Dionysia
conceptThe major Athenian festival honouring Dionysus, featuring dramatic competitions that gave birth to Western theatre including tragedy and comedy.
The Myth
The City Dionysia was Athens's grandest festival, sacred to Dionysus and organised under the authority of the archon eponymous. Dionysus had arrived in Greece from the east, and Pentheus of Thebes had foolishly resisted his worship. Athens proved wiser and embraced the god. Each spring, a statue of Dionysus was carried from his temple near the Theatre of Dionysus on the south slope of the Acropolis. Playwrights like Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides competed with trilogies of tragedies followed by a satyr play. Aristophanes and other comic poets competed separately. The choregos, a wealthy citizen, financed each production. Judges selected from the ten Athenian tribes awarded prizes, and victors dedicated bronze tripods along the Street of Tripods.
Parents
Children
Greek tragedy, Greek comedy
Symbols
Fun Fact
Every Oscar, Tony, and Emmy traces back to the Dionysia. The word "tragedy" comes from tragoidia — "goat song" — because early performers at the festival competed for a goat as a prize. The dramatic competitions that Aeschylus won at the Dionysia in 484 BC invented the art form the entire film industry depends on.
Words We Inherited
English words and phrases that trace back to this myth:
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Pentheus (King)
heroKing of Thebes who denied Dionysus's divinity and was torn apart by his own mother and aunts in a...
Athens
placeAthens was the city sacred to Athena, birthplace of democracy, philosophy, drama, and Western...
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placeThe best-preserved ancient Greek theatre, built within the sanctuary of Asclepius at Epidaurus,...
Agave
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Thebes
placeThebes was the great city of Boeotia, founded by Cadmus who sowed dragon teeth, and the setting for...
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placeThe city of Cadmus and Oedipus, setting of more Greek tragedies than any other place.