the-french-artist/wikipedia_20220301.simple_sentence_split huggingface dataset:
Characters are a kind of graphic language, much different from languages that use an alphabet such as English.
The correct way to tell between them is to remember the structure and meaning of every character, not pronunciation, because there is a very close relationship between meaning and structure of characters.
Example: 房(house)=户+方.
房 is a shape-pronunciation character.
户 is for shape and 方 is for pronunciation.
户 means 'door'.
房 means 'A person lives behind a door'.
方 pronunciation is fang and tone is 1, and with the tone mark it is written as fāng.
房 pronunciation is also fang, but tone is 2, with the tone mark it is written as fáng.
Chinese characters in other languages
There are still many Chinese characters that are used in Japanese and Korean.
Generally the educational level of a Japanese person is decided by the number of Chinese characters understood by this person.
While Koreans nowadays mostly write in hangul, the native Korean alphabet, people have found that some meanings cannot be expressed clearly by just hangul, so people need to use Chinese characters as a note with a bracket.
Before 1446, Korean people only used Chinese characters.
In Japanese, characters that are borrowed from the Chinese language are called kanji.
Kanji can be used to write both native Japanese words and Chinese loanwords.
Japanese writing uses a mix of kanji and two kana systems.
Kanji is mostly used to show a word's meaning, while hiragana and katakana are syllabaries that show the pronunciation of Japanese words.
Both writing systems are used often when writing Japanese.
In Korean, they are called hanja.
Throughout most of Korean history, hanja was the only writing system most literate Koreans knew.
Even though hangul was invented in 1446, it was only used by commoners and not the government until Korea gained independence from Japan.
Nowadays, most Koreans write mostly in hangul.
In North Korea, people write almost completely in hangul since Kim Il-sung abolished hanja from Korean.
In South Korea, people mostly write in hangul, and they sometimes write hanja.
Native Korean words are almost always written in hangul.
Hanja are usually only used to write words that are borrowed from the Chinese language, and are usually only used when the word's meaning isn't obvious based on the context.
In Vietnamese, they are called chữ Nôm.
Many Chinese loanwords were used in Vietnamese, especially in old Vietnamese literature.
While Vietnamese used many Chinese characters, they also invented tens of thousands of their own characters to write Vietnamese words.
The radicals used in chữ Nôm were usually a mix of the words' meanings and pronunciations.
Wade–Giles, a romanization system used to write Chinese using the Roman alphabet
How to write Chinese characters
In music, improvisation is the art of playing an instrument (or singing) in which the musician or musicians make up the music as they play.
Improvising is inventing at the same time as one does something.
Some musicians only play music when they have written music in front of them, but it can be great fun to improvise music.
It is a way of composing.
Improvisation is common during a jam session.
In Baroque times, all musicians were taught to improvise because composers often did not bother to write all the notes down.
Musicians would have improvised lots of ornaments, and even whole sections.
Organists are often expected to improvise during a service.
In this way they can fill in gaps in the service when there would otherwise be silence, they can make a smooth link between one piece of music and the next, and they can create the right atmosphere.
In Baroque times, in the Lutheran church, organists would improvise a chorale prelude.
This was a piece of music which uses the melody of the chorale (hymn) that the congregation sang.
Bach was one of many composers who wrote many of his chorale preludes down.
In more recent times, some famous concert organists often finish an organ recital by playing an improvisation.
This might be quite a long piece with several linked movements, finishing with a fugue.
Somebody may give them the theme written on a piece of paper, so that it is quite unprepared.
Charles Tournemire, Marcel Dupré, Pierre Cochereau, Pierre Pincemaille are known to be great organ improviser.
A lot of people who play folk music improvise.
Traditional folk music would not have been written down.
In traditional jazz the musicians usually improvise.
It is quite tricky when a group of people are improvising together.
They have to listen to one another and get ideas from one another.
It can be a very exciting way of making music.
Improvisation also refers to a type of performance.
Improvisation (or improv for short) is often used in comedy.
Actors or Improvisers will create an entire show that they make up as they go along.
They will often ask the audience for an idea or suggestion.
They will then do a short performance based on the suggestion.
This lets them do many different short performances during each night's show.
This is called "Short-form improv".
musical performance techniques
The Reichstag building was designed as a home to the parliament of the German Empire.
It was opened in 1894.
The original building's design was made by Paul Wallot.
It was built on the site of an old palace in Berlin, Germany.
The building was used by the parliament of the German Empire until 1918.
The parliament of the Weimar Republic, also called the Reichstag, sat there until the 1933 Reichstag fire.
The Third Reich seldom used its parliament, so the building remained empty and derelict until after German reunification.
Today's parliament of Germany is called the Bundestag.
The Reichstag as a parliament dates back to the Holy Roman Empire and ceased to act as a true parliament in the years of Nazi Germany (1933-1945).
In today's usage, the German term Reichstag refers to the building, while the term Bundestag refers to the institution.
The Reichstag dome
The original Reichstag dome was damaged in the 1933 fire and again during the war.
It was replaced by a large glass dome.
The new dome has a 360-degree view of the surrounding Berlin cityscape.
The main hall of the parliament below can also be seen from inside the dome, and natural light from above emits down to the parliament floor.
A large sun shield tracks the movement of the sun electronically and blocks direct sunlight which would make the space too hot and dazzle those below.
