Secondary Opinions

• [Scott] The visual grotesque aesthetic of comedy, specifically the costumes adds to the play's humour
• [Scott] The double layering of Dionysus' outfit with the Herakles costume has a meta-theatrical quality.
• [Scott] The act of changing costumes draws the audience's attention to the actor taking on different identities.
• [Lowe] The opening staging of frogs is the most spatially aware of Aristophanes' prologues.
• [Scott] The play 'Frogs' has a very detailed underworld landscape that due to the limited resources of ancient theatre would require the 5th-century Athenians to use imagination.
• [Scott] The multiple uses of the skene in frogs, such as Herakles', the Inn and Pluto's door, show how the Athenians would have had to use suspension of disbelief to watch theatre.
• [Scott] Unanswered questions like how Dionysus rows across the stage can show the use of things like the Ekkyklema
• [Scott] argues that the chorus of frogs was visible, saying the opportunity for a chorus dressed up as frogs, leaping across the stage, is too comical for a comic writer to pass up on.
• [Scott] The play Frogs is evidence for there being an established canon for the big three tragic playwrights
• [Scott] Argues that Aristophanes purposefully uses Aeschylus and Euripides to create greater contrast rather than having only last-minute added Sophocles' death
• [Seaford] we don’t know how tragedy was perfected because we do not have any surviving plays from the first 25 years of theatre
• [Seaford] Athens was the first place to formalise drama and thus invent theatre
• [Seaford] Drama developed from the Dithyramb, a procession that welcomed Dionysus into the city, It is believed that the procession would have halted in a public place and performed the hymn statically so that all could see
• [Seaford] The noise and musical elements of the City Dionysia were to announce the presence of the god and this is shown in the Bacchae
• [Seaford] The chorus in Bacchae's role is twofold, first to announce the arrival of the god, to invite the citizens to witness the worship, and second to invite them to join in the festival
• [Seaford] At the end of the Bacchae the cult of Dionysus is accessible to all
• [Seaford] many tragedies follow the self-destruction of the royal family and the preservation or well-being of the citizens being improved (think the curse being lifted in Oedipus, the Citizens being able to worship Dionysus,)
• [Seaford] Tragedies differ from epic because of the source of the grief, mainly in Tragedies it is kin killing
• [Seaford] The high and mighty royal family being brought to grief contrasts with the chorus being joyful and victorious
• [Seaford] Pentheus is shown as the antithesis of the chorus, where the chorus is conglomerate and together, Pentheus is shown to be isolated and individual.
• [goldhill] The turning point of the play is Tiresias' statement telling Oedipus he doesn’t know who he is.
• [Goldhill] The plot of Oedipus the King revolves around Oedipus discovering he doesn’t know who he is and ends with him discovering himself.
• [Goldhill] Oedipus doesn't have the language to describe himself because there are no words to completely describe his relationship with the people around him,
• [Goldhill] Oedipus' name doesn't just mean swollen foot, it shares linguistic roots with the phrase "do you know what?
• [Goldhill] Oedipus' inability to understand his relationship and himself is his first mistake.

   
• [Seaford] Aristotle says that the two points of tragedy are the Peripeteia and the Anagnorisis
• [Seaford] The tragic fall must be a result of the hero's own actions
• [Goldhill] We cannot compare Greek Theatre to a modern-day production because of the unique political climate around Athens at the time (ie invention of Democracy and the Peloponnesian wars)
• [Goldhill] To be part of the audience means you must play the role of a democratic citizen
• [Goldhill] Dramatic festivals were a way of showing off the city to outsiders
• [Goldhill] The performance allowed Athens to define what it means to be Athenian (via moral messages and parabasis etc)
• [Goldhill] The actions leading up to the performances showed off Athen's political and military power to outsiders and further define what it meant to be Athenian
• [Easterling] The common factor in all Dionysiac performances was song and dance (Tragedy, Comedy, Satyr plays and Dithyrambs)
• [Easterling] No satyr plays have survived and this could suggest that the satyr plays were only performed in Athens and were not popular enough to make the rural Dionysia