Greek Theatre

Japanese: ギリシア演劇 - ぎりしあえんげき

There are four types of ancient Greek drama to consider: tragedy, comedy, satyr, and mimos. Tragedy and comedy occupy important positions as the origins of Western drama history, and the surviving plays include those of Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides in tragedy, Aristophanes in old comedy, and Menander in new comedy. All of these were poets from Athens, the city-state in the Attic region, and tragedy and comedy are also called Attic tragedy and Attic comedy.

Theater is one of the fundamental forms of culture, and performing arts that are inseparable from rituals have emerged all over the world, especially in agricultural regions. The origins of various Greek theaters are thought to be related to the worship of Dionysus, the god of wine, but there is much debate on this issue and no consensus has been reached. However, advanced theater such as tragedy and comedy was only established in Athens, and its origins lie in the fact that Peisistratos, a ruler during the tyrannical period, made a local festival of the god of wine into a national event and decided that it would essentially be a tragic contest. The first winner of the Great Dionysia, held every year in mid-March, is said to be Thespis, the father of tragedy, in 534 BC. After that, tyranny was abolished in Athens, and under a democratic system, wars against the Persians were waged, including victories in 490 BC and 480 BC. Amid the tension, a comedy contest was also incorporated into the same great festival in 487 BC, and both theaters, reflecting the times sharply, shared the fate of Athens' rise and fall.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

theater

Greek theatre was a form of theatre performed outdoors during the day. The stone theatres remaining in various places today are remains from later periods, and the appearance of the Dionysian Theatre in Athens at its height can only be guessed at, but the three main elements of a theatre were the orchestra, the teatron and the scene.

The word "orchestra" means "place for dancing," and it is believed that the Theater of Dionysus in Athens was a perfect circle with a diameter of about 20 meters. The theater was mainly used by theatrical choirs, but actors also appeared, and in addition to drama, choral singing competitions called dithyrambos were also held. The number of choir members was 12 for tragedy (Sophocles changed this to 15), 12 for satyr plays, and 24 for comedy, all of which were arranged in a square formation (fundamentally different from the circular formation of the dithyrambos chorus).

Theatron is the origin of the English word theater, but originally it meant a seating area. The capacity of the theater must have been appropriate for a national event, and wooden seating was built on a steep slope rising in a fan shape from the orchestra at the base of the mountainside of the Acropolis. The stone Theater of Dionysus, which was later remodeled and completed around 330 BC, is said to have been able to accommodate 14,000 to 17,000 spectators.

A skene was a wooden dressing room with a flat roof, located across from the orchestra and facing the fan-shaped spectator seating. The choir used a passageway (parodos) that extended to both wings of the skene, and it is thought that the actors appeared before the orchestra using this and the doorway of the skene. The choir and actors performed on the same level. It was in later times that the stage for actors was made one step higher. The front of the skene facing the spectator seating was called a proskenion, and it seems that sometimes paintings depicting scenes were installed on it. The word "scene", which means "scene" today, also comes from this.

Athenian theater later spread to other places, and during the Hellenistic period, stone theaters were built in cities of all sizes, and the basic structure of the Athenian theater was also inherited in Rome.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Choir and actors

In a tight-knit community, choral groups may have been easily organized for occasions such as victory in battle, weddings, funerals, and other ceremonies. Thespis himself became the first actor, protagonist, leading the chorus (choros) that is assumed to be his descendants. In the heyday of tragedies, the 10 tribes of Attica each selected their best members to form a chorus, which they trained rigorously in advance before the performance. After Thespis, Aeschylus added a second actor, the deuteragonist, and Sophocles added a third actor, the tritagonist, but there were no further additions. In other words, no matter how many characters appeared in the play, all roles had to be played by three actors, and the number of characters who could speak in one scene was limited to three. However, it could be said that it was precisely because of these strict restrictions that poets were able to create plays with unparalleled condensation. Although it is unclear how actors were selected, it seems that acting had become somewhat of a professional occupation by the end of the 5th century BC. The chorus members and actors were all male and appeared wearing masks.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Masks and costumes