Construction work was finished in 1999 and the seat of parliament was transferred to the Bundestag in April of that year.
The dome is no longer open to anyone without prior registration.
panoramas and other images of the Reichstags building in Berlin
Buildings and structures in Berlin
Landmarks in Germany
1894 establishments in Europe
1890s establishments in Germany
This article is about mythological creatures.
For the noise-making siren see siren (noisemaker)
A siren is a creature in Greek mythology.
The sirens were living on an island surrounded by rocks.
sirens also have a mermaid form where they still sing but they hit the boat to sink it that way and sirens have a human form  Sailors would try to go to them because of their singing, and their ships would get destroyed on the rocks, and they would drown.
Originally they looked like bird-women, but in modern time they are often shown to look like fish-women or mermaids.
Many people said they were Naiads (spirits of the sea).
They also appear in Homer's Odyssey.
There Odysseus and his ship have to pass the siren's island.
When Odysseus and his men pass the Sirens, Odysseus wants to go towards them, but his men pull the rope tighter to hold him down.
et:Sireenid
Sirens is a 1994 movie that had many famous models in it.
The famous models were Elle Macpherson, Portia de Rossi and Kate Fischer.
The three models are in the movie without clothing.
Some of them do sex scenes.
The models had to gain weight do the movie.
Sirens is based on the true story of the life of Norman Lindsay.
He was an artist who made many beautiful pictures that were very rude and sexy.
Many people thought that his pictures were wrong.
The movie stars Sam Neill as Norman Lindsay.
Hugh Grant is the main character who comes with his wife Tara Fitzgerald to see what Norman Lindsay is like.
1994 movies
Aqua is the Latin word for water.
It is sometimes as a prefix (such as aquaculture).
Aqua is also used by web site designers as a different name for the web colour cyan; aqua is also used for aquamarine by graphic designers and interior designers.
Aqua (Chicago), a skyscraper in Chicago.
It is one of the tallest buildings in the world.
Aqua (band), a band from Denmark
This article is about the plant.
For the colour see Lavender (color).
Lavender is a type of plant found on almost all continents.
It has a purplish colour.
It has a colour named after it, called lavender.
Its Latin and scientific name is Lavandula.
Use in gardens
Lavenders are very popular among gardeners.
Sometimes their petals are dried and sealed in pouches for good scent, and sometimes put inside clothes to prevent moths, who can damage the clothes.
Use in food
Lavenders are also used in cake decorating, because the flowers can become candied.
Sometimes they are used in flavoring baked goods and chocolate desserts, and sometimes they use it to make a very delicious "lavender sugar".
Lavender flowers are also used to make tea.
The French make lavender syrup, which is used to make lavender scones and lavender marshmallows.
Lavender is sometimes put in medicine, and sometimes to prevent infection.
Lavender oil was used in World War I to disinfect walls and floors of a hospital.
As the folk wisdom says, lavender oil is also helpful to headaches when rubbed on your temple, and lavender tea helps you relax before bed time.
Lavender is also helpful when applied to insect bites.
There is a general lack of real knowledge about its effects.
Sometimes, dried petals of lavender are used to throw confetti at a wedding.
It is also used for lavender theme wedding decoration where the flowers are put in the vases and kept on the venue table.
St. Gallen is a city in the eastern part of Switzerland.
It is near Lake Constance.
St. Gallen is the capital of the canton of St. Gallen.
The city was founded as a monastery by the Irish monk Gallus in the 7th century.
In the Middle Ages a city grew around the monastery.
The role of the monastery (and the city) was very important in the Middle Ages.
One of the three remaining manuscripts of the Nibelungenlied are from the monastery of St.Gallen.
Today, the monastery, with its library, and parts of the old town are classed as an UNESCO World Heritage site.
The city is about 675 meters above sea level and is in a part of Switzerland with many hills.
As of 2004, about 70,000 people lived in the city.
The urban area has about 100,000 to 120,000 people.
In the 18th and 19th century the city became known for its embroideries, which are still very well-known.
Every four years, there is the St.Galler Kinderfest (Children's festival).
This is a large representation of the primary (and some secondary) schools in the city.
It's usually in early summer.
In Switzerland, the city is also known for St.Galler Bratwurst, and a fair centered around agriculture, held once a year, in autumn.
That fair is called OLMA (Ostschweizerische Land- und Milchwirtschaftsausstellung, roughly translates to Exhibition of agriculture and milk economics of eastern Switzerland).
In early summer there is also an open-air rock festival.
Its called Open-Air St.Gallen, and held in a valley, near the river.
Since the weather is not always as good, in many years it's a battle with the mud.
Official website of the city of St.Gallen
Jones is a common family name:
Christopher Jones (Mayflower Captain)
Davy Jones (actor), a British singer and actor
James Earl Jones, an American actor and voice artist
Jim Jones, leader of a sect
John Paul Jones (musician) bassist for the rock band, Led Zeppelin
Shirley Jones, an American actress and singer
Terry Jones, member of Monty Python
Tom Jones (singer), a famous Welsh singer
Jones, a cat in 1979 movie Alien by Ridley Scott and its sequel Aliens
Jones, a character in George Orwell's novel Nineteen Eighty-Four
Indiana Jones, an archaeologist and adventurer
Hollyoaks is a British television teen soap opera.
