Aeschylean Tragedy Through the Eyes of Eva Palmer-Sikelianou

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"The World's a Circular Stage": Aeschylean Tragedy through the Eyes of Eva Palmer- Sikelianou Author(s): Gonda van Steen Reviewed work(s): Source: International Journal of the Classical Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Winter, 2002), pp. 375- 393 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30224223 . Accessed: 14/11/2011 11:35

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http://www.jstor.org "The World's a Circular Stage": AeschyleanTragedy through the Eyes of Eva Palmer-Sikelianou GONDAVAN STEEN

At the first Delphic Festival of 1927, Eva Palmer-Sikelianoupresented a pioneering outdoor production of Aeschylus' PrometheusBound. Three years later, she staged repeat performances of the Prometheusand added a new production of Aeschylus' Suppliant Women.At first sight, it appears as if, at both festivals, Palmer-Sikelianoupaid minimal attention to stage-design, whereas she took care personally of nearly all other production aspects. This study, however, based on the preserved photographicevidence, shows that Palmer-Sikelianou'sphilosophical conception of the "sacred"space of the ancient theater at Delphi, i.e., its near-circularorchestra and its open-view setting within the surrounding mountains,inspired her choice of an elementalstage-design. Influencedby Nietzsche's Birth of Tragedy,she stressed circular and centripetal movements, as her choreography demonstrates.On a larger plan, the Delphic orchestrawas, for her, part of the ur-form of the dynamic circle, shaped here by Delphi's naturallandscape, which rendered additional sets superfluous.

I turned to reading translationsof Greek plays ... and ... the criticalstud- ies of scholars concerning the Greek Theatre.These last seemed rarely to be in agreementwith each other, and never with the impression I got from the actual plays themselves. I did not feel that I knew anything about produc- ing Greek plays, but I did believe, later on, from reading, and from many performances which I had seen in various places, that no one else did either. The written work which interested me most in this regard was Nietzsche's Birthof Tragedy,but even with this I agreed only in part.' As a guide on my way, or rather at first as a torment, I held for years to two short sentences: one from The Republicof Plato, and one from Aristotle's Poetics:"The tragic chorus is the union of poetry, music and gymnastics," and "the tragic chorus expresses in movement the character,the sufferings

1 According to JohnAnton, a personal friend of Palmer and editor of her autobiography,the original manuscriptleaves the readerwithout any informationabout the translationPalmer used or the edition from which she quoted (171 n. 1). Anton supports, however, that Palmer did consult an English translation of the German original. All subsequent references to Palmer'sAutobiography are to Anton's edition and appear parentheticallyin the text. Gonda Van Steen, Department of Classics, University of Arizona, P.O. Box 210105, Learning Services Bldg., Room 2003,Tucson, AZ 85721-0105,USA. InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition, Vol. 8, No. 3, Winter2002, pp. 375-393. 376 InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition / Winter2002

and the actions of the actors."2I think that now I am just beginning to see what they meant ... (Eva Palmer-Sikelianou, Autobiography,106)

This study may shed new light on Eva Palmer's conception of space and movement in Aeschylean tragedy based on the visual materials that are currently held in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the Princeton University Library.3I argue that, in the outdoor setting of the ancient theater at Delphi, Palmer's choreographyinnovated in ways that went beyond the-much-discussed--copying of ancient vases and reliefs. A new look at the visual evidence reveals that Palmer's stage-design and choreography expressed her philosophical thinking about the ideal architecturalform of the circle, of the classical Greek theater orchestra, and of the chorus moving in this performancespace. Antones Glytzoures analyzed in great detail Palmer's interpretationand reconstructionof the ancient Greek dance and movement in both Aeschylus' PrometheusBound and SuppliantWomen (Hiketides) but he took for granted the circle as her key point of departure.4Palmer, nonetheless, left us with important cues pointing to the centralityof the form of the circle to her philosophical and practicalapproach to the Greek theater: "The Greek Theatreis primarily a circle ... The attention of actors, chorus and audience was centered on a point, the orchestra, and formed circling waves of power which increased in intensity as the drama un- folded."5The preserved photographicevidence supports my claim that Palmermateri- alized her thinking about Aeschylean tragedy in the form of the circle. But before engaging in my argument, I owe the reader a brief sketch of Palmer's main contribu- tions to the reception of Greek drama. In 1905, the American heiress Eva Palmer (1874-1952)first met the young Greek poet Angelos Sikelianos (1884-1951),whom she married two years later.6In 1927, she undertook the pioneer act of directing Aeschylus' PrometheusBound at the ancient theaterof Delphi (premieredon May 9). Threeyears later,she produced both Prometheus

