The Chorus in Ancient Drama

Course Code
34ΕΧ307
ECTS Credits
5
Semester
6 or 8 Semester
Course Category
Course Description

• COURSE OBJECTIVES

The objective of this course is the acquaintance with Chorus and its role, the choral song and their function and in Attic Tragedy, Comedy and Satyr play through the exploitation of orchesis in connection with the meter, the rhythm, the strophic pairs and the characteristics of the Choruses in the dramas of the three tragic poet and in Aristophanic Comedy.

• LEARNING OUTCOMES  

Through this course the students will be able to: 

1) use the terminology (ancient and modern Greek) 

2) interpret the dramaturgical features of the Chorus in Aeschylus, Sophocles and Aristophanes. 

3) discuss on the theme of the odes, the leitmotives and the distinctive features of the dramatic Choruses in each poet.

4) comment on subjects related to Attic choral poetry, such us, the Aeschylean synergeia in related to orchesis, the Sophoclean tragic parektasis, the Euripidean “escape songs”, the comic Chorus-“protagonist” in the Aristophanic comedy and in the Satyr plays, the relation of the Chorus with the audience and with the tragic/comic heroes/heroines.

5) use the bibliography on choral poetry and stasima 

6) understand the challenges and the difficulties connected to the research of choral songs/stasima, e.g. knowledge in Greek metre and music.

7) decode the rules of the technique of each play writer concerning the choruses 

8) discuss on the perfomative aspect of the Chorus in Greek drama.