Patriarchy In Greek Drama

It is understood that the birth of tragedy and theatre itself occurred in Athens during the sixth century BC. It was in this era and society where drama began to flourish and follow through till a golden age, as the Athenians created a new spring festival called the Great, or City Dionysia. (Brown, 1995, 14). The festival of Dionysus had "developed from older local festivals which celebrated the fermentation of new wine" (Brown, 1995, 14), although it essentially celebrated the Greek god, Dionysus, who was the god of wine and fertility. It was here that theatre began as a religious festival, which included music, song, and dance competitions and other activities such as athletics. The Athenians introduced two contests to the festival, the dithyramb and tragedy. The dithyramb was considered to be an intricate song about Dionysus and wasn 't original to the festival. On the otherhand Tragoidia was a newly created Athenian art form that …show more content…
This was an important fragment contributing to the feminist movement as Medea may of unintentionally tried to diminish the "...[t]he patriarchal values embedded in Western culture." (Wilmer, 2007, 107). Medea 's desire for revenge provided her with opportunity to rebel against the patriarchal society and empower women.
The inequality of women is not only apparent in the plot of the play but it also resides within the performance space itself, as both actors and the chorus were male dominated. The chorus are notably important to Greek tragedy for two distinct reasons:
...[o]ne is concerned with the theme, with intimations of the meaning, the tragic significance of the action which is taking place or is about to take place before our eyes. The other is concerned with the actual furthering of the dramatic action itself. (Conacher, 1975,