In Greek myths, Dionysus (Διόνυσος, Dionysos) is the God of wine, happiness and madness, as well as the God of theatre!
Fun Fact - Dionysus had the power to restore life to the dead!
The purpose of the festival known as The Dionysia was to honour the god, Dionysus, most probably also to celebrate the end of winter and the harvesting of the year’s crops. This was the most important festival in the ancient world!
Dionysus in Glory
People came from all over Greece to attend this festival in spring. Once there, participants would partake in rituals, sacrifices, the singing of hymns and dithyrambs (crazy hymns with dances, usually in tribute to Dionysus).
The Tragic and Comedy Competitions
During the festival, the tragic competition would occur. Three tragic playwrights would perform three tragedies and a satire play.
In 486 BC the comedy competition was introduced to the audience. Five comedy playwrights would perform just one comedy each.
The judges were chosen at random, and a prize would be awarded to the best playwright, similar to award ceremonies in our time. Though the voting was quite unusual: each judge would write their name and their favourite playwright on a stone tablet. Five of the ten tablets would then be drawn at random and displayed to the crowd. The playwright with the most votes would win. So the winning playwright needed to be both good and lucky!
Fun Fact: the prize was often a goat! This was because, the goat was one of the common symbols of Dionysus. The word 'goat' actually has connections with the word 'tragedy'. 'Tragedy' actually means 'goat-song'!
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