Papposilenus playing the crotals, theatrical type of the satyr play, Louvre. The Louvre Museum (Musée du Louvre located in Paris is the world's most visited art museum a historic monument and a national museum of France

Satyr plays were an ancient Greek form of tragicomedy, similar to the modern-day burlesque style. The term ancient Greece refers to the period of Greek history lasting from the Greek Dark Ages ca Burlesque is theatrical entertainment of broad and parodic humor which usually consists of comic skits (and sometimes a strip tease) They always featured a chorus of satyrs and were based in Greek mythology and contained themes of, among other things, drinking, overt sexuality (often including large phallic props), pranks and general merriment. In Greek mythology, satyrs (Σάτυροι Satyroi) are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus – " Satyresses quot Greek mythology is the body of stories belonging to the ancient Greeks concerning their gods and Heroes the nature of the world and the origins and significance The word phallus can refer to an erect Penis, or to an object shaped like a penis At the Athenian Dionysia, playwrights usually submitted four plays to the competition: three tragedies and one satyr play. Athens (ˈæθənz Αθήνα Athina,) the Capital and largest city of Greece, dominates the Attica periphery as one of the world's The Dionysia was a large religious festival in ancient Athens in honor of the god Dionysus, the central event of which was the performance of tragedies The satyr plays were performed at the end of the festival as spirited entertainment to lighten the atmosphere after many hours of Tragedy, or between the 2nd and 3rd Tragedy of a trilogy as comic relief. They were also generally much shorter, around half the length of an average Tragedy.

Satyric drama was one of the three varieties of Athenian drama (the other two being tragedy and comedy). Drama is the specific mode of Fiction represented in Performance. Comedy (from the Greek κωμωδίαkomodia has a popular meaning (any discourse generally intended to amuse especially in Television, Film, and Its origin can be traced back to Pratinas of Phlius (about 500 BC). Pratinas was one of the earliest tragic poets of Athens, he was a native of Phlius in Peloponnesus. Phlius was a Greek city in the northwestern Argolid, in the Peloponnese It is probable that, after settling in Athens, he adapted the old dithyramb with its chorus of satyrs, which was customary in his native place, to the form of tragedy which had been recently invented in Athens. The dithyramb was originally an ancient Greek hymn sung to the god Dionysus. The Greek chorus ( choros) is believed to have grown out of the Greek Dithyrambs and Tragikon drama in tragic plays of the ancient In Greek mythology, satyrs (Σάτυροι Satyroi) are a troop of male companions of Pan and Dionysus – " Satyresses quot This new kind of drama met with so much approval, and was so much developed by Pratinas himself, as well as by his son Aristeas, by Choerilus, by Aeschylus, and the dramatists who succeeded him, that it became the custom to act a satyric drama after a set of three tragedies. Aeschylus (ˈɛskɨləs or /ˈiːskɨləs/ Greek: Ασχύλος, Aischylos, 525 BC/524 BC 456 BC/455 BC was an ancient Greek Playwright The seriousness of the preceding plays was thus relieved, while the chorus of satyrs and Sileni, the companions of Dionysos, served to indicate the original connexion between that divinity and the drama. In Greek mythology, Ipotanes were a race of half-horse half-humans unlike the Satyrs who were half-goat In Classical mythology, Dionysus or Dionysos (in Greek, Διόνυσος or Διώνυσος; associated with Roman

The material for a satyric drama, like that for a tragedy, was taken from an epic or mythology, and the action, which took place under an open sky, in a lonely wood, the haunt of the satyrs, had generally an element of tragedy; but the characteristic solemnity and stateliness of tragedy was somewhat diminished, without in any way impairing the splendour of the tragic costume and the dignity of the heroes introduced. An epic is a lengthy Narrative poem, ordinarily concerning a serious subject containing details of heroic deeds and events significant to a culture or nation The amusing effect of the play did not depend so much on the action itself, as was the case in comedy, but rather on the relation of the chorus to that action. The Greek chorus ( choros) is believed to have grown out of the Greek Dithyrambs and Tragikon drama in tragic plays of the ancient That relation was in keeping with the wanton, saucy, and insolent, and at the same time cowardly, nature of the satyrs. The number of persons in the chorus is not known, although there were probably either twelve or fifteen, as in tragedy. In accordance with the popular notions about the satyrs, their costume consisted of the skin of a goat, deer, or panther, thrown over the naked body, and besides this a hideous mask and bristling hair. The dance of the chorus in the satyric drama was called sicinnis, and consisted of a fantastic kind of skipping and jumping.

Sophocles is known to have written a satyr play in which the baby Perseus is allowed to masturbate a satyr's penis, as that fragment survives. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa Perseus, Perseos, or Perseas ( Greek: Περσεύς, Περσέως, Περσέας) the Legendary founder Masturbation refers to Sexual stimulation especially of one's own genitals ( self masturbation) and often to the point of Orgasm, which The penis (plural penises, penes Another play discusses the need to gang rape Helen. See also Rape Rape can be categorized in different ways for example by reference to the situation in which it occurs by the identity or characteristics This article is about the mythological figure Helen of Troy For other uses see Helen (disambiguation and Helen of Troy (disambiguation. ^[1] The only satyr play to survive in its entirety is Euripides's Cyclops. Euripides ( Ancient Greek:) (ca 480 BC–406 BC was the last of the three great tragedians of classical Athens (the other two being Aeschylus The Cyclops (Κύκλωψ, Kyklōps) is an Ancient Greek Satyr play by Euripides, the only complete satyr play that has survived We also have large fragments of a Sophocles comedy called Ichneutae (Tracking Satyrs), and still smaller pieces of other satyr plays exist. Sophocles (ˈsɒfəkliːz Ancient Greek, sopʰoklɛ̂ːs circa The Tracking Satyrs (or Ichneutae) is a fragmentary Satyr play by Sophocles written during the 5th century BC The Romans did not imitate this kind of drama in their literature, although, like the Greeks, they used to have merry after-pieces following their serious plays. Ancient Rome was a Civilization that grew out of a small agricultural community founded on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 10th century BC

References

Sources

• Easterling, P. E. (Editor), Bernard M. W. Knox (Editor); The Cambridge History of Classical Literature; Volume I Part 2: Greek Drama Cambridge University Press; Reprint edition (1993). ISBN 0521359821.
• This article incorporates text from the public domain Dictionary of Classical Antiquities by Oskar Seyffert, edited by Henry Nettleship and J. The public domain is a range of abstract materials &ndash commonly referred to as Intellectual property &ndash which are not owned or controlled by anyone E. Sandys (1894).

External links

• The Ancient Library - Satyric Drama