Lifestyles in Ancient Greece Full Cinematic Documentary

the house or oikos was a residence for greek families and their slaves contrary to modern houses which look outward the greek household was built to look inward on a courtyard the courtyard was the house's central fixture it was the building's main source of daylight and also the location of religious altars dedicated to worship the building itself was made up of familiar accommodations including bedrooms storage rooms a kitchen and a living room women were generally in charge of tending to the home which in greece was called oikonomia a term that inspired the modern word economy a pasta was a corridor that connected a house's courtyard to its residential section archaeological evidence from the city of olynthos reveals that pastors were added to greek home design in the 5th century bce [Music] greeks had no qualms about combining their work and their private lives and many of them worked from home artisans like blacksmiths sculptors and potters often had workshops in their houses some even operated small stores to sell their work similarly doctors were known to treat patients in special offices located in their homes women also worked in the house and were responsible for making textiles as well as producing clothes and supervising weaving which was carried out by slaves if the household was wealthy enough they could even produce a surplus of textiles to sell in times of financial difficulty [Music] the inner courtyard was the nexus of the house functionally it allowed air to circulate and also provided access to most of the rooms it also sometimes housed a well or a cistern that collected rain water in the center of the courtyard was an altar to zeus hercules who served as the protector of the household women would often use the space to sew and cook while children use it as a play area furthermore if the family had pets or animals the courtyard was where they were allowed to run free the bathroom was located in the back of the house much like today it was used for cleaning and washing although the greeks used chamber pots instead of toilets most bathrooms had a luterium that could be filled with water for washing mirrors razors stridules and sponges could also be found in the bathroom along with small vases called ariebaloy which were usually filled with perfume or oil greek homes had kitchens where the family's meals were prepared the greeks did not often eat meat except during special occasions like banquets or after sacrifices they had mainly a grain-based diet eating staples such as bread porridge or a barley cake called mazza they also occasionally ate poultry fish and other seafood as well as fruits vegetables goat milk and cheese and olive oil food was cooked on a tripod or sometimes in a clevanos which was a sort of mobile oven other cooking implements included braziers mortise and pestles a spit to hold food over a fire platters and frying pans the family also used the kitchen to store food in containers called pithoy symposia were major social institutions in greece they were drinking parties held exclusively for men the party took place in the men's section of the house the andron where residents and guests reclined on special couches called klinai food was served on low table set in front of the couches while wine was placed in a crater in the center of the room during a symposium men drank sang had philosophical discussions and played games like kotibos musicians dancers and even courtesans were often welcomed to attend as well however wives and daughters were always excluded the piergos or upper stories was the women's quarter of the house where they could pursue their activities and observe the city without being seen themselves the rooftops were also used in a special rite called the adonia a private celebration held in honor of adonis which was reserved for women at the beginning of spring women filled terracotta pots with soil and lettuce seeds then climbed a ladder to place the pots on the rooftop these pots served as the women's very own gardens of adonis young girls growing up in ancient greek cities were usually raised by a nurse they mostly stayed in the women's quarters of the house the good nikon where they spent their time spinning threads and weaving while there is not much historical evidence of young girls at play especially compared to boys it was still known to happen for example an ancient terracotta group depicts two girls playing ephedrismos this was a competition to see who could strike an upright rock from afar using a pebble or ball the game's loser had to close their eyes and carry the victor until they managed to touch the same rock with their hands for a young greek woman marriage was the culmination of their induction into society the average life expectancy for women was about 40 years so most marriages took place when the bride was 14 or 15 years old the marriage did not require her consent either instead she was passed on from the protection of her father to that of her husband married women were not technically citizens at the time and lacked the rights that came with official citizenship however they did receive a dowry that only they were allowed to spend but in the event of a failed marriage the dowry was returned to the bride's father after the marriage was consummated the woman's status changed from being a maiden to a bride she remained a bride until the birth of her first child wherein she officially became a woman women living in ancient greek cities were essentially forbidden from participating in political life and most aspects of their lives were controlled by men their most important responsibilities were running the household and giving birth to children preferably boys most of the time women's excursions outside of the house were limited to visiting other female