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Greek Drama and Choregia by Matoula Scaltsa

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Greek Drama and Choregia by Matoula Scaltsa 1 Ancient Athens: Greek Drama and Choregia by Matoula Scaltsa 1. INTRODUCTION The main aim of this article is to address the issue of financial support of the arts in ancient Athens and especially during the 5th and 4th centuries which represent the most powerful and flourishing era of its history. One of the most characteristic forms of such support is the institution of "choregia", an institution which is uniquely related to the Athenian democracy. More specifically, it is connected with the ancient Greek dithyrambic choruses and drama performances, and the contests organised for these performances during the religious festivals. Given the connection of "choregia" with the organisation of these festivals and the social and political structure of the Athenian democracy, there can not be avoided for some more general than strictly financial matters to be discussed. After all, every economical matter has always its roots in political decisions, depicting social structures and dynamic practices both in social and political levels. The institution of choregia although related to the notion of patronage is quite distinct. The patronage, according to R. Williams1, follows 5 forms: (i) "From institution to patronage": which is marked by the transition from the instituted court artist to the artists of the nobility, who, although still highly attached to a household, he could be dependent on travelling between households. This is the beginning of a transition from the social relations of a regular institution to the social relations of conscious exchange. (ii) "Retainer and commission": where the artist is retained or commissioned by a court or powerful household as an individual professional worker. The 1 R. Williams, Culture, London, Fontana Press, 1989, pp. 38-44. 2 transition to full ecclesiastical patronage is a transition to those forms of professionalism, involving mobility and availability for hire. The patrons of the aforementioned categories offered hospitality, reward and in some cases -in the second category- direct monetary exchange but for work specifically performed for and owned by them. (iii) "Protection and support": there might be still some direct commissioning and some direct (retaining) support but the main function is social support, in uncertain social and legal conditions. It represents primarily a social recommendation and a hopefully mutual reputation and honour. The patron of the above category often worked within conditions where the work of art was being partly or wholly offered to a paying public (iv) "Sponsorship": it is marked by the existence of qualitative new social relations of art, where the works of art are faced as commodities for general use. It applies in conditions in which commodity and market relations are dominant and the works of art, either commissioned or supported, are judged as forms of investment or prestige advertising. (v) "The public patron": in the patronage of this form money are raised by taxation for the deliberate maintenance and extension of the arts as a matter of general public policy; the public body is held to have replaced the court or the household or the individual patron in the previous cases. The defining characteristic of all patronal social relations is the privileged situation of the patron; The patron can give or withdraw his support or commission. The case of "choregia" , having many of the characteristics of the above categories of patronage, is also marked by others which make it unique and quite distinct from these. (i) the institution was obligatory for certain classes which represented a wide range of the Athenian population, almost 1/5. (ii) the person responsible for the funding could not withdraw his support. (iii) the support was not only monetary but included also a great deal of personal involvement and demanded managerial abilities on the part of the "choregos". (iv) Choregia was thought to be a duty to the Athenian democracy. It was thought as a necessary "return" of the rich people to their city for the goods 3 provided by it to them and the community. Therefore no return could be expected for a choregos other than that derived strictly from the grade of the good execution of this duty. So the term "choregia" (χορηγία) can not be replaced either by the word patronage nor by the word sponsorship. The word philanthropy can neither be used instead, because philanthropy can never be obligatory. Therefore it seems that a new term should be introduced, which not uncommonly has its roots to the same old language as the words patronage and philanthropy. 