MASTERPIECES OF CLASSIC GREEK DRAMA MASTERPIECES OF CLASSIC GREEK DRAMA Ancient Greek drama is the foundation of Western civilization. At the same time, the world of the Greeks seems distant and exotic to contemporary students. This introductory guide overviews the historical, political, and cultural background of Greek drama. Designed for high* school students and undergraduates, this work begins with an overview of the contexts and terminology of Greek drama. It then provides detailed discussions of ten widely studied plays: • Agamemnon • The Choephoroi • The Eumenides • Antigone • Oedipus • Oedipus at Colonus • Medea • The Bacchae • The Birds • Lysistrata Chapters discuss the playwright's life and dramatic style, the role of myth in the play, the plot of the work, important speeches, and performance issues. Each chapter also directs the reader to further resources. Related Titles: Masterpieces of French Literature Masterpieces of 20th-century American Drama Masterpieces of Modern British and Irish Drama Masterpieces of Philosophical Literature ISBN D-313-33Ebfl-l ISBN: 0-313-33268-1 90000 Greenwood Press 88 Post Road West Westport, CT 06881 www.greenwood.com Cover design by Richard Rossiter 9»780313H332685 Cover image uScala/Art Resource, NY MASTERPIECES OF CLASSIC GREEK DRAMA Recent Titles in Greenwood Introduces Literary Masterpieces Masterpieces of French Literature Marilyn S. Severson Masterpieces of Modern British and Irish Drama Sanford Sternlicht Masterpieces of 20th-century American Drama Susan C. W. Abbotson MASTERPIECES OF CLASSIC GREEK DRAMA Helaine L. Smith Greenwood Introduces Literary Masterpieces GREENWOOD PRESS Westport, Connecticut • London Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Smith, Helaine. Masterpieces of classic Greek drama / Helaine Smith. p. cm. — (Greenwood introduces literary masterpieces, ISSN 1545-6285) Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 0-313-33268-1 (alk. paper) 1. Greek drama—History and criticism—Handbooks, manuals, etc. I. Title. II. Series. PA3131.S59 2006 882'.0109^1c22 2005019210 British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available. Copyright © 2006 by Helaine L. Smith All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, by any process or technique, without the express written consent of the publisher. Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 2005019210 ISBN: 0-313-33268-1 ISSN: 1545-6285 First published in 2006 Greenwood Press, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881 An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc. www.greenwood.com Printed in the United States of America The paper used in this book complies with the Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984). 10 987654321 Hiram, Lucille, and Stuart, with love Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1 Aeschylus: The Agamemnon (458 B.C.) 11 2 Aeschylus: The Choephoroi ("The Libation Bearers") (458 B.C.) 31 3 Aeschylus: The Eumenides (458 B.C.) 45 4 Sophocles: The Antigone (442 B.C.) 63 5 Sophocles: The Oedipus Rex (426 B.C.) 83 6 Sophocles: The Oedipus at Cohnus (406 B.C., performed 401 B.C.) 101 7 Euripides: The Medea (431 B.C.) 121 8 Euripides: The Bacchae (406 B.C., performed 405 B.C.) 145 9 Aristophanes: The Birds (414 B.C.) 165 10 Aristophanes: The Lysistrata (411 B.C.) 189 Selected Bibliography 209 Index 213 Preface This text is an introductory guide to the literary study of Greek drama. It includes both tragedy and comedy and is intended for use by high school and undergraduate English students and their teachers. No knowledge of Greek is necessary, and all essential background information—historical, cultural, and religious—is provided. The 10 plays discussed are the plays most frequently studied at those levels: the Agamemnon, Choephoroi, and Eumenides (the Oresteia) of Aeschylus, the Antigone, Oedipus Rex, and Oedipus at Colonus of Sophocles, the Medea and Bacchae of Euripides, and the Birds and Lysistrata of Aristophanes. The approach of this text is literary rather than thematic. Where stan­ dard Aristotelian terminology is helpful, it is included, but discussions are not shaped with such terms in mind. The great Greek playwrights were profoundly interested in how one should live, in the power of emotion, in the nature of the gods, and in the limitations of human understanding. This text assumes that the best way to appreciate these plays is to regard all that is in them—their images, their contrasts, their use of myth, the sequence of scenes—as intentional artistry. It further assumes that sometimes the playwright's focus is thematic and sometimes purely human and that each play, when studied closely, reveals its essential nature. Comedy is included in this volume because the spirit of Athens is in some