RICERCA ITALIANA     

Ancient Greek theatre: text, staging, reception

Università degli Studi di Bari

Abstract

Studies, translations and commentaries on Greek tragedies and comedies (both entirely extant and in fragments). Influence of lyrics on Attic drama. Ancient and modern exegesis of theatrical textes. Employment of theatrical machinery. Tradition and reception of theatrical texts by both Greek-Latin and modern literature. Poetics of myth, drammaturgy of characters in Greek theatre and its rewritings. Revision of the studies on the manuscript tradition of Aeschylus' text. Tradition and reception of Euripidean texts. Importance and reception of the historical drama in both Greek-Latin and modern literature (especially in German dramaturgy). Relations between Greek theatre and rhetoric. <<<

Principal Investigator

Giuseppe MASTROMARCO Università degli Studi di BARI

Research Objectives

Aim of this research is to investigate, by a strictly philological method, the history and the interpretations (both ancient and modern) of Greek theatrical texts. First of all, we intend to analyse, accurately and precisely, texts of the tragedies and comedies - both entirely and in fragments transmitted - in order to fill some significant gaps in the scientific production. In order to reach this objective, the research has the following specific aims:
• the Research Unit of Bari, on the basis of the experience of its responsible, prof. G. Mastromarco, in the field of Greek comedy, will edit translations and commentaries on some of the extant Aristophanes' comedies, and on a great amount of fragments from Doric and Attic comedy (in its three phases: archaia, mese, nea);
• the main target of Research Unit of Bologna (directed by prof. R. Tosi) will be the scholiastic and lexicographical production, which witnesses the large reception of ancient theatre in that field; the study will be extended to the whole late antiquity, in particular to the Atticism, the Second Sophistic and Athenaeus;
• the Research Unit of Foggia, directed by prof. F. De Martino, will make a survey, a translation and a commentary of the historical dramas in the Greek and Latin theatre; and it will reconstruct the history of both ancient and modern historical drama;
• task of the Research Unit of Lecce, directed by prof. O. Vox, will be to investigate the Euripidean reception in the fourth century Attic rhetoric and in the Menandrean comedies, in the Hellenistic poetry, in the archaic Roman stage and in the philosophical, doxographical and biographical literature;
• the Research Unit of Roma, directed by prof. A.M. Belardinelli, will study, from a dramaturgical and textual point of view, all the Greek comic and tragic passages that show how the ekkyklema and the mechané worked in the Athenian theatre of Dionysos;
• the Research Unit of Padova (directed by prof. G. Serra) aims to study the theatrical reshaping of mythical tradition by Attic tragedians in a specific context and in relation to a particular social and cultural background of the fifth century Athens;
• the Research Unit of Parma, directed by prof. G. Burzacchini, will examine the influence of the lyric poetry on the Attic drama, especially about the evolution of dramatic pattern, the intertextual relations and the spreading of the main themes and topics;
• the Research Unit of Salerno, directed by prof. P. Volpe, will study the reception of the classical Athenian culture in the Lives and in the Moralia of Plutarch, and in the manuals of the late ancient and byzantine scholars;
• the Research Unit of Sassari (directed by prof. R. Nicolai) will examine the relationship between theatre and rhetoric from two points of view: the influence of rhetorical techne on the dramatical praxis in fourth century B.C. and the employment of dramatic texts and tragic myths in the schools of rhetoric;
• aim of the Research Unit of Trento (directed by prof. V. Citti) is to revise the studies on the manuscript tradition of Aeschylus and the hermeneutic criteria which have guided its interpretation and the consequent constitution of the critical texts in the printed tradition. <<<

First Results

• Translation and commentary of the last two surviving comedies of Aristophanes («Ecclesiazusae», «Wealth») and some of his fragmentary comedies.
• Survey of testimonia on tragic and comic poets, exegesis on dramatic texts, revival of classical drama from the fourth century B.C. until the imperial age.
• Inquiry of the influence of some lyric genres (such as elegy and iambus) on fifth century Attic tragedy and comedy.
• New repertory of conjectures on Aeschylus, with the assistance of dr. R.D. Dawe (Cambridge Trinity College).
• Providing means useful to on-line consultation of the data collected in this phase of the research.
• Organization of (and attending to) workshops in common among the single local Units, in order to convey some research results; in particular, an international conference about «Plutarch and his age» is planned, organized by the International Plutarch Society.• Translation and commentary of fragmentary comedies of Aristophanes and of fragments of other Greek comedians from archaia, mese, and nea.
• Monographs, miscellaneous volumes, translations, commentaries on tragic texts.
• Studies on specific aspects of language, poetics, dramaturgy, and reception of Greek comic and tragic drama in the following ancient and modern literatures.
• Attending to workshops in common among the single local Units, in order to convey some research results.
• Organization of national and international congresses on topics related to the Research Programme.
• Providing means useful to on-line consultation of the data regarding Aeschylean ecdosis and exegesis, collected in this phase of the research. <<<

Timescale

24 months

National and international background

National and international bibliography about Greek drama is wide and continually increasing. Such a vivid interest in this field is attested by a huge bibliography (critical editions, commentaries, translations, monographs, articles published on specialistic reviews) concerning the most discussed questions about exegetics and textual criticism. Notwithstanding such a wide critical production, one can find some gaps, which we intend to fill with this Research Programme. We can fix the following scientific starting points for each field of this research:
• starting point for studies on comedy will be the most reliable critical editions and commentaries on Doric farce and Attic comedy, as well as the most significant studies published since nineteenth century; an evidence of the constant interest in this field is the great amount of studies published in the last years (in Italy and abroad) on topics such as language, style, poetics, dramaturgy, and so on;
• starting point for the research on extant tragedies and fragments of Greek tragic authors (‘minor' and anonymous poets inclusive) will be the main critical editions, with particular attention to the ancient textual criticism one can find in the manuscript tradition and in the early printed editions of Aeschylus;
• as regards the ancient exegesis of tragedy and comedy, we will make use not only of the ancient sources about both the two genres, but also of specific studies on the reception of classical theatrical texts by the late antiquity culture, with particular regard to Atticism, Second Sophistic, Athenaeus;
• some researches will be grounded on a more specific bibliography: (a) the study on the historical dramas in Greek and Latin theatre; (b) the study on the reception of Euripides in the Hellenistic culture; (c) the study on the employment of the theatrical machinery in the Greek comic and tragic theatre; (d) the study on the revival of lyric authors and themes in Attic drama; (e) the study on the relations between Greek theatre and rhetoric. <<<