The importance of drama to fifth century BC Athenian society
Explain the importance of drama to fifth century BC Athenian society
Drama has played various significant roles in 5th century BC Athenian society. With its origins dating back to ancient Greece, drama had its humble beginnings as a state festival in Athens, honouring the god Dionysus, god of wine, agriculture, and fertility of nature. Although during the 5th century BC, Athenian theatre was still very much a religious festival, it adopted many other aspects of the Greek political, cultural, social and economical life and in turn relatively contributed to them.
At this time, ancient Greek theatre was thriving, and the political and military supremacy of the nation was at the heart of many of the plays being developed at the time. The three forms of drama to stem were tragedy, comedy and satyr. Despite this religion was a chief element within Greek drama. This is evident in many of the plays, which incorporate the gods into the story. This was not unusual as plays were commonly performed in honour of the gods, as mentioned above. Because of this association drama had with the gods, theatrical performances were extremely important to Athenian society and as a consequence, sourced thousands of people, from all parts of the land to celebrate in the holy festivities. Such honorary festivals were important to Athenian society as they were instilled in their religion and culture. It was believed that in participating in them the gods would perhaps fulfil their requests of good harvest, fertile flock or plentiful rain.