measure grasped by know­ ing that alongside tragic performance, and in times of war and dire political circumstance, uproarious comedies were enjoyed along with the most searing tragedies. Aristophanes is not only a bawdy and witty comic genius but also a playwright who offers us a window into the life—religious, political, and X Preface domestic—of fifth-century Athenians. From such reading we come as close as we can to that distant reality and find it vibrantly before us. When speeches, odes, or scenes are analyzed, they are referred to but not reprinted. Individual chapters include the following, about which a word needs to be said: • "The Use of Myth": These sections, by indicating what the received myth was, clarify the dramatist's own invention and emphasis. Attention is also drawn to myth to distinguish it from stage action—from what the playwright sets before us in the hour or so of performance—for that dramatic action is the source of the play's meaning. The Oedipus Rex is, for example, a play about discovery. • "Historical Context": Political, social, and religious background with direct relevance to individual plays appears in these sections. The Peloponnesian War, for example, receives particular attention in the Aristophanes chap­ ters, rituals surrounding hero cults are discussed in the Choephoroi and Oedipus at Colonus chapters, Dionysiac practice in the Bacchae chapter, the status of women and foreigners in the Medea chapter, the Athenian judicial system in the Eumenides chapter, and so on. • "Synopses": There appear in each chapter a single-sentence summary of the plot, a list of scenes, and a scene-by-scene synopsis of the action. In the chapters on comedy there is, with each synopsis, a discussion of comic techniques. • "Passage and Scene Analysis": Speeches and odes of varying length and type are discussed in detail in relation to plot, character, and theme, and attention is paid to nuances of language and imagery. Minor and major characters are analyzed closely, and individual scenes that are central to plot construction or that represent emotional climaxes of the action are examined: arguments are made, for example, for the dramatic necessity of Polyneices' scene in the Colonus, of Cassandra's scene in the Agamemnon, and so on. Attention is given also to the remarkably "modern" techniques of these playwrights—the dream-work of the Bacchae and the fusing of audience and characters in the conclusion of the Colonus. • "Stagecraft": These sections draw attention to the great importance of what is seen on stage, and examine the range of theatrical resources available to these playwrights and the skill with which they were deployed. Dramatic variations in type-scenes like the dirge and mes­ senger scenes, offstage speech, and theatrical devices, like the revolving Preface xi platform and the crane, as they serve the particular thematic needs of different plays, are discussed. Dramatized metaphors are also looked at. • Translations, Line Numbers, and Transliterated Words: All Greek plays are written in verse lines that are numbered. Translations vary in how they deal with line numbers: free translations omit line numbers; exact translations retain them. It has been my experience in studying the texts for this volume that the more strict translations are the more illu­ minating. Where essential to the discussion, Greek words and phrases are transliterated and explained; if necessary, lines numbers are given in parentheses. Occasionally, lines in the texts are not continuous and the "Scene Divisions" portions of chapters will necessarily reflect such discontinuity. It is hoped that this text, when coupled with careful study of the plays themselves, will help the reader to see how splendid these works are. These plays are the standard against which all subsequent Western drama has been measured. The well-made plays of Ibsen and the radical innova­ tions of Beckett are felt as such because of the classical model that stands behind them. I am indebted to the many fine scholars whose work I have read and cited in these pages; their perceptions directed and deepened mine. Special tribute must be paid, however, to H.D.F. Kitto and to E. R. Dodds. Not only does the clarity of their prose stand as an enduring model, but, repeatedly, they show their readers the right questions to ask, and there is no greater gift than that. Introduction The first reference in Western literature to a playing stage and a chorus of dancers is in Book 18 of The Iliad, where Homer describes the great shield of Achilles that Hephaistos fashions. Drama, as we know it, is a much later Athenian invention, but it derives from the Chorus, a group of perhaps 50 men who sang and danced in unison in festive and ritual retellings of myths of the gods.