The first festivals were in Athens in the 5th century BC. They were held in the honor of the gods, and had competitions and dramatic plays. Dramatic plays were the most popular events at these festivals, and were composed of a chorus of twelve men and another actor (the main character) who was separated from the rest of the actors. Most of the Greek tragedies and dramas have been lost, and what we still have comes from only three playwrights. 

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) was one of the three main Greek playwrights. Of his over 80 plays, we only have six of them left today. Most of his plays had religious aspects and in his plays the gods often tempted people into doing wrong things. In his play about the Persian Wars, King Xerxes of Persia was tempted into invading Greece by Zeus. Oresteia was a series of three plays focusing on the character Orestes written by Aeschylus. 

The playwright Sophocles wrote the play Oedipus Rex in which oracles can tell the fate of someone. The Oracles said that the main character Oedipus would eventually kill his father and marry his mother, so when his parents heard this at his birth they threw him out. He lived with a Corinthian family, and on his way to Thebes, had an altercation with a man who happened to be his father, and he killed him. When he made it to Thebes, he married the queen of Thebes who happened to be his mother. 

Euripides was an anti-religious playwright and loathed the conservative politicians of Athens. Many of his plays were attacking Greek culture and traditions. On the other hand, Aristophanes was a conservative playwright who loved tradition and hated Euripides and the philosopher Socrates. Aristophanes even made a play making fun of Euripides called The Frogs. In the play Euripides and another playwright are weighed on a scale that measures virtue, and Euripides has ten times less virtue than his opponent. 

The Classical Period of Greek art was the period where many great temples and statues were built in Greece, like the Acropolis, the Parthenon, both dedicated to the goddesses Athena. There was also a giant marble statue of Athena, but it is mostly gone now. Many bronze sculptures were made in the 400s as well. The great sculptures Pheidias and Polykleitos made many of the great statues, like the giant statue of Zeus and the boy holding a spear. 

The Greeks were much more religious than the other pagan nations at their time. They observed strict burial rites for their dead and every Greek home had an altar. The dead relatives must be provided offerings from their family. The domestic religion of the relatives existed alongside the religion of the Mount Olympus gods. The gods on Mount Olympus were all related to each other, and were often hostile to humans and sacrifices would nourish them. Most Greeks just prayed and sacrificed to their own gods in order to get a reward, and did not think of them as all-powerful.