Ancient Greek Comedy Trivia Quiz

Answer: Amusing spectacle

When one thinks of comedies today, they think that they are supposed to be funny. In ancient Greece, at least during the Old Comedy era, the comedy plays mocked people in power for the mistakes they made and the character flaws that were seen by the public. While some members of the audience might have found that amusing, it certainly was more satirical than light hearted fun.

This brings to mind the Old Comedy play "The Clouds", which explored the life of Socrates. In fact, it portrayed him as a person from a group he hated the most - the Sophists. In the play Socrates was seen as a bumbling, stupid person. Plato, his famous student, later speculated how the play might have contributed to public opinion that led to the charge of treason levied against his teacher a little over twenty years later.

Answer: Aristophanes

As The Father of Greek Comedy, Aristophanes represented the first stage of the comedy's development in ancient Greece, which is called Old Comedy. Most of what is known about the era of Old Comedy is through eleven of Aristophanes' works that still survive mostly complete today; "The Clouds", that was previously mentioned, is one of them.

Aristophanes, born c. 446 BC in Athens, wrote plays that not only showed what life was like in the Athens of his time, but are also believed to be entertaining today. Although very little biographical information beyond his life exists, it is known that his plays won a variety of competitions and show that he exercised more than a bit of influence among the people in Athens. No one wanted to be a victim of his sometimes biting humor or blatant sarcasm!

Answer: Lysistrata

In ancient Greece a woman's place was in the home. Her husband might consult her in family or other matters, but he definitely didn't have to do so. It was definitely a male-dominated society. How surprising is it, then, that in his "Lysistrata" (411 BC), Aristophanes credited a woman with ending the Peloponnesian War?!

Lysistrata called for a meeting of women from a variety of city-states and convinced them to withhold sex from their husbands. They agreed that they would continue to conduct themselves in dress and action in such a way to encourage their husbands to desire them, however, all forms of sexual intercourse would be completely off the table. The women took a very long oath concerning what they would and would not do, and then went home to drive their husbands mad. Desperate, the men hastened the peace negotiations and ended the war.

At the time the play was first performed, the Peloponnesian War was not yet over. It would be seven more years before its conclusion. We can only assume that Lysistrata's plan was NOT used to bring a speedy end to the war!

Answer: Menander

The New Comedy era began with the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC, and ended in approximately 260 BC. Menander (c. 342-290 BC) was known for writing 108 comedies; unfortunately his work did not survive the Middle Ages. Only one play, "Dyskolos", also called "The Grouch", still exists mostly in its original form. It was a story about how a future son-in-law won the heart of a father who didn't want to see his daughter married. Menander won several awards for his plays, and his style was imitated by Roman writers.

Answer: True

There is a lot of disagreement among scholars about exactly when the Old Comedy age ended and Middle Comedy began. This is probably due to the fact that only fragments of plays from the Middle Comedy era exist today. Typically, the Middle Comedy era is vaguely defined as being a bit later than Aristophanes.

The changing of the format of the plays typically is used to mark the division. Plays were not aimed as much toward specific people as more stock characters, such as the fool, overprotective father, or damsel in distress, were used.

Answer: Actor

The word "hypokrites" literally means an interpreter from underneath. Greek actors would wear a mask and, therefore, would have to speak from underneath it. Over time the word came to mean an person who was wearing a more symbolic mask, trying to be someone they really were not.

Actors in Greek drama were always men; if there was a role for a woman, they would portray that by using a mask. An actor could play many different roles in a play, as it was relatively easy to switch out the masks.

Answer: Lenaia

Although the City Dionysia was perhaps the most famous festival of ancient Greece, it was not the only one. The name of the Lenaia, held in honor of Dionysus, either came from "lenos" for wine press, or "lenai", which was another name for the women called Maenads who worshiped Dionysus. It is believed to have been held in January, a time when the ancient Greeks hoped that nature was beginning to reawaken after the winter months. The weather in January restricted attendance at the Lenaia to local people, as sea travel was not safe.

The Lenaia introduced an exclusive contest for comedic plays in approximately 442 BC. Some sources state this is where the great Aristophanes got his start. About ten years later, a similar competition was also held there for tragic plays. While the plays were originally held at a theater called the Lenaion, they were eventually moved to the Theater of Dionysus.

Answer: Thalia

Whenever the theater of ancient Greece is discussed, it is common to illustrate the topic with masks. The costumes were rather plain and by today's terms would be called unisex, but the mask was what portrayed the character's emotion and gender. While Melpomene was the Muse of Tragedy, Thalia was the Muse of Comedy.

The name Thalia means "the joyous" in ancient Greek. She is typically pictured holding the comic mask and a trumpet, which represented the projection of actors' voices. Thalia was also the muse of idyllic poetry, brief poems about rural life.

Answer: True

The chorus, a group of actors, was used in all forms of Greek theater, but its importance decreased over time. During the Old Comedy period the chorus gave information to the audience regarding background information and what the characters were thinking in order to help them understand what was happening in the play. Although the number in the chorus could vary, in comedies there were typically 24 members of the group.

By the Middle Comedy period the chorus became less important and continued to decline in use. Some historians believe this happened because playwrights began to find other techniques, such as more dialogue between the actors, which led to a diminished use of the chorus.

Answer: It was more about the everyday life of the people

The Middle Comedy era had already introduced the use of what is known as stereotypical stock characters rather than focusing on real or mythological people, and this was continued to an even greater degree during the New Comedy era.

Plays would focus more on the typical problems that people faced and a good way to describe the general tone of comedies during this era is that they were more gentle in nature rather than using biting sarcasm. Studying these plays is considered to be a good way to better understand Athenian society during this time.