2. Again according to Anton (106 n. 2), this reference is a paraphrase of Aristotle, Poetics, 1456a25-26,where Aristotle states that the chorus ought to be regardedas one of the actors, i.e., it must be an integratedpart of the whole play. 3. I take this opportunityto thankthe librarystaff membersfor their assistance.Yannis Hamilakisgraciously accepted to readan earlierversion of thispaper and offered insightful comments. He discusses Palmer'scontribution in his forthcomingstudy on the reuse of the classics in contemporaryGreece, entitled Dreamingin Ruins:Antiquity and NationalImagina- tion in Greece. 4. Palmer did not question the authorship of the PrometheusBound. The attribution of this tragedyto Aeschylushas been contested:some interpretershave positeddating problems based on observations on content and dramatic form, which seem better to fit a post- Aeschylean author. According to Griffith,the PrometheusBound might have been written by Aeschylus late in his career (Aeschylus died in 456 B.C.E.).He pointed out that most scholars, however, have dated the play to the 440s or 430s B.C.E.See Griffith,Aeschylus, PrometheusBound, 31-35; and The Authenticityof 'PrometheusBound.' Taplin, 240, 460-469, and passim. 5. Palmer-Sikelianou,"What Is GreatTheatre?," 298-299. Palmer explained that, in the original ancientGreek theater, "the actions and attention of actors,chorus and audience were all centeredround the samepoint, which was the centreof the circle"(224). 6. Lia Papadakepublished the earlier,romantic correspondence between Eva Palmerand Natalie CliffordBarney. VanSteen 377

and the SuppliantWomen as part of the second "DelphicFestival."7 Both Delphic Festi- vals gave preliminary,material expression to the couple's lifetime dream of establish- ing Delphi as a new spiritual center of humanistic values. These values were to unite the divided peoples and nations but would also revive the Greeks' Great Idea (Megale Idea),not as an expansionist political program,but as a broad cultural and humanitar- ian vision.8 Glytzoures has honored Palmer with the title of "the first director-ideo- logue" for adopting non-commercial, purely aesthetic principles, which challenged established capitalistpractices of the Westernand also the Athenian star-system of the 1920s and 1930s.9Both his studies stress Palmer'sactive role as director and organizer and are a welcome change from the decades-long crediting of the productions to Angelos Sikelianos (whether exclusively or in uneven parts).1'0 Palmer marked a first in many areas:in 1927, she was the first woman to stage an ancient tragedy in an authentic Greek outdoor setting, the fourth-century B.C.E.theater on the archaeological site of Delphi, under the--at first very skeptical--eyes of many Greek and Western tourists, academics,journalists, correspondents, and others. She and her husband were the first to invite a mass audience of exclusively village people to the second performanceof the 1927 PrometheusBound and to take cues from their understanding and appreciationof the play. Their revival production, be it a re- enactment of classical Hellenic achievement, was, for the first time, part of a larger festival that celebratedGreek cultural continuitiesbeyond the glorious ancient monuments and texts. Palmer'sexhibition of Greek folk art and handicraft,for instance, was to demonstrate to all foreign festival-goers that Greek folk genius and skill continued to flourish. Villagers of Parnassos performed traditional klefth songs and dances for the same purpose. Young Greek men competed in athletic games, in an ancient-style pentathlon, and in the Pyrrhicdance (classical military dancing) to show that Greek prowess and courage lived on. Some contemporaryand later critics, however, argued that the "elitist-aristocratic"couple approachedthe native tradition,local folklore,and Greek authenticityat large in a patronizingmanner and that it failed to take account of the transformationsof a dynamic modern Greek reality.11Influenced by contemporary notions of Romantic,mystical nationalism,the Sikelianoi may have helped to perpetu- ate a static Greek present but they also made important ideological statements:'2they invited foreign visitors' appreciationfor native Greek culture and nature and encour- aged the Greeks to view their own folk traditions and vernacularlanguage in new,

7. For practical information on the Delphic Festivals, see the programs issued at the time, some of which are held in the Department of Rare Books and Special Collections of the PrincetonUniversity Library. 8. Wiles, 183 invoked the couple's dismay at the failure of the League of Nations, the rise of Italianfascism, and the plight of the Greekrefugees from Asia Minor after the GreatCatas- trophe (MegaleKatastrophe). See further Alexopoulos, 144. The Sikelianoi were influenced also by the resonanceof the open-air productions of classical drama staged at the ancient theaterof Syracusein Sicily.See furtherMichelakis and my conclusion. 9. Glytzoures, TheStage Director's Art, 1:259.For his reservations,however, see 1:258,260. 10. See also Leontis,2-3. 11. For a devastating critique, see Vasiles Rotas, 1:33-52. See also the ironic poem of Kostas Karyotakesentitled Delphic Festival (1927). Other negative critiques appeared in the radical leftist newspaper Rizospastes.See also Sideres,356-357, and Thrylos. 12. Hamilakis,written communicationwith the author,30 August 2001. 378 InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition / Winter 2002

proud ways. For more than two decades, the European Cultural Centre of Delphi (founded 1977) has commemorated their work and has placed its own academic and professional activities squarely within the couple's pursuit of intellectual and especially theatricalinquiry. Palmer was able to let go of classical or classicizing models, once she had devel- oped a high level of expertise in a given area. This, too, was a rarity in the contemporary Greekreception-history of original tragedy.'3Palmer was fascinated,for example, with the draped clothing of female dance figures and other moving characters on ancient reliefs; she wanted her chorus women's costumes, nearly all of which she wove herself on traditional looms, to recreate these beautiful folds. Her focus on drapery and her copying from two-dimensional Attic red-figure vases and classical reliefs in the Athens ArchaeologicalMuseum explain the characteristicposes and movements adopted by her choruses: the chorus women often showed their head, arms, and feet in profile but their chest and the rest of their body practicallyin front-view.14 Yet Palmer was not slavishly classicizing and decided to use silk for the Oceanids' costumes. She reflected:

