Ancient Greek Comedy

The plays in ancient Greece were made up of several genres. One of these genres was comedy. Comedy came from two main factors, the major one being known as the “Choral Element” which has ceremonies to encourage fertility at the Festival of Dionysus. The second influence was from Sicilian mimes that performed sometime very rude performances where they would make mocking allusions to audience members throughout the show. A parody is an amusing imitation that …

…followed so society could be held together not for the purpose that society actually were taught for. Gorgias became well known for his greatly sceptical ideas which made people think deeply. Antiphon expressed the difference between natural law and civil laws which man makes. He believed humanity could often serve to its own advantage by evading the law, which it created, and following his natural desires, if he could get away with it that is.