choir. A disastrous end is not at all necessary for her; many tragedies had a conciliatory outcome. The cult character of the play, generally speaking, demanded a happy, joyful end, but since this end was provided for the play as a whole by the final drama of the satyrs, the poet could choose the ending he saw fit.