Thesmophoriazusae: Introduction to Greek Sense of Humour

Euripides made me read this.

Having read some really gruesome Greek tragedies, I decided that I had to acquaintance myself with Greek comedy, so I browsed Wikipedia for advice. Lysisastra was my first option (a friend recommended it for me), however, upon reading the synopsis, I decided that I wouldn't like it. Then I read the plot of Thesmophoriazusae, in which it makes a parody of Euripides. That definitely made me read.

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Thesmophoriazusae starts with Euripides and his friend (in-law, actually), Mnesilochus, discussed the chance of Euripides being killed by women. The women were offended by Euripides' portrayal of their sex in his plays. So in Thesmophoria, a fertility festival for Demeter, they plan to discuss how to revenge him.

At first, Euripides sought the help of Agathon, a fellow playwright who cross-dresses as a woman. However, he refused. So Euripides dressed Mnesilochus instead as a woman and sent him to Thesmophorion to save his life.

In Thesmophorion, the women had a sort-of democratic debate about Euripides. Mnesilochus tried to defend Euripides by asserting that Euripides had justly portrayed women as such, as he himself (dressed as a woman) had done acts even more terrible than what Euripides told in his plays.

But his disguise was discovered. He was captured and he awaited his punishment. Euripides panicked. In some foolish attempts to save Mnesilochus he played Perseus/Andromeda and Menelaus/Helen (Mnesilochus always played the girl, by the way).

At last, Euripides plead to the women, promising them he wouldn't portray them the way he had before in his plays. They didn't agree to save Mnesilochus, but he let him tried to do so.

With a trick, he freed Mnesilochus from a Scythian Archer who was ordered to kill him.

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All in all, it's so Greek to me. As I said before, it's my first Greek Comedy.

The comic elements of the play - crossdressing, homosexuality and jokes about homosexuality, parody of well-known plays - remind me that humanity hasn't really change since Aristophanes' time.

Although I was not really amused by this particular play, I put some Greek plays on my to-read list. One of them is Ipheginea at Tauris, which I will read when I have time. Or in April. Depends.

How was your first month in PLAY ON!? Have you been enjoying your play? Please share here.

It's All Greek to Me

For this month's meme for Let's Read Plays, I'd like to share some things that I learned from mythology class on Coursera last year. That is, the special things about Greek plays, and the way they are, or rather, were, performed.

In Greek plays, the time they are performed on stage represents the real time in the story as well. So in Greek plays, only critical short time of the story is chosen to be acted on stage. The background story is told in short time either by the chorus or the players, but not acted.

In Greek theatre, the performers use masks to emphasize the facial expression and the gravity and density of the play itself. All the actors are male, including the players for ladies. Aha. The theatres, as we can still see today, at least the remaining of them, are located in the open air, but in semi-circular shape that gives great acoustic and good sound quality – which is important, since there was no microphone back then.

On the stage, there is a backdrop, or a wall, creating a backstage where players can change costumes. In the middle of it, there's a door. This door is like a window to the dramatic things that are not to be performed on stage, for example killing. Those parts are done behind the door.

And there's the chorus. Chorus is a bunch of people somewhere between the players and the audience whose role is to connect the audience with the players. So sometimes the chorus addresses the players, and sometimes the audience. I think it's very interesting to have something like that. It's perhaps like a commentator in football match.

That's all I would like to share with you. I got all this material when I took the Mythology class in Coursera.com. So if you're interested in Greek and Roman myth, just enroll to that class. See you next month.