Nothing to Do With Dionysus?

by Winkler, John J.; Zeitlin, Froma I.

• ISBN13: 9780691015255
• ISBN10: 0691015252
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-04-15
• Publisher: Princeton Univ Pr

Summary

These critically diverse and innovative essays are aimed at restoring the social context of ancient Greek drama. Theatrical productions, which included music and dancing, were civic events in honor of the god Dionysos and were attended by a politically stratified community, whose delegates handled all details from the seating arrangements to the qualifications of choral competitors. The growing complexity of these performances may have provoked the Athenian saying "nothing to do with Dionysos" implying that theater had lost its exclusive focus on its patron. This collection considers how individual plays and groups of dramas pertained to the concerns of the body politic and how these issues were presented in the convention of the stage and as centerpieces of civic ceremonies. The contributors, in addition to the editors, include Simon Goldhill, Jeffrey Henderson, David Konstan, Franois Lissarrague, Oddone Longo, Nicole Loraux, Josiah Ober, Ruth Padel, James Redfield, Niall W. Slater, Barry Strauss, and Jesper Svenbro.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	vii
Abbreviations	ix
Introduction	3	(9)
The Theater of the Polis	12	(8)
Oddone Longo
The Ephebes' Song: Tragoidia and Polis	20	(43)
John J. Winkler
Playing the Other: Theater, Theatricality, and the Feminine in Greek Drama	63	(34)
Froma I. Zeitlin
The Great Dionysia and Civic Ideology	97	(33)
Simon Goldhill
Thebes: Theater of Self and Society in Athenian Drama	130	(38)
Froma I. Zeitlin
Kreousa the Autochthon: A Study of Euripides' Ion	168	(39)
Nicole Loraux
An Anthropology of Euripides' Kyklops	207	(21)
David Konstan
Why Satyrs Are Good to Represent	228	(9)
Francois Lissarrague
Drama, Political Rhetoric, and the Discourse of Athenian Democracy	237	(34)
Josiah Ober
Barry Strauss
The Demos and the Comic Competition	271	(43)
Jeffrey Henderson
Drama and Community: Aristophanes and Some of His Rivals	314	(22)
James Redfield
Making Space Speak	336	(30)
Ruth Padel
The ``Interior'' Voice: On the Invention of Silent Reading	366	(19)
Jesper Svenbro
The Idea of the Actor	385	(12)
Niall W. Slater
Notes on Contributors	397	(4)
Index of Passages Discussed	401	(2)
General Index	403