What's All the Drama About?: The Development of Tragedy in Ancient Greece

Abstract

The art of storytelling is only a step away from the art of performance. Yet it took centuries to develop into the form we easily recognize today. Theatre, a gift of ancient Greece, pulled threads from many facets of Greek society - religion, festival, poetry, and competition. And yet, as much as historians know about the Greek theatre, they are still theorizing about its origins and how it suddenly developed and flourished within the confines of the 5th century B.C. Fascination concerning the origin of the theatre developed as quickly as the 4th century B.C. and remains a topic of speculation even today.