Greek tragedies were masked plays, and the actors never lost their masks until the very end. This may have been due to the function of the masks to clearly show the faces of the actors in the large theaters, but it may also have been due to the religious nature of the rituals of Dionysus, the god of wine. The masks were made of wood, cork, cloth, etc., and since they decayed easily, no remains remain, but their actual appearance can be inferred from vase paintings. This was a time when sculpture was developing, and the clean, sharp style seen in sculpture is also evident in the masks. However, since they were masks for theatrical performances, the mouths were always half open. The unnatural high shoes (kothornos) that made tragic actors look taller, and the hideous masks with high onkos that adorned the forehead, are later inventions. It should be said that theater in its heyday was a natural stage full of life.

In the old comedy, actors and chorus members wore undergarments, their bellies and buttocks were inflated with stuffing, and men had large penises. In the new comedy, these exaggerated poses were eliminated, and a street drama depicting everyday life was established.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Greek tragedy

The original meaning of tragoidia is "goat song," but it is not clear what this meant. However, it is certain that, like the satyr, it had a deep connection with Dionysus, the god of wine, from the beginning. However, it was the Athenian poets who gave this theatrical form its spirit, and the true founder of tragedy was Aeschylus. Tragic poets submit three tragedies and one satyr play to the authorities every year, with the aim of performing them in just one day. After a selection process, three poets are selected, and each of them is given a chorus to perform a tetralogy (a trilogy for tragedies). The expenses for the performance are all covered by the wealthy influential people attached to each poet, and the poets are in charge of the overall direction, including composing the music. Athens put its enormous energy into performing a three-day tragedy just once a year. After the three-day competition, the judges rank the works. The poet who receives first place is the winner.

Meanwhile, the tragic poets had before their eyes a new image of humanity sung by the epic poet Homer. These were heroes such as Achilles. These heroes were brilliant personalities with high quality, capable of making decisions and acting independently on their own responsibility, and were the first gifts of Greek culture to the world. However, the epics, myths, and legends in which these heroes are depicted tell of events that have already been completed, and all turmoil is quietly contained. The tragic poets revived these heroes of the epic world. The basic structure of Greek tragedy is that every action must be carried out under the watchful eye of the chorus and withstand its pressure. Once summoned as a character in a play in front of the chorus, which always judges things from its present position, the heroes who had been quietly sleeping until then suddenly transformed into flesh and blood, living in tension with the future, and thus were born dramatic figures that continue to inspire the history of theater in later generations. The Athenians were well aware of the meaning that such dramatic acts could convey, and so citizens and poets alike were keen on staging tragedies.

Tragedy essentially came to an end with the deaths of Euripides and Sophocles in 406 BC, but the city-state of Athens was already in decline by this time. Even after that, performances continued to flourish in theaters around the country during the Hellenistic period, with many new plays and revivals of older works, but the plays that remain are limited to those of the three great poets mentioned above.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Greek Comedy

The original meaning of the word "comoidia" is unclear, its early period is unknown, and its lineage of development is also unclear. In 487 BC, comedy performances were incorporated into the Athenian national festival, and five people competed, each performing one piece, on one day following three days of tragedies. Since comedy is performed in different eras and has different substance, a distinction is made between old comedy and new comedy.

The eleven plays written by Aristophanes between 425 and 388 BC remain as Old Comedy. During this period, Athens, which was fighting on the side of Sparta in the Peloponnesian War, was on the brink of defeat and heading towards devastation. In this climate, Aristophanes spoke out as a conservative who opposed Athens' war policy. Old Comedy has two parts: agon, in which the characters argue over their opposing views, and parabasis, which is the chorus's part and directly appeals to the audience the author's views regardless of the main story. Old Comedy was able to make full use of both. Due to this unique structure, Old Comedy was too closely tied to the times and had a strong political color, and although its impact is particularly strong in the history of world comedy, it has not been repeated to become a type that is easy to convey to later generations.