neighbors as per custom the few exceptions to this strict rule were weddings funerals and religious festivals involving women in prominent public roles making textiles was the main occupation of most greek women it was a woman's responsibility to manufacture clothing for each of her family members as well as to weave other household textiles women with exceptional weaving skills were believed to make excellent wives and weaving in general was seen as a very attractive quality for example homer describes odysseus's devoted wife penelope as spending most of her days weaving at the loom similarly many greek vases depicting women weaving were combined with images of a woman holding a veil which was seen as the symbol of a bride ancient greek women cooked in their houses kitchen area however since their cooking equipment was small and portable they also sometimes prepared meals in the central courtyard this was also where women performed other domestic activities these activities were rarely seen by visiting men or passers-by because the architecture of classical greek houses facilitated the social norm that women should never be seen at work the historian strabo relays the temple of aphrodite was one of corinthia's most famous landmarks this was largely due to the temple's female patrons these hitairai as they were called were donated to the goddess by both men and women according to strabo the temple of aphrodite contributed greatly to corinth's wealth the hitarai were the temple's main attraction and many visitors came to corinth in search of their company for which they spend frequently and frivolously winemaking dates back to the fourth or third millennium bce it became widespread in greece during the bronze age and within centuries the greeks have refined it further the first step in the process was always harvesting where grapes grown on rows of vines were collected by vineyard workers according to homer harvesting was often accompanied by music to give it a more festive atmosphere ancient greek wine mainly came in three different varieties osteros glucozione and autocratos it could be flavored with spices herds risen and even perfume it was also much stronger than modern wine with an alcohol percentage of approximately 16 percent because of this the drink was mixed with water to make it more palatable grapes were dry to maximize the wine sweetness and prevent it from turning into vinegar in most vineyards the drying process involved laying the grapes out on the ground under the heat of the sun then covering them at night to protect them from accumulating dew according to hesiod's poem works in days the ideal time to dry grapes was 10 days and 10 nights when they were finally completely dried the grapes were collected in jars just as they are today the greeks had many methods for crushing the harvested grapes the most common technique was to use a leno's a large treading vat where workers stomped on grapes with their feet alternatively the greeks sometimes crush the grapes by hand using a strainer mash them with a mortar and pestle or squeeze them using a tool called a sac press after the grapes were pressed the resulting juice was poured into large containers called pithoi where it fermented once fully fermented the wine was filtered through an ethmos or sac which separated it from the residual yeast called lees the wine was then placed in a special storage room the room was half buried to keep it dry and maintain a consistent temperature of 15 degrees celsius these measures ensured the wine wouldn't lose any of its quality before being shipped to market when the wine was ready to ship it was poured into storage containers called amphoras these were smaller than pithoy which made them easier to ship and display in crowded marketplaces however that doesn't mean transporting wine was always a safe endeavor sometimes ships carrying and forests as cargo would be wrecked before making it to their destination losing hundreds of bottles of wine to the sea perfume making techniques were invented and perfected in mesopotamia and egypt beginning in the 4th millennium bce by the time of the mycenaean era perfume played an important role in the greek economy mostly reserved for kings priests and aristocrats in the beginning it later became more widely available during the classical and hellenistic periods greeks used perfume for more than just personal cosmetics it also had sacred uses for example cults would sometimes anoint their gods statue with perfume and it was also used during rituals like weddings and funerals food and wine could also be scented with perfume to add to a meals presentation the art of making perfume was part of medicine and pharmacology and physicians devoted entire books listing the best perfume recipes perfume is made up of two main components a greasy substance called an excipient like vegetable oil or animal fat and an odorous substance such as flowers and plants for ancient greeks the most common excipient was olive oil according to theophrastus however the most valuable oils were those extracted from nuts in the syrian and egyptian deserts the odorous ingredient could be taken from a variety of sources these include flowers like roses or lilies herbs like oregano spices like saffron resins like amber and leaves from plants some fragrances were also imported from outside of greece like indian cinnamon and syrian frankincense these exotic scents were considered exceptionally precious mixing scent into the fatty excipient was called enfleurage of which there were two methods if the flower being used for the scent was fragile the preferred method of extraction was cold on flourage which required an oil-soaked cloth first the cloth was rubbed against the flower's petals saturating the oil with the scent then the cloth was pressed to wring out the scented oil hot