Greek Drama and The Human Condition

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Theater and drama were significant parts of ancient Greek society, exploring issues of morality, philosophy and religion. Although not many texts of Greek plays remain today, contemporaneous philosophers and writers wrote about Greek drama, its structures and roles. Those writings have provided what is known about Greek drama today, in addition to the few ancient plays that are extant. There were three main forms of Greek drama: tragedies, comedies and satyr plays. Most of the stories told were based on well-known Greek myths and stories. Comedies and satyr plays (vulgar tragicomic shows) were used for entertainment in a way that the tragedies were not. However all, in varying degrees, did explore different aspects of the human condition.

Tragedy is the earliest form of Greek drama and the one that explores most meaningfully the experience of being human. Because audiences already knew the story, they did not attend tragedies for suspense or entertainment value. They went to see the detailed progress of human emotion as the tragic character moved from an elevated position down to a tragic end. The general structure of the Greek tragedy was for the protagonist, usually one from a privileged class, to be confronted with a problem he must resolve. The potential solutions were always based on conflicting values, principles and ideals. Inevitably, the tragic nature of the problem was compounded through external obstacles, often originating from the gods, fate and the personal character (the tragic flaw) of the protagonist. The plays not only displayed the characters’ emotional journeys through the process of resolving the problem, but also explored the effect navigating these conflicting values and external obstacles had on the protagonists’ well-being and emotional state.

A critical component of the tragedy was the tragic flaw that was the protagonists’ undoing. The common human flaws explored were excessive pride, intemperance, egocentrism, vengefulness, stubbornness and poor judgment. In addition to delving into the character of the protagonists, tragedies also focused on the effect the protagonists’ struggles had on the people around them. The relationships of the protagonists and the impact of the protagonists’ choices on them enhanced the tragic element of the dramas.

What Greek audiences expected to see was not just the protagonists’ suffering and deliberation, but also their downfall – the consequence of their fatal flaw. Having the protagonist learn from his situation was not necessary; the purpose of the drama was to provide the learning opportunity to the audience and show people that the moral order will always right itself. Whether the protagonist’s conflict was with himself, another or the gods, moral order would inevitably bring tragedy to the protagonists for their hubris or bad judgment and thus restore balance and harmony where there had been excess and conflict.

The three dramatists whose tragedies still exist today are Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. Aeschylus’ plays are the oldest and focus mainly on making moral choices among competing values, particularly through the lenses of power, emotion and reason. Sophocles explored man’s struggle against the fate decreed him by the gods and the emotional turmoil that engendered. Euripides, the latest of the Greek tragedians, also explored fate, but not so much as decreed by the gods; he gave his protagonists the task of deconstructing what wrong choices they had made and why they made the choices that led them to their predicament. All the Greek tragedies highlighted clearly that to err was indeed human and would take its toll.

Comedies and satyr plays also touched on the human condition, but in a much more superficial way. Comedies presented the lives of more ordinary humans, who also were flawed and made bad choices. However, as these ordinary characters were not as idealized as the tragic protagonists, their mistakes, while perhaps tragic for them, were comedic because they often made the character look ridiculous. These plays were often farcical. One of the most well-known Greek comedies is “Lysistrata,” a play about women withholding sex from their men in an effort to end war.

Satyr plays were even more burlesque and vulgar. They did not so much explore the human condition as present humanity’s most base and animal instincts in exaggerated ways. Satyr plays were more tragicomic than strict comedies.

List of Films Based On Greek Dramas

Films based on plays by Aeschylus

Ercole e la regina di Lidia (1959)
Perses, Les (1961)
The Illiac Passion (1967)
Agamemnon (1973)
Orestea (1975)
Le Rêve plus fort que la mort (2002)
Die Perser (2003)

Films based on Sophocles

Oedipe roi (1908)
Oedipus Rex (1909)
Oedipus Rex (1911)
Oedipus Rex (1957)
Antigone (1960)
Acosados, Los (1960)
Antigone (1961)
Antigone (1962)
Oedipus Rex (1967)
Edipo re (1967)
Élo Antigoné (1968)
Antigone (1970)
I Cannibali (1970)
Elektra (1970)
Antigone (1973)
Antigone (1973)
Antigone (1974)
Antigone (1974)
Oedipus Rex (1975)
Elektra (1981)
Oedipus Rex (1984)
Oedipus the King (1984)
Oedipus at Colonus (1984)
Elettra (1987)
Électre (1987)
Elektra (1989)
Antigone/Rites of Passion (1991)
Oedipus Rex (1992)
Elektra (1994)

Films based on Euripides

Medea (1959) United States – TV play of the week
Baccanti, Le (1961) Italy
Phaedra (1962) Greece
Electra (1962) Greece
Troyanas, Las (1963)
Medea (1963)
Troerinnen, Die (1966)
Medea (1969)
Dionysus (1970)
The Trojan Women (1971)
Medéia (1973)
Bakchen, Die (1974)
Iphigenia (1977)
Medea (1983)
Medea (1983)
Medea (1989)
Iphigenia at Aulis (1991)
Backanterna (1993)
Médée (2001)
The Bacchae (2002)
The Trojan Women (2004)
Medea (2005)
The Women of Troy (2006)

Films based on Aristophanes

Daughters of Destiny (1954)
The Second Greatest Sex (1955)
Sendung der Lysistrata, Die (1961)
Escuela de seductoras (1962)
An oles oi gynaikes tou kosmou (1967)
Flickorna (1968)
Lysistrate (1982)
Komediya o Lisistrate (1989)

Resource by k.Pearson

My name is Kim, I am a volunteer at a local Zoo in Chicago, IL. I have been a volunteer for about 5 years now and love it. My full time job is at a vet just outside of the city. I am intrigued by the nature of animals and how they interact with one another.

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