I thought that for the Chorus of Oceanides the sheen of silk would be appropriate.I knew that the ancient Greeks were supposed not to have silk, but I did not really care. I was not trying to be strictly correct,and I felt that if Aeschylus did not have silk he would have liked to have it for this particularplay. (108)

Academics in the audience enjoyed the aesthetic spectacle of a well-trained and beautifully dressed chorus; some called it, in their own classicizing terms, a "moving archaic frieze."'5sDrawing on her strong educational background in music, Palmer reinterpretedthe words of both tragedies' chorus passages guided by the methods of Byzantine and Greek Orthodox ecclesiastical music. This music, she believed, was a living remnantof the original music of ancient drama,which the Romaic liturgicaland folk traditionhad preserved over many centuries.16Palmer followed her own impulse

13. On the conservativeapproach to the classicsof universityprofessor Georgios Mistriotes, see Van Steen,Aristophanes, 113-119, and passim. 14. Wiles,188 observed that the notionthat classical Greek dances could be reconstructedfrom vasepaintings and sculptures was commonat thetime. Influential was the studyof Maurice Emmanuel,La Danse grecque antique d'apres les monumentsfigurds. Isadora Duncan embodied this questfor the classicalGreek ideal in dance.Palmer had beenexposed to leadingdanc- ers,such as Duncan,and hadalso gainedpersonal experience in classicizingmodern dance. Manyyears later, Palmer wrote: "[Plhrase by phrase,I triedto fit the highlights,as it were, or the principle(sic) accents in meaningand music,with what seemedto me appropriate gesturesfrom the vases.... I startedteaching them [the chorus women] the music,entirely orally,... andthen definite gestures for every word or phrase of the text"(109). 15. Sideres,355. See also Flashar, 162. 16. With the experthelp of Prof. KonstantinosA. Psachos,to whom Palmerdelegated the compositionof bothproductions' musical scores, she appliedmusical notes to wordsand to the accentsand rhythmsof words.Music and dancerhythms were to emergefrom words and shouldnever be superimposed,Palmer insisted. Knowing that originalGreek drama used only the aulosflute, she was readyto rejectorchestral accompaniment and modern, Western-styleharmony altogether. She found support in Aristotlefor not addinganything VanSteen 379

again when she subordinatedthe ancienttext to the "trueemotions" that music, rhythm, and dance were to generate (113-114).She trusted in her husband's preferencefor the modern Greek translation of the PrometheusBound written by the poet loannes N. Grypares.'7The couple had carefully considered whether or not to resort to a translation. By using modern Greek, they wanted to prove the successful continuity of Greek as a living language. Only a production in Demotic Greek-not one in the artificial Kathareuousa-would be understoodby the local villagers as well. Also, the Sikelianoi feared that ancient Greek in modem Greek pronunciation would have puzzled or perturbed foreign academic visitors, whereas ancient Greek with the Erasmian pro- nunciationwould have upset or alienatededucated native Greek spectators(108). One component is missing from most discussions of Palmer's directorialchoices: the stage-setting. This factor leads us back to my argument for defining the circle as key to her treatmentof Aeschylean tragedy. Palmer's use of the circulararchitectural form of the Delphic theater as a physical stage "setting"was perhaps the most radical innovation she made-in an era when urban centers prided themselves in grand opera houses and other luxurious indoor venues. Her choice of circularand centripetalcho- reographic movement within this "sacred"setting of nature and ruins expressed her belief that a simple, primitive form could help to transmit the Delphic Idea. The Sikelianoi's ideal was to create a universal center of centers, a univers-ity, at Delphi, which would unite peoples around spirituality and Art.'8 The ur-form of the circle best evoked the holistic symbolism and spiritualwealth of the Delphic space: the name Delphi (Delphoi) means "wombs" and the ancients regarded Delphi as the world's umbilicus, or omphalos,which allowed direct communicationwith-and return to-the