envelope involved heating the excipient before mixing in the scented substance the hot envelope process consisted of heating and distillation after the scented ingredients were dipped into heated oil the mixture was then filtered before being pressed and decanted once the mixture was complete spices coloring agents and fixatives were added along with preservatives to prevent the perfume from spoiling finally the liquid was hermetically sealed in bottles ready to be shipped to market perfume was usually bottled in ceramic or glass flasks but more luxurious fragrances were contained in ornamented and painted flasks le cathoy and alabastra were elegant bottles designed for women while arab alloy were used by athletes it was common for the bottles craftsmen to brand them to prevent frauds and knock-offs perfume shops were usually located in city centers befitting of their importance in addition to selling perfume they were also sometimes used as meeting places for example the perfume shops near athens's agora were frequented every morning by the city's youth the main purpose of perfume was to attract members of both the opposite and the same sex we can trace this practice back to a scene in the iliad where hera used perfume to seduce zeus similarly hymns about goddesses like demeter and aphrodite always mentioned their pleasant smell further solidifying the belief that scent and seduction went hand in hand however perfume was also a mark of social status athletes covered themselves in perfumed oils during their training and at symposia and citizens were judged based on how anointed shiny and perfumed their bodies were grain was a staple of the greek diet to the point where homer referred to his compatriots as mortal eaters of bread grain farming was a meticulous process due to dry summers artificial irrigation was impossible so farmers had to rely on rainfall to water their crops this gave them very narrow windows for sowing and harvesting on a farm of this size only half of the field would be planted every year while the other half would lie fallow to avoid exhausting the soil according to the poet hesiod the best time to sow grain was in autumn and the best time to harvest it was in may fortunately if farmers missed their opportunity they also had a chance to plant millet in the spring before planting in a field the land needed to be plowed a total of three times once in the spring to remove weeds again in the summer to aerate the soil and a final time in the winter to plant the seeds in the moist earth the plow was pulled by two oxen while the sowing of seeds was done by hand after the seeds were planted a boy turned the soil with a hoe to protect them from hungry birds once the sowing was finished the farmers waited for winter rains to irrigate the field they also prayed to the goddess of agriculture demeter and her daughter persephone in the hopes of being favored with a bountiful harvest come springtime grain was harvested in the spring using a curved knife called a sickle with their backs to the wind the reapers cut the plant stalks and left the sheaves behind before moving through the rest of the crop once the harvest was mowed the sheaves were brought to the threshing floor animal husbandry was an important part of greek agriculture farmers usually kept cattle donkeys sheep goats pigs dogs geese and chickens the animals mostly fed in pastures but could also eat some of the farm's harvested grain as well as damaged fruit and residue from olive oil and wine production livestock had several purposes their manure was used to fertilize the fields and their grazing helped remove weeds arcadia was a mountainous region believed to be the home of the god pan so farmers were more likely to keep sheep and goats than cattle most farming tools were simple handmade implements made of wood and occasionally tipped with iron the most complicated tool was the plow which was made up of several parts including a beam a drawbar and a yoke a two-pronged hoe meanwhile was used for tilling soil and farmers also had tools for digging and weeding after the sheaves were harvested workers brought them to the threshing floor to extract the grain oxen or donkeys were hitched to a post in the center of the floor and guided around it while workers threw sheaves under their hooves the animals stomping forced the grain kernels out of their casings afterwards the kernels were collected for the winnowing process winnowing helped separate the heavier grain seeds from the chaff it began with using a wooden shovel to toss the grain while in the air the wind blew away the lighter chaff leaving only the heavier grain to remove the remaining chaff the grain was tossed in a wooden basket called a lignon which filtered the grain until only clean kernels remained bali which was used to make flour was different from other types of grain threshing was not enough to separate the barley from its husk so instead it was roasted in a specialized tool called a frigatron after the barley was roasted it was pounded with a mortar and pestle the pounded grain was then ground into a meal using either a hand mill or a hopper mill grinding was boring work so workers often lightened the mood with a mill song once the barley was completely ground it was sieved using a wicker basket called a koskinen making it ready for use grain storage areas needed to be dark dry cool contained and well ventilated to prevent the grain from spoiling according to hesiod the preferred method of storing grain was in apithos the same container as pandora's mythological box archaeological evidence suggests that greeks may have also stored grain in small walled structures woven from branches farms generally needed to store enough grain to sustain themselves for the year and seed corn for the next any surplus was either stored for a lean year or sold to markets