Below is an actor wearing a long tragic costume with ornate decoration and holding his mask. Although he is presented here as an actor in a satyr play, his costume is typical of tragedy. The satyr play, despite its chorus of sexually rambunctious satyrs and playful action, was closely associated with tragedy. Satyrs are anthropomorphic woodland spirits with horse's ears and tail and an erect phallus. At the Great Dionysia three tragic poets were selected annually to participate in the festival and were each required to present three tragedies along with one satyr play.
Here is a satyr doing a wild dance called the sikinnis.
This actor is also from a satyr play. He plays Papposilenos, the father of the satyrs. He is wearing tights with attached wooly tufts and is draped with a leopard skin, a costume appropriate to this creature of the wild.
In the early history of tragedy, poets probably acted in their own plays. There is a report that Sophocles played the title role in his Nausicaa (now lost) and made a big hit with his ballplaying (Nausicaa, the Phaeacian princess in the Odyssey was playing ball with her friends when she came upon the shipwrecked Odysseus). But with the growing increase in professional standards, an acting profession came into existence. Because the success or failure of a production came to depend heavily on the actors, competition for good actors became fierce. Actors began to attach themselves to one poet, but this practice was eventually seen as unfair, and by the middle of the fifth century, a state official allotted actors to the poets. This practice ensured that one poet would not always enjoy the services of the best or most popular actor.
Acting troupes were standardized, and consisted of three actors: protagonist (�first contestant�), deuteragonist, and tritagonist. The word �protagonist� was used by the Greeks metaphorically for �star,� �deuteragonist� for �helper� and �tritagonist� for �third rate.� Only a protagonist could make a contract with the state, receive pay, and win the actor�s prize. The tritagonist was hired by the protagonist, while the deuteragonist may have been in partnership with protagonist, although this is by no means certain.
Protagonists, because of the desire of the rest of the Greek world to enjoy drama in their home states, soon were in great demand. They were figures of great prestige, who could demand enormous sums of money like a modern movie star. Because of their association with religious ritual in the City Dionysia, they claimed sacred immunity and free passage. Actors, because of their international reputation, even served as political ambassadors.
Acting styles ranged from the older �grand� style to the later �realistic� style. Dignity and stateliness were the watchwords of earlier actors, while everyday realism was the goal in the late fifth century. Both styles competed with each other for a while, but realism eventually dominated the theater in the fourth century. The plays of Euripides with their simpler language and realistic costuming tended to encourage a more realistic style, but it should be noted that both styles co-existed. Aeschylus�s ornate, complicated poetic diction and heroic themes needed a more stately style of acting. Whatever style a particular actor favored, it is clear that broad gestures and a powerful voice were necessary to communicate with a audience many times the size of a modern theatrical audience.
