Performance and Iconographic Tradition in the Illustrations of Menander

Performance and Iconographic Tradition in the Illustrations of Menander Eric Csapo The House of Menander in Mytilene gets its name from the mosaics found in the dining room and in an adjoining portico. Variously dated from the late third to the fourth century C.E., they show fully labelled scenes illustrating eleven plays of Menander (along with a bust of Thalia, a bust of Menander, a scene from Plato’s Phaedo, and a comic mask). So far discussion of these mosaics has focussed mainly upon the reconstruction of Menander’s lost plays.1 I will ask An earlier version of this paper can be found as: “Mise en scène théâtrale, scène de théâtre artisanale: les mosaïques de Ménandre à Mytilène, leur contexte sociale et leur tradition iconographique,” in De la scène aux gradins, B. Le Guen, ed. (Pallas 47 [1997]) 165–82. For a number of improvements I am grateful to my fellow editors . I have also more fully incorporated suggestions made to me by Agnès Rouveret at the GRACO symposium where these ideas were first presented. I thank the above-mentioned for their assistance with this paper, and also K.M.D. Dunbabin , A. Kutner, and W.J. Slater. Thanks also to S. Markoulaki and the editors of Antike Kunst for permission to reprint their plates. 1 The most important discussions are: T.B.L. Webster, Monuments Illustrating New Comedy2 (MNC2 ) (BICS Suppl. 24 [London 1969]); E. Handley, “Notes on the Theophoroumene of Menander,” BICS 16 (1969) 88–101; S. Charitonidis, L. Kahil and R. Ginouvès, Les mosaïques de la Maison du Ménandre à Mytilène (Antike Kunst Csapo: Performance and Iconographic Tradition 155 what relationship these mosaics have with theatrical performance, both at the time of Menander and at the time the mosaics were laid. Some of my observations will be of more general application to all post-Classical representations of tragic and comic scenes. They will also have some bearing upon the use of these images for reconstructing the plots and performance of Menander’s lost and fragmentary plays. 1.Why a Rich Bourgeois of Mytilene Put Menander on his Diningroom Floor. Past discussions assume that the mosaics are evidence for a healthy performance tradition in Mytilene during the Late Empire.2 Many draw inferences about the personal tastes and habits of the owner of the villa: Webster, for example, surmised from the inclusion of the scene from Phaedo that the proprietor had philosophical as well as dramatic tastes; Berczelly thought him an enthusiast for the pagan literary and philosophical tradition, resentful of the triumph of Christianity.3 One must admire the temerity of those who would reconstruct the personality and life history of an individual from the floors and foundations of his house. Unfortunately, the existence of the mosaics supports no such conclusions. It is understandable that scholars have been overeager to use the Mytilene mosaics as proof of the continued staging of New Comedy. Evidence for the performance of traditional drama at this period is otherwise lacking. Literature and epigraphy give evidence of the reperformance of dramatic classics no later than about 230 C.E.; after this we have evidence only for mime, pantomime, or tragoidoi (singers of excerpts and adaptations from tragedy).4 Since these new genres Beiheft 6 [Bern 1970]); T.B.L. Webster’s review of the preceding in JHS 91 (1971) 210–11; L. Berczelly, “The Date and Significance of the Menander Mosaics at Mytilene,” BICS 35 (1988) 119–26. 2 Webster in MNC2 (above, note 1) ix; Handley (above, note 1) 89. 3 Webster’s review (above, note 1) 210; Berczelly (above, note 1) 121. 4 For the earlier period, see C.P. Jones, “Greek Drama in the Roman Empire,” in Theater and Society in the Classical World, R. Scodel, ed., (Ann Arbor 1993) 39–52; 156 Syllecta Classica 10 (1999) (along with many non-dramatic spectacles) were regularly performed in large public theaters, nothing is to be gained from evidence for the continued use of some theaters, especially in the face of evidence for other theaters going out of use or being converted to new uses.5 Potentially...