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History of Western Theatre
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From ritual to theatre
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The origin of theatre
.
.
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might be found in the ritual circle or rectangle:
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the orchestra or dancing place, laid out at the foot of a hill.
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Here, Dionysus was celebrated,
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the Greek God of fertility and wine,
.
.
.
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said to be born out of the thigh of Zeus.
.
.
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The worship of Dionysus was ecstatic by nature.
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.
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In the sixth century Before Christ
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the celebration became formalized and ritualized.
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Women were not allowed anymore to participate.
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Nearby the orchestra,
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a temple of Dionysus was built,
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and in the middle of the orchestra
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a thymele, or altar was placed,
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.
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and it is thought
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that the celebration started
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with the sacrificing of a goat
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called ‘Tragos’.
,
,
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A probably uniformly dressed chorus of up to fifty men
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sang, accompanied by perhaps
more or less Oriental sounding music
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a socalled Dithyramb,
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.
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a hymn in honor of Dionysus.
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.
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Symbolic gestures of the chorus dance
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seem to have been closely related
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to the words that were sung.
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Allegedly,
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the poet Arion
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was the first to transform the dithyramb
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.
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into a literary compostion.
.
.
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With Arion, the beauty of language entered the ritual celebration.
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In the late fivehundreds Before Christ
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in Athens,
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a democratic discourse arose,
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striving to give all male inhabitants
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.
.
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of middle and lower classes
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.
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a voice in state-affairs.
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In that period.
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a singer of dithyrambs,
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named Thespis,
.
.
.
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is credited with innovating a new way of performing
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the dithyrambs,
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in which a solo actor
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impersonated the characters of the songs.
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He used masks
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to distinguish between different characters.
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He became the answerer or hypokrites.
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By wearing a mask of, for instance, a god,
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he, as it were, steppped out his normal being:
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the extase,
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and came in a state of divinity
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the enthoustase.
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The actor spoke and acted as if he was divine,
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and interacted with the leader
of the chorus and its members,
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who acted as narrators and commentators.
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This new style of performance,
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based on a written text, and
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not to forget,
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in the presence of an audience,
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may have marked the birth of theatre
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as we know it today.
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It is claimed that Thespis travelled about on a cart with plays.
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This could mean that he performed in several Greek towns.
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This itinerant theatre
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is kept up until long after the middle ages.
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In 534 Before Christ,
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during an annual festival,
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.
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called: 'The City of Dionysia'
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.
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a competition for the best tragedy was instituted
by the ruler of Athens at that time:
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Peisistratus,
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and Thespis won this first documented competition.
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Thespis’ pupil, Phrynichus,
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was credited with introducing into drama female characters,
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played by men, wearing female masks.
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He also introduced contemporary subjects.
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he won the competion with the Phoenissae,
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who celebrated the defeat of the Persian king: Xerxes
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at the Sea-battle of Salamis.
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However,
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none of his works,
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nor that of any other dramatist from the sixth century BC,
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have survived.
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In the fifth century
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the 'City Dionysia Festival'
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became very popular in Athens.
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Temporary wooden tiers of benches
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were built up on the side of the Acropolis.
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Note the rectangular shape of this orchestra.
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During the festival a rectangular building,
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called the skene,
.
.
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meaning tent or hut,
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.
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was erected behind the orchestra,
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where the actor,
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who played several rolls,
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could change his costume and mask.
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Perhaps the skene itself
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served to represent the location of the plays,
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usually set in front of a temple, palace or house.
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Typically, there were two or three doors in the skene
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that led out onto the orchestra,
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and from which the actor probably could enter and exit.
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Only much later,
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in the fourth century BC,
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the skene became a permanent stone structure.
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Of all the hundreds of tragedies
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known to be written in the fifth century
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thirty-two tragedies of only three playwrights have survived.
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The first of these playrights was Aeschylus.
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.
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He diminished the importance of the chorus,
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and reduced it to twelve men.
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He probably innovated a second actor,
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thus making dialogue between characters possible.
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Each of the two actors
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usually played more than one roll,
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including female characters.
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They wore always painted masks
made of perishable linen,
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cork or lightweight wood.
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In particular on vase paintings,
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these tragic masks and costumes are depicted,
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But. in most cases these vases
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are from a period later than the fifth century.
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Tragic actors in costume
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Members of the chorus with mask
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Tragic actors in costume.
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Aeschylus has written about eighty plays,
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only seven have survived.
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Now we see a brief summary
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of a TV recording of his tragedy: 'Agamemnon',
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in which the actors wear masks.
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Note that the performance is indoors.
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In Aeschylus times the actors played in the open air,
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with thousands of spectators.
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so in those days
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the delivery was probably
more declamatory than realistic.
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The play starts with a Prologue.
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This watchman is standing on the roof of the skene,
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representing the palace of Agamemnon.
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He is waiting for a signal,
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announcing the fall of Troy to the Greek armies.
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>> WATCHMAN: The torch place that means
that Troy is finally taken.
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Next comes the Parodos, or the entrance of the chorus,
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made up of old citizens,
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telling and singing the story of the Trojan war.
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>> CHORUS: This blood king Agamemnon
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The Queen Clytemnestra appears,
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and the Chorus hears from her
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that Troy has fallen.
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>> CHORUS: Clytemnestra
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>> CLYTEMNESTRA: The Greek armies have taken the city of Priam.
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A herald appears, and confirms the tidings.
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>> HERALD: King Agamemnon, welcome him warmly.
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King Agamemnon enters in his chariot with Cassandra,
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a Trojan Princess
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whom he has taken as his slave and concubine.
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>> AGAMEMNON: First I greet Argos
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and the Gods of this blood clan.
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Clytemnestra welcomes him,
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professing her love.
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>> CLYTEMNESTRA: I am not ashamed to confess
in your prensence my love, for my manlord...
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Agamemnon acts coldly toward her.
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>> AGAMEMNON: Your words, like my absence,
lasted too long.
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and eventually he walks on a carpet
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of purple robes
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and he enters the palace.
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>> AGAMEMNON: If it means so much...
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Cassandra tells the chorus
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that they will see their king dead.
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>> CASSANDRA: One strokes for the slave girl,
butchered defenceless.
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The Chorus' fears grow,
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and they hear Agamemnon cry out in pain
from inside the palace.[scream of Agamemnon]
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Clytemnestra appears,
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standing over the corpses of her husband and Cassandra
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She declares that she has killed him to avenge Iphigenia,
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their daughter who was sacrificed so that
the Greek fleet could sail to Troy.
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>> Clytemnestra: A rebel in glory
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Then the queen is joined by her lover Aegisthus.
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They take over the government.
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>> AEGISTHUS: A dose of the strong arm
will soon get you docile.
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The Chorus declares that Clytemnestra's son,
Orestes, will return from exile to avenge his father.
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>> CHORUS: He will kill this couple.
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>> AEGISTHUS: You and I, we will rule this house.
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Exodus: departure of the chorus
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With this tragedy, part of the trilogy:
Oresteia, followed by a satyr play,
Aeschylus won in 453 BC the annual
competition of the 'City of Dionysia'.
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