extraneous,because he hadobserved that dramatic language demanded only "melodyand rhythm"(107-108; paraphrasing the lastlines of Aristotle,Poetics, 1449b). However, to save her cooperationwith Psachos,Palmer had to acceptthe accompanimentof a (hidden) instrumentalorchestra for the firstPrometheus Bound of 1927.She was consistentwith her own ideas in both of the 1930productions. See also Wiles, 186. 17. Grypares(1870-1942) had been translatingAeschylus from the early twentieth century on and his Demotic translationswere known in Greekliterary circles. See Sideres, 189. Sideres, who mentioned Grypares's translationson many occasions, did not provide publication dates but suggested that, by 1927, they were well established. He even added the telling detail that a handful of literati followed along the text of Grypares's translation while watching the 1930 production of the SuppliantWomen (419). However, the bibliographical catalog compiled by Georgios Oikonomou and Georgios Angelinaraslists only two book- size editions of Grypares'stranslation of Aeschylus' PrometheusBound (275, 276, 278, 281): one volume combines Grypares'sPrometheus translation with his rendition of the Suppliant Womenand was issued on the occasion of the 1930 Delphic Festivals (it may be the one to which Sideres, 419 referred);the other is an undated collection of all seven Aeschylean tragedies translatedby Grypares,for which Oikonomou and Angelinarasposited the publication date of 1938 (see my bibliography for full references to both volumes, copies of which are currently held in the Departmentof Rare Books and Special Collections of the PrincetonUniversity Library).Because Grypares was still alive at the time of both Delphic Festivals, he might have followed closely how his translations were used by Palmer- Sikelianou.She, however, did not mention a close cooperationwith the translator-poet,if any, which may further point to the existence of a known printed translationwell before 1927. 18. Sikelianospublished articlesunder the title "TheDoric University of Delphi."Sideres, 403. 380 InternationalJournal of theClassical Tradition / Winter2002

Figure 1: The ancient theaterat Delphi.

earth.'9A picture of the round omphalosstone adorned the cover of the program of the 1927 Delphic Festival. For these reasons, the use of the near-circulartheater on the site of Delphi was simply nonnegotiable, even though many archaeologists were up in arms fearing that the ancient theater might be damaged-if not "defiled"--by the staging of a modem production.20 The orchestraof the ancient theater at Delphi is a near-perfect circle of about 18 meters (59 feet) in diameter around the sacred thymele,or the altar (stone) of Dionysus. Its stage foundations do not intrude upon the original circle but are tangent to it, as was the simple stage platform that Palmer erected (Figure 1). Back in an Athenian

19. Seealso Leontis,9, 14-15. 20. See the anecdoteof Palmer'sencounter with the frankdirector of the GermanArchaeologi- cal Schoolat Athens(113). The Sikelianoi had long rejectedthe possibilityof stagingtheir firstplay in the marblePanathenaic stadium in the centerof Athens,which had beenused for outdoorproductions before. Van Steen,Aristophanes, 118, 246 n. 106. Modem Greek theaterpractitioners, influenced by laterproductions staged at the Epidaurustheater or at theOdeon of HerodesAtticus, often take outdoor productions in ancientsettings for granted. Theyforget that the summerFestivals of AncientGreek Drama at Athensand Epidaurus were inspiredpartly by Palmer'sinitiative, even though their inaugurationfollowed a quarterof a centurylater. See below and VanSteen, Aristophanes, 194-196. VanSteen 381

suburb, Palmer had built a practice circle of the same size as the orchestra of the theater at Delphi. The chorus women rehearsed their movements and songs in this primitive circle, "threshing floor," or nurturing ground, in which they also gained a deeper awareness of Palmer's teachings (227).21Other circular forms and shapes in Greek architectureand archaeology drew Palmer's attention as well. She had seen the round threshing floors that Greek villagers continued to use, which figured in theories on the early origins of the Greek dithyramband drama (221-222). On the lower site at Delphi stands the Tholos,one of the few round buildings preserved from antiquity. Finally,the Sikelianoi arrangedfor Wilhelm Dorpfeld, who had discovered a primitive dancing circle in Athens, to lecture in the Delphi theateras part of the 1927 festival.22 For Palmer,Delphi provided a stage that needed hardly any further sets or extraneous adornments.In 1927 she used only a single but fairly large artificialrock formation (of papier mache), to which Prometheuswas fastened with his arms spread wide open (like Christ on the cross). This rock formation stood by itself on a plain, raised platform, which functioned as a minimalist backdrop to the movement of the chorus in the orchestra.In the 1930 repeat productionof the Prometheus,Palmer used a singular, much smaller rock again placed on a raised stage. Both times she wanted the natural mountains in the backgroundto be the true backdrop.In the latter production, Prometheus'small rock stood as a mere token or pars-pro-toto for the massive natural rock formations directly within the spectators' view. To grasp the significance of Palmer's stage "design" with and within the physical environment of Delphi, I will turn shortly to photographs of the productionsof both Delphic Festivals. Palmer's thinking about the form, the content, and the emotional power of ancient drama was influenced by Nietzsche's TheBirth of Tragedyout of the Spiritof Music (1872)-its title alone captured her attention (171-174). Nietzsche had rejected language-based theater and had argued that the tragic chorus, the embodiment of the primeval Dionysian principle, should be restored to its full force to convey collective emotion.23Nietzsche had also identified with the Prometheus figure and had been intrigued by Aeschylus' version of the myth: he regarded Prometheus as an active, male creatorand artistof a-simultaneously-Apollonian and Dionysian nature,whose liberating wisdom came at the price of eternal suffering (under the tyrannical Zeus [Prom.10, 34f., 40f., 50, 53, 62, 67f.]).24Also, the choruses of both the PrometheusBound and the SuppliantWomen could be given lead status, even though the chorusof Oceanids was far less integrated into the (minimal) stage action.25Palmer's special effort to integrate the Prometheuschorus reflected the Sikelianoi's view of a world in need of community and order. Their chorus thus gained moral, near-mystical qualities.26Like Nietzsche, the couple identified with Prometheus' quest for knowledge (including

