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The dramatic presentations of ancient Greece developed out of religious rites performed to honor gods or to mark the coming of spring. Playwrights such as Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides composed plays to be performed and judged at competitions held during the yearly Dionysian festivals. Those plays were chosen by a selection board and evaluated by a panel of judges. To compete in the contest, Greek playwrights had to submit three tragedies, which could be either based on a common theme or unrelated, and one comedy. However, relatively few of these ancient Greek plays survive today. Known as the "father of tragedy", Aeschylus introduced a "second actor" on stage, allowing for action and interaction to take place and establishing a caste of professional actors (Bloom, 45). He let the chorus converse with the characters, introduced elaborate costumes and stage designs. Two of Aeschylus' plays, Oresteia and Prometheus Bound, illustrate the importance of Chorus and the......

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Approximate Word Count: 1626
Approximate Pages: 7 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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