Satyr Plays
It is tempting to call the satyr plays simply pastoral plays, but they are not about nymphs and shepherds in idyllic countryside. They are usually set in wild countryside, with wild satyrs for a chorus, amoral, humorous, and pathetic creatures with human weaknesses for drink, sex, and the safety of their own skins. The chorus leader seems to be their father, but they are always lost, always in search of their master Dionysus. Otherwise there seem to be no rules about the plot. They receive the stolen fire from Prometheus, or they greet the infant Perseus, born in a chest floating out to sea, or the Cyclops has them as servants in the cave where he entertains Odysseus. The verse is somewhere between tragic and comic; it has a comic enchantment without being as boisterous as Aristophanes. (Boardman, 1986)