A 19th Century painting of a scene from the Iliad in the style of Greek vase painting.

Story-telling played an enormous part in the entertainment of ordinary Greeks, from the second millennium BC right up to the start of the archaic period. With low levels of literacy, tales of myth and legend were recited from memory around the fire and passed on from generation to generation. 

The greatest of these epic poems were the Iliad, which told of the Trojan War and the Odyssey, which relayed the adventures of the hero Odysseus on his way back from the war. Although these poems were the result of hundreds of years’ of performance, they were first written down around 750BC. This final form is attributed to Homer, a blind poet from Anatolia of whom we know very little. But whether he even existed or not, his stories continue to fascinate us.

Theatre as we know it descends directly from Classical Greece, when the Athenians perfected Tragedy and Comedy.

The Athenians loved theatre and held regular competitive festivals where the great names of the day battled it out to huge audiences. All actors were male, wearing masks and often performing multiple roles, always in verse. Narration was provided by a group of actors called The Chorus.

Tragedy was regarded the higher art form, with its mythical tales retelling the downfall of a hero, often through his own arrogance. Pity, fear and divine justice were recurring themes.

Three men are regarded as the masters of Greek tragedy: Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides. They developed plotting and characterization, added painted backdrops and elaborate costumes. They also told astonishing stories, including Euripides’ Medea, the distressing tale of a woman who kills her children out of obsession, and Sophocles’ Oedipus, the tragedy of a king who uncovers his own history to find he has murdered his father.

Comedy was a more boisterous affair, often taking a swipe at politics and figures of the day. The master of comedy was Aristophanes, whose work included Frogs, set in the underworld and featuring a competition between Aeschylus and Sophocles, both of who had recently died.