Satirovskaya drama

From Satirov's drama, according to Aristotle , a tragedy developed by expanding the plot and replacing the comic style with a serious and solemn one. The external feature that distinguished the Satyr drama from the tragedy in the heyday of the Greek theater is reduced to the participation in the stage action of the satyrs , who, according to legend, were brought to the performance of the praises by Arion of Methnea, around 600 BC. The Peloponnese is recognized as the place of origin for the Satirov choir; in Athens, the Satyr's dithyramb turns out to be an alien phenomenon confined to forms of the Attic cult. Chronologically, this phenomenon is attributed to the tyranny of Peisistratus who instituted the feast of the great Dionysius (city). According to another view, Athens was the birthplace of the Satirovsky choir, and stage satires who donned goatskin (in other parts of the costume they could more likely resemble centaurs ) represented the burdened retinue of the god Dionysus , the totem of which was, among other things, a goat. Choral dance dithyramb performed by ryazhennymi satyrs, was, according to this view, the remnant of the ritual act of the time when Dionysus was honored, taking the image of an animal dedicated to him, and in the myth that formed the basis of the dramatic act, these satires turned into satellites of Dionis ( Veselovsky , "Three chapters from historical poetics"). According to Vilamowitz (“Heracles”), satires were introduced specifically to entertain and amuse the public and had nothing to do with the cult. Be that as it may, the setting of the Satirovsky choir came into use in the Dionysian festival and led to the development of the cult and then artistic drama.

In the legends of Dionysus was given a combination of ideas of suffering and joy, death and life. This duality of the nature of the deity reflected in the everyday life of the festival: the bearers of the ritual act — satire — then performed passionate songs filled with joy, then tuned into the harmony of weeping. With the gradual evolution of the ritual forms, the fun and serious moments were distributed between the satyr drama and tragedy: the first one retained the name and masks of the cult performers of the ancient dithyramb. The development of comedy proceeded completely independently, but along with the development of satyr drama and tragedy: neither according to the constitution, nor to the situation, nor to the goals, did the Greek comedy be associated with the satyr drama. According to Maguffy (“The History of the Classical Period of Greek Literature”), the Satyr drama was in its initial phase of development a rural and cheerful form of the praise, performed by the lower class of the population, and the choir imitated the games of the satyrs, while the tragedy arose from a serious praise. When the latter began to evade his original goal and began to glorify, besides Dionysus, other gods and heroes, the Satyr dithyramb was timed to the Athenian scene and became fashionable. According to Bernhardi ^[2] , initially at the Dionysian festivals elements of religious and secular, artificial and free standing next to each other; the first was expressed in a dithyrambic chorus, the second in jokes of satyrs, and the satyr drama was the prelude of the holiday. The association of satyrs with the praises was fixed by Arion. Initially, the satyr drama was sung in a chorus without actors; in contrast to the tragedy, it noted the predominance of the orchestical element. From the time of Thespis, her development went hand in hand with tragedy, and innovations in the field of the latter were transferred simultaneously to Satyr drama.

The first known representative of Satyr drama in the history of Greek literature is Pratin from Fliunt (dorianin), the author of 32 plays, according to legend - who transferred satyric choirs from Corinth to Athens. Despite the fact that the Doric dialect of the choirs was little understood by the Athenians and the image of the satyrs was alien to their mythology, the innovation quickly took root in the cult of Dionysus. Since then, the satyr drama has been recognized as a necessary branch of dramatic art and included in the program of the Dionysian festivities (the great Dionysius). Of the other representatives of this epoch, Aristius, the son of Praatin, and Hoyril stood out in the field of the Satyr drama. Satyr drama reached its climax at Aeschiel . Before him, the satyr drama, which concluded tetralogy, could stand in connection with the plot of preceding tragedies; after Aeschyl's, the independence of the Satyr drama became a habit ^[3] . Sophocles and Euripides also wrote satyr dramas. Some critics also include Alkestide and Orest, the two plays of Euripides that have come down to us. In addition to these poets, the following representatives of Satyr poetry were known in antiquity: Ion of Chios , Ahoy Elektriysky, Iofokt, Philokles, Xenocles . In the IV century BC. e. and later the decline of the Satyr drama is noticed, only a few of its representatives are known.

