Scholarship for Greek Theatre

Garvie: knowledge of audience

The audience is “in the position of the gods” - they know the plot of the plays before watching.

This means the playwright can change the myth slightly for dramatic effect to build tension and induce catharsis.

Knox: Oedipus’ character

Oedipus is “saviour and pollution” as he saves the city from the Sphinx but his incest and murder leads to the plague on the city

Waldock: Oedipus’ guilt

“Oedipus is not morally guilty” - his hamartia comes from inescapable destiny and his tragic circumstances as he unknowingly commits horrifying crimes

Garvie: modern interest

Comes from the play being a “modern whodunnit” as the plot derives from Oedipus acting as detective to uncover Laius’ murderer

Segal: Oedipus’ heroism

“Oedipus’ search for the truth is heroic” - could this be arrogance disguised as determination though, or is it true heroism?

Foley: identity

“Characters undergo transformations that reveal their identity as fluid” - Pentheus shifts from king to voyeur to victim; Oedipus shifts from loved king to exile. Strongly linked to peripeteia

Schechner: Dionysus the avenger

“Dionysus is a jealous god who destroys Thebes not to establish worship but to satisfy his wounded vanity” - Pentheus is a victim of this desire, so Euripides’ true moral message is that the gods are dangerous as they hold power within human irrationality

Loraux: women in Bacchae

“Female power threatens civic order” - the Theban women abandon their domestic roles to worship Dionysus and become violent to expose Athens’ fears of female hysteria to justify their suppression of women. Pentheus’ sporagmos reveals the fragility of social standards

Segal: Dionysus’ character in Bacchae

“Dionysus is both benevolent and destructive” - to different people who worship, or refuse to worship, him

Bettendorf: purpose of Frogs

the primary function of the play is “not literary criticism but political action” - in reality, it is a mixture of this as humour is combined with political references and the parabasis

Redfield: Aeschylus’ victory

“Aeschylus’ victory is a rejection of the new lifestyle and a return to the moral centre” - but does the context of war affect Dionysus’ choices?

Wilson: the Chorus’ role in Frogs

“The Chorus in Old Comedy acts as a collective civic voice” to represent the concerns, anxieties and values of the Athenian community and thus guide the audience’s response to the play (the frog chorus is included for entertainment and plot development; the chorus of the initiates is included for political comment)