An outline of the module, including information about seminars and assessment, is attached, along with a bibliography with details of the prescribed texts and recommended background reading.
Note: the visual presentation accompanying this lecture is available on-line, with some additional notes, in the Nathan Bodington Building.
1. Aeschylus’ Oresteia: introduction
Aeschylus’ Oresteia (see module outline for details of recommended translation) first performed in Athens, at City Dionysia, in March 458 BC.
Most basic outline:
- Agamemnon: Agamemnon murdered by
Clytaemnestra.
- Libation Bearers: Orestes returns home from
exile to avenge father’s death by killing his own mother.
- Eumenides: Orestes is tried for matricide and
is (only just) acquitted on the grounds of justification.
Some additional facts:
- Agamemnon dies after winning military victory against
Troy—but costly, marred by atrocities, army’s return
beset by disasters;
- campaign began with Agamemnon sacrificing daughter
Iphigeneia—revenge is part of Clytaemnestra’s motive,
along with sex and power;
- her lover Aegisthus is avenging gruesome killing of his
brother’s by Agamemnon’s father (Aegisthus’
uncle), Atreus;
- Orestes is pursued by demons (the Furies), who almost refuse to
accept the acquittal; they claim to uphold moral order,
- Athene (patron goddess of Athens, where the trial is held) wins
the Furies over by assigning place of honour in society.
Note the combination of alien elements (human sacrifice, demons, gods and goddesses...) with familiar themes (war and politics; dysfunctional families; destructive effects of intense hatred; complexity of moral conflicts; position of women in male-dominated society; freedom and responsibility; role of deterrence in ordered society...):
- this combination of strangeness and familiarity is a key element in the interest and challenge of studying the ancient world.
2. The Theatre of Dionysus
Oresteia is outstanding drama, so must be read in theatrical terms: what happens on the stage? What did the audience can see and hear?
Theatre of Dionysus, on south slope of Acropolis, still visible: semicircular tiered seating focussed on flat open space. But: the visible remains are largely from Roman period—and had been repeatedly rebuilt before then (esp. late 4th c. BC, under Lcyurgus; late 5th c. BC, under Pericles). So the theatre of Aeschylus’ day has left little archaeological trace, though the broad pattern was stable.
Key elements:
(i) Semicircular tiered seating on natural slope.
(ii) Flat, open space = orkhęstra: performance space for chorus, performing combination of dance and song; probably circular (this has been disputed), approx. 65-80 feet in diameter.
(iii) Chorus of 12 performers (later 15).
(iv) Altar in centre of orkhęstra.
(v) Greeks thought tragedy began with just a chorus, to which one actor subsequently added: chorus can tell us what was done and said (see first choral song of Agamemnon for an illustration of the dramatic potential of choral story-telling), but actor can act out the role: we see and hear what is done and said.
(vi) Actors wore masks: change of costume and mask allowed switch between multiple roles—hence one actor did not restrict to one character. For for an illustration of the dramatic potential of one-actor drama see scenes in Agamemnon between Cassandra and chorus before, Clytaemnestra and chorus after, Agamemnon’s death.
(vii) Aeschylus added a second actor: interactions between characters, as well as interactions between a character and chorus, now possible.
(viii) There was probably a low raised stage to rear of orkhęstra (making actors more salient)—but not the high stage characteristic of later Greek and Roman theatres: chorus was confined to the orkhęstra, but actors moved freely between orkhęstra and stage.
(ix) Performers had tent/hut (skęnę) as changing room.
(x) All pre-Oresteia plays (Persians = 472 BC; Seven against Thebes = 467 BC; Suppliants = late 470s or 460s) need only these elements: Oresteia (458 BC) needs (and creatively exploits) two further innovations:
(xii) Third actor introduced by Aeschylus or Sophocles (sources differ): with a possible exception in Libation Bearers, the number of tragic actors never rose above three.
(xii) Skęnę became permanent (at first, wooden) building at back of stage—backdrop to action, which can now be seen as outside a particular place (e.g. temple, palace). Earlier plays have vague sense of place, unlike Oresteia.
(xiii) Skęnę building has wide central door. Note this is open-air theatre, and stage-action is assumed to be happening outside (Greek climate means much ancient Greek life was open-air): door allows access to an interior.
(xiv) Interior action cannot be scene: but interior tableau can be brought into open on wheeled trolley (ekkuklęma, eccyclema): events theoretically inside can now be seen outside.
(xv) Possibly also smaller doors flanking central door—needed for later comedy: not used by tragedy (with a possible exception in Libation Bearers).
(xvi) Actors could also use roof of skęnę building (e.g. opening of Agamemnon).
(xvii) Painted scenery (invention attributed to Sophocles) probably not in use when Oresteia was produced in 458.
Preparation for next lecture: familiarise yourself with the general outline of the Oresteia, and begin a careful reading of the text
An outline of the module, including information about seminars and assessment, was distributed at the first lecture, along with a bibliography with details of the prescribed texts and recommended background reading. If you did not get a copy, they are available from outside School of Classics Resources Room (Parkinson 236) or on-line in the Nathan Bodington Building.
Note: the visual presentation accompanying this lecture is available on-line, with some additional notes, in the Nathan Bodington Building.
1. Performers and audience
Additional access to performance space by passages (eisodoi) beyond ends of skęnę building: used for entry and exit of chorus (with an exception in Eumenides), and by actors when characters came from/ went to more remote places. Size of the theatre means entrance by an eisodos took time—visible to audience before engages with other performers.
Size of theatre also has implications for performance style. Subtle gestures would be invisible from rear seats: masks and costumes allow actors to play multiple roles and (with stylised gesture) enable clear communication in large space.
