Daily Question: 2/15/11

Explain how the origins of theater in Athens are tied to both religion and politics. Check out this resource.


The origins of theater in Athens are most likely tied to both religion and politics. In the plays that they performed in Athens, there was tragedies and comedies.The classic technology center's website says that "Greek theater grew out of religious festivals." In their plays, they would present ideas showing morals in life. Questions were presented about morals and they talked about their Gods. Also, they would would sing religious songs, do sacrifices, and dance. These were most likely showed in tragedies because they are presenting a more serious matter. I think that both comedies and tragedies were tied to politics in a few ways. First, there is usually high class, medium class, and low class. In Athens, the aristocrats were the highest class. Even though this is not a Greek play, in William Shakespeare's plays, there was a high class and low class. They spoke in different ways too. This shows political because it is presenting the "power" of the people. Athens  most likely had a play including their king or leader, or presented an issue that had to do with the government or politics. I think that the origins of theater in Athens were tied to both religion and politics, and many plays today are still based off of them.