Download Ch. 14: The Theater of Dionysus

Page 1 of 3
Ch. 14: The Theater of Dionysus: Myth and the Tragic Vision
This chapter serves as an overall treatment of the Greek tragic theatre. As such, it is a pretty
good treatment.
As far as material goes, Homer and Hesiod are our oldest and largest sources, but the tragedies
written for the Athenian theatre in the 5th c. BC are also numerically significant. As they were
composed in Athens, for Athenians, they put a particular spin on the myths. For example,
when Euripides wrote The Trojan Women in 415 BC, and even when he wrote the Electra
around the same time, it is clear that he was very concerned with the Peloponnesian War
between Athens and Sparta that was going on. Things were going badly for the Athenians, and
some of the passages in these plays reflect that. In addition, Euripides is clearly disturbed by the
effect of the war on the psyche of Athens. And so, his Trojan Women depicts the title
characters, who were the mothers and wives of the Trojan enemy, in a very sympathetic
manner. Athens had just brutally subjugated a small island in the Aegean, Melos, which wanted
to remain neutral in the war. It was entirely a show of power and not of justice. And Euripides
was one Athenian who clearly felt it was wrong and even criminal. He could not voice such
opinions openly, but could have his characters speak out against such actions in a mythological
setting.
The plays we have are limited to a period from 472 (Aeschylus’ Persians), to 406 BC
(Sophocles’ Oedipus at Colonus; Euripides’ Iphigenia at Aulis and Bacchae), a period of only 66
years. Drama had only been around for about 50 years prior to the Persians. So what we
consider an enduring art form had a very particular birth – in the growing Athenian democracy,
which largely died as a democracy at the end of the Peloponnesian War (404 BC).
In fact, it may be that democracy had something to do with drama. Where Homer and Hesiod
speak, as authors, with an authoritative, 3rd person omniscient voice, drama presents a story
from different perspectives. The chorus and the hero are sometimes on the same page, but
sometimes not. Different characters in the play see the action differently and have different
desires. In a sense the totality is the result of an ongoing discussion between the characters –
just as politics in Athens would proceed through speech and debate, rather than by royal
decree.
In some cases, there is no clear position. Sophocles’ Antigone has two characters, Antigone
and Creon, who hold inflexible positions regarding the role of a citizen in a state and regarding
what constitutes justice. Though the play clearly makes it clear that Antigone was right in her
position, Creon is not entirely wrong. Likewise, the Bacchae of Euripides, though it presents
Pentheus as a religiously intolerant person, who cannot accept other forms of worship, and he
is wrong in this view, the play does show just how dangerous religious fervor can be, when
Pentheus is killed by religious zealots, including his own mother.
Prior to the dramatic forms, tragedy, comedy and the satyr play, there had been the dithyramb,
a choral narrative. It is said that one of the dithyrambic writers, a man named Thespis, created
drama when he took one of the chorus out to play the role of a character who would interact
with the chorus. It is unclear when this happened, but it is clear in the early plays of Aeschylus
(the Persians and the Seven Against Thebes) that there is little interaction between characters,
and more between the main character and the chorus. These early dithyrambs may have had
to do with Dionysus, and have been something like Homeric Hymn # 9, which tells the story of
Dionysus and the pirates.
Page 2 of 3
The dithyrambs and the later plays were performed at a religious festival in honor of Dionysus,
the City Dionysia. The festival was held annually in early March. It commenced with a parade
in which the implements of the god, Dionysus, including a sacred phallus, and of the drama –
there were masks. And there were 4 days of plays. Each tragedian who was chosen (only 3
were chosen to compete each year) would compose 4 plays – 3 tragedies and 1 satyr play (a
comic turn on a mythological theme, in which the chorus are made up to look like satyrs – part
of the costume was a large phallus attached to the costume – the only surviving satyr play is
Euripides’ Cyclops, which is a comic version of Odyssey ix, where Odysseus and his men
encounter the brutal Cyclops, Polyphemus. Each of the three would perform all his plays on
one day. Following the three days of tragedy, there would be a day of comedy, in which 5
comedies would be performed, each by a different comic playwright.
Tragedy – the term means “goat song” and it may refer to the chorus which wore goat skins,
or it may refer to a hymn or song, or shout, that accompanied the sacrifice of a goat to start
the festival (and then later used of the main drama of the festival), or it may be (this is my
thought, not Harris and Platzner) that because the hero in many tragedies is something of a
sacrificial victim (or scapegoat) like a goat that would be sacrificed to Dionysus. In that sense,
the goat song would reflect the scapegoat quality of the hero. This final idea may have
influenced the development of the character of the hero, as the name for the new art form
likely arrived with the art form – and the sense of the hero as scapegoat for the community was
probably not there at that time.
Comedy – the term means “revelers’ song” from the kommos or parade of revelers that
opened the festival. The fact that the satyr play closed each day, and that comedies closed the
festival suggests that part of the purpose of the drama was to raise significant questions
regarding human behavior in the tragedies, but then to end on a laugh, and a celebration of
community. Comedies were performed at the City Dionysia, but also at another festival, the
Lenaea, which started c. 440 BC.
It is important to note that these plays were part of a festival, and so were not “scholarly”
pieces as they sometimes see today when we read the plays. This is also the case with
Shakespeare, who may seem rather high-brow when we read him, but may be played quite
differently in a theatre, where we not only see the words enacted, but also are aware of the
others in the audience. The Shakespearean comedies, in performance, often have a festive
quality that seems missing when we read them alone.
Catharsis – Aristotle in his Poetics notes that Greek tragedy was supposed to relieve or purge
the strong emotions evoked. This suggests that the performance of tragedy would have an
exhilarating effect, rather than making them depressed.
It is interesting that Harris and Platzner consider Athens and Athenian democracy to be a
society which largely embodied Apolline restraint. For democracies to work, those who lose a
decision must be ready to abide by the decision of the majority. In reality, though, in ancient
Athens as in our own society, there are lots of politicians who don’t embody restraint and
reason, but appeal to fear and other negative emotions with a view to increasing their power.
The Athenian politician, Creon, appealed to the mob, rather than appealing to the better
natures of people, to gain power.
Drama, which is a Dionysian form, is more interested in breaking boundaries (the actor
becomes another character, and the characters themselves also act beyond the bounds society
would prefer for them). Watching that play out, though, can lead to understanding. Nice
quote from William Blake: “The road of excess leads to the palace of wisdom.”
Page 3 of 3
The world of the tragic heroes features heroic figures who push the envelope (Sophocles’
heroes are especially heroic and non-yielding). They live in a world where human excellence is
set against a universe that does not necessarily reward that excellence – heroes still suffer and
die. As Aristotle noted, a key feature of many tragedies was the peripeteia (“reversal”). The
Oedipus Rex is a great example of this – Oedipus at the play’s beginning is the king of Thebes,
apparently winning the job through his cleverness and ability to solve riddles. In the course of
the play, he tries to solve a new riddle – “Who killed Laius?” and the solving of it will prove his
undoing. At play’s end, he is blind, no longer king, a wandering beggar. The chorus even
comment on the change of his circumstances as a warning to us all. Still, in tragedy, the human
actors, though they live in a world that is often unjust and unfair, are called to live decent lives
and do the right thing.