Dionysus was the nature, wine, creativity, intuition and imagination. His followers were a randy bunch of goat-legged creatures called satyrs. In a drunken state, these goat - legged creatures would sing songs that raised questions on various cultural codes and notions of righteous and appropriate social conduct. Herein lies the origin of Greek theatre.

The one who gave answers to the questions raised by the satyrs was called hypocrite, suggesting that the satyrs mocked the answers given as being false, full of prejudice and presumptions. The truth was deeper, perhaps revealed only when all defenses were broken down — which happens after consumption of wine and narcotics that the goat - legged followers of Dionysus freely distributed.

In Greek, the word for this “song of the goat” is tragoidia, which gives us the word Tragedy, a performance based on human suffering that gives the audience pleasure.

Tragedy depicts the downfall of a noble hero or heroine, usually through some combination of fate and the will of the gods. The tragic hero's powerful wish to achieve some goal inevitably encounters limits, usually those of human frailty (flaws in reason, social dogma, cultural codes, ignorance) and natural / divine decree (fate, calamity, accident).

In Greek plays, the hero always has a flaw and/or makes some mistake. He/she does not need to die at the end, but he/she always undergoes a change in fortune. In addition, he / she achieve some revelation or recognition about human fate, destiny and the will of the gods. Aristotle quite nicely terms this sort of recognition as "a change from ignorance to awareness of a bond of love or hate." The tragic hero is "a man who is neither a paragon of virtue and justice nor undergoes the change to misfortune through any real badness or wickedness but because of some mistake."

For example, in Oedipus Rex, the hero unknowingly ends up killing his father and marrying his mother. Is he guilty or innocent? Does ignorance set him free or contributes to the horror of the situation? In Antigone, a king forbids traitors from getting an appropriate funeral; their sister, Antigone, challenges this decision on humanitarian grounds. Who is right — the king who wishes to punish the enemies of the state or the sister who cares for the brothers? The plays are usually presented to mystify the audience: it is difficult to ascertain who exactly the protagonists and antagonists are. All characters are righteous in a sense, but very flawed morally.

In the Oresteia, Agamemnon is first presented to as a man of honour, bravely leading his troops into victory during the Trojan War. But then Agamemnon, in order to change the winds to win the battle of Troy, sacrifices his own daughter, Iphigenia. The complexity of Agamemnon's character leaves the audience spellbound — is the man cruel, ambitious, virtuous? It is interesting to note the power of these plays in the political context of these times. In Antigone, the sister represents family while the king represents the State. In Oresteia, the father represents the State while the daughter represents family. Who should be sacrificed? Who matters more? State or family? For the Greeks, who were highly political, the theme of family loyalty was oftentimes presented as a danger for society and order. Unlike the Romans who worshipped family, Grecians were more focused on the importance of the State.

Because of the historical and political context of the play, Agamemnon's decision to sacrifice his daughter could be deemed as a logical decision, especially since the sacrifice was for the sake of Troy and the victory of the Greek army. And yet Antigone’s demand for human decency cannot go unheeded. Anthropologists say, the function of drama was to reflect the subconscious and cosmic patterns by reenacting the everyday world. It was acknowledging inherent conflicts of civilization that demanded but defied easy resolution. The earliest plays were religious rituals. India's Natyashastra has origins in ritual manuals known as Brahmanas. Even today drama is an integral component of religious rites. For example, the Nativity plays during Christmas or Rama Leela during Navratri. Through the play one enacts a holy event.

As the years pass, the drama remains the same but those watching the drama are growing up or growing old. They discover different layers of meaning in the same play, in the same character, in the same dialogue. With that consistent and repetitive interaction with theatre more light is thrown on the meaning of life. The goat’s song thus joins us in our struggle to make sense of existence.

Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik
Author, Speaker, Illustrator, Mythologist
Courtesy: Star of Mysore

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