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Westmont Theatre History 120
Midterm
29
Film, Theatre & Television
Undergraduate 3
02/23/2011

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Term
Mimesis
Definition
Aristotle said that we respond to the acting on the stage which is conveying to us what the characters feel, so that we may empathise with them in this way through the mimetic form of dramatic role-play. Something pretending to be something else, we learn by imitation, it's a natural and inherent quality. In Greek drama, men imitated women through mimesis. In The Bachae, worshippers have to become something else in order to worship. Audiences learn through mimesis
Term
Tragedy
Definition
Aristotle said that tragedy is a "falling from a higher to a lower estate." Tragedy, also known as 'goat song' is a response to human need. It is called a goat song because the winner of the Dionesian festival in Athens would receive a goat for sacrifice. The goat is a stand-in for humanity, also symbolizing that sacrifice is at the heart of tragedy. Death is both necessary and awful. In tragedy, there is an initiation of an action that is complete to a certain degree. Also, there are usually nobles. People are in relation to the gods, there are questions of right and wrong, the will of the gods wins out, and the play progresses from order to disorder. The Six Elements of Tragedy according to Aristotle are story, character, intellectual argument, language, song, and visuals.

Universality of tragedy, deal with morally autonomous individuals
Term
Catharsis
Definition
A cleansing of emotion, fear and pity through tragedy, dichotomy of pity/fear, clarifying. It occurs for one or more of its characters, as well as the same phenomenon as (an intended) part of the audience’s experience. Aristotle argued that one of music's functions was to act as a cathartic inducer. Surrender to emotion versus residual self-awareness. The collective experience of catharsis in ancient greece. Seneca- the way characters deal with their emotions should help audiences to learn and recognize physical impulses and better be equipped to deal with painful situations in real life.
Term
Peripeteia
Definition
a turning around of the situation to its direct opposite, subject always to the logic of the plot. Oedipus the detective becomes Oedipus the criminal.
Term
Anagnorisis
Definition
recognition of the truth, when Medea resolves to kill her children, knowing that they are her children.


Another prominent example of anagnorisis in tragedy is in Aeschylus's Libation Bearers when Electra recognizes her brother, Orestes, after he has returned to Argos from his exile, at the grave of their father, Agamemnon, who had been murdered at the hands of Clytemnestra, their mother. Electra convinces herself that Orestes is her brother with three pieces of evidence: a lock of Orestes's hair on the grave, his footprints next to the grave, and a piece of weaving which she embroidered herself. The footprints and the hair are identical to her own. Although not all these clues are equally reliable in reality, each increases Electra's awareness of her brother's presence, who is the one person who can help her by avenging the death of their father
Term
Hedone
Definition
the sympathetic impulse, the movement towards
Term
Hedone
Definition
the sympathetic impulse, the movement towards
Term
Orchestra
Definition
A large, unornamented, circular dancing area, 25 meters in diameter. There were no structural separations between the chorus and the audience that encircled them.
Term
Skene
Definition
Wooden scene building that had only a single large central door allowing access by the actors from within it directly into the orchestra. The skene was made out of either wood or stone and was decorated with paintings. Physical space and movement in this area were employed to provide imaginative access to emotional, political, and ethical issues.
Term
Theatron
Definition
Seating area. Greek theatres were built into the landscape so audience members could see the natural beauty surrounding the area. Concerned with acoustics and audience’s view, symbolic of the inability of humans to control their world.
Term
Paraskenia
Definition
large, probably columned, square structures which extended out approximately five meters from either end of the central wall into the orchestral area, thereby forming protecting wings.
Term
Thyromata
Definition
Spaces between columns in the Skene
Term
Pinakes
Definition
Painted wooden panes inserted between the pillars on the skene
Term
Klimakes
Definition
asiles
Term
Kerkides
Definition
seats in theatron
Term
Ekkyklema
Definition
wheeled cart for wheeling out the dead
Term
Paradoi
Definition
low ramps sometimes ending in arches, entrances
Term
Thymele
Definition
altar to Dionysus in the orchestra
Term
Euhemerization
Definition
Gods being created to explain to behavior of people long ago who’s stories we barely recall
Term
Dithyrambs
Definition
A poetic composition sung and danced in honor of Dionysus by choruses of fifty men or boys.
Term
Satyrs
Definition
Half man half goat, also a kind of 'after-piece' play that was a culmination of each tragedian's competitive entry to give audiences a light and enjoyable performance to look forward to, to bring them back to their senses and thereby make the audience strongly aware of their own animal spirits
Term
Thiasos
Definition
The ecstatic Cult of Dionysus, often pictured as inebriated revelers.
Term
Tetralogie
Definition
Three tragic writers wrote a collection of three tragedies and a satyr play
Term
Archon
Definition
a presiding official over the plays, a priest, master of revels, decided what would be performed
Term
Choroegos
Definition
The wealthy sponsor of playwrights, also can mean chorus leader, would pay for costumes, masks, props, three principal actors, musicians, chorus, 3000 dr. or more.... a lot!
Term
Pompe
Definition
The grand procession of the festival of Dionysus
Term
Dionysus
Definition
The god of wine, wild nature, ecstatic possesion, dance, disguise; God of the liquid running through life- wine, seame. One of the few gods who provides hope for escape from death. His multiform and elusive nature seems to have lent itself to the development of performance traditions.
Term
Maenads
Definition
Female worshippers of Dionysus. Supposedly, after they rejected him he drove them insane. They worshipped with drunken violent hypersexual animalistic revelry. "Raving Ones" Ate raw flesh, sang dithyrambs, mythologically descended from nymphs

n Euripides' play The Bacchae, Theban maenads murdered King Pentheus after he banned the worship of Dionysus. Dionysus, Pentheus' cousin, himself lured Pentheus to the woods, where the maenads tore him apart. His corpse was mutilated by his own mother, Agave, who tore off his head, believing it to be that of a lion.
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