Art and Theatre

The Ancient Greeks enjoyed all kinds of art. As well as paintings, they liked music, poems and statues. Their vase paintings and statues tell us what they did and what they looked like. The statues took a long time to make and were usually painted. We do not know what their music sounded like but we know from vase paintings that they played harps and pipes.

Many Greek towns had an open-air theatre. They were only used for festivals. People watched about four plays, one after the other. The plays were either funny (comedies) or sad (tragedies). All the actors were men. they had to play more than one part. They wore masks to show who they were playing.