The Pathfinders of Sophocles, the Cyclops of Euripides and Daphnis or Litiers of Sosytheus have survived to our time. The drama of Euripides is preserved entirely, the drama of Sophocles almost by half (the first 394 verses) with lacunae , which could be restored; from the drama of Sositheus two fragments are now known (verse 21 and verse 3).

The characterization of the Satyr drama of the classical period (V century BC) can be made on the basis of the Cyclops. Its content is taken entirely from the Odyssey IX song ^[4] , except for the fact that Euripides introduced Silen and satires, that is, the actual satyr setting, and there is no mention of the ram that Odyssey made from the Cyclops Cave. The action takes place in Sicily, on the seashore, and begins with the fact that Silen, who fell into bondage with Satyrs to Cyclops , recalls with sadness about the time when he was a servant of Dionysus. Meanwhile, a chorus of satyrs in a fast and comic dance theme runs out onto the stage and in a naively funny pastoral song expresses its sympathy to Silenus. A ship moors to the shore, bringing Odysseus and his comrades from Troy; between the satires and the newcomers a conversation begins. A giant Polyphemus appears and accepts aliens for robbers. Odysseus with dignity convinces Polyphemus that he is not a robber, but a guest, and asks for protection. Polyphemus answers that for him there are neither laws, nor fear, and that the gift of hospitality to Odyssey will be the fire and the cauldron in which his meat will be cooked. Odysseus turns to Pallada and Zeus with a prayer for help and enters the cave behind Polyphemus. In the next choral song, satires sing the cannibal’s wide mouth and express their desire to leave the inhospitable shore as soon as possible. Soon after that, Odysseus runs out of the cave and tells with horror about the bloodthirstiness of Poliphem, who devoured two of his comrades, and how he managed to drink Cyclops. The choir expresses sympathy to Odyssey, who plans to gouge out the eye of the monster during his sleep and announces his name to Polyphemus - Nobody. With the help of satyrs behind the scenes, Odysseus pierces Cyclops his only eye. The moans and complaints of the blinded giant, his fury at the news of the salvation of Odysseus, the last dialogue between them and the willingness of satyrs to sail with Odysseus - all this constitutes the final scene of the satyr drama.

The atmosphere of the drama, the characters of the characters and the form allow to summarize the main features of Satyr poetry. On the one hand, the satyr drama brings in front of us satyrs - true children of nature, roguish, fearful, sensual, careless, naive, shameless, frisky and cheerful, living in the lap of nature; it also refers to them as a representative of a coarse animal element, Polyphemus. The contrast with them is Odysseus as a representative of the heroic and cultural principles. He behaves like a hero of a tragedy, without demeaning his dignity, without falling into a vulgar or too solemn tone. In the depiction of this contrast and in the message to the spectators of direct fun, there was the appointment of a satyr drama, which was a harmless, naive joke on a mythical plot. Without teaching, like a comedy, Satyrov's drama was amused and entertained, giving an outcome to the heavy and serious mood caused in the audience by the preceding tragedies. The repertoire of satyr roles was not particularly large, which, by the way, explains the relatively small participation of satyr drama in the programs of the Dionysian festivities and its gradual disappearance from the stage (by the end of the 4th century BC). Themes were originally taken from the legends of Dionysus and related to the introduction of wine among people and the influence of a new gift on his inexperienced admirers (“Lycurgus” Aeschylus). Later, myths with an element of animal, funny, fabulous and miraculous were chosen as the basis for Satyr's plays; so, the satyr types of the gluttonous, ingenuous, sensual, rude Hercules , the roguish Autolycus , the crippled Hephaestus , the ferocious, in the spirit of Cyclops, Antheus and Busiris , the robber Skiron, etc., were especially popular. (Helen's Marriage). Sometimes the tragic and serious in myths are distorted into the funny ( Alkmeon , Amphiarai , Afamant , Telef ), but at the same time the poet had to reckon with the beliefs and tastes of the public and not overstep the limits of what is permitted. In general, the satyr drama had to meet the following requirements, which Horace set forth in Ars poetica ^[5] : she had to carefully choose expressions so that the characters, like a venerable matron who performs a publicly religious dance, did not drop their dignity, and the satyrs' speech matched theirs shepherd's character; in other words, its language should represent the average between the language of comedy and tragedy. The task of the Satyr drama was not to parody , but to laugh, exposing the amusingly indecent, naively inadmissible against the background of the serious and heroic and enduring the tone of naive fiction and idyllic simplicity.

