Classical Greek Theatre: New Views of an Old Subject

1. The Limits of Evidence I: The Writings

TH E LIMITS OF EVI DENCE I The Writings Both written and archaeological sources concerning the Greek theatre are generally well known. Ronald Vince has discussed them at some length in Ancient and Medieval Theatre; more recently, Eric Csapo and William J. Slater have covered much the same body of material in The Context ofAncient Drama. It may then seem redundant to chew over the same information in the following two chapters, but one has only to compare the readings by Vince with those of Csapo and Slater to see that each researcher places his own emphasis and interpretation on what is essentially the same body of material. Since my conclusions are based largely upon differing interpretation of the evidence, I hope that I may be forgiven for retracing the admirable work done by the above authors. There has long been a tendency to enshrine the sketchy and often inaccurate Greek theatre testimonials that survive to the present age. Snippets of information gathered from hither and yon have been bundled together under the assumption that all "ancient" materials possessed equal degrees of reliability and authenticity. But, as Oliver Taplin writes, there is still a tendency "to regard any information written in Ancient Greek (or Latin) as above criticism." I Thus, the library-bound scholars who wrote The Suda some fourteen centuries after the premiere performances of the surviving plays have often been accorded much the same degree of credence as verifiable evidence dating from the Classic period. Fortunately, this unquestioning acceptance of words on the page or scroll has diminished as archaeological evidence assumes greater importance. This chapter looks at the limitations of written materials available to the researcher. The virtues and shortcomings ofthese documents are examined, with a few warning signs posted along the pathway leading to a reconsideration of Greek theatre in the fifth century. TH E PLAYS Many Scripts, but Only a Few Survive By the middle of the fourth century, Athens and .possibly all of Greece must have been awash with playscripts. A single festival, Athens' Great Dionysia , presented at least fifteen new scripts each year, none of which received second performances at the festival until well into the fourth century (and then only the plays of Aeschylus). Assuming that these contests were held annually for a hundred years (as they certainly were), 900 tragedies, 300 satyr plays, and more than 300 comedies would have been presented, making a total of 1,500 original scripts written in the course of one century for that single festival. Three or even four other festivals in Athens, the Anthesteria, Lenaia, Rural Dionysia, and possibly the Panathenaia, also presented plays, presumably using different scripts than those of the Dionysia. Other city-states may have had playwrights creating still more scripts. Roughly two hundred known theatre sites have been uncovered, but while stone records (didaskalia) offer confirmation of theatrical performances for some, there is no firm evidence that the majority were used for play production ; theatron means "a seeing place," but exactly what events were seen is uncertain. Nevertheless, the presentation of plays, new or old, in these "theatres" may be reckoned a firm possibility. There would have been at least a few original scripts written to please the local populace. Such cultural centers as Syracuse needed to fill part of their dramatic diet with plays focusing on their particular hopes and aspirations, rather than staging a steady run of plays celebrating Athens' triumph over the Persians and comedies roasting Athenian politicians and generals.2 An active production program outside Athens would have produced a further abundance of scripts: if any extended extrapolation is attempted from the one-century total of scripts presented at the City Dionysia, the figure becomes mind-dizzying. Writing was prized, and many of these plays would have been preserved - at least for a while. One ruler of Pergamum decreed that all the writings in his kingdom be requisitioned for his personal library, and the fabled library at Alexandria contained, by James Diggle's estimate, «100,000 or so volumes." 3 But with a decline in learning, papyrus scrolls lost their 2 LIMITS OF EVIDENCE I: THE WRITINGS value; some were used as mummy wrappings, and others may have served to start the morning cooking fires. The Surviving Plays A total of forty-four complete plays and some fragments have survived the perilous journey through the millennia. This represents less than 3 percent of the...