It was first broadcast on 23 October 1995, on Channel 4.
There is a new episode every weekday.
It is set in Chester and is mostly filmed in Liverpool on Abbey Road.
Since 1995, the cast has expanded from just seven major characters to approximately 50 cast members.
It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill.
It is the only British soap that uses incidental music.
Hollyoaks was the first British television programme to tackle the issue of gay domestic violence.
Its first character with gender identity disorder, a trans man called Jason Costello, was in the show August 2010 to December 2011.
In 2014 Hollyoaks introduced a new transgender character called Blessing Chambers.
1995 establishments in the United Kingdom
1990s British television series debuts
1990s teen television series
2000s teen television series
2010s teen television series
British teen television series
British teen drama television series
Muse are an English alternative rock trio.
They began in Teignmouth in 1994, consisting of Matthew Bellamy (guitar, piano, vocals), Chris Wolstenholme (bass and background vocals) and Dominic Howard (drums).
They are sub-classified as mainly progressive rock, and play music with melody and fast tempo.
However, they also play a great number of other styles of music, especially on their older albums like Showbiz.
Their albums, Black Holes and Revelations, Absolution and The Resistance, have been successful in the United States, the United Kingdom and most western countries of the world.
Creation and early EPs
Matthew Bellamy, Chris Wolstenholme, and Dominic Howard grew up in a small town called Teignmouth in Devon.
They were bored there, so they started playing music together.
When they were 13 years old, they made a band called Gothic Plague.
The band was later called Fixed Penalty.
After that, it was called Rocket Baby Dolls.
In 1994, while they were called Rocket Baby Dolls, they won a Battle of the Bands competition.
During this competition, they broke their instruments, but still won.
In 1997, they chose the name Muse.
Muse's members did not like Teignmouth.
In an interview in 1999, Bellamy said that it was full of people who took drugs, and that it was like a "living hell".
Muse left Teignmouth and met Sawmills Studio owner, Dennis Smith.
He liked their work and offered them a contract with his record label, Dangerous Records and put them in the studio with producer Paul Reeve.
Muse released their first EP called Muse in 1997.
The band went to more band competitions and won several.
In 1998, they released their second EP, Muscle Museum.
The EP was popular, and Muse toured around Europe and Australia.
Museum was popular enough to get Muse a record contract with Maverick Records in the United States.
The band started to work on a new album.
They wrote new ones, though, for their next album.
The other songs they used were already on their EPs.
Muse worked with producers Paul Reeve and John Leckie, who produced Radiohead's album,The Bends.
Muse's first album, Showbiz, came out in 1999.
In the United States, Maverick used a large advertising campaign to make Muse more popular.
Muse were already popular in the UK, and NME said they were "the first great British guitar band of the 21st century".
US magazine Rolling Stone said Showbiz sounded a lot like Radiohead.
Matthew Bellamy did not like that comparison, but people would still compare Muse and Radiohead in the future.
Other reviewers said the band had a lot of potential after listening to Showbiz.
In the year 2000, Muse traveled a lot to help sell Showbiz.
The highlight of the tour was touring with Red Hot Chili Peppers and Foo Fighters.
The band played at over 50 music festivals in Europe, and several in Japan.
While they were traveling, the band recorded some songs for their next album.
In January 2001, they started working on the rest with producer John Leckie, in Peter Gabriel's studio.
Muse began touring again in May 2005, after finishing the album.
They had not released it, but Bellamy told BBC he thought the best way to promote it was to play live music.
The band's second album, Origin of Symmetry, was released in June 2001 in the UK.
However, it was only released in North America in 2005.
The album did not do well on charts, but was popular with critics.
NME praised the album for the songs on it being very loud and angry.
Allmusic said the album was very loud and sometimes ridiculous because of the instruments and riffs used on it, but that it was still very good.
Nescafé used the song "Feeling Good" from Origin of Symmetry (which was a cover of a Nina Simone song) in an advertisement once.
Muse sued Nescafé because they did not agree with how the company did business.
They received money from Nescafé after suing.
They donated it to Oxfam.
Muse almost sued Celine Dion when she tried to use the name Muse as the title of a performance in Las Vegas.
Muse's third album was recorded in lots of studios in places like London and Los Angeles.
The band were very committed and focused on making quality music, given the fact that they had taken more time to properly record the album.
Muse started work in September 2003 with producers Paul Reeve and John Cornfield, and recorded Butterflies and Hurricanes and Blackout.
They took a break for Christmas, and then changed their producer to Rich Costey.
Most of the album was recorded in 2004.
The album's themes included politics, death, and the Apocalypse.
The guitar performances on the new album were simpler than on Origin of Symmetry.
Bellamy used one brand of guitar for the whole album, and this gave an "immense" sound according to Total Guitar magazine.
To promote Absolution, Muse toured around the UK and North America.
During their first show in the United States, in Atlanta, Bellamy hurt his mouth.
He had accidentally hit himself with his guitar.
Because of this, he needed stitches.
The band had to cancel several shows, but kept going with the tour.
Muse played at the Glastonbury Festival in June 2004.
After the concert, they said it was "the best gig of our lives".
Shortly after the show, however, Howard's father died.
While they were very sad that he died, Bellamy said they were happy that Howard's father had been at the concert and had seen the band's "finest moment".
