4- 5. Explain how the origins of theatre in Athens are tied to both religion and politics.

Theater in Athens was always a very large part of both religion and politics. It could probably be said that because of the theater's funding, it was more of a religious ritual, but political positions were often shown in many plays and performances, to try and get messages across to the citizens without actually speaking things outright. The funding for Athenian theater was not earned by the plays themselves, but rather given to the programs by the Athenian government itself, so a religious festival called City Dionysia could include theater. In these performances, stories were told that followed ones told about the Greek gods. When a story wasn't a direct relation to the Greek gods, things the characters said and did often had some relation to things that their religious figures had done in the past, so as to make an allusion to the gods. There were requirements for each performance, one of them being that three of the plays needed to be a tragedy (a sad tale almost always ending in death) and one of them had to be a Satyr play (A comic tragedy that often involved an irresponsible character doing comedic things, but ultimately resulting in his demise or death).Overall, theater was a huge part in Greek culture, and Athenian culture in specifics. Many a point was brought across by a good bit of theater in a festival for the citizens.