Ancient Greeks Regret Inventing The Theater – But Why?

Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com - Many enjoy going to the theater and watching old and new plays. Thanks to the ancient Greeks, modern people know what theater is.

Image credit: The Kennedy Center Arts Edge

Around 532 B.C., Thespis, the world's first recognized actor, stepped on the stage, and Greek tragedy was born. It is interesting to note that tragedy means in Greek means "goat song" because the goat was sacred to the god whom they thus worshiped. The rude songs and dances greatly amused the people.

As previously discussed on Ancient Pages, the theater played an important role in ancient Greece. The history of the Greek theatre started with festivals held in honor of their gods honoring their gods. A god, Dionysus, was honored with a celebration called "City Dionysia."

Magnificent ruins of ancient theaters have been discovered in many parts of Greece. Undoubtedly, people in ancient Greece appreciated going to large, open-air structures where plays were performed.

According to the University of Oxford, "going to the theater in the ancient Greek world was a communal activity and one that was hard-wired into the old city's social, political, and religious rhythms.

If anything, the theater became more popular and, as it spread beyond Athens and rural Attica, was increasingly important for the Greek economy. In contrast to the somewhat ambiguous status of actors for much of history, actors in fourth-century Greece were well-respected artistes and celebrities, in-demand and obscenely well paid."

It certainly sounds like theater brought many benefits to ancient Greek society.

Epidaurus ancient theater. Credit: Public Domain, CC BY-SA 3.0

Yet, researchers state ancient Greeks regret inventing the theater. Hannah Brubaker, a research associate at the University of Oxford, reveals something quite surprising.

"Our research shows that directly after developing theatrical performances as a way to honor the gods during religious festivals, the people of sixth-century Athens realized what a terrible thing they had done, Brubaker said.

This discovery was made while a team of translators cataloged ancient classical writings. In those texts, scientists found evidence revealing that classical Greeks admitted their idea of a professional class of people wearing costumes and masks while standing on stage and performing stories was an awful mistake.

Brubaker explained that "it appears the Greeks almost immediately recognized that this new craft would create an entire subcommunity centered around the worst attention-seeking narcissists in their society and inspire a litany of terrible productions that they would all have to sit through.

The Athenians in particular, being the most refined, sensitive, and sophisticated of the Greeks, instantly wished they had never conceived theater in the first place."

She added that several new findings suggest the ancient Greeks also lamented encouraging those prone to ponder life's unanswerable questions out loud to call themselves "philosophers."

Still, ancient Greek theater survived, and people kept watching the plays.

Written by Ellen Lloyd - AncientPages.com

Updated on August 1, 2022

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