21. Seethe personal testimony of KoulaPratsika, 126. 22. Wiles,187-188. 23. Wiles,184. 24. Nietzsche,chapter 9; Heilke,38-41; Porter, Invention of Dionysus,45, 155;id., Nietzsche,218- 219,236, 275, 281-282; Silk and Stem,passim; Wiles, 185. 25. The chorusof the PrometheusBound has the most self-containedand artificialentrance motivation. Taplin, 251, 254. Taplin, 256 also pointed out that, because of the extreme brevity of the choral songs and the absence of lyric dialogue or epirrhematiclyrics, the chorus of Oceanids is technicallyleft with a relativelysmall amount of dancingand singing. 26. On this symbolism of the chorus at Delphi, see Tsoutsoura,42-43. 382 InternationalJournal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2002

self-knowledge) in spite of personal sufferings. Guided by Nietzsche's tenet of the Apollonian and the Dionysian constituents of ancient Greek drama,27the Sikelianoi opened their Prometheusproductions with a performanceof the Hymn to Apollo that is preserved in the rare inscription with musical notations currentlyheld in the Delphi museum.28In the Nietzschean vision, Apollo and Dionysus had shared the site of Delphi in a harmonious arrangementthat symbolized the balanced marriage of logos and sacred mania.The Sikelianoihighlighted also the myth of Apollo's victory over the female serpent Python (as described in the Homeric Hymn to Apollo,356-374), which revealed a fusion of opposites, such as the Olympian and the chthonic, the celestial and the terrestrial,the male and the female element.29For them, too, this unity had fostered the spread of knowledge in antiquity through the channels of oracles, a panhellenic religion, and shared institutions, which had transcended the spiritual as well as territorialboundaries of the classicalpoleis or city-states. Then, the principles of athletic, political, and ideological unification, of harmony between body and mind, of dialogue, negotiation, and peace, had expressed themselves in the Pythian Games and in the workings of the alliance called the Amphictyonic League, which protected and administeredApollo's sanctuary at Delphi.30In the conviction of the Sikelianoi, now was the time to inspire those ideals with new life. "We must use the great medium which alone can unite opposites: ART, and especially DRAMA," Sikelianos told his wife (103).31The couple would function as mystic priests or hierophants in the service of Art and would assist in guiding and elevating the masses.32"DRAMA" had to recapturelost unity by procuring a spiritual rebirthin the ancient sources of tradition and civilization. For the poet-visionary, the "greatDrama," which gripped "masses, fifteen, twenty, thirty thousand people," uni- fied and harmonized all other forms of art (music, poetry, dance, acting, architecture, sculpture, painting), i.e., "all the faculties of man."33As the first woman to revive classical plays in Greece and to take responsibility for nearly all production compo- nents (like the earliest ancient dramatists),Palmer could hope to give her tragedies the unity she pursued also beyond the stage. As in antiquity, the primeval power of drama would re-invigorate and purge the soul (and achieve Aristotle's catharsis). Drama would convey true emotion to thousands of people at once, gathered in the

27. Onthese dual constituents, which form the "communityof tragedy,"see furtherHeilke, 22- 27,56-59, 81, 106-107;Porter, Invention of Dionysus, passim; Silk and Stem, passim. 28. Seethe Delphi museum guide written by the famousarchaeologist Manoles Andronikos. 29. Seefurther Wiles, 183-184. 30. On the PythianGames and the AmphictyonicLeague, see recentlyWeir and Sainchez, respectively,both with extensive bibliographical references. 31. Palmerherself defined "DRAMA"as "theonly mediumwhich can move quickly,and infuseintelligence into massesof men"(239). The Sikelianoi did not use gender-sensitive languageand, even thoughPalmer delighted in her chorusesof women,she always be- lievedthat a malechorus would be moreeffective (Autobiography, passim). 32. Mysticlanguage and referencesto the EleusinianMysteries were key componentsof the visionarypoetry of AngelosSikelianos. The applicationof such termsto dramawas not altogethersurprising. Konstantinos Chrestomanos, founder of the AthenianNew Stage Companyin 1901,had called his actors "initiates"or mystes,and Sikelianoshad been amongthem. Sideres, 331-332; Van Steen, Aristophanes, 194. 33. Wordsattributed to AngelosSikelianos in Palmer'sAutobiography, 65. VanSteen 383

circular ancient theater, and make them one in spirit, according to Nietzsche's con- cepts of Oneness, or primordial unity ("das Ur-Eine"),and of the single collective emotion (crossing the Aristotelian divide between thought and emotion) (222-223, 225). Drama that used the circularclassical theater of Delphi was therefore the ideal medium for the first time to draw the interest of peoples throughout the world on the Delphic Idea. Palmer later recalled that her husband, inspired also by Blaise Pascal's thinking, had attributed divine powers to the circle, "the center for human understanding," whose circumferencewould not be confined anywhere (63).34In a 1935 letter to Joan Vanderpool, the wife of archaeologistEugene Vanderpool,the American excavator of Corinth, Palmer called the circularshape of the Greek theater an "eternalvalue" and explained:

