Theatre
Dionysos was celebrated as the patron of both theatre and actors. In Athens, three Dionysiac festivals included competitive performances of tragedy, comedy, or satyr plays.
These types of drama originally emerged from Dionysiac ritual performances and were themselves a form of worship. Apart from their entertainment value, these performances allowed the community to come together both to experience Dionysos’ transformative power and to explore contemporary social issues.
At the Athenian City Dionysia, poets presented a single comedy, or a series of three tragedies and a satyr play, that were judged by a panel of citizens. Some scholars have suggested that tragedy was derived from the performances of masked tragoidoi (goat singers) at sacrifices in honour of Dionysos. Attic tragedy is thought to have derived its elements of death and suffering, fear and pity, from these rituals.
Attic comedy came from komoi processions, wine-induced revels accompanied by bawdy songs. Comedies included parody, vulgar language, and absurd situations with a focus on the disenfranchised. Satyr plays were burlesque satires that placed a chorus of satyrs, with their unnatural desires for wine, sex, and debauchery, in mythological scenarios and explored their response.