Origin of Greek Play

Origin of Greek Play.

Drama began in the Greek world as a form of religious ritual. The Greeks invented two kinds of drama, comedy and tragedy. Tragedy is said to be invented by Thespis in 554 BC and of the two dramas, tragedy is older and is the most popular. The two dramas were important to Athenians of the fourth and fifth centuries and both were performed several times during years for agricultural and religious festivals. Only four authors have survived in their entirety. Three of them are tragic playwrights, Aeschyus, Sophocles, and Euripidus and among the comic playwrights, only the works of Aristophanes have survived intact.

The ancients distinguished between Tragedy and Comedy in two ways. The first, the Aristotelian tradition, defined tragedy as a drama which concerns better than average people (heroes, kings, gods) who suffer a transition from good fortune to bad fortune, and who speak in an elevated language. Tragedy, in the Aristotelian tradition, serves the purpose of purging the soul of the "fear and pity".