The liveliness of the action also corresponded to the size ( trochic tetrameter ), originally used, according to Aristotle ^[6] , in Satyrian poetry and having a close relationship to dance. Choir meters were generally freer and simpler than in tragedy; choral parts were not stanzas. In the dialogues uttered by satirical persons, freedom of both style and meter was also allowed: iambic substitution with cyclic anapaest was found, for example, in all feet except the last. On the contrary, the heroic parties were strictly sustained in a stylistic and metrical relationship, as the laws of the tragic form required.

The Satyr's dance ( ancient Greek σίκινννςς ) was rather a rhythmic leap , sometimes of an obscene nature; the tempo of the dance was fast, with satires accompanying movements with gestures, grimaces and grimaces designed to cause laughter in the audience (vazovaya painting represents a lot of material illustrating the satyric drama from both the plot and the external situation). The number of chorevts in the Satyr drama was 12–15, the choir had a quadrangular construction. Satires were dressed in goatskins and had a phallus in front (there were also itifallic satires) and a tail (horse) behind them, as can be inferred from a vaz painting.

Compared with the tragedy, the Satyr drama was more conservative, as indicated, by the way, by the archaic nature of her style, and she had less vital elements that could ensure her free development. Although the constituent elements of the tragedy and the Satyr drama were the same, but the second always seemed to be underdeveloped in comparison with the first. This is evident both from a consideration of the metric properties of both dramatic types and from the fact that, compared with the tragedy, the volume of Satyr drama was smaller and the dramatic conflict was simpler. It was especially difficult for the poet to give an artistic combination of elements of serious and funny and to maintain the tone that is average between tragedy and comedy.

The obligation to amuse without complete freedom for jokes and a narrow circle of plots delayed the evolution of satyr poetry; its success in the V century. BC e. due only to the high talent of the poets who created the artistic drama. The degeneration of the Satyr drama is already noticed under Sophocles, who in some plays instead of satyrs brought out ordinary mortals (in the drama “Shepherds” were the shepherds as trooks, in the drama “Hercules on Tenar” - ilots ). Finally, the success of the comedy, which has befallen the Athenian public since the eighties of the 5th century, contributed to the decline of the Satyr drama. By the end of the 4th c. Satyr drama is completely out of fashion, which explains, among other things, the loss of its numerous samples created in the 6th and 5th centuries.

Roman literature, along with other products of the Greek genius, attempted to adopt the satyr drama; so, Pomponius and Novia (beginning of the 1st century BC.) had plays of mythological content, in the manner of a satyr drama. Subsequent attempts in this area were sporadic and boiled down more to translations than to independent creativity. Representatives of the Satyr drama include Sulla, Quint Cicero and Peason, to whom Horace addressed his message “De arte poetica”. The Roman atellana was a dangerous rival for the Satyr drama and drowned it in the bud. The ancient Roman satire has no etymological or genetic connection with the Greek satyr drama: only the question of the latter’s influence on the first is possible.

• Obnorsky N.P. Satirical Drama // Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Satirical drama // Brockhaus and Efron Small Encyclopedic Dictionary : 4 tons. - SPb. , 1907-1909.