for profit the permanent retail market was divided into sections according to the category of merchandise merchants and craftsmen who worked in the market could be citizens foreigners or even freed slaves they sold everything from food and clothes to jewelry and slaves with so much variety competition was fierce and that competition helped regulate the markets prices [Music] there were five agar and omoi who kept order in the market controlled the quality of goods and collected market dues this provided revenue to the city and helped pay the magistrates and those in charge of maintaining order silver mines were extremely rare in ancient greece which only increased their importance athens started exploiting the latvian silver mines at the end of the sixth century bce and used its metal to produce its currency production at the mines exploded around 485 bce when an especially rich vein was discovered the mines abundant silver made athens one of the wealthiest cities in greece they also provided the resources necessary to build a fleet large enough to defeat the persians at the battle of salamis in short the labrian mines played an integral part in the emergence of athens as a greek superpower exploiting the mind's resources required a lot of labor to meet this requirement and save on cost athens leased out mining concessions to its citizens who had their slaves to do most of the work alongside poor day laborers in the fifth century bce alone there were anywhere from ten thousand to thirty thousand people toiling in the mines of lavrio together the workers managed to produce an estimated 20 tons of silver per year mining in lavrion was a two-step process first the ore was extracted and then it was refined it took about 16 kilograms of raw ore to produce a single pure silver drachma of about four grams recovered artifacts from the mines provide some insight into the specifics of the mining process galleries were dug to follow the veins of ore they were small and did not offer much space for the workers they were also hand cut and it's believed that it took whole days to dig only a few centimeters once the galleries finally reached the veins the oar was extracted and then crushed on mortar stone to prepare it for washing mine workers used washeries to help clean rock from the ore the washing process required a large supply of water but lavreon was an infamously dry region to compensate cisterns were built in the mining area to collect and conserve seasonal rainwater once enough water had accumulated workers poured it into wooden troughs containing rock and ore the water's flow separated the lighter grains of rock from the heavier ore which was caught in depressions at the bottom of the trough the newly cleaned ore was collected for refinement and the water was redirected back into a tank to be reused later once the oar was clean and dry it was ready for smelting its purpose was to isolate the silver in the ore to do this the oar was placed in a conical furnace filled with combustible charcoal bellows pumped air into the furnace to control the temperature inside the ore burned emitting a toxic smoke that was evacuated through a chimney eventually the silver alloy was separated from the slag and collected for the last step in the refinement process cupillation cupillation removed any leftover lead from the silver the smelted alloy was placed in a cupel an absorbent bowl made of bone ashes it was then put in a furnace where it absorbed the lead and left only silver behind while the mines of lavrion belonged to athens the city frequently leased them to private citizens who exploited the site for anywhere from three to ten years these citizens enlisted slaves and poor day laborers to carry out most of the work the workers had a very low life expectancy about three to five years due to the hazardous working conditions the dangers they faced included toxic lead vapor in the air and lung choking dust in the galleries however they were fed well enough to keep up their work and their combined labor managed to produce an estimated 20 tons of silver a year [Music] the area that would become argos was inhabited as early as the third millennium bce but it was in the 7th century bce that had officially became a city-state one of argus's major pillars was its metallurgical industry as far back as the 8th century bce the city was famed for making products like long dress pins and tripod cauldrons as well as impeccable body armor in addition to their technical excellence the archives were also creative as seen in their masterful bronze sculpting which became prominent in the city during the 6th and 5th century bce [Music] bronze is an alloy composed of 90 copper and 10 tip because of this copper and tin needed to be smelted and combined to create the material needed for sculpting after the bronze ally was formed it was melted in special furnaces they required a tremendous amount of fuel and were usually supplied with charcoal made from specific types of wood it's possible they were also coated with a protective lining of clay which would have been sensible given the melting point of bronze is approximately 950 degrees celsius once the bronze was melted and collected the furnaces were dismantled and dumped in the 8th century bce most small scale statues were molded using a complicated and lengthy method called solid lost wax casting from the 7th century bce onwards metal workers adopted the more efficient hollow lost wax casting at its core this process involved using sculpting models from wax making molds over these models then filling the molds with bronze to produce the desired shapes the process was advantageous because it saved on materials produced lighter statues and reduced the chance of possible defects [Music] once all the pieces of the sculpture were molded they were welded together and