Greek Plays and Playwrights
The
Greeks invented two kinds of drama, tragedy and comedy. Tragedy is the
older and more famous of the two types: it is said to be the invention
of Thespis in 534 BC , while comedy is generally dated some half century
later, around 486 BC. Both genres were important to Athenians of the fifth
and fourth centuries, and both were performed several times during the
year as part of religious and agricultural festivals. We know the names
of many dozens of Greek tragic and comic playwrights, but the works of
only four authors have survived in their entirety. Three of them are tragic
playwrights, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides; among the comic playwrights,
only the works of Aristophanes have survived intact . It is a pity that
so much has been lost of the literature of the ancient world, but at least
we have the consolation of knowing that the work we do possess is the
best there was; Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, and Aristophanes were
all acclaimed by their contemporaries as the most talented of Greek playwrights,
and together they won many prizes in the dramatic competitions.
What
follows is a list of the extant works of Aeschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,
and Aristophanes. From it and from the time line you can see how their
careers overlapped.
Tragedy
Ajax
(450-440?)
Antigone (441?)
Oedipus
Rex
(430-425?)
Electra (418-410?)
Trachiniae (413?)
Philoctetes (409)
Oedipus at Colonus (406)
Comedy
The
Acharnians (425)
The Knights (424)
The Clouds (423)
The Wasps (422)
Peace (421)
The Birds (414)
Lysistrata (411)
The Thesmophoriazusae (411)
The Frogs (405)
The Ecclesiazusae (392?)
Plutus (388)
| If
you're looking for a physical copy of these plays then you should
read David Grene and Richmond Lattimore's "Complete Greek Tragedies".
They are broken down nicley into three sets, which cover Aeschylus,
Sophocles and Euripides. You can buy them through the publisher's
web-page - University of
Chicago Press - by doing a "Book Search" for "The
Complete Greek Tragedies". For Aristophanes you can just read
the Peguin versions. I'm sure that they are available through Amazon.com
or something similar. |
|