4 2. RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS IN ATHENS Religious festivals in Ancient Greece and especially in Athens during the centuries of its power, 5th and 4th B.C, were thought to be some of the most important events, strongly connected with the general life of the community. The peak of those festivals were the drama performances and especially the competition for the best of them which started at about 440 B.C.2 It was hoped that the rites honouring the gods would encourage them to protect the polis (city-state) and its people. Socially and politically, the festivals were the major occasions when the citizens could gather and enjoy themselves viewing the drama performances, eating a rare meal of meat from the sacrificed animals, appreciate the values of the city on the community life and enjoy the privilege being citizens of such a powerful city. Although drama, for the Greeks, was part of a religious festival, this fact should not be equated with the modern religious congregation. For ancient Greeks religious worship was not passive as it happens in modern religious ceremonies, it was participatory and took many forms; the gods were honoured by human achievements: by athletic meets and boxing matches, by singing, dancing and acting3. One extremely prominent feature of the Greek religious festivals was the element of competition. Not for profit, but for prestige, repute, fame, glory and "philotimia" (φιλοτιμία: concern for one's honour). The competitive side of the dramatic festivals played a large part in shaping their organisation. 2.1 The case of the "Great Dionysia" 2 H. C. Baldry, The Greek tragic theatre, London, Chatto and Windus, 1971, p.3. 3 P. D. Arnott, Public performance in the Greek theatre, London and N. York, Routledge, 1989, p. 5. 5 The greatest of all the Athens festivals was the "City Dionysia" for the warship of god Dionysus (Bacchus), god of wine and joy, of fertility and growth, and whose animal incarnations were the bull and the goat4. The "City Dionysia" were also known and as "Great Dionysia" or simply as "Dionysia". Dionysia were taking place during the end of March, which was called Elaphebolion5 and was the period when the sailing season started. Athens, if war did not prevent it, was crowded with visitors-merchants, of "allies" bringing tribute, travellers eager to see the wonders of the finest city of Greece, or drawn by festival itself. Dionysia was an event of Pan-Hellenic importance which brought people from all over the Greek-speaking world into the theatre; this was the setting for Greek drama which consisted of tragedy, comedy and satyr play. Looking back on the origins of Greek drama one has to look at the dithyrambic chorus, where a body of dancers and singers performed honouring the god Dionysus. (Fig...../......) The real transformation of a simple chorus performance to a dramatic one occurred when first one actor was added and then more -Aeschylus added the second actor and Sophocles the third- creating in that way complex possibilities of dramatic action. First there was the dithyramb or choric hymn, a pre-dramatic form. Then there were added (i) the innovation of dialogue between a single figure (the actor) and the chorus; (ii) the innovation of dialogue, now in a more developed sense, between the first actor and the second which was added; (iii) the addition of a third actor. This new mature form, the drama, consisted of a chorus, a chorus-leader 4 The Greek word for goat is tragos (τράγος). The word tragos also meant people who were wearing the goat- skins and were singing and dancing honouring Dionysos, hence the word tragedy (τραγωδία). 5 The Elaphebolion month, meaning the month when somebody chases deers, was between 15 of March and 15 of April being the 9th month of the year, the first being the Ecatombaeon month lasting between 15 of July and 15 of August. During this first month of the year, Panathenaia were celebrated, honouring the goddess protector of Athens Athena (Minerva). A very important part of that celebration was the procession to Parthenon on the Acropolis which was depicted by Phidias in the frieze of Parthenon. Part of this frieze is located in British Museum known as the "Elgin Marbles 6 (κορυφαίος), who was one form of the originally emergent single figure; a first actor (protagonist:πρωταγωνιστής) who was the more developed form of this same figure; two other actors (δευτεραγωνιστής αnd τριταγωνιστής); and attendant mutes. The chorus sang and danced as in the dithyramb but also in a new deliberate relations with the actors; the chorus leader used a mode between speech and song, in transitions between the choral singing and the actors' dialogue; the actors spoke in formal metres and they shared between the three of them all the speaking parts (often eight individual characters). (Fig....../........) The element of competitiveness and the importance of the actors in the evolution of the plot presented quite different relations of audience to the religious element of drama than the formal relations of the priest and the body of worshipers in the pre-dramatic mode. The transformation of a received form (choral singing) into a new formal type (drama) depicted changes in social relations connected more to general social developments than to mere local social conditions.
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