No works of Middle Comedy from the transitional period remain, but a fragment of Menander's New Comedy was discovered in recent years. Even before its discovery, the style was well known through Roman adaptations. All of them are similar love stories, and the comic situations devised here were passed down for a long time, becoming material that enriched the history of comedy in the West. However, the chorus lost its political significance and was reduced to performing interlude music that was unrelated to the play. The New Comedy was the product of an era when the great powers that drove history had already left Greece and were leaning towards Rome.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Satyr's Play

Its humorous content invites laughter, but it is a different kind of play that should not be mistaken for a comedy. It is the final part of a day's performance in a tragedy contest, that is, the final part that always follows the three tragedies, and the chorus was the same group that performed the tragedies up until then. Satyros is a half-man, half-beast mountain spirit who is a companion of Dionysus, the god of wine, but in Attica he is also called Silenus. The chorus appears on stage in obscene costumes with horse ears and tails, and acts around the gods and tragic heroes in comical situations. The sense of balance that seeks a break after a solemn event may have maintained the inseparable bond between the two plays. Euripides' Cyclops is said to be the complete work.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Mimos Drama

Unlike the plays mentioned above, there is a form of errand theater that was not established by the state. Mimos means mimicry, and one of the fundamental human impulses is to look closely at the physiques of animals and humans and try to imitate their characteristics, so errands based on this can occur anywhere at any time. Among them, there is a comic play called phlyakes in Sicily, and Epicharmus, who was active around 500 BC, wrote short plays based on this, which were farcical versions of myths and legends, but they have all been lost. Then, in the same region, Sophron, around the same time as Euripides, created a prose play called "mimos," which vividly depicted everyday life in short dialogues in a sketch-like style. These plays have also been lost, but they had a great influence, and later writers of the same genre include Theocritus and Herondas. These are examples that took on a literary form, but there were also many other improvised mimos plays that did not require a chorus, and were performed by one or a few people who imitated typical characters and customs, and which often contained obscene elements.There was also a pantomimos, a silent drama in which the outline of a tragedy was performed in its entirety by one person.

These arts came to be known as Mimus theatre in the Roman era, and spread throughout the empire along with its territorial expansion, overpowering orthodox theatre, remaining beloved by the citizens until they were oppressed by Christianity.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

Impact

There are countless theatrical arts, but Greek theater was the first in history to prove that, when it reached its highest level of development, it was the only art form that could fully depict the human figure in relation to the entire universe. Subsequent nations equally adopted the Greek pronunciation of words such as tragedy and comedy and worked hard to create similar types of theater, creating the mainstream of theatrical history, and even in Japan, the newly coined words "tragedy" and "comedy" were established as Japanese translations. This alone shows the enormous influence of Greek theater. In particular, with regard to tragedy, although the heyday of theater had come to an end, Aristotle devoted himself to analyzing the structure and investigating the essence of tragedy in his Poetics, and his insights have reached the pinnacle of artistic research in a wide range of fields beyond theater. Recently, Nietzsche led modern thought with his sharp cultural criticism based on his study of tragedy, Freud developed psychoanalysis by recognizing deeper meaning in tragic heroes, and modern cultural anthropologists are delving into the depths of culture through the study of mythology. Just as Greek theater cannot be ignored in the history of academic study as the roots of culture.

Even after the extant manuscripts of Greek drama were finally published during the Renaissance, they were only read as plays for a long time, but in the 20th century, there was a movement to revive the performances, and the Greek National Theatre has been performing ancient plays in modern languages since 1936. Greek plays are translated and performed from time to time in other countries around the world, and it is unlikely that the revived heroes will ever completely disappear from the stage.

