Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession

by Edited by Pat Easterling , Edith Hall

• ISBN13: 9780521045506
• ISBN10: 0521045509
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-01-21
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

This collection of twenty essays examines the art, profession and idea of the actor in Greek and Roman antiquity, and has been commissioned and arranged to cast as much interdisciplinary and transhistorical light as possible on these elusive but fascinating ancient professionals. It covers a chronological span from the sixth century BC to Byzantium (and even beyond to the way that ancient actors have influenced the arts from the Renaissance to the twentieth century) and stresses the huge geographical spread of ancient actors. Some essays focus on particular themes, such as the evidence for women actors or the impact of acting on the presentation of suicide in literature; others offer completely new evidence, such as graffiti relating to actors in Asia Minor; others ask new questions, such as what subjective experience can be reconstructed for the ancient actor. There are numerous illustrations and all Greek and Latin passages are translated.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations

List of contributors

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of abbreviations

Maps

The Art of the Actor

The singing actors of antiquity

The musicians among the actors

The use of the body by actors in tragedy and satyr-play

Towards a reconstruction of performance style

Kallippides on the floor-sweepings: the limits of realism in classical acting and performance styles

Looking for the actor's art in Aristotle

Acting, action and words in New Comedy

'Acting down': the ideology of Hellenistic performance

The Professional World

Nothing to do with the technitai of Dionysus?

Actors and actor-managers at Rome in the time of Plautus and Terence

The masks on the propylon of the Sebasteion at Aphrodisias

Images of performance: new evidence from Ephesus

Female entertainers in late antiquity

Acting in the Byzantine theatre: evidence and problems

The Idea of the Actor

Actor as icon

Scholars versus actors: text and performance in the Greek tragic scholia

Orator and/et actor

Acting and self-actualisation in imperial Rome: some death scenes

The subjectivity of Greek performance

The ancient actor's presence since the Renaissance

Glossary

List of works cited

Index of major ancient passages cited

General index

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