subjected to the cold working process this process involved repairing the sculptures floors by filling any holes and cracks with specifically measured bronze patches afterwards the sculpture was scraped chiseled and polished until it was deemed satisfactory decorative details like hair eyebrows and mustaches were added with the use of a sharp tool eyes which could be inset with ivory glass or silver were attached to their sockets using a resinous kind of glue teeth and fingernails were inlaid with silver and lips and nipples with copper these small touches added color and contributed to the sculptures lifelike appearance bronze sculptures have a long and varied history in greece during the geometric period of 900 to 700 bce the sculptures mainly depicted idealized heroes charioteers and horses and most of them were dedicated to sanctuaries the orientalizing period followed in the 7th century bce during this time greeks began adopting sculpting techniques from the east and the depicted statues expanded to include mythological creatures like griffins and sphinxes the archaic period saw statues that reflected a better understanding of human anatomy which eventually culminated in the realistic and powerful human sculptures of the hellenistic period argos was the home of polyclitos one of the most famous sculptors in ancient greece his works like the diriferous and diodumenos as well as his treatise on sculpting called the canon had a massive impact on the art as a whole particularly in regards to ideal body proportions sadly the original versions of polyclitus's sculptures have been lost along with most bronze statues from antiquity as time went on many bronze statues were melted down to be recycled in things like weapons ammunition and even church bells because of this marble copies from the roman period are our best evidence of the masterpieces of greek sculpture the caramicus was a large sprawling area northwest of athens acropolis while part of it was used as a graveyard it was also dedicated to the creation of pottery the caramycus was so significant to the art form that its name lives on in the word ceramics perhaps drawn by the river potters moved into the area and formed their own bustling community it's believed that by the end of the 5th century bce hundreds of thousands of pottery vessels had been made in athens including everything from heavy undecorated cooking pots to delicate and beautiful containers reserved for the most precious oils sadly only around one percent of these works survive today some only in small fragments raw clay from a river was hardly fit for a potter's wheel athenian potters used clay that was rich in iron which created the distinctive orange red coloring seen in athenian pottery but this high quality clay needed to be handled carefully to avoid disasters in the kiln later on the clay was first brought to settling beds where it was mixed with water to wash out any organic debris like leaves once it was purified workers needed the clay with their hands to push out air bubbles and create the texture necessary for a flawless finish one of the goals of these early steps was to remove any impurities that could destroy a delicate design or worse render a vas unusable once the clay was cleaned it was up to the potter to shape it into a vase by spinning it on a wheel or pressing it into a mold their choice depended on what shape they wanted for the vas but they also considered the possible scope of its decoration potters did not work alone a workshop might have had many people working together on different aspects of production potters collaborated with many different painters for decorating their creations some of these painters even became potters themselves all in all a single voice could be worked on by many different artists with each one focusing on a different aspect of its design [Music] after the pots were shaped and decorated they were packed into kilns for the lengthy and delicate firing process the process had three stages oxidation reduction and re-oxidation the main purpose of the firing process was to carefully manage the clay's exposure to oxygen the chemical reactions caused by firing gave the pots their distinctive orange red coloring this also turned the designs made from the clay decoration slips glossy and black the most difficult part of the firing process was managing the fires themselves it required an enormous amount of skill and experience to properly judge the exact temperatures needed and even the smallest mistake could ruin several hours of work buzzes could be decorated in all sorts of ways before 530 bce athenian vosses were decorated using the black figure technique where figures and designs were painted as dark silhouettes at the end of the 6th century bce painters created a new technique called red figure an inversion of the painting process that left the figures in red and the background in black this gave the artist more freedom to better explore details like muscles and individual locks of hair designs were sketched onto the bare surface of the pot using a thin sharp tool thin relief lines which helped define subtle elements like facial features were added using a brush made of a few stiff hairs more elaborate vases were sometimes gilded but these decorations were so delicate they were most likely only added after the firing process in greece fabric and clothing were colored using natural dyes from shellfish insects and plants skilled craftsmen across the greek world extracted dyes from these sources and combined them with other substances to create a variety of colors the dyeing process supposedly produced incredibly pungent smells and ancient writers would often comment on the stink in their works murex is the generic name for three species of mollusks that reside in the mediterranean the substance they secrete was used