There is something which brings out a naturalmagnetic power in having an audience placed around a circle and looking down at a point which is their own center.35

Palmerwrote enthusiastically:

Something happens in this great magnetic circle,... something which is the very be-all and end-all of Theatre:a sweeping emotion which does over- come enmities and misunderstandings, which makes hatred and fear fall inert in the great rotating wind of beauty which Aristotle called Purgation. (225)

Weighing Nietzsche's tenet of the connection between emotion and the circle against archaeologicalcorrectness, she stated:

Thereis nothing in Greekdrama except the emotional truth and consistency of the performers,and the immense responding emotion of those who are present. The faculties of the actors, the chorus and the audience in the great circulartheatre become one, and form an overwhelming magnetic force. It is a tidal wave which nothing can resist; not even archaeologicalconscien- tiousness. (113-114)

But how could Palmer apply this near-mysticism of the circle to the Delphic stage-with the "Doric"or Apollonian clarityher husband pursued? Her stage-setting and choreography effectively expressed her ideas but would have been lost for later students, if the Sikelianoihad not had the foresight to allow an excellent photographer

34. In his Pensees,Pascal wrote on the subjectof human limitations("Disproportion de l'homme"): "Toutce mondevisible ... est une sphereinfinie dont le centreest partout,la circonfirencenulle part. Enfinc'est le plus grand[des] caracteressensibles de la toute-puissancede Dieu que notre imaginationse perdedans cette pensee" (162). 35. Palmer-Sikelianou,Letters, 186. See also Autobiography,224. 36. Sougioutzoglou-Seraidare,114. The Gaziades brothers had been allowed to film the 1927 productionof the PrometheusBound. I was, unfortunately,not able to see this early film. See furtherLamprinos and MacKinnon, 43-48. 384 InternationalJournal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2002

Figure 2: The chorus of Oceanids facing the center of the orchestra of the ancient theaterat Delphi (1930Prometheus production). to cover the Delphic Festival of 1930.36The Greek photographer Nelly's (1899-1998) was able to capture in pictures Palmer's thinking about circularforms in theater, in choreographicmovement, and also in Delphi's physical environment.37Several of these pictures show how, at different moments of the play, the chorus of Oceanids aligned itself with the round shape of the orchestraand formed a circle around the thymele,or centralstone. When the young women did not play to the audience directly but faced the circle's center, their voices, emerging from the orchestra'sboundaries, spoke for the spectatorsbehind them (Figure2). On other occasions, Palmer'schorus opened up

37. Nelly Sougioutzoglou-Seraidare,who chosethe genitive"Nelly's" as herartist's name, had shockedthe Greekestablishment in 1927,early in her careeras a pioneerfemale photographer:without her permission,some of her picturesof the ballerinaMona Paiva, naked in betweenthe columnsof the Parthenon,were publishedin Illustrationde Paris.These pic- turescaused a stirand werecalled "sacrilegious." Nelly's would forever be associatedwith herimages of nudeor semi-nudefemale dancers on theAcropolis. Alexopoulos, 151. Partof Nelly'scollection of photographsof the 1930Delphic Festival is currentlyheld in the Departmentof RareBooks and SpecialCollections of the PrincetonUniversity Li- brary,part in the BenakeMuseum Photographic Archive in Athens.In additionto Nelly's picturesand postcard photographs (C0140 DE-DER), the PrincetonUniversity Library holds four picturesin the Alison FrantzPapers (box 59) and thirteenpictures in the Whitney JenningsOates Correspondence (box 7) that illustratethe DelphicFestivals. All photo- graphicmaterials from these collectionsthat have been includedin this articlehave been reproducedwith the permissionof the Departmentof RareBooks and Special Collections of the PrincetonUniversity Library. I takethis opportunity to thankthe libraryfor permission to reproducethese materials. VanSteen 385

Figure 3: The chorus of Oceanids interactingwith Prometheus,who becomes the virtual center of a circle formed with the surrounding mountains (1930 Prometheus production).

