Obyczajowy aspekt dramatu satyrowego
The Moral Aspect of Satyr Plays

Author(s): Hanna Zalewska-Jura
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: Greek satyr dramas; satyr plays; moral defects; civil virtues
Summary/Abstract: The Greek satyr dramas of classical period were obviously used as a vessel to transmit parenetical contents. It seems hardly possible that the tragedians, who were at the same time the writers of satyr plays, did not seize the opportunity to attract the attention of Athenian citizens to major issues bothering their society. The moral character of the genre is attested by a number of gnomic verses preserved in the abundant indirect literary tradition. The social phenomena and attitudes mainly contested in satyr plays belonged to the moral sphere of life. In the plays featured the choruses of satyrs, who embodied various human vices, that were put in contrast to civil virtues. It was a good way to point out the vices and to ridicule them. The analysis of the preserved material shows that inertia and clumsiness, drunkenness, cowardice and lasciviousness were the most criticized weaknesses. The drama as in a distorting mirror presented and made fun of moral defects and human deficiencies. All the negative images demonstrated in the plays were supposed to make people follow and copy the positive models.

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