by craftsmen to create the most expensive dyes in the ancient world the most famous of which was tyrion purple fishing techniques varied depending on the type of mollusk in shallow waters fishermen could simply dive and catch the mollusks but they set traps if the water was too deep being carnivorous murex were often lured using dead animal flesh as bait it was imperative that the mollusks be captured alive as they only secreted the precious purple liquid needed for dyes upon death the purple liquid that made up most dyes came from a gland in the murex to collect it workers would either crack open the mollusk's shell with a knife or if it was smaller crush it with a stone each mollusk only produced a small amount of liquid and thousands of them were needed to produce even a gram of the substance because of this captured mollusks were usually kept alive in sea water immersed baskets until enough had accumulated to produce a satisfactory amount of dye the mollusk glands were mixed with salt and left to decompose for three days afterwards the resulting mash was placed in a vat where it boiled until it was thickened and reduced to one sixteenth of its original volume the dyers stirred this mixture and removed any impurities this process produced the foul odor so reviled by ancient writers dyers checked the hue of the purple liquid by dipping in raw wool the hue could be changed by adjusting the temperature of the liquid and by soaking the wool for different periods of time with longer soaking producing deeper shades the wool was dyed once before spinning and again before weaving to ensure it maintained its color while murex purple dyed wool easily it did not adhere as well to other fabrics such as linen most greek garments were made from rectangular fabric that was rarely cut or sewn they were normally folded around the body with girdles pins and buttons dying served to give the garments a more unique style decorations were also widely used and were either woven or painted on they depicted things like animals human figures and mythological scenes textile manufacturing and trade was one of the most lucrative businesses in classical athens textiles were made of either wool or linen with wool being the most common women produced the garments worn in domestic life although some men ran professional workshops that fulfilled the same need other textiles were made by slaves and laborers under the supervision of master weavers fullers and dyers clothes didn't just keep people warm they were used as a way to communicate social identities like gender status and ethnicity these could be expressed through garments and accessories but also jewelry hairstyles perfumes and cosmetics wealthy greeks usually had garments of the highest quality and all their accessories were decorated with gold silver or gemstones parasols and fans were also an important part of elite fashion and were usually carried by accompanying slaves the most common greek garments were the peplos the ketone and the hymation the peplos typically worn by women was a body length cloth it was folded back on itself and worn draped over the body and pinned over the shoulders the ketone was a long garment with sleeves ankle length ketones were normally worn by women while men wore shorter versions of the garment a hymation was a mantle that was worn over both the ketone and the peplos outside of daily life there were also specialized clothes worn only in exceptional situations like weddings and religious ceremonies theater is not just part of geek culture but was a major part of greek culture in athens comedies and dramas originated from the dancing and singing performed by members of the cult of dionysus between 536 and 533 bce theater's burgeoning importance in athens was demonstrated when the responsibility of organizing tragedies was entrusted to the archon the highest ranking magistrate in the city from then on theater grew rapidly in popularity and soon a permanent space for performing and watching plays was built on the slope of the acropolis during the 5th century bce theater became intertwined with athens democracy it often functioned as an echo chamber for political ideas and in some cases it could even influence public opinion as a result in the 4th century bce plato coined the term theatrocracy to describe his city's politics theatrical competitions were held in the sanctuary of dionysus elerius god of wine and patron of drama dionysus was the son of zeus an immortal woman named simeli stories say that zeus who had fallen in love with the melee appeared to her holding a lightning bolt in his hand the melee was tragically struck dead by the lightning but zeus managed to save her unborn child keeping the embryo in his thigh until it fully gestated this is why the name dionysus is sometimes thought to mean born twice in athens theater was a part of the cult of dionysus and stage productions in the god's honor were held during festivals like the linnea and the great dionysia in athens there were three festivals that honored dionysus with drama performances the rustic dionysias the linnea and the great dionysia for the rustic dionysia each demi of attica organized their own dionysiac procession the parades were full of phallic songs dances and symbols meant to signify fertility and participants wore drunkard masks and sang body lyrics about the god the linnea was the oldest dionysian festival it was exclusively reserved for greek citizens and mostly made up of comedy performances finally the great dionysia was the most important festival taking place over several days it began with a parade called a phallophore followed by a dithyramb contest and ending with consecrated drama competitions [Music] the great dionysia was supervised by the head magistrate known as the arkhan who was assisted by 12 other magistrates among his duties