In 2005, Muse played four songs at Live 8.
Black Holes & Revelations
In January 2005 Muse finished their world tour with two big concerts in London.
Bellamy said they wanted to make new music after this.
However, they also wanted to tour the US again.
This was because they became popular there for the first time.
Costey produced the band's new album, like he did for Absolution.
The band recorded their fourth album, Black Holes & Revelations, in a château in the countryside of France, because they did not want to be distracted.
By February 2 2009, Muse had started recording songs for their new album.
In an interview, Bellamy said that the album is "all very orchestral".
He said it would sound like classical music.
On March 24 2009, Muse's website said that the band would be going on tour after the album is released.
They said that they would go to France on this tour, and have two concerts in London.
On July 2 2009, the band said that the tour was to start in Finland on October 22 2009.
They also said that the tour would end on December 4 2009, in Italy.
The 95,000 tickets went on sale at 9:00 am on June 5.
They were sold out in under 45 minutes.
On May 22 2009, the website said that the album would be called The Resistance.
It also said that one of the songs would be called "United States of Eurasia".
The band's fifth studio album The Resistance was released in September 2009.
It is the first Muse album that was produced by the band itself.
The album was engineered by Adrian Bushby and mixed by Mark Stent.
When it was released, it went to the top of the album charts in 19 countries.
It became the band's third number one album in the UK.
It reached number 3 on the Billboard 200.
Critics praised the album.
Most of them praised the ambition, classical music influences and the thirteen-minute, three-part song "Exogenesis: Symphony".
It also beat its predecessor Black Holes and Revelations in relative album sales in its debut week in the UK with approximately 148,000 copies sold.
The first single "Uprising" was released seven days earlier.
The Resistance Tour started with in Teignmouth, Devon in September 2009.
There were two performances in the Wembley Stadium in September 2010.
The band also supported U2 for their U2 360° Tour.
In the "Breakfast with Muse Concert" held by KROQ, Muse was asked how long they would be on tour.
They said that they "will probably be touring until the end of next year."
They also said that they would support U2.
Then, they would go to a European tour, and afterwards Australia and Asia and return for an long US tour.
Muse said it would be the longest US tour to date and would start at about the end of February or March."
Muse's won the O2 Silver Clef Award in London on 2 July 2010 because of their live performance.
The award was presented by Roger Taylor and Brian May of Queen.
Taylor described the band as "probably the greatest live act in the world today," while May said that "this is a magnificent, incredible group."
On 12 July 2010 bassist Chris Wolstenholme told NME magazine that the band would be taking a break after their world tour supporting The Resistance ended.
He also stated that the band would begin working for a new album.
He said the new album would be released in 2011.
On 8 September, frontman Matthew Bellamy, in an interview with NME, said that the music for the band's next studio album would be more "personal".
He said it would be better to use smaller venues to perform those songs live.
On 12 September 2010, Muse won an MTV Video Music Award for Best Special Effects.
It was for the promo for "Uprising".
On 21 November, Muse won American Music Award for Favorite Artist in the Alternative Rock Music Category.
On 2 December, it was announced that Muse had been nominated for three awards for the 53rd Grammy Awards.
It was nominated for Best Rock Performance By a Duo or Group with Vocals - ("Resistance"); Best Rock Song - ("Resistance"), and Best Rock Album: (The Resistance).
Muse was named the Billboard Alternative and Rock artist for 2010.
This was because its songs, "Uprising", "Resistance" and "Undisclosed Desires" reached first, sixth and 49th on the year end Alternative Song chart respectively.
At the 53rd Grammy Awards on 13 February 2011, Muse won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album for The Resistance.
Musical style
Muse are an alternative rock band.
They are often called space rock and progressive rock bands.
Their music also mixes elements from different genres.
These genres are electronic music, hard rock, classical music and rock opera.
The band was described as a "trashy three-piece" by Matthew Bellamy on the BBC during 2002.
Dominic Howard said that he was a little confused by the progressive rock label that muse fell under, because "[He would] associate (the progressive rock label) it with 10-minute guitar solos."
He added: "A lot of bands are quite ambitious with their music, mixing lots of different styles — and when I see that I think it's great."
Matthew Bellamy – lead vocals, guitars, piano, keyboards, synthesizers, programming
Christopher Wolstenholme – bass, backing vocals, synthesizers, upright bass, synth bass
Dominic Howard – drums, percussion, synthesizers, programming
Morgan Nicholls – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals, percussion, guitar, bass (2004, 2006–present)
Dan "The Trumpet Man" Newell – trumpet on "City of Delusion" and "Knights of Cydonia" (2006–2008)
Alessandro Cortini – keyboards, synthesizers, backing vocals, percussion (2009)
Showbiz (1999)
Origin of Symmetry (2001)
Absolution (2003)
Black Holes and Revelations (2006)
The Resistance (2009)
The 2nd Law (2012)
Drones (2015)
Simulation Theory (2018)
Official muse site
A wiki for the band muse
Alternative rock bands
An astrologer looks at the planets' positions and tries to understand a person's character or tries to predict the future.
Modern astrologers see astrology as a symbolic language.
It is also seen as an art, or a kind of divination.
Newspapers and websites often print or post horoscopes.
These horoscopes claim to predict a persons future based on their birth sign.