Chorus sang—as could actors: range of modes of delivery mean audience had varied acoustic experience.
Open-air theatre, in daylight, with audience in semicircle: a communal, not a private event—with mass participation (theatre of Dionysus sat 10000-15000): tragedy was not monopolised by an elite.
Since Aeschylus was writing for a particular audience, to understand the play we need to understand that audience’s assumptions, expectations etc.
2. The City Dionysia
Oresteia performed in March 458 at Great or City Dionysia—one of the Athenian festivals in honour of the god Dionysus, and the most important Athenian dramatic festival. Five-day programme included religious rituals (sacrifices etc) and performances of poetry, especially (but not only) drama.
Tragedies were performed over three days:
-each of three tragedians presented three tragedies: trilogy = three plays on connected stories (e.g. Oresteia)—Aeschylus usually (not always) presented three connected tragedies; other tragic dramatists, usually (not always) presented three unconnected plays. [Note: Sophocles’ three plays on Thebes—Oedipus, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone—are not a trilogy: written at different times, not meant to be performed together.]
- tragedians also presented a satyr-play: i.e. play with a chorus of satyrs (half-man, half-goat): burlesque, not serious, approach to mythological stories. The satyr-play performed with Oresteia was Proteus (cf. Odyssey 4.351ff.: Menelaus, blown off-course to Egypt, disguises himself as a seal to trap shape-shifting sea-god Proteus in order find out how to get home) has not survived.
There were also comedies: each comic dramatist presenting one play.
Tragedy and comedy involved competitiion between dramatists (and, later, between leading actors in the tragedies) for a prize. For competition in Greek religious festivals cf. athletic competitions at Olympic Games (part of a festival of Zeus) and other festivals. So do not assume watching a tragedy in a religious festival was a ‘religious experience’ (was watching a race?)—though note gods were involved in the stories of tragedy.
The City Dionysia was also a civic festival, involving the whole Athenian community (hence mass audience at tragedy): Athenians asserted and displayed to outsiders their collective identity.
‘Greece’ was not a single entity: Greeks (linked by language and culture) settled widely (not just in what we now call Greece)—but every settlement was or aspired to independence: own government, laws etc: Greek polis (cf. ‘political’) = city and state (independent political entity).
So Oresteia is not ‘Greek tragedy’ but Athenian tragedy: tragedy was not unique to Athens (e.g. Aeschylus produced plays in Sicily), but Athens was the centre and dominant force in tragedy.
See especially Eumenides: Orestes, pursued by Furies, takes refuge in Athens—in line with Athenian self-image as protector of weak and oppressed; after his acquittal, enraged Furies threaten to curse Athens, but are persuaded by Athene (patron goddess of Athens) to bless Athens instead. Also, Eumenides has connections with recent events in Athenian history.
3. Athens
Athens in the middle of the fifth century was remarkable:
(i) democratic political system established near end of the sixth century—every adult male citizen could participate directly in government. This excluded women, slaves, resident non-Athenians (citizenship could not be acquired by residence), but was radical and exceptional in Greek world.
(ii) recent ascent to status of major power:
- Athenian army defeated Persian attack on Athens at Marathon
(490 BC);
- Athens played a leading role in coalition against larger
Persian invasion in 480 BC: contributed largest naval contingent
at battle of Salamis, while Spartans contributed most powerful
army at Plataea.
- after defeat of Persian invasion, Sparta declined and Athens
accepted leadership of Greek coalition making retaliatory attacks
on Persians: leaderhsip soon became domination—effectively
an Athenian empire.
Growth of Athenian power raised question of relations with Sparta. Political leaders dominant in 470s and 460s, especially Cimon, supported peaceful co-existence and mutual support: discredited (largely by Spartan distrust) by 461—Cimon’s political influence collapsed. Then:
(i) Athens allied with Sparta’s main rival, Argos; by 458 Athens was at war with Sparta and in an alliance with Argos.
(ii) new leaders (initially Ephialtes, and then Pericles) made the Athenian democracy more radical: this included restriction of powers of the Council of the Areopagus—now only a homicide court.
It cannot be a coincidence that Eumenides dramatises founding of Areopagus as court to try Orestes for homicider. Orestes comes from Argos, and on acquittal takes oath binding Argos to friendship with Athens for ever.
Murder (or suspected murder) of radical leader Ephialtes reflects intense political crisis: fear of civil war—so note that the reconciled Furies’ blessing on Athens includes a prayer to avert civil war : ‘the brutal strife, the civil war devouring men, I pray that it never rages through the city’ (Eumenides 976-9).
4. Aeschylus
In general, we have little reliable information about the lives, personalities, attitudes etc of Greek dramatists (beware of widely disseminated pseudo-facts based on unreliable sources and speculation). But...
Aeschylus was an Athenian, born around 525 BC (so experienced beginning of democracy; fought at Marathon and probably in later campaigns). Began presenting tragedy around 499, won first victory 484; then became leading tragedian (hence invitations to produce in Sicily).
Persians (472 BC), on defeat of Persian invasion, is the earliest surviving play, but is not an early play: Aeschylus was then a mature dramatist. Oresteia (458 BC) was produced shortly before his death (456 BC).
Out of 70-90 plays by Aeschylus, only 6 survive (assuming Prometheus Bound is not by Aeschylus: scholars disagree on this question). [Note: the theory that Suppliants is the oldest surviving tragedy is obsolete: we now know it competed against Sophocles, whose first victory was in 468 BC, and whose first performance is unlikely to have been much earlier.]
Preparation for next lecture: read Agamemnon 1-257.