History
Trilogies date back to ancient times. In the Dionysia festivals of ancient Greece, for example, trilogies of plays were performed followed by a fourth satyr play. The Oresteia is the only surviving trilogy of these ancient Greek plays, originally performed at the festival in Athens in 458 BC. The three Theban plays, or Oedipus cycle, by Sophocles, originating in 5th century BC, is not a true example of a trilogy because the plays were written at separate times and with different themes/purposes.
In ancient India, an example of an early trilogy includes the epic Mahabharata, which originally consisted of three portions. Vyasa's original core portion of the epic was the Jaya. Vaisampayana's Bharata expanded on the story, with Vyasa's Jaya embedded within it. Ugrasrava eventually composed the Mahabharata, with both Vyasa's Jaya and Vaisampayana's Bharata embedded within the epic.
Richard Wagner's epic series of operas, Der Ring des Nibelungen, is sometimes referred to as a trilogy even though it consists of four works: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried, and Götterdämmerung. The first work, Das Rheingold, is shorter than the other three, running a bit over 3 hours, while all the others are over five. Performances of The Ring are often billed as three nights plus a prelude.
Technical changes in printing and film in the mid to late 20th century made the creation of trilogies more feasible, while the development of mass media and modern global distribution networks has made them more likely to be lucrative.
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