Specimens of Greek Tragedy Aeschylus and Sophocles

Excerpt

Greek drama, forerunner of ours, had its origin in the festival of
Dionysus, god of wine, which was celebrated with dance, song, and
recitative.  The recitative, being in character, was improved into the
Drama, the chief author of the improvement, tradition says, being
Thespis.  But the dance and song were retained, and became the Chorus,
that peculiar feature of the Greek play.  This seems to be the general
account of the matter, and especially of the combination of the lyric
with the dramatic element, so far as we can see through the mist of an
unrecorded age.