Context

• There was no democracy in Sparta
• Women in Sparta were treated differently from other women, they could be in some specific positions and they were included in some parts of military education e.g physical training. They could own land and drink wine.
• In Ancient Greece women were not considered citizens.
• Women had no political rights and other than in Sparta they could not inherit or own land.
• Women were viewed as species-extending beings.
• Women's names were not to be mentioned in public.
• Women had to be faithful to their husbands but the same didn't apply for men. If a man learned his wife was engaging in sexual activities with another man then he could kill him without getting punished.
• A woman's place was in the home: their main role was upbringing/giving birth to children and fulfilling tasks in the home.
• If a woman's father died she wouldn't inherit anything; it would go to her brother or she would have to marry her nearest male relative and it would go to him.
• Some women worked in shops or as prostitutes or courtesans.
• Plays were performed in amphitheatres.
• The actors performed on a raised stage called the proskenion.
• Amphitheatres had a stage building called a skene.
• There was a round flat area for the chorus to perform in called the orchestra.
• There was tiered seating called Koilon/cavea in amphitheatres.
• Festivals and feasts were held throughout the year. In Athens there were 120 festival days per year; festivals were often funded by the state and were viewed as a reflection of the city's image.
• The four most famous festivals were held every four years at Olympia, Delphi, Nemea and Isthmia. At these festivals there were athletic competitions, a procession and sacrifices. They were attended by people from all over the Greek-speaking world.
• The festival of Dionysus was (one of) the biggest festivals in ancient Greece.
• Plays were often made to be performed at religious festivals so action was shown off stage.
• Often there is a tragic hero with a hamartia (fatal flaw).
• There are rarely any subplots in Greek tragedies.
• In tragedies the entire plot often takes place in 24 hours (unity of time, place and action).
• There are 6 main parts to Greek tragedies: plot, characters (tragic hero), thought(theme), diction (literary devices), song (mostly chanting by the chorus) and spectacle (special effects, but this wasn't as important).
• The purpose of Greek tragedies was for the audience to learn through the suffering of the characters (catharsis).
• Greek tragedies were based on Greek mythology.
• There were no female actors.
• They had maximum three actors (excluding the chorus).
• There was one main performer and all the other speaking roles were played by the other two actors.
• They wore masks made of linen or cork which covered the actor's entire head. They had exaggerated features which could be seen from the back of the theatre.
• Masks were worn to help identify characters and their emotions as well as to amplify the actors' voices.
• Actors were semi-professional, they got paid but it wasn't their full time job.
• There was no fourth wall, actors could acknowledge the audience.
• Characters would often describe what they were doing/how they were feeling.
• The chorus help to guide the action along, often through song and dance.
• The chorus was made up of roughly 15 males.
• The chorus give key information about what's going on an backstory.
• The function of the chorus was to create entertainment and mood, to represent the common people/the views of the Greek audience, to take sides in dramatic conflict and to warn characters to create dramatic irony.
• The chorus often represent a specific demographic. For example they are playing a group of women or sailors.
• There were three main playwrights of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.