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The Ancient Greek term for a mask is prosopon (lit., "face"), [16] and was a significant element in the worship of Dionysus at Athens likely used in ceremonial rites and celebrations. Many masks worshipped the higher power, the gods, making masks also very important for religion.
The comedy and tragedy masks are a pair of masks, one crying and one laughing, that have widely come to represent the performing arts. Originating in the theatre of ancient Greece , the masks were said to help audience members far from the stage to understand what emotions the characters were feeling.
Schliemann claimed that one of the masks he discovered was the mask of King Agamemnon, and that this was the burial site of the legendary king from Homer's Iliad. [4]The masks were likely direct representations of the deceased, symbolizing a continuation of the dead's identity in death, similar to funerary statues and incisions, immortalizing an idealized depiction of the deceased.
Mask of Dionysus found at Myrina (Aeolis) of ancient Greece c. 200 BC – 1 BC, now at the Louvre. Greek tragedy (Ancient Greek: τραγῳδία, romanized: tragōidía) is one of the three principal theatrical genres from Ancient Greece and Greek inhabited Anatolia, along with comedy and the satyr play.
He lists 30 different male masks (old age with white or grey hair, the tyrant with thick black hair, a fair, pale masks indicating sorrow or sickness, a boastful soldier, a rustic, servants, a cook, etc.) and 17 female masks (fat and thin old women, two matrons, one virgin, a bawd, a mistress, three courtesans, a lady's maid, etc.).
The fact that this character was not necessarily closed to reason makes him a character whom people can relate to. Roman, Republican or Early Imperial, Relief of a seated poet with masks of New Comedy, 1st century BC – early 1st century AD, Princeton University Art Museum
The sock and buskin, like the comedy and tragedy masks, are associated with two Greek Muses, Melpomene and Thalia.Melpomene, the Muse of tragedy, is often depicted wearing buskins and holding the mask of tragedy, while Thalia, the Muse of comedy, is often depicted wearing the comic's socks and holding the mask of comedy.
Actors were seen as celebrities in ancient Greece. Masks were an important part of Greek theatre, for in theatres such as the Theatre of Dionysus 14,000 people came to watch, including prisoners who were released just for theatrical events. [3] The mouth of a mask was open, as shown in this pelike, and have amplification abilities.