The origin of Ancient Greek comedy has been lost to time, however, we know from pottery depicting men as actors dressing up in wild costumes that it was a firmly established genre by the 6th century BCE. Ancient Greek comedy can be split into three distinct categories, Old Comedy, Middle Comedy (which has been mostly lost to us), and New Comedy, and would poke fun at contemporary issues, politicians, philosophers, and fellow poets and artists.
Old comedy refers to comedy written in the 5th century BCE, and the earliest comedy that has survived to us today is Aristophanes’ Acharnians which was originally performed in 425 BCE. Old Comedy was deeply engaged in the political situation of the time they were composed, but it incorporated fantastical elements like giant creatures and actors jumping across huge geographical distances. In the late fourth century and into the early third century BCE, a new style of comedy arrived, which has been called New Comedy. Some scholars suggest an intermediary category called Middle Comedy, which was less about political themes and more concerned with mythological parodies but no full texts survive from this time. We know a bit more about the writers of New Comedy, including Philemon who wrote 97 plays, Diphilus who wrote around 100 plays and Philippides. However, Menander, who wrote around 100 plays, is considered to be the greatest poet of New Comedy, even though Philemon actually won more festivals than Menander!
— CHAPTERS — 0:00 Introduction 0:37 Origins of Greek Theatre and Comedy 2:08 Structure of a Comedy Play 4:23 Old Comedy and Aristophanes 5:41 New Comedy and Menander 7:55 Outro
Did you know the basic structure of your favorite comedy comes from ancient Greece?
Hello and welcome to World History Encyclopedia. My name is Kelly and today we're going to explore
the history, plays and playwrights of ancient Greek comedy. Don't forget the easiest way to
support us is by giving this video a thumbs up and subscribing to our channel and hitting that
bell icon for notifications so you don't miss out on any new uploads. Greek theatre and some say
theatre itself originated in classical Athens in the 6th century BCE. Plays were performed as part
of festivals in open-air theatres known as the theatron such as the Theatre of Dionysus and the
audience would sit in the semicircular orchestra. Competitions were held each year as part of
different festivals such as the City Dionysia for tragedy plays and the Lanaia for comedy. We'll get
to the Lanaia later. The Greek god Dionysus was the god of wine, revelry and theatre and he was honoured
at these festivals and competitions. Theatre was less of a social outing as it is in the modern day
and more of a political and religious necessity for all citizens of Athens. The origin of Greek
comedy has been lost to time however we know from pottery depicting men as actors dressing up in
wild costumes that it was a firmly established genre by the 6th century BCE. Ancient Greek comedy
can be split into three distinct categories old comedy, middle comedy which has been mostly lost
to us and new comedy but they all used crude and sexual humour and would poke fun at contemporary
issues, politicians, philosophers and fellow poets and artists. The actors wore highly decorated masks
and wonderful costumes in order to portray more than one character which were sometimes human
and sometimes not. Ancient Greek comedy all followed a fairly conventional structure made up
of four component parts. The first part was the paradox which was when the chorus which could be
made up of as many as 24 performers would enter the stade, stadium and perform a few song and dance
routines which sometimes introduced the plot. They would be dressed up in wild and outlandish costumes
which could be anything from bees with huge stingers, knights riding other men as a horse
or even kitchen utensils. The next part was the agon which was a witty verbal contest that would
have a fantastical plot and many fast changing scenes which advanced the story. If references to
specific audience members who may have actually been in the audience are taken into account
then there may have even been improvisation in this part of the comedy. The third component was
the parabasis which was when the chorus would speak directly to the audience or to the poet or
author to enlarge or explain a point. And the final section was the exodus which was another
round of singing and dancing routines from the chorus as the play concluded. Keep in mind that
all the performers would have been professional actors, dancers and singers and they all would
have been male even if some of the characters were female. For comedy the major competition
was an Athenian only festival known as the Linnaea. The festival was held during January
in honor of Dionysus. Every aspect of these performances including the chorus, the costumes,
the musicians and even the rehearsal time was all funded by a korygos who was a private citizen of
Athens. To be a korygos was an honor and held great prestige. Due to the use of masks so that actors
could play more than one character they had to rely on their use of voice and gestures since
their facial expressions were hidden. Costumes were also very important and a common outfit was tights
and a short tunic which revealed a fake and usually quite large phallus. This comic scene can
be found on Greek pottery. Old comedy refers to comedy written in the 5th century BCE and the
comedy that has survived to us today is Aristophanes Ekanians which was originally
performed in 425 BCE. Old comedy was deeply engaged in the political situation of the time
that they were composed but it incorporated fantastical elements like giant creatures
and actors jumping across huge geographical distances. Old comedy used satire, crude jokes,
parodies, puns and colorful language and modern day taboo topics such as religion, sex and politics
were all on the table. Aristophanes works are our only representative of old comedy to have
survived but during his time he had several successful plays including Ekanians, Knights
and The Frogs. The Frogs was so successful that it gave Aristophanes the great honor of a wreath
made out of sacred olives and it had a repeat performance. Aristophanes composed a total of
44 plays but only 11 have survived. Other poets who would have been rivals of Aristophanes were
Cratonus and Eupolis but none of their plays survive. In the late 4th century and into the
early 3rd century BCE a new style of comedy arrived which has been called new comedy.
Some scholars suggest an intermediary category called middle comedy which was less about
political themes and more concerned with mythological parodies but no full text survived
from this time. New comedy was more focused on domestic scenes and was composed of five acts.
The chorus became less important to the plot of the story and the plays revolved around characters
such as cooks, soldiers, pimps and cunning slaves. These plays had less personal attacks
and were more concerned with fictional characters and their relationships with family,
other classes or foreigners. We know a bit more about the writers of new comedy including
Philemon who wrote 97 plays, De Phyllis who wrote around 100 plays and Philippides. However,
Menander who wrote around 100 plays is considered to be the greatest poet of new comedy even though
Philemon actually won more festivals than he had. Menander's work survived longer than the other
popular new comedy poets and today the Discolus which was originally performed in 316 BCE is the
most complete surviving play although we also have large portions of six of his other plays.
Menander's plays were quoted over 900 times in secondary sources which have survived
and Latin playwrights often adapted his works. Ancient Greek comedy continued to be popular
through both the Hellenistic and the Roman times with many of them being performed again and again.
The basic components of Greek comedy became standard in later works and still inform the
Have you read any ancient Greek comedy? Did you find it funny? Let us know why or why not you
thought it was funny down in the comments below. If you enjoyed this video don't forget to give it
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