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It was (so tradition had it) during the reign of
Pisistratus as tyrannos at Athens, round
about the middle of the sixth [6th] century B.C., that
the playwright Thespis 'farsed' the dithyramb, sung
by a chorus in honour of Dionysus, with lines in a
different metre and not set to music. In these lines the
speaker, Thespis himself, 'replied' (hypekrineto,
whence the term hypokrites, 'actor') to the
words of the chorus. This is why Thespis is seen as the
Father of Tragedy and of the Theatre in general. |