Most tragedies were written for the early spring festival in Athens. The Great Dionysia. The third, fourth, and fifth days were assigned to tragedy. Each day was given to a single playwright who wrote for the occasion three tragedies, (one act plays). There also was a grotesque "satyr-play." The occasion was a solemn one. They were not bound to religious themes in the narrow sense, but often turned to traditional myth for stories. They concentrated on the most fundamental questions of human existence, and of man's behavior and destiny under divine power and authority. They followed formal canons of language and meter, theme and stucture, and never suffered from stultification.