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Changing Fashions in Ancient Drama—I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 January 2009

Edna M. Hooker
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Extract

Ancient drama is frequently said nowadays to be unsuited to the taste of modern audiences, and when one sees modern productions of ancient plays one is inclined to agree. And yet the plays read well, and they certainly appealed to a wide variety of audiences in ancient times. Can it be that it is the production and not the play that is at fault? Apart from the obvious fact that most modern producers are unable or unwilling to handle a chorus effectively, it does seem very often that the production is based on an interpretation of the play, which, if it is not actually misguided, is at any rate hesitant. There are two factors which make it extremely difficult to interpret or appreciate an ancient play. First, the influence of Aristotle has caused us to judge ancient drama by the rules which he laid down and to measure all tragedies by the standard of Sophokles' Oedipus the King, although it is obvious that the poets were not guided by Aristotle's rules and that many tragedies aimed at effects quite different from those of the Oedipus the King. Thus we expect ancient tragedy to be ‘tragic’ in our sense of the word, and we are baffled when we find no ‘tragic’ element to satisfy our expectations. Secondly, the knowledge that drama originated as part of the cult of Dionysos impels us to label it ‘ritual drama’, and to feel that it must be solemn and conventional and must concern itself with weighty moral and theological problems. We are slightly surprised to find that it is not confined to a re-enactment of the Dionysos myths, and we hardly dare to contemplate the possibility that poets dealt very freely with the myths and legends which they took as their subjects. But ancient drama had to appeal to mixed audiences. It could not afford to be bound by academic rules or by excessive subservience to tradition. The fact that dramatic performances were organized as competitions was in itself an inducement to introduce new methods of handling the traditional material; and, if we look at the plays which have survived, we can see that drama changed constantly to suit the inevitable changes in public taste.

Type
Research Article
Information
Greece & Rome , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1960 , pp. 36 - 53
Copyright
Copyright © The Classical Association 1960

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References

page 37 note 1 This is strongly suggested by the stories of Dionysos Melanaigis, the god in the black goatskin, and particularly by the legend of the fight between Xanthos and Melanthos, in which Dionysos Melanaigis gave the victory to Melanthos.

page 38 note 1 Hdt. v. 67. 1–5Google Scholar. In this story Dionysos is connected with a Melanippos, and it would seem that at Argos the horse had superseded the goat as the sacred animal, and Melanippos had replaced Melanaigis as the manifestation of Dionysos in his role as the king's enemy. The word ‘tragic’ would naturally be applied to choruses in goatskins, but it could easily have been transferred to similar choruses who wore skins of other animals, and to choruses who had ceased to wear skins at all.

page 38 note 2 i. 52.

page 38 note 3 To Aristotle, (Poetic 1453b)Google Scholar tragedy consisted in the infliction of suffering by those near and dear to the victim, which is precisely what was involved in the killing of the divine king.

page 41 note 1 Oxyrhynchus Papyri, xx, p. 30 (No. 2256, frag. 3).Google Scholar

page 42 note 1 It has been generally accepted that Prometheus the Fire-bearer was the last of the three plays, but the evidence is scanty and not strong enough to prove this. It is, moreover, difficult to see how an effective full-length play could have been made out of what was left of the story of Prometheus after his release, and very easy to feel the need of a first play to show the events leading up to his disgrace. Accordingly I am more inclined to subscribe to the views of Mr. Brown, A. D. Fitton (Proceedings of the Classical Association, liii [1956], 25Google Scholar, and now Journal of Hellenic Studies, lxxix [1959], 52–60)Google Scholar, than to those of Westphal and his school.