The Cultural Heritage of Ancient Greece: Literature and Theatre

Ancient Greeks were one of the civilizations that were distinguished because of rich cultural heritage which is still actual nowadays. The literature and theatre of Ancient Greece deserve special attention due to the fact that the Greeks were the first ones on the continent who introduced both theatre and literature works. Theatre and literature have been always closely connected as plays written by authors were dramatized and therefore, these spheres of culture have developed together. The works of Greek poets and writers can be encountered nowadays at the scenes of famous theatres with slight modifications of the scenario. Taking into account all these factors we can state that the examination of the literature and theatre of Ancient Greece is worthy.

Theatre is one of the biggest gifts given to the world by Ancient Greece as it led to the emergence of the new profession of actor and actress. The emergence of this phenomenon is connected with the religious ceremonies which were devoted to the God of wine-making Dionysus. Such ceremonies presupposed dancing and singing in a ring and these songs had the aim of lauding Dionysus. Further, these ceremonies slowly evolved and the picture altered and the performance included only the dialogue between the chorus and one actor on the scene. In the beginning, the theatre was still connected with Dionysus while some period later this connection has totally disappeared and theatre has become a separate unit without any detachment to religion. (Leavesley, 2013) The development and popularization of the theatre were quite speedy and in a short period of time, it spread all over the state. The number of actors has increased and become three and the performance became more similar to modern theatre as the primary role of the chorus was also altered. Hypothetically, the reason can be that Greeks realized that involving more actors and paying less attention to the musical background can make the performance much better. In order to be able to depict people with different features, the actors used masks that allowed the spectators to identify the age and social status of characters. The change of masks let actors play several roles and although masks deprived them of the chance of using their mimics the active body movements allowed them to perform in an appropriate way. Moreover, it would be germane to emphasize that the theatre has become even more popular since the plays of famous Greek playwrights were dramatized. Theatres can be encountered in every city with thousands of places for observation and therefore, all the citizens were able to see the performance of actors. All Greeks were fond of plays and the big number of spectators was the impetus for playwrights to write and present their new plays. In my opinion, the success of theatrical performances can be explained by the Greeks' approach to life which presupposes that life is a theatre and all people are actors.

The other significant aspect of the culture of Ancient Greece was its literature that further became known to the whole world. According to Lazaridis (2008), the first literary works of the entire European continent were Iliad and Odyssey by the eminent Greek poet Homer who was blind. Moreover, there were other well-known Greek poets and playwrights such as Archilochus, Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides. Archilocus is a poet who lived in the 7th century BC which was the epoch of different political conflicts. Undoubtedly, these conflicts had an impact on the oeuvre of the poet and his works include the description of military service and battlefield. Aeschylus (523 BC - 456 BC) was prominent for his tragedies, especially for 'Prometheus Bound' and one of his main achievements is the introduction of the second character and consequently, a dialog. Undoubtedly, this measure was directed to make the drama more exciting and Aeschylus managed to achieve his goal. Sophocles (497 BC - 406 BC), in turn, was also a tragedian and his most popular plays were 'Oedipus Rex', 'Women of Trachis' and 'Oedipus at Colonus'. It should be noted that he played a significant role in the further development of theatre as he included the third character and also introduced decorations. Furthermore, Euripides (480 BC - 406 BC) can be described as the author who was famous because of his innovative approach. To be more specific, he introduced a new genre of drama which was a psychological drama. In addition, Euripides, as opposed to predecessors, did not focus on heroes in his works and the main topic of his plays was the struggle between passion and rational thinking. Amongst his plays, it is possible to point out 'Medea', 'Children of Heracles', 'The Trojan Women', and 'Hippolytus'. Finally, we should underline that the works of all the aforementioned writers and poets belong to the classic literature and these works are translated to different languages by philologists.

All in all, we can conclude that the literature and theatre of Ancient Greece are irreplaceable aspects of the world culture as Greeks were first on the whole European continent to introduce these cultural facets. The importance of these aspects cannot be overestimated taking into account that the emergence of theatre in Ancient Greece led to the development of the whole industry of acting which exists nowadays all over the world and the works of Greek prominent poets and writers have been translated to a number of different languages. Therefore, the contribution of Greek culture and its impact on the world culture can be assessed as substantial.