The Role of Chorus in Greek Drama

The Chorus in Greek drama was a large group of performers (suggested between 12 and 30) of people who sang or chanted songs and poems, and danced during plays. They are homogenized and non-individualized group in Greek drama. Despite the large size, they represented a collective consciousness, or a single body, often wearing masks to render sense of unification and anonymity. In Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex, the chorus is composed of senators, while in Sophocles's Electra, the chorus is made up of the women of Argos.; in Aeschylus's Agamemnon, the chorus comprises the elderly men of Argos; and in Euripides's The Bacchae, they are a group of eastern bacchants; and As they maintained a sense of ceremony and ritual of the play, they helped set the scene and mood of the play, bring the audience up to date with the events preceding the play and inform the audience of any political or social consequences of events within the play. They divided the action and offered reflection of events by making responses and asking questions while uniting the music, dance and speech and connecting dramatic response. In many of these plays, the chorus expressed to the audience what the main characters could not say, such as their hidden fears or secrets. They also aid in the interpretation of the action in relation to the law of the state and to the law of the Olympian gods. With all these, they were able to bridge the gap between the audience and the players, thus intensifying the emotions. They also served as the ancient equivalent for a curtain, as their parodos (entering procession) signified the beginnings of a play and their exodos (exit procession) served as the curtains closing.
As Greek drama progressed, the writers of tragedies began to use the Chorus more as a character in its own right, with feelings and opinions. The Chorus were witnesses to the tragedy, but also often encouraged the tragedy to happen, incensing the characters and prompting them to act. They represented