Editing Thespis

{{short description|6th century BCE Greek actor}}
{{other uses}}
[[File:NK282(2).jpg|thumb|upright=1.5|Base for a statue of Thespis in the [[Theatre of Dionysus]], 2nd century BC.]]
[[Image:Formella 15, il carro di Tespi (Theatrica), nino pisano, 1334-1336.JPG|thumb|200px|''Thespis' wagon'', relief of the [[Giotto's Belltower]] in [[Florence]], [[Italy]], [[Nino Pisano]], 1334–1336]]

'''Thespis''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|θ|ɛ|s|p|ɪ|s}}; {{langx|grc|Θέσπις}}; fl. 6th century BC) was an [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] poet.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Thespis {{!}} Greek poet|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thespis-Greek-poet|access-date=2021-06-29|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> He was born in the ancient city of Icarius (present-day [[Dionysos, Greece]]).<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Origins of Tragedy|url=https://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/origins_of_tragedy_001.html|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.theatredatabase.com}}</ref> According to certain [[Ancient Greece|Ancient Greek]] sources and especially [[Aristotle]], he was the first human to appear on stage as an [[actor]] playing a character in a [[play (theatre)|play]] (instead of speaking as himself). In other sources, he is said to have introduced the first principal actor in addition to the chorus.<ref>Buckham, Philip Wentworth, [https://books.google.com/books?id=IjAZAAAAYAAJ&q=The+Theatre+of+the+Greeks ''Theatre of the Greeks''], Cambridge : J. Smith, 1827.</ref> He is often called the "Inventor of Tragedy".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Thespis {{!}} Greek poet|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thespis-Greek-poet|access-date=2021-06-29|website=Encyclopedia Britannica|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Origins of Tragedy|url=https://www.theatredatabase.com/ancient/origins_of_tragedy_001.html|access-date=2021-06-29|website=www.theatredatabase.com}}</ref> His name is the origin of the word "[[Wiktionary:thespian|thespian]]", meaning actor.

Thespis was a singer of [[dithyramb]]s (songs about stories from mythology with choric [[refrain]]s). He is credited with introducing a new style in which one singer or actor performed the words of individual characters in the stories, distinguishing between the characters with the aid of different masks.

This new style was called [[Greek tragedy|tragedy]], and Thespis was the most popular exponent of it. Eventually, in 534 BC competitions to find the best tragedy were instituted at the [[Dionysia#City Dionysia|City Dionysia]] in [[Athens]], and Thespis won the first documented competition. Capitalising on his success, Thespis also invented theatrical touring;<ref>[[Horace]], ''[[Ars Poetica (Horace)|Ars Poetica]]'' 275–277</ref> he would tour various cities while carrying his costumes, masks and other props in a horse-drawn wagon.

==Alleged works==
Titles of some plays have been attributed to Thespis. But most modern scholars, following the suggestion of [[Diogenes Laërtius]], consider them to be forgeries, some forged by the philosopher [[Heraclides Ponticus]], others produced rather later, in the [[Common Era]]:<ref>Diogenes Laertius, Book V, Heraclides, 92: "And Aristoxenus the musician says, that he composed tragedies, and inscribed them with the name of Thespis."</ref><ref>[[Johann August Nauck]],''Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta'' (1887), p. 832: "Thespidis quaecumque feruntur ab impostoribus esse ficta vix est quod moneam, et proditur hoc fraudis genere usus esse Heraclides Ponticus......Heraclidis igitur crediderim esse fr.1-3; nam fr.4 non dubito quin alteri post Christum saeculo debeatur."</ref>
*''Contest of Pelias and Phorbas''
*''Hiereis'' (''Priests'')
*''Hemitheoi'' (''Demigods'')
*''Pentheus''

Fragments (probably spurious) in [[Johann August Nauck|A. Nauck]], ''Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta'' (1887).<ref>[[Johann August Nauck]],''Tragicorum graecorum fragmenta'' (1887), pp. 832–833.</ref>

==Legacy==
{{more citations needed section|date=November 2017}}
It is implied that Thespis invented [[acting]] in the [[Western world]], and that prior to his performances, no one had ever assumed the resemblance of another person for the purpose of storytelling. In fact, Thespis is the first known actor in ''written'' plays. He may thus have had a substantial role in changing the way stories were told and inventing [[theatre]] as we know it today.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}} In homage to Thespis, actors in the English-speaking part of the world have been referred to as ''thespians''.

Thespis was the title character in an [[Thespis (opera)|1871 comic opera]] by [[W. S. Gilbert|W.S. Gilbert]] and [[Arthur Sullivan]], the first collaboration between the two men, although the musical score has mostly been lost. The story involves Thespis and his troupe of actors temporarily replacing the [[Twelve Olympians|gods of Olympus]], while the latter come down to earth to "mingle" with humanity. The actors do a bad job of it, and the gods return angrily to resume their rightful roles.<ref>{{Cite web| url=http://gsarchive.net/thespis/libretto.txt|title=Libretto: 'Thespis, or The Gods Grown Old'|website=The Gilbert and Sullivan Archive|access-date=2017-08-18}}</ref>

A branch of the [[National Theatre of Greece]] expressly instituted in 1939 to tour the country is named "The Wagon of Thespis" ([[Greek language|Greek]]: Άρμα Θέσπιδος, ''Árma Théspidos'') in his honour.{{citation needed|date=August 2021}}

==See also==
*[[Aeschylus]]
*[[Aristophanes]]
*[[Aristotle]]
*[[Dionysia]]
*[[Euripides]]
* [[International Thespian Society]]
*[[Phrynichus (tragic poet)|Phrynichus]]
*[[Solon#Solon the reformer and poet|Solon]]
*[[Sophocles]]
*[[Thespian (disambiguation)]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
* [[Theodor Gaster|Gaster, Theodor, H.]], ''Thespis: Ritual, Myth, and Drama in the Ancient Near East'', Henry Schuman Publishing, New York, 1950. {{ISBN|0-87752-188-3}}.

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ancient Greek actors]]
[[Category:Greek male stage actors]]
[[Category:History of theatre]]
[[Category:6th-century BC Athenians]]
[[Category:Ancient Greek tragic poets]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]