“Sock and Buskin” refer to two types of footwear worn by the world’s first actors. Melpomene and Thalia with a drama mask in the Louvre’s Galerie d’Apollonįaqscl, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons, edited for color Sock and Buskin Melpomene was the Muse of tragedy, and Thalia was the Muse of comedy. The names Thalia and Melpomene are references to two of the Greek Muses, the deities who were the source of inspiration for artists and musicians. Although the words come from Greek drama, it’s a modern invention to use them as names for the theater masks - the ancient Greeks and Romans did not start the trend. The tragedy and comedy masks are usually called “Thalia and Melpomene” or “Sock and Buskin”. Modern audiences sometimes ascribe additional meanings: the range of human emotion, for example, or the extremes of the human experience. The laughing mask symbolizes comedy, while the crying mask represents tragedy. When used together, the two drama masks are a symbol for the theater. Top image courtesy of Tim Green under CC BY 2.0 What do the comedy and tragedy masks mean? The masks we use today honor the ancient Greeks’ favorite types of plays: comedy and tragedy. In ancient Athens, artisans carved them into small pieces of bone and ivory to make the first theater tickets.ĭrama masks went out of fashion before the fall of the Roman empire - but by then, they were a well-known symbol for the theater. Archaeologists have found theater masks on Greek vases, Roman columns, and tiled frescoes. Masks were so familiar to audiences that they started to appear in other places. Photo: Andreas Praefcke, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons In ancient Greece, there were 44 different types of masks for comedy plays alone! Tragedy masks on a Roman pillar from the second century AD Comedy masks appear on the opposite side Today, we have just two masks: happy and sad. (Kind of like supersized Halloween masks.) Contrary to popular belief, these masks didn’t communicate emotion rather, they represented different characters in the play. As the first actors stepped on stage that April afternoon, they were wearing masks. The city had just built the first theater in the world - the iconic Theater of Dionysus. It all started in the city of Athens in the year 535 BC. The next time you see them, consider this: the drama masks have been a symbol of the theater for more than 2,500 years! These familiar laughing and crying faces pop up everywhere, staring up at you from playbills and acting company logos. If you’ve ever been to the theater, you’ve seen them - the comedy and tragedy masks.
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