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Annual rites to the god of wine and revelry were held each spring, and involved orgies, feasts and the ingestion of herbs that led to wild ecstasies. A dithyramb (ode to Dionysus) was sung by a chorus of men dressed as satyrs. It eventually evolved into narratives, which in turn developed into the first plays.

During one of these group chorales, an intrepid performer named Thespis broke away from the group and added a solo narrative. The innovation took hold, and the new individual role was known as the protagonist, the individual hero of the drama, now backed by the chorus.

In 534 BC, the ruler of Athens, Pisistratus, formalized the Dionysan festivals into fully fledged drama competitions, held annually. Thespis won the first competition.

To the protagonist, Aeschylus introduced a second character, the antagonist, creating new possibilities. Then in 472 BC came Persians , the earliest known play.

Sophocles brought another innovation to the blossoming form of drama – a third character. He also wrote what is still considered the greatest masterpiece of tragedy, Oedipus Rex .

After the golden age of Athenian drama, Greece’s performing arts stagnated. However, during the Turkish occupation, Greeks drew on an Eastern tradition of shadow puppet theatre. The stylized, colourful spectacles were satirical and bawdy, the main character (the fool Karaghiozis) joking at the expense of his Turkish masters.

When the Greeks came out of 400 years of Turkish occupation, one of the first art forms to coalesce was rembetika, a form of music that can be compared, culturally, to the American Blues. Heavily influenced by music and instruments from Asia Minor, rembetika lyrics tell of life’s underside: drugs, destitution, erotic love and squalor.

“La Divina”, born Maria Kalogeropoulos, was the original diva. The fiery first lady of opera enraged many managers at La Scala and the Metropolitan with her temperamental whims, but seduced millions, including shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, with her heavenly soprano and unforgettable gaze.

Mikis Theodorakis, Greece’s greatest modern composer, won international acclaim and started a cultural revolution in his own country with works like Epiphania and the instantly recognizable Zorba the Greek score. During the junta, Theodorakis’s songs were banned and he was jailed, making him an instant symbol of the resistance.

Greek composer Vangelis won an Academy Award for his memorable score for Chariots of Fire , a film about Olympic runners. Vangelis is internationally recognized for his electronic compositions and film scores, and retains superstar status in Greece.