What is the central difference between old and new comedy in ancient Athens?
New Comedy looks at human relations, while Old Comedy satirizes the life of the polis. Another difference between Old Comedy and New is that the chorus is a central feature of older drama (whether tragedy or comedy). This picture is an example scene from one of the Greeks’ Old Comedies.
What are the characteristics of Old Comedy?
Old Comedy plays are characterized by an exuberant and high-spirited satire of public persons and affairs. Composed of song, dance, personal invective, and buffoonery, the plays also include outspoken political criticism and comment on literary and philosophical topics.
What is the oldest comedy?
Old Comedy refers to plays written in the 5th century BCE. The earliest surviving complete play is Aristophanes’ Acharnians, first performed in 425 BCE, and citations from surviving fragments of earlier plays can be dated no earlier than c. 450 BCE.
What is the purpose of Greek comedy?
One thing is certain: although one main purpose of Greek comedies was to entertain a mass audience, comic plays were not written just for laughs.
What did Old Comedy focus on?
Old Comedy The first was pure and simple humor, focused on scatological and sexual jokes. The other layer was personal and political. The few plays we have are filled with attacks on political and intellectual people from his time; he did caricatures of Socrates, Cleon, and Euripides.
When did new comedy start?
about 320 bc
New Comedy, Greek drama from about 320 bc to the mid-3rd century bc that offers a mildly satiric view of contemporary Athenian society, especially in its familiar and domestic aspects.
What did Greek comedies focus on?
The Greek comedies went through three distinct transformations. In their first incarnation, New Comedy, the comedy was a tool for political and social criticism that was disguised in silliness. The second stage, Middle Comedy, forgot about the political and focused on the stock characters of everyday life.