Importance Of Athenian Society

Register to read the introduction… Athenian democracy was one of the first known democracies. Most of other Greek cities follow the Athenian model of democracy. Athenian democracy was a direct democracy. Direct democracy is a political system in which the people vote on legislation and executive bills in their own right and they do not elect the representatives to vote on their behalf. However, the participation in this activity was not open. Women, children, and slaves were not allowed to vote because they were not considered as citizens. The Athenian Democracy was also called “The Rule by many”. They called it “The Rule by many” because all citizens were required to participate in it. That means huge amounts of people were involved although women, children, and slaves were not included. So men dominated the political system. Every year, 500 names of all the Athenian citizens, which only consisted of men, were drawn. Those 500 names of citizens had to serve as the ancient Athens’ lawmakers for a year. All citizens had the responsibility to vote on every new law that these 500 lawmakers made. The assembly had to be attended by at least 6,000 people. If the attendance was less than that, 300 trained slaves would go through the town with a rope dipped in red paint and anyone who got hit by the paint must pay a fine because the did not do their civic duty, which was attending the assembly and …show more content…
This festival was held to honor the God Dionysus, God of fertility and wine. The central events of this festival were the theatrical performances of tragedies (goat songs) and comedies. Those plays were performed four times a year. The Dionysia festival consisted of two festivals, which are Rural Dionysia and City Dionysia. The City Dionysia was held during March to April. Another purpose of this festival was to use it as the showcase of the Athenian wealth and power. It was also a religious and civic celebration. In 534 BC, the first record of tragedy contest happened. The Thespis was established. Thespis was the person who stepped out of the chorus or can also be called the actor. There were 9 tragedies produced at each City Dionysia. The theater of Dionysus consisted of the theatron, orchestra, thymele, skene, eccyclema, and machina. The performers for City Dionysia were all male. All the speaking parts were undertaken by three actors. These three actors performed in all three tragedies. These actors also act as a woman in the play sometimes. One actor was allowed to play more than one role or character. In the play, there were also the supernumeraries or the extras who did not speak any lines. They only showed movement. Chorus was essential. Tragic chorus consisted of 15 men but sometimes divided into a semi-chorus, which consisted of only seven people. The chorus focused on the dancing and singing. The chorus leader might have a solo line sometimes, whereas the rest of the chorus responded as a group. The main purposes of the chorus were to judge, give advices, and express opinion about the action of the characters. All the people who were involved in the play had to do some exercise and maintain their diet because they had to keep their body looking good. All the performers of the Tragedy plays also wore masks and character’s appropriate