Statues --> Greece

The greatest theatrical forms used today derived from the theater art of the classical period of Ancient Greece that have been improved in fifth-century BC.

Athenians organized some great festivals in which rivaled the greatest playwrights of the time. The actors were only men even in female roles, because women could not perform and the characters wore masks to be recognizable even from great distances.

The acting was strictly in verse and the tragedy was the highest art form, whose recurrent themes were derived from the myths and heroic stories. Another type of drama is the comedy that often focused on contemporary politics, public figures and traditions. Greeks regarded theater not as a simple leisure time, but as an occasion in which the "polis" celebrated the ancient stories that were considereted the common heritage of citizens.

The mask chosen to represent Greece is a comic female mask, currently standing at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale Romano at Palazzo Massimo in Rome.

It is a mask of marble that it is about 60 cm. It perfectly embodies the spirit of the greek theater that it is considered the origin of all Western drama. When Rome expanded into the Mediterranean assimilated Greek's mythology and culture of this cradle of arts and ideas. So the Romans replaced their wood construction with large theaters and their monumental stone set designs.