Astrological signs (in Western Astrology)
A person's astrological sign (usually referring to Sun sign) is based on their birthday.
A list of astrological signs is below.
Arabian astrology
Talk with astrologer: know Is astrology science or not?
Astrology & Science: The Scientific Exploration of Astrology.
– which also discusses ascension and declination errors in different systems of astrology
The theatre of ancient Greece was at its best from 550 BC to 220 BC.
It was the beginning of modern western theatre, and some ancient Greek plays are still performed today.
They invented the genres of tragedy (late 6th century BC), comedy (486 BC) and satyr plays.
The city-state of Athens was a great cultural, political and military power during this period.
Drama was at its centre.
Theatre was part of a festival called the Dionysia, which honoured the god Dionysus.
In the Dionysia, the playwrights presented their work to an audience.
It was a competition, with a winner and prizes.
These two main genres were never mixed: they each had their own typical structure.
Athens exported the festival to its numerous colonies and allies in order to promote their way of life.
Only men were allowed as actors.
The chorus were men, as were the actors.
Technically, they had to be citizens of Athens, which only applied to free-born men plus a few special cases.
The actors wore masks, so that the people would know which persona (character) the actor played.
Some think early Greek religion and theatre were influenced by Central Asian shamanistic practices.
A large number of Orphic graffiti discovered in Olbia seems to show that the colony was a major point of contact.
Eli Rozik points out that the shaman can be seen as an early type of actor influencing the rituals of early Greek theatre.
Greek tragedy as we know it was made in Athens some years before 532 BC, when Thespis was the earliest recorded playwright.
He won the first theatrical contest held at Athens, so he was the leader of the dithyrambs performed in and around Attica.
Dithyrambs were ancient hymns sung in praise of the god of wine and fertility, Dionysus.
They had a wild and ecstatic nature.
By Thespis' time the dithyramb had evolved far away from its cult roots.
It had become a narrative, ballad-like genre.
Because of this Thespis is often called the "Father of Tragedy".
The statesman Solon is said to have created poems in which characters speak with their own voice.
Spoken recitations, known as rhapsodes, of Homer's epics were popular in festivals before 534 BC.
Thespis's contribution to drama is unclear, but his name is remembered in the common term for performer—a 'thespian'.
The dramatic performances were important to the Athenians – this is made clear by the Dionysian festival.
This was organized perhaps to foster loyalty among the tribes of Attica.
These had been recently created by Cleisthenes, who founded Greek democracy.
The festival was created roughly around 508 BC.
Phrynichus was the first poet known to use a historical subject – his Fall of Miletus, 493, told the fate of the town of Miletus after it was conquered by the Persians.
He is also thought to be the first to use female characters (though not female performers).
After the Great Destruction of Athens by the Persian Empire in 480 BC, the town and acropolis were rebuilt, and theatre became an even more major part of Athenian culture and civic pride.
The centre-piece was the competition between three tragic playwrights at the Theatre of Dionysus, twice a year.
Each submitted three tragedies, plus a satyr play (a comic, burlesque version of a mythological subject).
From 486 BC, each playwright also submitted a comedy.
Aristotle claimed that Aeschylus added the second actor, and that Sophocles introduced the third.
Apparently the Greek playwrights never used more than three actors.
Tragedy and comedy were viewed as completely separate genres, and no plays ever merged aspects of the two.
Satyr's plays dealt with the mythological subject matter of the tragedies, but in a purely comedic manner.
However, as they were written over a century after the Athenian Golden Age, it is not known whether dramatists such as Sophocles and Euripides would have thought about their plays in the same terms.
The power of Athens declined following its defeat in the Peloponnesian War against the Spartans.
Although its theatrical traditions seem to have lost their vitality, Greek theatre continued into the Hellenistic period (the period following Alexander the Great's conquests in the fourth century BC).
The main Hellenistic theatrical form was not tragedy but 'New Comedy', comic episodes about the lives of ordinary citizens.
The only playwright from the period whose work has survived is Menander.
One of New Comedy's most important contributions was its influence on Roman comedy, an influence that can be seen in the surviving works of Plautus and Terence.
Buildings and performances
The performance space was a simple semi-circular space, the orchestra, where the chorus danced and sang.
The orchestra was on a flattened terrace at the foot of a hill, the slope of which produced a natural theatron, (watching place).
Later, the term "theatre" came to be applied to the whole area of theatron, orchestra, and skené (scene).
The theatres were made very large.
Audiences might have up to fourteen thousand people.
Actors' voices needed to be heard throughout the theatre, including the very top row of seats.
The Greeks' understanding of acoustics compares well with the current state of the art.
In 465 BC, the playwrights began using a backdrop or scenic wall, which hung or stood behind the orchestra, which also served as an area where actors could change their costumes.
It was known as the skênê (scene).
In 425 BC a stone scene wall, called a paraskenia, became a common supplement to skênê in the theatres.
The proskenion ("in front of the scene") was columned, and was similar to the modern day proscenium.
Greek theatres also had entrances for the actors and chorus members called parodoi.
They were tall arches that opened onto the orchestra, through which the performers entered.
By the end of the 5th century BC, around the time of the Peloponnesian War, the skênê, the back wall, was two stories high.
Some theatres also had a raised speaking place on the orchestra called the logeion.
