Medea and the Chorus
Medea and the ChorusAs you have learned, Greek drama evolved from the ritualistic
performances of a chorus at the Dionysian festivals. After the actor Thespis
stepped out of the chorus and began a dialogue with it, other characters soon
followed, and the chorus's role gradually diminished in size (from fifty members
to fifteen) and importance. Playwrights kept the chorus as a significant
element in their dramas, but its functions were necessarily more limited.
Robinson Jeffers, who translated Medea, has also retained the chorus, but has
modified its mature slightly. Instead of having it speak in unison, he has
assigned speeches to individual members. Nevertheless, the chorus still plays
a prominent part and fills the traditional functions of a chorus in Greek
tragedy. Many of these functions were merely technical. For example, the
chorus often announced the entrances and exits of characters or
foreshadowed events in the action. It also recounted or interpreted past
events for the purpose of clarifying the plot. These functions aided the
movement of the story.
First off, when the chorus was introduced into a play, one of its functions
was to announce the entrances and exits of characters. This happened in many
places of the story. The characters that the chorus took on were the first
woman, second and third woman. All of them introduced new characters in
order to move the play along smoothly. Such as in 1.29 when second woman
and third woman introduce Creon when he arrives on the scene to talk to
Medea. "Medea beware! Some great person is coming. It is Creon himself!"
And," Creon is coming." These two examples clearly show how the chorus
introduce the entrances of characters in the play....
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