[Yusuke Hosoi]

"History of Ancient Greek Literature" by Takatsu Harushige (1952, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Complete Works of Greek Tragedies, 4 volumes (1960, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "Complete Works of Greek Comedy, 2 volumes (1961, Jinbun Shoin)" ▽ "Introduction to Greek Tragedy" by Nakamura Yoshiya (1974, Iwanami Shoten)" ▽ "Understanding Humanity in Greek Tragedy" by Kawashima Shigenari (1983, Shinchi Shobo)

[References] | Masques | Comedy | Greek literature | Tragedies

Source: Shogakukan Encyclopedia Nipponica About Encyclopedia Nipponica Information | Legend

Japanese:

古代ギリシアの演劇として顧慮すべきは、悲劇、喜劇、サティロス劇、ミモス劇の4種である。西洋演劇史の源流として重要な地位を占めるのは悲劇と喜劇であり、悲劇ではアイスキロス、ソフォクレス、エウリピデス、古喜劇ではアリストファネス、新喜劇ではメナンドロスの戯曲が現存する。いずれもアッティカ地方の都市国家たるアテナイ（アテネ）の詩人であり、悲劇、喜劇はアッティカ悲劇、アッティカ喜劇ともよばれる。

　演劇は文化の根源的形態の一つであり、ことに農耕地帯では世界各地に儀礼と不可分の芸能が生じている。各種ギリシア演劇の起源についても酒神ディオニソス崇拝との相関が推察されるが、この問題には論議が多く定説はない。だが、悲劇、喜劇という高度の演劇はアテナイにおいてのみ成立したのであり、僭主(せんしゅ)時代の統治者ペイシストラトスが地方の酒神祭礼を国家行事とし、その実質を悲劇競演と定めたことが母胎である。この毎年3月中旬に行われる「大ディオニシア祭」最初の優勝者は、悲劇の祖、紀元前534年のテスピスとされている。その後アテナイでは僭主制が廃され、民主制のもと、前490年、前480年の勝利を含む対ペルシア戦争が遂行される。緊張のさなか前487年には喜劇競演も同じ大祭に組み込まれ、両演劇は時勢を鋭く反映しつつ、アテナイの消長と運命をともにした。

［細井雄介］

劇場

ギリシア劇は日中野外で行われる演劇であった。今日各地に残る石造の劇場は後代の遺構であり、アテナイのディオニソス劇場盛時の姿は推定によるほかないが、劇場の三大要素はオルケストラとテアトロンとスケネである。

　オルケストラorchestraとは「舞踏の場」を意味し、アテナイのディオニソス劇場では直径約20メートルの正円形という推察がある。ここでは主として劇の合唱隊が活動するが、俳優も登場し、また劇以外にもディティランボスdithyrambosとよばれる合唱歌の競演が行われた。合唱隊の員数は、悲劇12人（ソフォクレスが15人に改める）、サティロス劇も12人、喜劇24人で、いずれも方形の隊列（ディティランボス合唱隊が円形に並ぶのと根本的に相違）を組んだ。

　テアトロンtheatronは英語theatre（演劇・劇場）などの語源をなすが、本来は観客席のことである。その収容力には国家行事にふさわしい規模が要請されたはずであり、アクロポリスの山腹に、オルケストラを中心の底部として扇形に上ってゆく急斜面を用いて木組みの客席が設けられていた。のちに改造、前330年ごろに完成された石造のこのディオニソス劇場では、1万4000から1万7000の観客を収容できたといわれる。

　スケネskeneとは平屋根をもつ木組みの楽屋のことで、オルケストラを挟んで扇形の観客席に向かい合う位置にあった。合唱隊はスケネ両翼に伸びる通路(パロドス)parodosを用い、俳優はこれとスケネの戸口をも利用してオルケストラへ登場したと思われる。合唱隊と俳優とは同じ平面で劇を演じた。俳優のための舞台が一段高くなるのは後代のことである。観客席に面したスケネ前面はプロスケニオンproskenionとよばれ、ときには場景を表す絵も設置されたらしい。今日「場面」などを表すシーンsceneという語もここに由来する。