Scenic elements
makhina, a crane that gave the impression of a flying actor (thus, deus ex machina, meaning, 'the god from the machine').
ekkyklema, a wheeled wagon used to bring dead characters for the audience to see
trap doors, or similar openings in the ground to lift people onto the stage
Pinakes, pictures hung to create scenery
Thyromata, more complex pictures built into the second-level scene (3rd level from ground)
Phallic props were used for satyr plays, symbolising fertility in honor of Dionysus.
Although in the early days the chorus was much larger, the numbers settled down to 12 or 15 in tragedies and 24 in comedies.
They usually play a group character, such as 'the old men of Argos'.
The chorus offers background information, summaries and comments.
In many of these plays, the chorus expresses to the audience what the main characters cannot say, such as their hidden fears or secrets.
The chorus might sing, or might speak in unison (say the same thing together).
The chorus made up for the fact that there were only one, two or three actors, who played several parts each (changing masks).
Before the introduction of several actors by Aeschylus, the Greek chorus was the main performer opposite a solitary actor.
The importance of the chorus declined after the 5th century BC, when the chorus began to be separated from the dramatic action.
Later dramatists depended less on the chorus.
The mask is known to have been used since the time of Aeschylus in the 6th century AD.
It is one of the typical things they did in classical Greek theatre.
Masks were also used in the worship of Dionysius, and that is probably how the tradition started.
Most of the evidence comes from a few vase paintings of the 5th century BC which depict actors preparing for a Satyr play.
No physical evidence survived: the masks were made of organic materials.
They were not considered permanent objects, and were dedicated to the altar of Dionysus after performances.
There are, however, examples of statues of actors carrying a mask in hand.
Masks were made for the actors and for the chorus, who help the audience know what a character is thinking.
The chorus all wear the same mask, because they represent the same character.
Mask functions
In a large open-air theatre, like the Theatre of Dionysus in Athens, the masks brought the characters' face closer to the audience, as they had exaggerated features and expressions.
An actor could appear and reappear in different roles, since the audience did not identify the actor with one character.
Their variations help the audience to distinguish sex, age, and social status.
Also, they could show a change in a character’s appearance, for example, Oedipus after blinding himself.p70 Unique masks were also create characters and events in a play, such as The Furies in Aeschylus’ Eumenides and Pentheus and Cadmus in Euripides’ The Bacchae.
Worn by the chorus, the masks created a sense of unity and uniformity, a sort of multi-voiced persona or single organism.
Sophocles (497 BC, 496 BC, or 495 BC – 406 BC) was an Ancient Greek writer who wrote over 100 plays, according to the Suda.
Only seven of his tragedies have survived complete.
Sophocles was the second of the three greatest Ancient Greek writers of tragedies, the others were Aeschylus and Euripides.
The most famous of Sophocles' tragedies are those about Oedipus and Antigone: these are often called the Theban plays.
Each play was a part of different tetralogy (set of four), the other members of which are now lost.
Sophocles, the son of Sophillus, was a rich member of the rural community of Colonus Hippius in Attica.
This was the setting for his plays.
He was probably born there.
His birth took place a few years before the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC: the exact year is unclear, although 497/6 is perhaps most likely.
Sophocles' first great play was in 468 BC when he took first prize in the Dionysia theatre competition ahead of Aeschylus.
The Theban plays (the Oedipus Cycle):
Oedipus the King (Oedipus Tyrannos (Greek) or Oedipus Rex (Latin)
Oedipus at Colonos
The Trachiniae
The Oedipus story
Oedipus' death as a child is planned by his parents, Laius and Jocasta, to stop him fulfilling a prophecy.
A servant  passes the infant on to a childless couple, who adopt him.
They did not know his history.
Oedipus eventually learns of the Delphic Oracle's prophecy of him.
It was: he would kill his father and marry his mother.
He thought this meant his adopted parents.
He flees to avoid his fate.
Oedipus meets a man at a crossroads accompanied by servants.
Oedipus and the man fight, and Oedipus kills the man.
This man was his father, Laius, not that anyone apart from the gods knew this at the time.
Oedipus becomes the ruler of Thebes after solving the riddle of the sphinx.
In the process, he marries the widowed Queen, his mother Jocasta.
Thus the stage is set for horrors.
When the truth comes out, Jocasta commits suicide, Oedipus blinds himself and leaves Thebes.
The children are left to sort out the results for themselves.
In Oedipus at Colonus, the banished Oedipus and his daughters Antigone and Ismene arrive at the town of Colonus where they encounter Theseus, King of Athens.
Oedipus dies and trouble begins between his sons Polyneices and Eteocles.
In Antigone the protagonist is Oedipus' daughter.
The king, Creon, has forbidden the burial of Polyneices as a traitor to the city.
Antigone is faced with a choice: allow her brother Polyneices' body to remain unburied, outside the city walls.
There it would be exposed to the ravages of wild animals.
Or, she could bury him and face death.
Antigone decides to bury his body and face the results of her actions.
Creon sentences her to death.
Eventually, Creon is convinced to free Antigone from her punishment, but his decision comes too late.
Antigone has committed suicide.
Her death leads to the suicide of two others close to King Creon: his son, Haemon, who was going to marry Antigone, and the queen, who commits suicide after losing her only surviving son.
Running through such tragedies is the theme of fate, which cannot be avoided.
