Clash of the Tragic Titans

Friends, we've reached the end of "Greek Week" at KnowledgeNews. We've already met Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, plus three great Greek mathematicians. Now, let's add some dramatic action, with a showdown between a trio of tragedians who actually fought for ancient Greek entertainment awards: Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides.

All three were dramatic innovators. But only one truly captured the heart of the "Academy" voters of old Athens. Who was the greatest Greek tragedian of them all? Let's see what the records say.

Aeschylus

Born in 525 BC, Aeschylus wrote some 90 plays. Sadly, only six or seven survive. His claim to fame: being the father of classical Greek drama--because before him, drama as we know it didn't exist. Oh sure, there were simple affairs in which a single actor spoke lines back and forth with a chorus. But Aeschylus was the first to add a second actor. All of a sudden, you had lively conversations, arguments, and plots.

Every spring in Athens, playwrights competed for top honors at a festival for the god Dionysus. Each playwright got one day all to himself to present four plays to the audience: three tragedies and a "satyr play," a short, silly, and often vulgar comedy that cheered everyone up after all the tragic mayhem. The plays were performed outdoors, in the Theater of Dionysus at the foot of the Acropolis, in front of a vocal and critical crowd. The grand prize was a crown of ivy. Aeschylus won the ivy crown 13 times in more than 20 tries.

The tragedies he entered were often trilogies, like the Oresteia, which won him the top prize in 458 BC. In part one, Agamemnon, the Greek king who sacked Troy returns home, takes a bath, and is hacked to death by his wife and her lover. In part two, The Libation Bearers, his son Orestes kills both mom and lover to avenge dad. In part three, The Eumenides, the son goes on trial for murder. The Furies--avenging spirits--are the plaintiffs, Apollo is the defense attorney, and Athena sits in judgment with 12 citizens.

Sophocles

If Aeschylus changed everything by putting a second actor on stage, Sophocles--born around 496 BC--saw and raised him by adding a third. This enabled playwrights to create even more complex situations. Like Aeschylus, he wrote prolifically, penning 123 plays, though again, all but seven are lost. Of the great tragedians, Sophocles had the best luck at the Dionysia. He won 24 times out of around 30 tries, and placed second in the ones that he didn't win.

Sophocles's most famous play is Oedipus the King. Aristotle considered it the perfect tragedy. Like the Oresteia, it's about a family with enough issues to make even the best therapist despair. After hearing a prophecy that their baby son will eventually kill dad and sleep with mom, new parents Laius and Jocasta tell a servant to take their child into the wilderness and leave him there to die. Fortunately, the boy is rescued and adopted by a couple who name him Oedipus.

Unfortunately, no one in a Greek tragedy ever escapes his fate. Grown up, Oedipus kills a rude stranger on the road not knowing it's his father, then becomes king of Thebes and marries the man's widow, not knowing she's his mother. The gods punish this horrible sin by smiting Thebes with a plague. Oedipus investigates, and gradually learns the full horror of what he's done. Basically, the play is a detective story in which the detective is also the criminal.

Euripides

Born around 485 BC, Euripides was the risk-taking young rebel who shocked the people and broke all the rules. Critics accused him of a lot of things: hating women, disrespecting the gods, making his heroes unheroic, and generally writing weird and complex plays. He's definitely the most modern and realistic of the ancient tragedians, famous for his psychological subtlety and for bringing mundane objects and scenes into the elevated realm of tragic drama.

His greatest play is probably The Bacchae, in which King Pentheus refuses to believe in the divinity of the wine god Dionysus. Poor Pentheus is punished horribly for this hard-headed skepticism. He's torn to pieces by his own mother, who has become one of Dionysus's most frenzied devotees.

Euripides wrote more than 90 plays, of which almost 20 survive. Despite his genius, he was too hot for many ancient Greek theatergoers to handle. He won first prize at the Dionysia only four times--and one of those was posthumous.

And the Winner Is . . .

With the best tragedy ever according to Aristotle, 24 Dionysia victories, and 6 second-place finishes, the ivy crown for best ancient Greek tragedian just has to go to Sophocles.