1, Aeschylus-known as the "father of tragedy"
Aeschylus (about 525- 456 BC) was a writer during the formation of Greek tragedy. He lived in the transition period from tyranny to democracy in Athens, which was the period when Athenians fought for the freedom of their motherland.
He was born into a noble family. In 490 BC, Persian troops invaded Greece. As a staunch patriot, Aeschylus took part in the famous marathon. In 480 BC, after Athens was destroyed, he participated in the naval battle of Salamis in the Greek fleet. Internally, he hates tyranny, and his world outlook is reflected in his creation.
Aeschylus won the championship for the first time in 484 BC and won it 13 times in his life. About the quantity of Aeschylus' works, the records in historical materials vary greatly. He wrote 70 tragedies and comedies (90 in all).
There are seven complete tragedies in his tragedy, including 1 complete trilogy. Including Beggars (490 BC), Persians (472 BC), Seven Attacks of Thebes (467 BC), Prometheus Bound (465 BC) and oris Teia (Agamemnon, Dionysus and Avengers), all happened in 4 BC.
2. Sophocles-known as "Homer of dramatic art"
Sophocles (about 496-406 BC) was a tragic writer in Athens when democracy was in full swing. His plays marked the maturity of Greek tragedy.
Sophocles was born in an industrial and commercial owner's family in Athens. In 443 BC, he became the treasurer of the League, and later held two important positions as a general. In 420 BC, he became a priest.
Sophocles has great attainments in music and poetry. At the age of 28, he took part in the tragic competition for the first time and defeated Aeschylus. It is said that he wrote more than 120 plays in his life and won 24 times in the competition.
There are seven of his tragedies, including Ajax (442 BC), antigone (44 BC1year), King Oedipus (43 BC1year), Women in Trakys (429 BC) and Electra (4 BC).
Sophocles advocates the spirit of democracy, opposes tyranny, advocates heroism, and emphasizes man's resistance to fate. Sophocles' greatest contribution to tragic art is:
There are few gods in his plays. He no longer relies on divine power, but relies on the development of characters to promote the development of drama plots. He canceled the form of trilogy and developed the actors from two to three. The chorus reduces the lyrical elements and plays the role of an actor in dramatic actions.
By strengthening drama action and dialogue, dialogue occupies the most important position in drama and becomes a powerful means to portray characters. Sophocles' plays are based on myths and legends, describing the conflict between idealized heroes and fate, but they can't escape the mercy of fate and go to the tragic end of destruction. Antigone is Sophocles' most outstanding tragedy.
Antigone's two brothers, Polanks and Eteocles, were at odds with each other and fought fiercely for the throne, resulting in both losses. Creon succeeded to the throne as his uncle. He declared Polonius, who was exiled abroad and fought for the throne with the help of foreign forces, a traitor, so no one was allowed to bury his bones.
According to the ancient Greek divine law, if a person is not buried after death, his ghost can't enter the ghost domain, and if he doesn't bury the body, he will also violate the gods and hurt the city-state. Antigone can neither violate the order prohibiting the burial of the dead, nor abide by the "divine law" that the dead must be buried, which forms an intractable contradiction.
But antigone did not hesitate to bury his brother Polenkos. Finally, antigone hanged himself in prison. The conflict in the play is very sharp and the atmosphere is very serious. The ban on burial in the play violated the religious beliefs of the ancient Greeks and was condemned by the prophets and elders. The poet is very sympathetic to antigone.
3. euripides-"the originator of psychological drama"
Euripides (485-406 BC) was a tragic writer during the crisis of slave democracy in Athens. He was born in a noble family, never participated in any political activities all his life, loved reading and was addicted to philosophical thinking.
He raised many questions in his works, including divinity and humanity, war and peace, democracy, women's issues and so on. He wrote more than 92 tragedies in his life, including 18 and 1 Saturos' The Cyclops, which won five awards.
His plays include Arctic (438 BC), Hippolytus (428 BC), Hector Cobo (425 BC), The Woman of Troy (4 15 BC) and Helen (4 12 BC).
Euripides's plays reflect the ideology during the political and economic crisis in Athens at the end of 5th century BC. He condemned the unjust civil war, opposed Athens' high-handed policy towards its allies, supported the democratic system and advocated the democratic spirit.
Euripides first discovered women in European literature (18 plays 12 plays are about women), especially the development of private property is that the family system is fixed and the marriage system is gradually fixed as monogamy. However, this system only requires women to strictly observe chastity, and can even be confined in boudoir. Generally speaking, they can't participate in public life and have no political rights.
Men, on the other hand, can have an outside world, and they can run amok outside without any legal or moral constraints. Some women can't bear to be oppressed, and they fight against revenge in Medea, and some are victims of their families.
For example, King Admetus in Arctic Tus was doomed to be short-lived, and the god of fate told him that he could make his relatives body double, so as to avoid death.
His relatives, friends and parents were unwilling, so his wife Artemis died for him voluntarily. It reflects the tragic result of the unreasonable system in Athens that required women to sacrifice everything for men at that time.
Extended data:
Social and ideological conditions of tragedy in the historical background of ancient Greece;
The tragic world is between two worlds: one is the mythical world, which is considered to belong to a lost ancient time, but this lost time still exists in consciousness;
Second, the new value standard system has gradually formed with the rapid development of peisistratus, Cleisthenes, Mitok and Pericles.
This dual world frame of reference constitutes one of the characteristics of tragic art and also becomes the driving force of tragic behavior. In the tragic conflict, heroes, kings and tyrants still maintain the tradition of heroism and myth, but the final victory does not belong to them: the final victory has never been won by an independent hero, but will always be the victory of collective values endowed by the new democratic city-state.
In the second half of the 20th century, scholars studying ancient Greece paid special attention to the origin of tragedy. Even if they can give a summary answer to the origin problem, the tragedy problem has not been finally solved.
We should understand that the essence of the problem lies in the innovation brought by the Athens tragedy (or Attica tragedy) from the angles of art, social system and human thought, which makes the tragedy a form of innovation.
Tragedy is a novel literary style, which has its own laws and characteristics, and has established a new form of performance in the city-state festival system. In addition, as a special form of expression, it also reveals all aspects of human experience that were not recognized at that time;
It marks a new stage of human inner shaping and the establishment of responsibility concept. The form, performance and characters of tragedy mark the emergence of tragedy and have strong and distinct characteristics.