What is the importance of the chorus in Greek drama?

Question

i'm reading Mourning Becomes Electra

Answer 1

The role of the greek chorus was:

to offer a sense of "rich spectacle"

to provide time for scene changes

to give the main actors a break

to offer background information

to offer information about the main themes animating the action

to show an ideal audience's response

to act as a crowd

to tell of battles (battles, murders etc. were not allowed to be performed in greek theater)

to be a go-between from the audience to actors

to tell the audience of character's fear and secrets (what the actors couldn't say themselves)

More information:

http://www2.selu.edu/Academics/Faculty/j...

http://starr.pausd.org/~jforte/ggm/choru...

Hope this helps!

Answer 2

Its the collective voice of humanity and represents the thoughts of the audience.  They also explain whats going on :)