A forbidden act is committed in innocence, and the consequences follow remorselessly.
Black pepper is a plant that grows in the tropics, especially in India.
The plant is a perennial vine that bears flowers.
People cultivate the plant for its fruit, the peppercorn.
The peppercorn can be used as a spice or condiment.
Usually, it makes things hot.
There are several different plants called Pepper, all are in the Piper genus of Piperaceae.
From the 16th century onwards, people used the word pepper to also refer to the Chili peppers, which come from a completely unrelated plant.
It was also called black gold in older times.
Culinary uses
Pepper is one of the most common spices used around the world.
It is very common in European cuisine, and has been known and traded for a very long time.
Very often, the peppercorns are ground, and the powder is used to make things taste hot.
They get their heat from a chemical called piperine unlike other peppers that get it from capsaicin.
Like all eastern spices, pepper was historically both a seasoning and a medicine.
Long pepper, being stronger, was often the preferred medication, but both were used.
Black peppercorns are mentioned in Ayurveda, Siddha and Unani medicine in India.
The 5th century Syriac Book of Medicines prescribes pepper (or perhaps long pepper) for illnesses such as constipation, diarrhea, earache, gangrene, heart disease, hernia, hoarseness, indigestion, insect bites, insomnia, joint pain, liver problems, lung disease, oral abscesses, sunburn, tooth decay, and toothaches.
Various sources from the 5th century onward also say pepper is good to treat eye problems.
Often special ointments made with pepper have to be applied directly to the eye.
There is no current medical evidence that any of these treatments has any benefit; pepper applied directly to the eye would be quite uncomfortable and possibly damaging.
For a long time, people believed pepper is the cause for sneezing; this is still believed true today.
Some sources say that piperine irritates the nostrils, which will cause the sneezing; some say that it is just the effect of the fine dust in ground pepper, and some say that pepper is not in fact a very effective sneeze-producer at all.
Few if any controlled studies  have been carried out to answer the question.
Pepper can irritate the intestines.
It is therefore eliminated from the diet of patients having abdominal surgery and ulcers.
The replacement is usually called a bland diet.
Nutritional benefits of Black Pepper
Gernot Katzer's Spice Pages
Plant Cultures: History and botany of black pepper in South Asia
Chili pepper (not to be confused with the country called Chile) is the fruit of a series of plants called Capsicum (nightshade family).
Chilis are now grown all over the world, but originally, they came from Mexico.
They are used as spices or as vegetables, and also have some use in medicine.
Chili peppers are completely unrelated to the Piperaceae genus, which Black pepper is from.
Chili peppers have been a part of the human diet in the Americas since at least 7500 BCE.
Chili peppers were domesticated over 6000 years ago in Mexico.
Since then, chili peppers could be farmed throughout all of Mexico, Central America, and parts of South America.
The word "chili" is spelled differently in different countries.
They can be spelled as chili, chilli, and chile.
Chili is widely used in the United States and Canada.
Chilli is widely used in other English-speaking countries.
Chile is the most common Spanish spelling in Mexico and several other Latin American countries.
Aeschylus (525 BC – 456 BC) was an Ancient Greek poet and writer.
He wrote about 70–90 plays.
Only six of his tragedies have survived complete.
Aeschylus was the earliest of the three greatest Greek writers of tragedians.
The two others were Sophocles and Euripides.
Aristotle said that Aeschylus added more characters into his plays.
His characters spoke to each other and not just to the chorus.
This made it easier to create drama between the characters.
One of his plays, The Persians, was about the Persian invasion of Greece.
Aeschylus had fought in this war.
People studying Greek history use his play as an important source of information.
The war was so important to the Greeks and to Aeschylus, that the writing on his grave only talks about his part in the Greek victory at the Battle of Marathon.
There is nothing about the plays he wrote.
Aeschylus was born about the year 525 BC in a small town called Eleusis, which is about  27 kilometers northwest of Athens.
The date is based on counting back forty years from his first victory in the Great Dionysia.
His family was rich, and his father, Euphorion, was a member of the Eupatridae, the ancient nobility of Attica.
Pausanias wrote that Aeschylus  worked in a vineyard until the god Dionysus visited him in his sleep.
The god ordered him to write the first tragedies.
His first play was performed in 499 BC, when he was only 26 years old.
The Persian wars
In 490 BC the Persian army, led by Darius, landed in Greece and tried to take it over.
Aeschylus, and his brother Cynegeirus, joined the army from Athens and fought against the Persians at the Battle of Marathon.
The Athenians were able to defeat the much bigger Persian army.
This battle, which stopped Darius, was celebrated across the city-states of Greece.
Cynegeirus died in the battle.
In 480 BC, Xerxes I of Persia tried to capture Greece.
Aeschylus fought against them at the Battle of Salamis and at the Battle of Plataea in 479 BC.
His oldest surviving play The Persians, performed in 472 BC, is set during the Battle of Salamis.
This play won first prize at the Dionysia.
Aeschylus was one of many Greeks who joined the Eleusinian Mysteries.
This was the religious cult of Demeter, and based in his home town of Eleusis.
Members of the group learned mystical and secret knowledge.
Members were sworn under the penalty of death not to say anything about the Mysteries to anyone.
Aristotle wrote that some people thought that Aeschylus had shown some of the cult's secrets on stage.