　アテナイの演劇はのちに各地に波及し、ヘレニズム時代には広く大小の都市に石造の劇場が建ち、アテナイの劇場の基本構造はローマでも引き継がれた。

［細井雄介］

合唱隊と俳優

結束の固い共同体では、戦勝のおりとか婚礼や葬儀その他の祭儀に、合唱の群れがたやすく組織されたのかもしれない。その後裔(こうえい)と推定される合唱隊(コロス)chorosを率いてテスピスは自ら第一の俳優protagonistになったという。盛時の悲劇では、アッティカの10部族がそれぞれ精鋭を選んで合唱隊をつくり、あらかじめ厳しく訓練して競演の日を迎えた。テスピスに次いで、アイスキロスが第二俳優deuteragonist、ソフォクレスが第三俳優tritagonistを加えたが、その後の増員はなかった。すなわち、劇中人物が何人登場しても、すべての役を3俳優でこなさなければならず、また一場面で発言できる人物も3人までに限られたのである。だが、この厳しい制約があればこそ、かえって詩人たちは比類なく凝縮度の高い劇を創造できたともいえよう。俳優の選ばれ方は不明だが、前5世紀末には多少とも俳優の専門的職業化が進んでいたらしい。合唱隊員および俳優はみな男性であり、仮面をつけて登場した。

［細井雄介］

仮面と衣装

ギリシア悲劇は仮面劇であり、最後まで仮面を失わなかった。これは大劇場で人物の面貌(めんぼう)をはっきりみせる仮面の機能によるためであろうが、酒神ディオニソスの祭儀という宗教的特質に起因しているかもしれない。仮面の材質は木、コルク、布などで、朽ちやすかったため遺品はないが、その実際は壺絵(つぼえ)から推察できる。時代は彫刻の発展期であり、彫刻にみられる清潔で鋭い様式は仮面にも明白である。ただし演劇の仮面であるため、その口はかならずなかば開いていた。悲劇の俳優が背丈を高くみせる不自然な高靴コトルノスkothornosや、前額部を高く飾るオンコスonkos付きの醜怪な仮面は後世の所産である。盛時の演劇は生気にあふれる自然な舞台であったとみるべきであろう。

　古喜劇では、俳優や合唱隊員は肉襦袢(にくじゅばん)を着て、腹や臀(しり)は詰め物で膨らませ、男性ならば大きな陽根をつけていた。新喜劇になると、これら誇張の激しい姿態は排除されて、日常を映す市井劇が成立した。

［細井雄介］

ギリシア悲劇

悲劇トラゴイディアtragoidiaの原義は「山羊(やぎ)の歌」であるが、これが何を意味したか明らかでない。ただ、サティロス劇とともに、最初から酒神ディオニソスと深い関係にあったことは確かと考えられる。だが、この演劇形式に精神を与えたのはアテナイの詩人たちであり、悲劇の真の創始者はアイスキロスであった。悲劇詩人はただ1日の上演を目ざして悲劇3作とサティロス劇1作を毎年当局に提出する。選考の結果3詩人が選ばれ、これら3人にはそれぞれ合唱隊が与えられて四部作（悲劇としては三部作）の劇が上演される。上演費用は各詩人についた富裕な有力者がいっさいを負担し、詩人は作曲までも含めて演出全般を担当した。毎年ただ一度、3日間の悲劇上演にアテナイは絶大な精力を投入したのである。3日にわたる競演後、審判官が等級をつける。一等を得た詩人が優勝者である。

