THE GREEK TRAGEDY

Greek tragedy was a popular and influential form of drama performed in theatres across
ancient Greece from the late 6th century BCE. The most famous playwrights of the genre were
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and many of their works were still performed centuries
after their initial premiere.

Greek tragedy is a form of theatre from Ancient Greece and Asia Minor. It reached its most
significant form in Athens in the 5th century BC, the works of which are sometimes called Attic
tragedy.

The Ancient Greeks took their entertainment very seriously and used drama as a way of
investigating the world they lived in, and what it meant to be human. The three genres of drama
were comedy, satyr plays, and most important of all, tragedy.

Greek tragedy was a popular and influential form of drama performed in theatres across
ancient Greece from the late 6th century BCE. The most famous playwrights of the genre were
Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides and many of their works were still performed centuries
after their initial premiere.
 EPIC OF GILGAMESH
Author: Andrew R. George
Year of published: 2700 B.C
Characters: Enkidu, Utnapishtim, Humbaba, Shamhat, Gugalanna, Ishtar, Shamash, Dumuzi,
Gilgamesh.
Genre: Poetry, Epic poetry

The literary history of Gilgamesh begins with five Sumerian poems about Bilgamesh (Sumerian
for "Gilgamesh"), king of Uruk, dating from the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2100 BC). The first
surviving version of this combined epic, known as the "Old Babylonian" version, dates to the
18th century BC and is titled after its incipit, Shūtur eli sharrī ("Surpassing All Other Kings").
Some of the best copies were discovered in the library ruins of the 7th-century BC Assyrian
king Ashurbanipal.

The epic’s prelude offers a general introduction to Gilgamesh, king of Uruk, who was two-thirds
god and one-third man. He built magnificent ziggurats, or temple towers, surrounded his city
with high walls, and laid out its orchards and fields. He was physically beautiful, immensely
strong, and very wise. Although Gilgamesh was godlike in body and mind, he began his kingship
as a cruel despot. He lorded over his subjects, raping any woman who struck his fancy, whether
she was the wife of one of his warriors or the daughter of a nobleman. He accomplished his
building projects with forced labor, and his exhausted subjects groaned under his oppression.
The gods heard his subjects’ pleas and decided to keep Gilgamesh in check by creating a wild
man named Enkidu, who was as magnificent as Gilgamesh. Enkidu became Gilgamesh’s great
friend, and Gilgamesh’s heart was shattered when Enkidu died of an illness inflicted by the gods.
Gilgamesh then traveled to the edge of the world and learned about the days before the deluge
and other secrets of the gods, and he recorded them on stone tablets.