Other writers said that an angry mob tried to kill Aeschylus on the spot, but he ran away.
Later, Aeschylus said he did not know that he had shown any of the secrets.
He was saved from death only because of his brave service in the Persian Wars.
Aeschylus made two trips to Sicily in the 470s BC.
He was invited by Hieron, tyrant of Syracuse, a big Greek city on the east side of the island.
On one of these trips he wrote The Women of Aetna, in honor of the city founded by Hieron.
He also restaged his Persians.
By 473 BC, Aeschylus was the yearly favorite in the Dionysia, winning first prize in nearly every competition.
In 458 BC, he returned to Sicily for the last time, visiting the city of Gela where he died in 456 or 455 BC.
It is said that he was killed by a tortoise which fell out of the sky after it was dropped by an eagle.
This story is probably only a legend.
Aeschylus' work was so respected by the Athenians that after his death, his were the only tragedies allowed to be restaged in future competitions.
His sons Euphorion and Euæon, and his nephew Philocles, all wrote plays as well.
The plays
Greek drama began with festivals for the gods, mainly Dionysus, the god of wine.
During Aeschylus' lifetime, dramatic competitions became part of the city's Dionysia in the spring.
The festival began with an opening procession, then a competition of boys singing dithyrambs, and finally two dramatic competitions.
The first competition was for three playwrights each presenting three tragic plays, followed by a shorter comedy.
A second competition of five comedic playwrights followed, and winners of both competitions were chosen by a group of judges.
Aeschylus took part in many of these competitions in his lifetime.
Only six tragedies have survived intact: The Persians, Seven against Thebes, The Suppliants, and the trilogy known as The Oresteia, consisting of the three tragedies Agamemnon, The Libation Bearers and The Eumenides.
There is also the play Prometheus Bound, but this was probably written by someone else.
All of the surviving plays won first prize at the City Dionysia.
One book, the Alexandrian Life of Aeschylus, said that he won the first prize at the City Dionysia 13 times.
Sophocles' won 18 times out of his 120 plays, and Euripides only had five wins out of about 90 plays.
The Persians (Persai) (472 BC)
Seven Against Thebes (Hepta epi Thebas) (467 BC)
The Suppliants (Hiketides) (463 BC?)
Oresteia a series of three plays (458 BC)
The Libation Bearers (Choephoroi)
The Eumenides
Influence on Greek drama and culture
When Aeschylus first began writing, the theatre was new.
Some playwrights like Thespis had made the cast bigger to include an actor who was able to talk with the chorus.
Aeschylus added a second actor, allowing for more drama; and the chorus became less important.
He is said to have been the first to use skenographia, or scene-decoration, though Aristotle said the first person was Sophocles.
Aeschylus also added more details to the costumes, and had his actors wear platform boots, called cothurni, to help the audience see them better.
When they walked on stage in the first performance of the Eumenides, the chorus of Furies were so frightening in looks that they made young children faint, old men urinate, and pregnant women go into labor.
His plays were written in the strict style of Greek drama.
They were in verse and no violence could be performed on stage.
The plays had to be set away from normal life in Athens, either by telling stories about the gods or by being set, like The Persians, in a far-away place.
Aeschylus' work has a strong moral and religious emphasis.
The Oresteia plays were about man's position in the universe in relation to the gods, the laws of the gods, and punishment from the gods.
Fifty years after Aeschylus' death, the comic playwright Aristophanes praised him in The Frogs.
Aeschylus is a character in the play and says that his Seven against Thebes "made everyone watching it to love being warlike" (line 1022); with his Persians, he says he "taught the Athenians to desire always to defeat their enemies" (line 1026–7).
He says that his plays helped the Athenians to be brave and virtuous (line 1039ff).
Relevant pages
Bates, Alfred 1906.
The Drama: its history, literature, and influence on civilization.
vol 1, London, Historical Publishing Company.
—(2002).
Greek Drama and Dramatists.
London: Routledge Press.
Æschylus.
Aeschylus I: Oresteia.
Transl.
Richmond Lattimore.
8th ed, Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 1960.
1-31.
525 BC births
456 BC deaths
Euripides (c. 480 BC–406 BC) was an Ancient Greek writer from Athens who wrote about 90 plays.
Only 18 of his tragedies have survived complete, more than all other surviving ancient Greek tragedies put together.
A nineteenth play, Rhesus is sometimes thought to be by Euripides, but not all classicists agree on this.
Alcestis (439 BC, second prize)
Medea (431 BC, third prize)
Heracleidae (c. 430 BC)
Hippolytus (428 BC, first prize)
Andromache (c. 425 BC)
Hecuba (c. 424 BC)
The Suppliants (c. 423 BC)
Electra (c. 420 BC)
Heracles (c. 416 BC)
Trojan Women (415 BC, second prize)
Iphigeneia in Tauris (c. 414 BC)
Ion (c. 414 BC)
Helen (412 BC)
Phoenician Women (c. 410 BC)
Orestes (408 BC)
Bacchae and Iphigeneia at Aulis (405 BC, posthumous)
Cyclops (408 BC)
406 BC deaths
Chard (also known as Swiss chard, silverbeet, perpetual spinach, or mangold) is a vegetable.
It is in the same family as spinach, Amaranthaceae.
This article is about the property of radioactive elements.