a semi-circle in a virtual mirror image, or as the complementaryhalf, of the semi- circularseating area. Whenever the two halves of the circle joined, the audience was again drawn into the drama on the chorus's side. This mediating role of the chorus expressed a sense of communion with the public. The audience's bonding with the chorus was fostered also by the latter's almost exclusive use of the orchestra. Also, unlike the actors, the chorus members did not wear masks. All spectatorswere part of a single mass audience and were gathered in a democraticallyarranged space, which did not separate out any group. Only this type of semi-circular and circular seating arrangementslet the mass public share in an osmosis of the same emotions-as both Aristotleand Nietzsche had characterizedthe theatricalexperience. When the Oceanids interactwith Prometheus, the hero on his rock becomes the virtual middle point, or axis, of a new circle formed with the surrounding mountains (Figure3). Like a diameter,the raised stage platform cuts the half-human half-natural circle in two halves, as it were. Prometheus'central position becomes a stance midway between earth and sky--both literally and metaphorically.He is transformedinto the archetypalsuperhuman of the Nietzschean vision. Both the chorus members and the audience know well that a steep drop gapes behind Prometheus' back: beyond the stage platform lies the abyss of mere desolation. Centrality and isolation meet in the spot where Prometheus is forcibly being kept. The ancient text stresses the hero's isolation from the prologue onward: he is imprisoned on the most northern limits of the world. Palmer evoked desolation in a landscape that was heavily traffickedboth in antiquityand at the time of the modern production.Beyond the stage platform,hardly 386 InternationalJournal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2002

Figure 4: The stage platform for the Prometheusproduction of 1930;the ancient monuments are only visible from high above the last spectators' rows. The chorus line formationsdirect the public's gaze to Prometheus. any marker of human presence can be seen. Because of the platform's height and length, the spectators' view is not diverted by the tall ancient monuments that lie beneath the theater at Delphi, the temple of Apollo and the reconstructed treasury building of the Athenians further down on the Sacred Way (Figure 4). Figure 4 also shows how some chorus line formations, like the radii of a circle, direct the public's gaze to Prometheus.Often the chorus women stretch out their arms, as if to reach out to one another or to touch each other's shoulders (Figure 5). At other times they lie down with both their legs turned in each other's direction. Their outstretchedarms or legs virtually draw part of a circle's circumference.All chorus members thus become integral parts of the circle and merge into a greater harmony.38There was no room for individual charactercult in Palmer's vision and practice,which, again, made her productions stand apartfrom contemporarycommercial plays, whether foreign or Greek.39 In choreographingAeschylus' SuppliantWomen, Palmer alternatedcircular movements (Figure6) with the occasional bunching of the Danaids in smaller, again circular groups (Figure 7). On some occasions, the chorus formed circles (or semi-circles) within circles (or semi-circles) (Figure 8). The latter system worked better given the

38. The profile-chestposition is thereforenot an "absurd"consequence of Palmer'scopying fromvases, as Flashar,161 called it. 39. Palmerwas criticalof IsadoraDuncan for playingfrontally to the audienceinstead of turningher head aside in the mannerof archaicGreek art (182). See also Wiles, 188. VanSteen 387

Figure 5: The Oceanids stretch out their arms and reach out to one another (1930 Prometheusproduction).

size of the chorus: fifty suppliants and their twenty-five attendants.40In the parodos, however, when the Danaids first entered the orchestra,Palmer allowed their emotions and motions of fearfulflight to prevail over orchestratedcircular movement: the women entered huddled together and seeking each other's support.41Here she went against contemporaryscholarly interpretationsand reconstructionsof the entry formation of the classical chorus and gave another indication of the progress she made toward modern artisticfreedom.

When the athletic games of the first Delphic Festival were finished, Alexandros Philadelpheus, one of the most prominent Greek archaeologists of the time, walked down into the ancient stadium and praised the accomplishmentsof the Sikelianoi. He urged that the Delphic Festival become a national Greek institution. He even invoked the example of Mussolini who, after seeing the 1924 open-air productions at ancient Syracuse, was so enthusiastic that he prepared to found the National Institute for

40. Sideres, 411. According to Flashar,162, this number of seventy-five was based on a com- mon misunderstanding of a note in Pollux (4, 110). See further Taplin, 230-238. Thirty chorus members participatedin the 1927 Prometheusproduction; fifty in the 1930 production of the same play. Autobiography,130. 41. Sideres,414. 388 InternationalJournal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2002

Figure 6: The chorus of Danaids describing circular choreographicmovements (1930 production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen).

Ancient Drama.42This anecdote reveals importantcontemporary and later issues. Many artists and intellectuals in various countries, inspired by the Syracuse productions, started to promote similar annual drama festivals.43The Sikelianoi, however, saw the revival of classical theateras a medium, not as a purpose per se. This singular position hampered the couple's fundraising efforts after the 1930 Delphic Festival-which was the last. Nonetheless, the Sikelianoiremained true to the Delphic Idea as a comprehen- sive spiritual program instead of merely a drama festival. Meanwhile, the modem Greek reception of ancient tragedy pursued its path. The National Theater of Greece was founded in 1932but its stage was a lavish indoor stage. In 1936,Demetres Ronteres, director general of the National Theater, opened the Classical Greek Drama Festival with a production of Sophocles' Electraat the Odeon of Herodes Atticus. But Ronteres did not manage to establish yearly open-air performances of the classics until the mid-1950s. The outdoor summer Festival of Ancient Greek Drama at Epidaurus was, after the delay of the Metaxas dictatorship of the late 1930s and the subsequent war decade, inaugurated in 1954. The Athens Festival opened one year later. Both were subsidized by the Greekstate. Both were also manipulated, however, by the repressive Greek dictators of 1967-74-as Mussolini's propagandistic interest in the theater productions at Syracusehad prefigured.44

42. Sideres,356; Beacham, 320; Macintosh, 306. 43. Seefurther Michelakis. 44. See furtherVan Steen, "Playing by the Censors'Rules?," passim, and "Rollingout the Red Van Steeni 389

Figure 7: The chorus of Danaids forming small circular groups (1930 production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen).

