classics - Theatre

CARTLEDGE - religious festivals

participation in religious festivals was “An essential part of Athenian civic life, with drama festivals serving both religious and political purposes.”

TAPLIN - Tragedy, instrinsic

“There is nothing intrinsically Dionysiac about Greek tragedy”

WILSON - choregos was a civic duty

“An act of giving to the demos, with all the implications of reciprocal obligation that the gift brings”

 GOLDHILL - Foreigners

Definitely present at the city Dionysia

GOLDHILL - women

Following traditions of other Greek festivals, could not participate in production of a play or claim money from civic fund to attend the theatre. Likely only one woman able to attend pompe - basket carrier.

HENDERSON - women at Great Dionysia

Hard to believe that the basket carrier who led the procession of the Great Dionysia was the only female present, or was barred from watching the plays

DOUGDALE - satyr play

Socially sanctioned temporary reversal of societal norms

EASTERLING - Satyr Play

It was satyr play that was most obviously Dionysiac

SEAFORD - satyr play

“An after-piece”

EASTERLING - Satyr play, SEAFORD

Disagrees with SEAFORD, believes satyr play should be regarded as a “Culmination of each tragedian’s competitive entry”

LISSARRAGUE - tragedy and satyr play

Tragedy and satyr play complement each other “Take one myth, add satyrs, observe the result… It plays in a different key, with the displacement, distortion and reversal of what constitutes the world and culture of men”

KENNEY - Aristotle

Defined key concepts of Greek tragedy

SWIFT - Tragedy

“Tragedy formed the central attraction of the Dionysia” “A successful tragedy contained spectacle and excitement, but was also thought provoking.”

DOUGDALE - masks

We must not exaggerate the use of masks in drama because of their use in other overtly religious contexts.

POLLUX - props

Includes daggers, sceptres, spears, bows, quivers, messengers’ staffs, clubs, lionskins and suits of armour. Focuses on costuming, leaves out objects carried.

BURIAN - conflict

“Does not ordinarily admit of compromise or mediation”

ANTIPHANES - Tragic plots

“Tragedy is a blessed art in every way, since its plots are well known to the audience before anyone begins to speak”

CZAPO AND SLATER

Aulos player played an ambiguous role in Athens. Formal dress on vases suggests he is respectable, yet was notorious for attending parties.

VON SCHILLER AND VON SCHLEGEL - chorus

Characterised the chorus as the “Idealised spectators”

TAPLIN - Tragedy

“I know… of only two fifth-century paintings that can plausibly be claimed to show a play in performance” (BASEL DANCERS)

TAPLIN - comedy

Suggests Aegisthus somehow represents tragedy within comedy on the choregos vase - his costume is a marker of this.

STOREY AND ALLAN - Comparison of plots in tragedy and comedy

Tragedy’s plots are carefully developed, comedies are looser - e.g. Frogs, the great idea is that Dionysus will travel to the underworld to bring back one of Athens’ great playwrights.

MARSHALL - chorus

“Core of the ancient comic experience was the comic chorus, and the core of the comic chorus was the parabasis”

ZIMMERMAN - parados

Has several functions - introduces the chorus into the play, allowing them to meet the actors for the first time.

STOREY AND ALLAN - tragedy

Tragedy became a “Teaching tool for the dangers of ill-informed, emotional and short-sighted decision making, and comedy into a farcical lesson in political correctness.”

WOHL - agon

Comic agon like a trial in which audience was jury

RUTHERFORD - language of tragedy

“Language of tragedy is very stylised, and is grand and poetic to suit the plays’ serious themes”

FOLEY - Dionysus as director

Constructs his own play within the Bacchae. “Directs the parados, instructing them on stage action”

SWIFT - Female figures in tragedy

Shown as exploring the consequences of what happens when women “Slip loose from men’s control”

KNOX - pattern of Sophoclean tragedy

1 - hero acts against the advice of others, 2 - others try to dissuade him, 3 - hero refuses to yield, 4 - attempt at changing hero’s decision provokes anger, 5 - strange, dreadful, terrible.

KNOX - tragic hero

Identifies the tragic hero as someone who makes a decision rooted in his personal nature and maintains it to the point of self destruction

KNOX - Sophoclean Hero

we are unaware of what long-term divine plan may be playing out, the sophoclean hero acs in a “Terrifying vacuum”

SWIFT - criticising KNOX

His model overlooks the diversity of heroism within the Greek Tragedy

ROBERT PARKER - theatre

“The theatre… was the most important arena in Athenian life”

BURIAN - tragedies

Many tragedies follow the retribution story pattern

KITTO - Scenes with Dionysus and Pentheus

There is an Aeschylan flavour - he is so confident and unconcious of his hubris he marches blindly towards his death

SWIFT - Eurypides’ reputation

It is true that Eurypides’ gods are selfish and their behaviour is disturbing - Dionysus is a smiling assassin.

PRICE - Maenads and Dionysus

Dionysus had a critical role within and outside convention religion, receiving official civic cults.

MORGAN - Dionysiac rites

Gave women an opportunity to leave the home, gaining release from the burdens of everyday life.

SEAFORD - Women and Dionysus

If women failed to follow Dionysus or were prevented from doing so, he would destroy their home and community, and family. If they danced with him, their madness would only be temporary

LEFTKOWITZ - Eurypides

calls for us to remember the views of Eurypides’ characters are not necessarily his own views. he reminded us of mortal limitations, commanding us to honour the gods.

CAMERON - Oedipus

finds it implausible that the slave to have been given the role of exposing Oedipus as a baby and failed, is the same slave that was the only witness of Oedipus’ murder of Laius

REVERMANN - Comedy

“Greek comedy has a complex and multi - layered relationship with religious practice and belief”

DE STE CROIX - Aristophanes

“Aristophanes was very much against the war” “There is no indication that Aristophanes was an oligarch, and in fact he sometimes shows a real sympathy for the poorer classes”