　ところで、悲劇詩人の眼前には叙事詩人ホメロスの歌い上げた新しい人間像があった。アキレウスなど英雄たちの姿である。これらの英雄は、己の責任において決断し独自に行動できる、いわば高度の質を備えた輝かしい人格であり、ギリシア文化が初めて世界に贈ったといえるほどの存在であった。しかし、それらの英雄が描かれた叙事詩、神話、伝説などはいっさいをすでに完了せるできごととして語り、いかなる波瀾(はらん)をも静かに納めている。このような叙事的世界の英雄たちを悲劇詩人がよみがえらせたのである。あらゆる行為は合唱隊の注視のもと、合唱隊の圧力に耐えて展開されねばならない、というのがギリシア悲劇の基本構造である。つねにいまの立場で物事を判断してゆく合唱隊の面前に、ひとたび劇の登場人物として呼び出されると、それまで静かに眠っていた英雄たちはそれぞれ、たちまち未来との緊張に生きる生身の激しい姿に変わり、ここに後世の演劇史を触発してやまぬ劇的存在が成立した。このような劇的存在がいかなる意味を伝えることができるか、アテナイの人々はこれをよく自覚して、市民も詩人も等しく悲劇上演に熱意を注いだのであろう。

　前406年にエウリピデス、ソフォクレスが相次いで亡くなり、悲劇は実質的に終わりを告げるが、このとき都市国家アテナイもすでに衰退の途にあった。その後も上演自体は、旧作再演の方策もとられ新作も多く、ヘレニズム時代にも各地の劇場で盛んに行われたが、残された戯曲はついに先にあげた三大詩人に限られている。

［細井雄介］

ギリシア喜劇

喜劇コモイディアkomoidiaは原義もさだかでなく、古い時期のことはわからず、発展の系譜も不明である。前487年アテナイの国家行事に組み込まれた喜劇上演は、3日間の悲劇上演に続く1日、各人1作を提供する5人で競われた。喜劇では時代も離れ実質も異なるので、古喜劇と新喜劇の別がたてられている。

　古喜劇として残っているのはアリストファネスの11編、前425年から前388年にかけての戯曲である。この時期、ペロポネソス戦争でスパルタ側を相手とするアテナイは敗色を強めて荒廃へ向かった。その趨勢(すうせい)のなかでアリストファネスは、アテナイの戦争政策に反対する保守家として積極的に発言した。古喜劇には、劇中人物が相対立する主張を言い争うアゴンagonという部分と、合唱隊の持ち分で、本筋にかかわりなく作者の主張を観客に向けて直接訴えるパラバシスparabasisという部分とがあり、両者を存分に利用できたのである。このような特有の構造からなるために、古喜劇はあまりにも時代に密着して政治色を濃くし、その印象の迫力は世界喜劇史に際だって強烈であるが、反復して後代に伝えやすい類型になることがなかった。

　過渡期の中喜劇は作品が残っていないが、新喜劇はメナンドロスの断片が近年発見された。発見以前にも、ローマの翻案劇を通じてその作風はかなり知られていた。いずれも同工異曲の恋の物語であり、ここで考案された喜劇的状況はその後も長く引き継がれて、西洋における喜劇史を豊かにさせる素材となった。だが合唱隊は政治的意義を失い、劇と関係のない幕間(まくあい)音楽の担い手に堕していた。歴史を動かす大勢力はすでにギリシアを去ってローマのほうへ傾こうとしている時代の所産が新喜劇であった。

［細井雄介］

サティロス劇

滑稽(こっけい)な内容で哄笑(こうしょう)を招くが、喜劇と取り違えてはならぬ異質の演劇である。これは、悲劇競演における1日の上演の締めくくり、すなわち3部の悲劇にかならず続く結尾の部分をなし、合唱隊はそれまで悲劇を演じてきた同じ連中であった。サティロスSatyrosとは酒神ディオニソスの眷属(けんぞく)で半人半獣の山野の精であるが、アッティカ地方ではシレノスSilenosともよばれた。舞台には合唱隊が猥雑(わいざつ)な衣装で馬の耳と尾をつけて登場、滑稽な状況に置かれた神々や悲劇の英雄を取り巻いて行動する。厳粛な行事のあと息抜きを求める均衡感覚が、両演劇の不可分の結合を固持させたのかもしれない。エウリピデスの『キクロプス』1編が完全作として伝えられている。