Had the Delphic Festivals failed then? Some scholarswho looked for remnants in the 1930s and 1940s only, claimed they did. However, because of the abundant outdoor Greek theater activity from the mid-1950s onward, and especially after 1974, I cannot subscribe to this negative conclusion. Also in the United States, where performances of Aeschylean tragedy remainedvery rare until the 1960s, Palmer-Sikelianou's pioneeringefforts left traces:several performancesof the PrometheusBound were staged in New York as benefits immediately prior to the second Delphic Festival. In 1957 the New York stage saw the play's first commercial production, and, significantly, this staging revived the English text of the 1930 benefit performancesand used costumes designed by Palmer-Sikelianou.Director James Elliott, a Broadwayproducer of Greek descent, was unable, however, to attractmuch criticalattention.45 The Delphic productions seem to have inspired also TerenceGray's stagings of Aeschylus' Prometheusand SuppliantWomen in Britainin 1929 and 1930, respectively." Palmer-Sikelianouherself may have undergone the influence of the 1925 Prometheusproduction staged in Basel, Switzerland, by Adolphe Appia, who sought to express inner emotion through the union of music and choreographicmovement, or eurhythmics.47She herself, however, does not mention such a close connection.

Carpet:Power 'Play' in ModernGreek Versions of the Mythof Orestesfrom the 1960sand 1970s,"forthcoming in thisjournal (IJCT 9 [2002/2003]). 45. Hartigan,132. 46. Walton,342. 47. See furtherBeacham, 314-316; Flashar,159-160. Beacham,314 characterizedAppia's view 390 InternationalJournal of the Classical Tradition / Winter 2002

Figure 8: The chorus of Danaids forming circles within semi-circles (1930 production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen).

Before1954, Greek producers were often discouragedfrom reviving ancient drama by economic and organizational difficulties and by the commercial theater's uneven competition, but many of them still advocated annual open-air festivals and made detailed plans for such a tradition.48This tradition was influenced by Palmer's unwa- vering commitmentand by her success in resolving the specific problems that outdoor stagings for mass audiences raise. After full three years of preparation,the Prometheus of 1927 showed that Palmerhad broken free from physical indoor enclosures and from an uncritical,bookish trust in philological, historical, and archaeological studies. She realized that the open-air chorus in particularrequired new production and performance skills as well as very careful training. Both for her choreography and stage- setting, she found the structuralsolution in the form of the circle. Looking through Nietzschean glasses, she rediscovered an aesthetic of natural and simple shapes and movements, which she made conversant with the powerful physical environment of Delphi.

on applyingeurhythmics to the stagingof ancientdrama as follows:"It [i.e., eurhythmics] was ... potentiallyan independentcreation, born out of elementsof music,dance, and drama,capable of maturingfinally into a whollynew and wondrouslyexpressive art form. Thisin turnwould bring about a changeof consciousnessin the[ir]audience through direct exposureto and participationin the[ir]work and so help usherin a new age of individual andcommunal harmony." The secondaryliterature on the revivalof ancientdrama in Greeceand abroadis relativelysmall but has grownsignificantly in the pastfew years.See my bibliographyfor olderand recentbooks such as: Colakis, Flashar, Garland, Hartigan, McDonald, McDonald andWalton, Van Steen, Aristophanes, Walton, and Wiles. 48. VanSteen, Aristophanes, 194-195; Sideres, 364. VanSteen 391

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List of Illustrations

1: The ancient theaterat Delphi. 2: The chorus of Oceanids facing the center of the orchestraof the ancient theater at Delphi (1930Prometheus production). 3: The chorus of Oceanids interacting with Prometheus, who becomes the virtual center of a circleformed with the surroundingmountains (1930Prometheus production). 4: The stage platform for the Prometheusproduction of 1930; the ancient monuments are only visible from high above the last spectators' rows. The chorus line formations direct the public's gaze to Prometheus. 5: The Oceanids stretch out their arms and reach out to one another (1930 Prometheus production). 6: The chorus of Danaids describing circularchoreographic movements (1930 production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen). 7: The chorus of Danaids forming small circulargroups (1930production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen). 8: The chorus of Danaids forming circles within semi-circles (1930 production of Aeschylus' SuppliantWomen).

Credits:

Fig.1: Author's photograph. Figs.2 and 8: WhitneyJennings Oates Collection. Manuscripts Division. Department of RareBooks and Special Collections. Princeton University Library. Figs.3-7: DelphicFestival file. ManuscriptsDivision. Department of RareBooks and Special Collections.Princeton University Library.