the arkhan picked corrigoy rich athenian citizens responsible for providing the budget for rehearsals and performances two days before the dionysia a ceremony called the pro agon took place where playwrights introduced their work the dionysia finally began in earnest with a procession to the gods temple followed by sacrifices and a symposium the next two days centered on dithyramb contests while the final four days were dedicated to drama competitions the contests outcomes were decided by ten judges who were appointed at random by the archon the judges placed their votes in an urn and five of the votes were randomly picked to determine the winner all athenian stage actors were male regardless of whether they were playing men or women tragedies originally featured only one actor performing alongside a chorus eventually reaching a maximum of four adding more roles opened up the opportunity for dramatic dialogue during performances they prepared themselves in the skinny a building that served as a backstage area before emerging onto the proskenium or stage the skin a could be painted to represent backdrops like palaces temples and tombs its roof was reserved for appearances by the gods these gods could be moved around with a crane called a makani which produced spectacular visual effects on stage actors wore masks and elaborate costumes for tragedies they were adorned with magnificent clothes while for comedies actors playing male characters were hugely exaggerated phalluses probably to maximize the laughs the centerpiece of the theater was the orchestra or dancing place it was a large circular area that hosted choral performances religious rights and presumably acting choruses were composed of men wearing masks and costumes any athenian citizen could be choreotyped as long as they were selected by the chorus director chorus members also served as the equivalent of a curtain as their entrance and exit marked the beginning and end of the play new costumes and masks were produced for the chorus for every new play and they were often just as impressive and elaborate as the performances for example aristophanes comedies feature the chorus dressing as wasps frogs birds clouds and islands one of his plays the knights even had men riding other men dressed as horses athens teotron or performance space could seat up to 17 000 people nearly a tenth of the population of attica its excellent acoustics made it ideal for drama but it was also sometimes used for political meetings and parades the theater was accessible to everybody this did not mean that seating was free though the first rows were normally where priests and public officials sat while the central part of the auditorium was reserved for ambassadors and guests of honor there is also evidence that men and women sat separately in general theater audiences were emotional and noisy during performances they would shout curse and throw things depending on their mood and their reactions were just as much a part of the experience as the acting music played an important part in almost every aspect of ancient greek life whether attending a public gathering rubbing elbows at a dinner party laying out offerings in a temple or marching into battle there was a song for everything aristotle even wrote that music increased the efficiency of laborers and it was often played for rowers and field pickers to keep them working at a steady rhythm musical contests origamis were originally only held during religious festivals over time they became cultural events in their own right and attracted musicians and spectators from all over the greek world for example the athenian panathinaia festival featured competitions for instrument playing and poetry recitation the dionysia festival included contests between groups of male singers to see who could best perform a dithiram a marry him in honor of the god dionysus while these contests could be attended by all women weren't allowed to compete in them in the early days of the competitions winners only received a crown and an ego boost for their talents but from the hellenistic period onward the rewards were upgraded to cash prizes these prizes were large enough for musicians to make a fortune especially if they moved from festival to festival the odeon of pericles was built sometime between the 440s and 430s bce the building was commissioned by pericles for use in the panathinaia festival the odeon was also a venue for poetry readings political rallies and philosophical performances according to ancient sources the original design of the odeon was inspired by the tent of the persian king xerxes a spoil of war the athenian salvaged after their decisive victory at salamis in 480 bce the building's roof was made of timber from captured persian ships in this sense the odeon was both a triumphant symbol of athens and an insult to their persian enemies this structure was considered one of the grandest architectural accomplishments of ancient athens in ancient greece there was a type of music for almost any occasion complicated songs like hymns peons and diddy rams were meant for the ears of the gods and as such were usually played during religious ceremonies and civic life meanwhile a himanas was a song performed at weddings and a trinity accompanied funeral processions for more merry occasions like symposia scolia with a soundtrack of choice however drama was considered the epitome of artistic expression since it combined songs with poetry dance acting and costumes plays were thought to be the connection between mortals and gods and the songs that accompanied them especially those from the tragedies of euripides often became huge hits in the rest of greece

Channel: House Historia YTTV

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Id: tS9JwV763F8

Length: 50min 36sec (3036 seconds)

Published: Mon Aug 24 2020