［細井雄介］

ミモス劇

前述した演劇と異なり、国事に制定されなかった雑芸的演劇がある。ミモスmimosとは、身ぶり物まねを意味するが、動物や人間の姿態を注視してその特徴の模倣に走るのは人間の根源的衝動の一つであり、これに基づく雑芸はいつでも至る所に生じることであろう。そのなかでシチリアではプリアケスphlyakesといわれる笑劇があり、前500年前後に活躍のエピカルモスがこれをもとに、神話伝説の茶番化を筋とする短い戯曲を書いたが、すべて消失した。ついで同地方でエウリピデスと同じころソフロンが「ミモス」と称する散文劇を創始、短い対話で日常生活を素描風に活写した。その戯曲も散逸したが、影響は大きく、同系統の後代作家にテオクリトス、ヘロンダスがあげられる。これらは文学の体裁を得た例だが、合唱隊をもたず1人ないし数人で典型的な性格や風俗を模倣し、淫猥(いんわい)な要素も多分にはらむ即興的なミモス劇は種々存在し、なかには悲劇の粗筋を1人の黙劇ですべて演じ尽くすパントミモスpantomimosもあった。

　これらの雑芸がローマ時代に移ってミムス劇とよばれ、正統的演劇を圧倒しつつ帝国の版図とともに各地に広まり、キリスト教による抑圧に至るまで市民に愛好されていた。

［細井雄介］

影響

演劇的芸能は無数にあるが、これが最高度の発展に達すると、人間の姿を宇宙全体との相関において描き尽くしうる芸術は「演劇」のほかにないということをギリシア演劇は史上初めて立証してくれた。後代の諸民族が等しくトラジディtragedy、コメディcomedyなどとギリシア語音を移して同種演劇の創造に励みつつ演劇史の主流をつくり、ついにわが国まで「悲劇」「喜劇」の邦訳新造語を定着させるに至った事実だけでも、ギリシア演劇の影響は絶大といえよう。ことに悲劇については、盛時の演劇は終わっていたが、アリストテレスが『詩学』で悲劇の構造分析と本質究明に尽くし、その洞察は演劇を超えて広く芸術研究の最高峰を極めている。また近くは、ニーチェが悲劇研究に基づく鋭い文化批判で現代思想を導き、フロイトが悲劇の英雄に深い意味を認めて精神分析を進展させ、現代の文化人類学者が神話研究から文化の深層に迫りつつあるように、ギリシア演劇は文化の根源として学問史上無視できない。

　ギリシア演劇は、ようやくルネサンス期に伝存手稿が公刊されても、長らく戯曲として読まれるだけであったが、20世紀には復古上演の機運も生じ、1936年以来ギリシア国立劇場は現代語による古劇上演を続けている。他の諸国でも世界各地にわたっておりおりにギリシア劇は翻訳され上演されており、よみがえった英雄たちが今後舞台上から完全に消えることはけっしておこらないであろう。

［細井雄介］

『高津春繁著『古代ギリシア文学史』（1952・岩波書店）』▽『『ギリシア悲劇全集』全4巻（1960・人文書院）』▽『『ギリシア喜劇全集』全2巻（1961・人文書院）』▽『中村善也著『ギリシア悲劇入門』（1974・岩波書店）』▽『川島重成著『ギリシャ悲劇の人間理解』（1983・新地書房）』

[参照項目] | 仮面劇 | 喜劇 | ギリシア文学 | 悲劇

出典　小学館　日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)日本大百科全書(ニッポニカ)について　情報 | 凡例

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