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The Birth of the Theater

Summary/Abstract: The article tries to answer the question of what causes the birth of theater as a specific artistic practice. The main thesis is that unlike narrative and performative genres, whose emergence requires an intermediate phase in the transition from mythological thinking and ritual practices to specific artistic activity, theater is born directly from ritual. The main reason for this is the need to move from the idea of a stable world order, the confirmation of which is the main task of the ritual, to the awareness and understanding of the fact that between this stable order and man, contradictions may arise. There are two reasons for this. According to the first hypothesis, the world order is good and just, but man intentionally or unintentionally violates it, which leads to suffering. To restore harmony, man must suffer punishment and perform sacrifice. According to the second hypothesis, evil forces temporarily gained the upper hand in the good and just communist order. Therefore, man must find a way to overcome them in order to restore harmony. Within the framework of the ritual festivals held in the Athenian polis, these two hypotheses were played out in special performances that preserved many of the characteristics of the ritual, within a single theatrical- ritual action. In the subsequent development of this quasi-ritual action, the specific theatrical genres of tragedy and comedy were born.

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