Predictions for Greek Theatre paper 2024

So far in the visual source 10 markers they have assessed have been:

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Choregoi vase

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Bird chorus pot

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Theatre at thorikos

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Theatre of Dionysus in Athens

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Telephus vase

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Oedipus vase

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Basel dancers vase

Meaning the visual sources they have NOT assessed are:

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Promonos vase

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Perseus dance vase

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Medea’s escape vase

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Tragic actors dressing

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Cheiron vase

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Pentheus cup

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Maenad vase

Past 20 Markers have included: blindness in oedipus, chorus and comedy, the theatre as an essential part of life, visual vs spoken comedy, hamartia of curiosity in Bacchae and oedipus, visual vs spoken chorus elements in tragedyOverall, very chorus heavy. Multiple questions about visual elements versus literary elements. Only one 20m about specific plays though, so we may see a return to that, with the Pentheus cup or Maenad vase as the visual source. Possibly a 20m about actors / costuming?? Since the promonos vase and tragic actors dressing show clearly actors as actors not characters, and the cheiron vase is good to talk about comic costume....I HATE greek theatre 30 markers... the questions are all so dumb. I got outraged researching this. and I wanted the 30m to be about the frogs parados, my favourite thing to write about :frown:

oh well...
‘Oedipus was an arrogant tyrant who not only deserved his suffering, but made it worse.’
Explain how far you think the theme of the family is more important in Sophocles’ Oedipus the King than in Euripides’ Bacchae.

‘The use of prophecies and omens is the most important factor in the success of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King.’
Compare and contrast how Dionysus is portrayed in Euripides’ Bacchae and Aristophanes’ Frogs.
‘Pentheus is a far nastier and less sympathetic character than Dionysus.’
Analyse whether you think that Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is a better tragedy than Euripides’ Bacchae.
‘It is impossible for a modern audience to fully enjoy a performance of Aristophanes’ Frogs.’
‘Children have teachers to instruct them, young men have the poets.’ Evaluate how far this opinion from Aristophanes’ Frogs applies more to Greek Tragedy than to Greek Comedy.
‘The most important aspect of Sophocles’ Oedipus the King is the question of who killed Laius.’
Evaluate which you think tells us more about ancient Athens and the Athenians;
comedy or tragedy?

Horrible right....

I don't have the specific questions but last years was about frogs and religion in the theatre.

Anyway, topics uncovered: fate/free will, justice/revenge, IMPORTANCE OF THE POLIS, death/afterlife (in frogs), madness

I'm feeling like they'll go down the importance of the polis root, since religion/gods was covered last year and that's a good meaty q.

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Reply 20

Krishk15

Original post

by cinmnsoul

it was so weird... like the 30 markers were actually shockingly normal but that 20 marker...

Did anyone do question 8 for 30 marker the first one

Reply 21

attempting2learn

Original post

by attempting2learn

THANK YOU SO MUCH for that list of visual sources, about an hour or two before the exam I realised I hadn't studied a few at all, and so I managed to cram them. And one of them came up on the exam.
Beyond the marks gained, it saved me from being in shock when doing the rest of the paper due to the first 3 questions being about a source I'd never seen before.

For context, I had never seen the inside of the kylix either, but other than that 1 mark question I pretty much dismissed it and just discussed the outside, because I didn't really see any strong, relevant points I could make on it (thinking back on it, I still can't, other than the thyrsus being evidence that Euripides based props off of those in the myths.)

And yep, pretty much agree on the 20 marker being weird, but the 30 markers being okay

Reply 22

MaxGordon

Original post

by abstaroni

that's what i was thinking....i think we will probably end up with marks back for it/ocr apology kinda thing because im 99% sure that wasn't on the spec.

Unfortunately it technically is on the spec but it’s just one small paragraph so OCR will definitely use that as an excuse for why they put that question in

Reply 23

chappers1234

What did people say for the tragedy vs comedy

Reply 24

alecks

Original post

by chappers1234

What did people say for the tragedy vs comedy

- tragedy you don't need any background info, whereas comedy you need to know the politicians and stuff
- comedy of excretion is funny to all creatures dover Q and how we see that in things like south park and the politics in shows like mock the week, whereas tragedy's reinforcement of racism, misogyny, homophobia etc is not entertaining to an inclusive modern audience
- visual spectacle of comedy superior to tragedy

and i concluded that comedy would be more entertaining

Reply 25

abitcaa

Original post

by cinmnsoul

it was so weird... like the 30 markers were actually shockingly normal but that 20 marker...

The 20 marker im actually annoyed about. We never learnt messenger speeches or what to say about them! 'I had to make up examples because there was so little to say and turns out 2/3 examples they are factually wrong because I talked about a speech from the leader and the priest instead! Genuinely so mad, never seen a question like that before. Was anyone taught about messenger speeches in the plays?

(edited 1 year ago)

Reply 26

attempting2learn

Original post

by chappers1234

What did people say for the tragedy vs comedy

I did this one! These are some of the points I made:

For comedy being easier for a modern audience to enjoy:

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A lot of joke structures in comedy are universal (e.g. slapstick, physical humour and irony are central elements of comedy in general, both in classical Greece and modern times)

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Counterpoint: Frogs also makes a lot of jokes about contemporary people which can only be understood in footnotes explaining the joke (e.g. a lot of the slander of other poets near the beginning)

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The material of comedy is lighter and more digestible than tragedy (e.g. comparing the violence at the climax of Oedipus Rex and the Bacchae to the comedic whipping scene with Xanthius and Dionysus in the Frogs)

For tragedy being easier for a modern audience to enjoy:

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AGAINST Comedy: a lot of the more serious material is also dependant on contemporary context, e.g. the parabasis

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Tragedy is more based in mythological stories and so rarely makes direct references to contemporary events, and even when it does it's integrated in a way that makes it more timeless (e.g. Sophocles addressing contemporary doubts about religion through Oedipus and Jocasta's doubts about prophecy in Oedipus Rex, even without this context the themes that extend out of it such as human life being strongly determined by events out of human control still come through)

(I think I had more points? But I'm a little tired right now haha)

I sided with tragedy, I think my conclusion was something like (after summing a lot of the above up) 'whilst it's easier for modern audiences to enjoy individual scenes and jokes of Greek comedy, when considering the work as a whole it's easier to enjoy tragedy'

Reply 27

ailasiddiqi

I think I got cooked

Reply 28

MaxGordon

Original post

by abitcaa

The book has one small paragraph on it I got lucky as I asked my teacher about it before the exam it case they decided to bring it up but it’s still a pretty horrible question since the text book barely covers it